Guerilla Storytime: What are you doing at #ala2013, Part I

This year at the 2013 ALA Annual Conference, something really awesome will be going down in the Uncommons. On both Friday, June 28, and Saturday, June 29, at 3 p.m. sharp, anyone in the vicinity of the Uncommons will witness something terrific.

It's called Guerilla Storytime*.

Cory Eckert came up with the brilliant idea for Guerilla Storytime, which will serve two purposes: 1) allow youth services librarians to get new ideas and inspiration from peers; and 2) demonstrate to conference attendees who aren't youth services librarians that storytime isn't "just reading to kids." These Guerilla Storytimes will involve impromptu challenges and demonstrations as librarians get to show off their mad storytime skills. It will also involve lots of fun with new friends.

I urge you to drop by the Uncommons at 3 p.m. on either Friday or Saturday of conference to watch--and hopefully participate in--this storytime that is so much more than storytime.

*fun fact: there are two acceptable spellings of the word guerilla/guerrilla

Preschool Water Science on the ALSC Blog

I'm over on the ALSC Blog today sharing the details of my recent Preschool Science program on the topic of water. Head over there to dive into a full program plan for exploring the science of water!

When day cares come to visit

I talk a lot about going on outreach story time visits, but what happens when the day care crowd comes to visit the library? That's when I add elements to story time that we can't necessarily do in classrooms with varying space and equipment. Namely, I add in wonderfully interactive songs that we can get up and dance too--easy to do in the library program room's open space. I also wrap up visits with a tour as a means of inviting kids back to find their favorite types of books. Here's what I did with a few day care groups that stopped by my branch last week:

Song: "Open, Shut Them"
     The kiddos are familiar with this song because I sing it with them when I visit their child care centers. The familiarity of the song and motions gets them in the story time mindset.

Story: Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann
     I love this story--it's great for preschool-aged children who are really getting into slightly longer stories. When I share Officer Buckle and Gloria, I point out the Caldecott Medal on the front cover. I explain what the award means, and I invite the children to pay extra close attention to the pictures as we share the story. Gloria's antics and Officer Buckle's obliviousness are always a hit.

Song: Song Cube selection
     I brought out my Song Cube for this story time visit, and a roll of the cube decided that we would sing "If You're Happy and You Know It." Even though I usually sing this song with the kids at their child care centers, they never seem to tire of it.

Story: The Three Little Pigs, illustrated by Emily Bolam
     I love to share classic folk and fairy tales, and our minimally-decorated program room seems to be a perfect setting for doing so. There's nothing around the room to distract children from the book, so they pay great attention even when they are familiar with the story being told. After we read this story, there was lots of discussion about which pig the children would rather be.

Song: "Silly Dance Contest" by Jim Gill
     We have lots of space to get up and move in our program room at the library, which means playing great movement songs on our CD player is a go-to choice for special story time visits. This "Silly Dance Contest" is a marvelous song that is easy for children to follow, and they have a good time getting some energy out in the middle of story time.

Story: Monkey's Friends by Ruth Brown
     I introduce this story by saying the children need to help me with two things: 1) the names of animals, and 2) rhymes. As Monkey moves through the jungle, he finds and greets a number of friends in the lushly-illustrated, lift-the-flap pages of this book. It's a short read, but definitely enjoyable.

Brief Tour of the Children's Area
     I finish all day care visits to the library with a brief guided tour of the library. I usually point out three things: 1) Picture Book City, where kids can come to find the types of books they like to read; 2) the awards section, where kids can find more Caldecott books as well as state award nominees; and 3) the check-out desk, where I mention the whole library-card-borrow-books-for-free setup. Our check-out desk is at the front of the branch, so ending tours there allows for a fluid, calm exit from the library for visiting groups.

I'm always thrilled to hear after a visit how many kids say they'll come back to see me with mom or dad. I consider these types of visits a perfect time to make the library a comfortable, inviting place for children.

What do you do when child care centers visit your library?

Read Me! Blurb Bubbles for Kids

When I started a Kids Advisory Board this spring, I decided that part of every monthly meeting would be dedicated to some sort of service project that would give back to the branch. Last month, the kids helped create the memory game cards for our summer reading kick-off event. This month, our service project focused on readers' advisory--namely, kids making book recommendations for their peers.

The idea for these Read Me! Blurb Bubbles came from a picture on a post on the RIF Blog earlier this year. I loved the idea of having brief descriptors hanging off of books on the shelves, catching browsers' attention and giving them a nudge toward great reads.

I modified the concept for our KAB. Using Publisher, I created a one-page template that, when folded, results in a two-sided blurb bubble. Each bubble is printed with the words "Read me! I'm [...] This recommendation is brought to you by the Kids Advisory Board." KAB members filled in the blank portion of the blurb bubbles with a word (or two) describing their favorite reads, then we attached the blurbs on the respective books. Some of the blurbed books in this first go-round include Clementine ("funny"), Bridge to Terabithia ("fascinating"), and The Graveyard Book ("spooky").

My hope is that these blurb bubbles will do two things: a) encourage young readers to try a book recommended by their peers, and b) pique curiosity about the Kids Advisory Board, which is still in its early stages. I'd love to have more regular KAB members, and I'd love to have more kids involved in making the stacks more exciting to browse.

Do you get kids involved in passive readers' advisory? What are you strategies for facilitating peer recommendations?

What do you read in your baby programs?

There are lots of different ways to do programs for babies. I've shared my basic Bouncing Babies program format here on the blog, and while I usually stick to that format, I always look forward to hearing what some of the baby story time pros have to say. I know I can count on Melissa at Mel's Desk, Abby at Abby the Librarian, and Brooke at Reading with Red to share great ideas when it comes to baby programs, and they are always sources of inspiration for me.

I also find it inspiring when I find new titles--or, at least, titles that are new to me--that absolutely scream "Share me at Bouncing Babies!" I found just such a book last week in Baby Parade by Rebecca O'Connell with wonderful illustrations by Susie Poole. I shared this title earlier this week in Bouncing Babies, and everyone got really into the book. It can be terrifically interactive for little ones, as it invites listeners to wave to the babies on parade. If there's one motor skill babies and toddlers seem to master early on, it's waving. Thus I found this book a perfect addition to my go-to Bouncing Babies favorite reads.

And that got me thinking: what are your favorite books to read with babies in your baby programs? What have been your most successfully shared titles? My Bouncing Babies programs serve children from 1 through 23 months, so there's quite a developmental range there. Any tips on books I absolutely must get my hands on?

If you'd like to contribute the name of a book or two that you like to share in your baby programs, please do so using the form below. I'll compile the responses into a post to be shared here, most likely after ALA Annual Conference at the end of this month.
 

In which I'm reminded of the value of flexibility and simplicity

I've learned that a key word for summer story times is "flexibility." Attention span, energy level, tolerance for stories--I've found that all these things can be completely up in the air when the sun is bright and the weather hot. So I pack my story time bag with options in mind.

During a daycare visit last week, I was reminded of the importance of simplicity, too. You see, while I had packed a specific story time plan with a variety of books and some other accoutrements, I immediately picked up on the vibe of my audience. These kids were feeling restless, easily distracted. It was time to just respond to them.

In terms of books, that meant sharing straightforward, interactive favorites. Think Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Go Away, Big Green Monster, and Can You Make a Scary Face? All three are great stories that allow kiddos to get involved in the action and response. Simplicity.

Being flexible also meant that, when a train could be heard approaching, we paused our story. These kids can see the train tracks from their story time room, and they immediately ran to the window when they heard that train whistle. So we talked about trains for a few minutes until the train was gone and the kids were ready to sit back down. Flexibility.

I had brought my orangutan puppet in my story time bag. In lieu of a more formal rhyme, I made one up on the spot that would allow us to do fun and silly primate actions: I'm an orangutan, hairy and brown / Let's *action here* and monkey around! The kids had fun suggesting actions--some realistic to orangutans, some not--and we chanted many verses of the short rhyme. Simplicity.

For the musical portions of our story time, I had my ukulele. We sang one of the kids' favorites, "I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas." Then, instead of moving on to another story, they asked me to play more songs. They suggested songs ("Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Twinkle, Twinkle," and the like), I played them, and we all sang and danced. Flexibility.

That's how we passed our 30 minutes of story time: simply and with flexibility of program content. I could have forced my formal story time plan, of course--and been met with whining, distracted hitting, and overall mayhem. Instead, we collaborated on an enjoyable, early literacy-positive story time adventure. Flexible and simple. And valuable.

If you promote it, will they come?

Many a public librarian has struggled with the topic of how to get kids from the local schools to participate in summer reading. We visit for summer reading rallies, hoping that our enthusiastic encouragements will inspire them to show up during the summer. Sometimes, however, that's not enough. Once kids are out of school, with no teacher or librarian to remind them to visit the public library, the whole premise of the public library's summer reading program can fall through the cracks.

To try to get more local students involved in summer reading, a few of the local schools are working with us this year on some new promotional strategies:

• Principals are emphasizing to caregivers that student participation in the public library's summer reading program is strongly encouraged. A few local elementary schools sent home letters with this message, and they were signed by the principal. Several schools have planned rewards for students who bring their public library SRP logs back to school in the fall. And at least one local school is using their robo-calling service (typically used for delays and snow days) to remind all families to visit the public library. In return, we collect names and schools of all children who finish our program. We report these successful students' names to their schools in the fall.
• Reminders about the public library SRP will be handed out at open school library days this summer. A handful of elementary schools in our district are open to students one day each in June and July. One of the school librarians specifically asked me to create a simple flyer (pictured above) that she can give to attendees to remind them about our program. I included the addresses for the two nearest branch libraries, as many of these families haven't visited the public library before.
• School librarians have arranged to meet their students in our public library meeting room. This promotional strategy had a few hiccups in its initial occurence; we had booked the meeting room for the school librarians, but we didn't know ahead of time to arrange to have a staff member in the room with them to help with SRP sign-ups. After a bit of shuffling, our staff set up a makeshift SRP sign-up station in the meeting room to help the 75+ families that stopped in. The school librarians had advertised that students who met them at the public library and signed up for our SRP would get bonus incentives at their school.

Those are the three new strategies we're trying this summer with our local school district to encourage their students' participation in our SRP. I'm hoping both our sign-up and completion statistics see a jump because of these efforts. At any rate, if we can bring in even just a handful of new families to the library's SRP this summer, I'll count us successful.

Do you take any intentional steps to get more students involved in your summer reading program?