I know I said there'd likely be radio silence here on this blog while I'm at the 2013 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, but I wanted to go ahead and share a link to a guest post of mine on the STAR_net Libraries blog.
Head over there to read my take on starting a LEGO Club at your library--including tips updated from my original post on the topic on this blog.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Live-blogging ALA Annual in Chicago
I will be live-blogging from the conference over at the ALSC Blog along with a host of other terrific librarians who will be in Chicago. Can you not attend the conference, but you want to know what's going on from a youth services librarian perspective? Or, perhaps, you will be there, but you want to hear about sessions you couldn't cram into your schedule. Just head over to the ALSC Blog throughout the duration of the conference for insightful updates from attendees and to read about what's happening in Chicago. You can also follow the conference hashtag (#ala2013) on Twitter (and Facebook, too, I guess? Because that's a thing now).
I probably won't be back on this blog until after the conference--all my blogging efforts will be focused on live-blogging at the ALSC Blog--but you can expect some recaps of the conference later next week when everything has had time to stew in my brain for a bit. Until then, happy conferencing!
Monday, June 24, 2013
June Milk & Cookies Story Morning
I'm now four months into offering a monthly Saturday preschool program--Milk & Cookies Story Morning--here at my library. Attendance seems to be growing steadily, with each program pretty well split between new faces and return attendees. For my June program, I even had a teen volunteer in the room to help keep things running extra smoothly while the kids and I got silly. Once again, my four content goals for this story time program remained the same: interactivity, transmedia, folk/fairy tale sharing, and free play time. Here's what we did:
Opening Song: "Open, Shut Them"
Story: Shark in the Park! by Nick Sharratt
My colleague Angie introduced me to this book during my first month on the job, and I have loved it ever since. It's a brief, mostly-rhyming story of young Timothy Pope who, having just received a telescope, takes it to the park to look at things. What does he think he sees? A SHARK IN THE PARK! I like to encourage kiddos to use their own telescopes (hands in a telescope circle in front of one eye) as we read this clever book.
Song: "Grey Squirrel"
The song cube indicated that we should sing "Grey Squirrel," and sing it we did--complete with swishing our bushy tails.
App: Safari Animals by Simms Taback, part of the Simms Taback Children's Book Collection app by CJ Educations
I turned off the sound and used the read to me function of this app, which let me move through the pages at a pace that allowed the children and me to interact with what we were reading/seeing. The premise of this story is basic: the viewer can only see part of an illustration of an animal, and the words on the screen give hints to its name. This story pacing gave us plenty of time to talk about what we know about safari animals (giraffes, hippos, ostriches, lions), and we had fun making sounds and moving our bodies like the animals would. I mentioned to attending caregivers that this is an example of using technology in an interactive and educational way.
Song: "Rock and Roll Freeze Dance" by Hap Palmer
This short song introduces the idea of dancing until the music stops, at which point everyone is meant to freeze. It's a great, short, wiggles-reducing musical interlude.
Story: "Stone Soup"
I put together a kit of props for telling the folk tale "Stone Soup" that includes a bowl, a spoon, a stone, and cut-out pictures of various types of vegetables. I passed out the vegetables and spoon to children in the room, and together we made soup as I told the story. Because of the younger age range of my attendees, we dumped a bunch of veggies in the soup pot at once--attention wasn't going to last much longer. I'd use this story again with a slightly older audience.
Song: "If You're Happy and You Know It"
The kids insisted we roll the song cube again, and this song is what it landed on. Who am I to say "no" to a joyful request for a song?
Song: "Silly Dance Contest" by Jim Gill
We finished the story time portion of our morning with this wonderful crazy-to-cool-down song. Try it if you're looking for a way to get kids moving without them turning totally bonkers at the end.
Milk and Cookies Time!
Our menu included chocolate Teddy Grahams (much to everyone's delight) as well as 2% milk or water. These smaller cookies seem to have gone over the best of any of our cookies so far; I'll be sticking to the small bites concept in the future.
Play Time!!
I rolled back the partition to the other side of our meeting room to reveal four play stations: a science station (magnets, magnifying glasses, balance scale); a cars and garages station (all wooden toys); a concepts station (writing, colors, puzzles, counting); and a building station, which featured my branch's early literacy play kit for the month, chunky blocks. Four families stayed for a full half hour of play after the snack, and I was excited to see how many caregivers got down on the sit-upons at the stations to interact and play with their own children and the kids who approached them. I also used this time to invite families to sign up for summer reading if they hadn't already. I got six new summer readers registered, which made me happy.
~~*~~
I love that this program has a very simple level of input from the caregiver--just come to the library!--with a huge potential for return. Early literacy story time, information on media literacy, relaxing time to enjoy a small snack, productive play time...even summer reading. That's a lot of bang for zero bucks.
Opening Song: "Open, Shut Them"
Story: Shark in the Park! by Nick SharrattMy colleague Angie introduced me to this book during my first month on the job, and I have loved it ever since. It's a brief, mostly-rhyming story of young Timothy Pope who, having just received a telescope, takes it to the park to look at things. What does he think he sees? A SHARK IN THE PARK! I like to encourage kiddos to use their own telescopes (hands in a telescope circle in front of one eye) as we read this clever book.
Song: "Grey Squirrel"
The song cube indicated that we should sing "Grey Squirrel," and sing it we did--complete with swishing our bushy tails.
App: Safari Animals by Simms Taback, part of the Simms Taback Children's Book Collection app by CJ EducationsI turned off the sound and used the read to me function of this app, which let me move through the pages at a pace that allowed the children and me to interact with what we were reading/seeing. The premise of this story is basic: the viewer can only see part of an illustration of an animal, and the words on the screen give hints to its name. This story pacing gave us plenty of time to talk about what we know about safari animals (giraffes, hippos, ostriches, lions), and we had fun making sounds and moving our bodies like the animals would. I mentioned to attending caregivers that this is an example of using technology in an interactive and educational way.
Song: "Rock and Roll Freeze Dance" by Hap Palmer
This short song introduces the idea of dancing until the music stops, at which point everyone is meant to freeze. It's a great, short, wiggles-reducing musical interlude.
Story: "Stone Soup"
I put together a kit of props for telling the folk tale "Stone Soup" that includes a bowl, a spoon, a stone, and cut-out pictures of various types of vegetables. I passed out the vegetables and spoon to children in the room, and together we made soup as I told the story. Because of the younger age range of my attendees, we dumped a bunch of veggies in the soup pot at once--attention wasn't going to last much longer. I'd use this story again with a slightly older audience.
Song: "If You're Happy and You Know It"
The kids insisted we roll the song cube again, and this song is what it landed on. Who am I to say "no" to a joyful request for a song?
Song: "Silly Dance Contest" by Jim Gill
We finished the story time portion of our morning with this wonderful crazy-to-cool-down song. Try it if you're looking for a way to get kids moving without them turning totally bonkers at the end.
Milk and Cookies Time!
Our menu included chocolate Teddy Grahams (much to everyone's delight) as well as 2% milk or water. These smaller cookies seem to have gone over the best of any of our cookies so far; I'll be sticking to the small bites concept in the future.
I rolled back the partition to the other side of our meeting room to reveal four play stations: a science station (magnets, magnifying glasses, balance scale); a cars and garages station (all wooden toys); a concepts station (writing, colors, puzzles, counting); and a building station, which featured my branch's early literacy play kit for the month, chunky blocks. Four families stayed for a full half hour of play after the snack, and I was excited to see how many caregivers got down on the sit-upons at the stations to interact and play with their own children and the kids who approached them. I also used this time to invite families to sign up for summer reading if they hadn't already. I got six new summer readers registered, which made me happy.
~~*~~
I love that this program has a very simple level of input from the caregiver--just come to the library!--with a huge potential for return. Early literacy story time, information on media literacy, relaxing time to enjoy a small snack, productive play time...even summer reading. That's a lot of bang for zero bucks.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Elizabeth Wein & USBBY: What are you doing at #ala2013, Part IV
My magnificent colleague Maggie Melson (she's a children's/teen librarian at another branch in my district) has been the YALSA representative to the USBBY--United States Board on Books for Young people--for the last year. One of her tasks has been to book wonderful and engaging children's and/or YA authors for major conference programs. The USBBY program at the 2013 ALA Annual Conference looks to be amazing, as Elizabeth Wein (award-winning author of Code Name Verity) will be headlining.
As per the YALSA Blog, where Maggie shared details of the event, Wein will be giving a presentation titled “True Migration: Distance, Time, and the Writer’s Journey.” The talk looks at Wein's life (born in New York City, moved to England at the age of three, lived in Jamaica and then Pennsylvania) and questions how a lifetime of travel and living abroad have influenced both her worldview and her writing. She has lived in Scotland since the year 2000.
The talk sounds fascinating. If you've got time free on Saturday, June 29, from 4:30-5:30 p.m., then I hope you'll add this session to your conference scheduler.
As per the YALSA Blog, where Maggie shared details of the event, Wein will be giving a presentation titled “True Migration: Distance, Time, and the Writer’s Journey.” The talk looks at Wein's life (born in New York City, moved to England at the age of three, lived in Jamaica and then Pennsylvania) and questions how a lifetime of travel and living abroad have influenced both her worldview and her writing. She has lived in Scotland since the year 2000.
The talk sounds fascinating. If you've got time free on Saturday, June 29, from 4:30-5:30 p.m., then I hope you'll add this session to your conference scheduler.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Unprogramming: What are you doing at #ala2013, Part III
Do you program for school-age children? Have you spent time considering the balance between exciting, engaging programs and the amount of preparation that goes into the planning of said programs? If you're interested in this topic--how to offer the best child- and literacy-centered programs possible while efficiently and effectively utilizing your staff time and resources--then I hope you will join Marge Loch-Wouters of Tiny Tips for Library Fun and me at ALA Annual in Chicago as we talk about Unprogramming: Recipes for School-Age Program Success.
Marge, my partner in thoughtcrime, got the ball rolling on the initial Unprogramming conversation, and earlier this week she shared a gracious invitation for you--yes, YOU!--to join us as that conversation continues in Chicago. You have something valuable to add to this conversation.
We'll be facilitating our Conversation Starter on Unprogramming on Monday, July 1, 2013, from 1:30-2:15 p.m., in room S102d of the McCormick Place Convention Center. We hope you can join us and share your own thoughts on programming and program prep for kids.
Marge, my partner in thoughtcrime, got the ball rolling on the initial Unprogramming conversation, and earlier this week she shared a gracious invitation for you--yes, YOU!--to join us as that conversation continues in Chicago. You have something valuable to add to this conversation.
We'll be facilitating our Conversation Starter on Unprogramming on Monday, July 1, 2013, from 1:30-2:15 p.m., in room S102d of the McCormick Place Convention Center. We hope you can join us and share your own thoughts on programming and program prep for kids.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
STEM Storytime Extenders: What are you doing at #ala2013, Part II
It's no secret that I love to talk about STEM and STEAM. Programs, activities, services... you name the aspect of library service, I want to mix in STEM.
I'll have a chance to talk about adding STEM to existing storytime formats at the 2013 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. On Sunday, June 30, from 1:00-2:30 p.m., I'll be in room N230a of McCormick Place Convention Center with the Preschool Services Discussion Group.
I'll be talking a bit about my preschool STEM philosophy as well as sharing what we've done at my library. Then the floor will be open for discussion--time for librarians of every ilk to share ideas, best practices, and words of wisdom on this topic. I really hope you can join me for this informal conversation with the Preschool Services Discussion Group. I cannot wait to hear what you all have been up to.
I'll have a chance to talk about adding STEM to existing storytime formats at the 2013 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. On Sunday, June 30, from 1:00-2:30 p.m., I'll be in room N230a of McCormick Place Convention Center with the Preschool Services Discussion Group.
I'll be talking a bit about my preschool STEM philosophy as well as sharing what we've done at my library. Then the floor will be open for discussion--time for librarians of every ilk to share ideas, best practices, and words of wisdom on this topic. I really hope you can join me for this informal conversation with the Preschool Services Discussion Group. I cannot wait to hear what you all have been up to.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
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
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
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