Apples and Bananas for the Ukulele

Raffi singing "Apples and Bananas" was a staple of my childhood, as it was for many a fellow youth services provider. I've found that this quintessential millennial's song remains popular with todays young kiddos, too--they love the silliness and catch on to the repetitiveness, making it a great singalong for storytime groups.

I played around with a few ways to accompany the words with the ukulele, and this is the version I like best. Now go sing about fruit!

Thinking Outside the Book: Where's Waldo Activity Pages

My, my, my, am I into repurposing falling apart books lately.

My latest endeavor in reusing withdrawal fodder is meant to provide diversion for the kiddos stuck with their parents at the public computers. As I've mentioned before, our public internet computers are not in immediate proximity to the children's area. Which means, if a caregiver wants to use the computers and there's no one to attend to the child/ren in the children's area, the kids have to stay in the computer area.

As I've also mentioned before, we aim to do what we can to keep these young customers engaged and happy while they wait for their grownups. We've got coloring books and crayons, portable toys, quick reading material... And, now, stand-along Where's Waldo sheets.

You see, I had a Where's Waldo book that was falling apart. While the binding was shot, many of the pages were just fine. So I spent a few minutes locating Waldo on the pages that were in good shape, then cut those pages right out of the (now withdrawn) book. I printed up some sheets with the library logo and the request to return the pages to the information desk when the quest for Waldo was complete. Then, when I was visiting the cataloguing department to laminate the pages for our second annual Picture Book Walk, I laminated these standalone Waldo activity sheets, too.

Now the sheets are at the information desk, and I anticipate them getting plenty of use this summer when the days are hot and the computer bays are packed.

And who knows! Maybe I'll stumble upon something else to repurpose soon.

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Do you ever repurpose library materials that are falling apart? Tell me how!

What are you doing at #alaac14? Come to a Guerrilla Storytime!

Exactly one month from today, I'll be one of those library folks headed to Las Vegas for the 2014 ALA Annual Conference. There's lots to look forward to at this conference, from the 2014 Newbery celebrations, to the program sessions, to the publisher events, to the presentations. And that's not even taking into account the flashy bonus that is Las Vegas itself.

One of the things I'm most excited about, however, is Guerrilla Storytime.

Guerrilla Storytime made its debut at the 2013 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, and since then, it's become something of a training and advocacy phenomenon. And so, obviously, it must take place with even more energy this year, on its first anniversary!

We the Joint Chiefs of the Storytime Underground hope you'll be able to stop by any (or all!) of the four Guerrilla Storytimes that'll be taking place in Vegas in June:

• Friday, June 27 @ 1 p.m.
• Saturday, June 28 @ 9 a.m.
• Sunday, June 29 @ 11:30 a.m.
• Monday, June 30 @ 3 p.m.

All Guerrilla Storytimes will take place in the Networking Uncommons space at the convention center, and everyone--EVERYONE!--is welcome to attend. Participation optional!

Note: Because we like to share what happens at Guerrilla Storytimes with the Storytime Underground community at large, we would love to have some folks volunteer to take notes, pictures, and/or videos of the Guerrilla Storytimes they attend. The more we crowd-source the recording of these training and advocacy events, the more benefit they can provide. If you're interested, let us know on the Storytime Underground Facebook group!

Flannel Friday: Little Red Hen Finger Puppets

I have been thoroughly enjoying myself with my 2014 challenge to make monthly felt stories and activities for my storytimes. In fact, I'll find myself at work, flipping through picture books, and suddenly I'll see how a story might translate to a felt version. I must say, that's not something that ever just popped into my head before.

I was particularly surprised, then, when I woke up one day on my morning off thinking, "I'm going to make finger puppets today!" And, reader, that's what I did.

Since lots of my storytimes are outreach events for classrooms of up to 60 preschoolers, I chose the story of The Little Red Hen for my puppets. The story is repetitive, which I find works well with groups, and because the characters are all different animals, I knew the finger puppets would still be easily differentiable from the back of the storytime room.

I created my own freehand patterns for these puppets, although I spent about 20 minutes on Pinterest looking at what other folks have done for hen, cow, pig, and cat finger puppets--I wanted to get a sense of how I thought my puppets might best look. After hand-drawing my pattern, I used felt, embroidery floss, some small buttons, and puffy paint to get the final products.

These puppets have been making the outreach storytime rounds with me, much to the delight of many a local preschooler. Finger puppets, accomplished!

Check out this week's full Flannel Friday roundup on Lisa's blog Lisa's Libraryland.

Painting with Forces on the Library as Incubator Project

Have you been looking for some new ways to paint with your library kiddos? Then head over to The Library as Incubator Project, where my post today deals with painting with forces. Help your painters get creative with the help of gravity and magnetism!

Head over to LAIP to get full details on how to paint using these fundamental forces.

Announcing Your Dream Conference: The 2014 Midwest Youth Services Unconference

Darien's done it. Michigan's done it. And now, we're doing it here in the Midwest in Missouri, too.

That's right, folks. We're Unconferencing.

Have you ever wanted to attend a conference where all of the breakout sessions were exactly the ones you wanted to attend the most? Now you can! Register for the inaugural Midwest Youth Services Unconference and join us for a FREE day of training and networking for all children’s and teen library staff!

The first Midwest Youth Services Unconference will take place on Wednesday, August 20, 2014, at the Spencer Road Branch of the St. Charles City-County Library District in St. Peters, Missouri. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. that day, youth services library staff will meet for a day of customized professional development sessions that meet your personal needs and interests. You can register for the Midwest Youth Services Unconference here.

What’s an Unconference? An Unconference is a particular type of professional development that is designed to meet the training needs of everyone in attendance. The breakout sessions are chosen by attendees at the beginning of the Unconference day, and the chosen sessions will be led and/or facilitated by attendees who volunteer in advance. For example, if attendees want sessions on makerspaces, dynamic storytimes, and simple teen programs, those are the sessions that will be offered at the Unconference.

For more information, including FAQs, or to register for this free event, please visit the Unconference website: http://midwestyouthservicesunconference.wordpress.com/

Mark your calendars, friends! I look forward to seeing you in August for the first Midwest Youth Services Unconference.

My Final Takeaways from the SLJ Think Tank

My last few takeaways from the 2014 School Library Journal Public Library Leadership Think Tank in Nashville came from a presentation by Denise Lyons. While Lyons had lots of interesting things to say about her topic--connecting to broad strategic development--the two points from her talk that hit home most to me really come down to staff empowerment. Admittedly, staff empowerment and empowering youth services folks in particular is on my mind a lot these days, what with the whole M.O. of the Storytime Underground. Thus the impact these two statements have had on me.

First, there's a way to move away from the most common roadblock in implementing a new service: "We tried that and it didn't work." That statement forces staff to slam on the brakes, taking away agency from people moving forward with ideas--ideas which, in all likelihood, they've given a fair amount of thought and research. BUT, says Lyons, you can restructure that negative shutdown by empowering the staff members who make the seemingly idea-ended statement. Get the staffers focused on a historical lack of success on the team of people who are figuring out how to launch the new iteration. They'll be able to bring their perspectives of what went wrong to the discussion, simultaneously letting them feel listened to and allowing the project team to take into account and make plans for historical problem points in order to avoid or address them this time around. Empowering!

The other big empowerment takeaway is most excellent: to get staff to do micro trainings, which Lyons called "Mini TED Talks." The argument is that staff don't need hours of trainer certification and experience at conferences in order to talk for 10 minutes about that thing they're really knowledgeable about. If a staffer is good at something and hearing about it would positively impact the work of other staffers, create a platform for micro trainings where that expertise sharing can take place. (That's basically the entire methodology behind guerrilla-style trainings anyway; a rose by any other name and all that jazz.) I've made no secret of my desire to see more folks speaking up about and sharing the excellent work they do, both for personal empowerment, advocacy, and the sharing of best practices that can result. Hearing that call for expertise sharing from another forum makes me very, very happy.

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That wraps up my recaps of the 2014 SLJ Think Tank. I had an excellent time attending the conference, and I very much look forward to the conversations that will continue and develop out of the ideas that were shared in Nashville!