"Celebrate Kindness"

Thanks to one of the amazing school media specialists in our district, we learned several weeks ago that the schools in our town would be celebrating "No Name-Calling Week 2014". We love supporting our schools in whatever way possible and equally love celebrating kindness, so we were excited to create a display to highlight all of the books that we own that tackle the issues of bullying and name-calling, and the importance of networks, support, friendships, and kindness. 

If you aren't familiar with this national week-long event, you should check out the No Name-Calling Week 2014 website for more information. Originally inspired by the book The Misfits by James Howe, the No Name-Calling Week Coalition was created by GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) and Simon & Schuster Children's publishing and now consists of over 40 national partner organizations. The website is chock-full of resources and planning tools for elementary, middle, and high schools including lesson plans, posters, pledges for students, booklists, information for families and schools, and much more. 

I had recently purchased the new Anti-Bullying Basics set from World Book and we used the booklist on the GLSEN website to fill any gaps and to round out the collection for parents and kids of all ages. Thanks to my talented coworker Sue, I walked into the library this morning to find this beautiful display ready and waiting for No Name Calling Week. It's just so sweet I can hardly wait for families to start browsing our selections.

 

Bee Kind: Celebrate Kindness

I would love to collaborate with schools next year to booktalk great books or to provide family programming for No Name-Calling Week, but I am pleased with this year's efforts. 

No Name-Calling Week 2014 isn't until the week of January 20-24, so you still have time to evaluate your collection. How will you celebrate kindness this year? 

Willy Wonka Interactive Movie

It's been a few months since we tried our first interactive family movie, but I thought I would take a few minutes now to share. In September, we created a huge Roald Dahl book display and as an extension program we hosted an interactive showing of the "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (the 1971 edition, thank you very much). Thanks to all the great collaborative sharing on the ALSC blog, I was able to gather up some beginning ideas (and courage) that we modified to our community. Now that holiday and winter breaks are fast approaching, I hope to try this type of fun family interactive event again soon.
(Need a movie license? We use: Movie Licensing USA )

Here is what our interactive movie event looked like:

We wore costumes, welcomed our participants, and explained what our interactive program would look like. We decided to guide our participants through the movie by passing out props as the scenes came up (rather than give a bag of stuff out in the beginning). We had hoped to have a big pretend contract for everyone to sign in the beginning while people are getting settled, but we ran out of time.

We explained that each time:

• you hear the word "scrumpdiddlyumptious”, you eat some candy
• The Oompa Loompas come out, you stand up and dance and hit your rhythm sticks to the beat.
• the bad guy comes on, you scream!
• a song comes up, we will project the words on the wall so that you can sing along if you choose

Here is a list of what we did :

• In the beginning when the kids are running from school, we all stomped and ran in place. This helped to get everyone excited for all the upcoming fun!
• "Candy Man" song – we sang along and passed out Wonka candy 
• Science experiment scene – we walked around with talcum powder to make the bang come to life (this was a huge cleanup and we will skip this next time for sure!)
• Every time a golden ticket is found, we held up a huge sign with the corresponding number on it and yelled out "1!" (or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5!)
• Blue/yellow/orange crepe paper for “Cheer up Charlie”. This is a very slow song so we gave crepe paper out to shake so everyone could sing and try to cheer up Charlie. (Passed out during song.)
• Charlie’s golden ticket – everyone cheers and hoots and claps
• Grandpa dancing song – we all got up and danced  (we passed out rhythm sticks during the dance)
• Clock strikes 10 – Rhythm sticks beats with ticks. Celebrate with crepe paper and cheering when the crowd celebrates.
• Imagination song – we sang along and passed out beach balls to hit around during this slow song
• Chocolate river scene– we handed out hot chocolate 
• Oompa loompa song – sing along and use rhythm sticks
• Scary boat scene – We had planned to use a disco light during this scene, but it was actually really scary to lots of kiddos so we handed out glow in the dark bugs. This helped distract a bit from the actual scene. 
• Oompa loompa room – We pedaled our pretend bicycles while Wonka is peddling. (We passed out blue balloons for next scene)
• When Violet starts eating and describing the food the candy tastes like, start blowing the blue balloon.  Let them go when she gets rolled away.
• Oompa loompa song - sing along and use rhythm sticks
• Fizzy lifting drink scene- we used a bubble machine and passed out bubbles to blow 
• Golden eggs – We handed out plastic eggs filled with a gold coin and a little note that says good egg or bad egg. It was fun to see if you got a good or bad egg.   
• Oompa loompa song -  sing along and use rhythm sticks
• Car wash – we used silly string 
• TV scene – we passed out 3D glasses to wear during the scene. 
• When Willy Wonka hugs Charlie for the good deed, hug a friend/grown up/yourself
• When they get in the elevator, kids bend down and rise up with the elevator and fly around with the crepe paper

Overall, this was a super fun day! We turned on the sing along feature to play all songs while we cleaned up. We also created a golden ticket hunt in the children's department by hiding 5 golden tickets throughout.

We hope to try this again soon!

 

M is for Monster

"M is for Monster" Book Display

As you may already know, this year is the 50th Anniversary of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. A wonderful local art museum in our area is celebrating 50 years of works by Sendak with an exhibit and lots of great programs beginning in early November, so we decided to join the fun with our own wild rumpus at the library.

This past Saturday we hosted our "Monster Madness" event. Since we were making monster cupcakes and decorating monster pumpkins and gourds, we asked families to register. We had over 35 kiddos of all ages from under 1 to 12 (plus their grown-ups). Here is a quick rundown of the plan:

Of course we started with a reading of the special occasion book, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

We used our imaginations to go on a monster hunt (rather than the usual bear hunt). I love this version that Michael Rosen performed, so I used this as my inspiration.

We read Frankenstein by Ludoworst Bemonster next. This story is a Madeline parody and tickles the funny bone of those that can follow along, but we had a large crowd and it was a bit long for our audience. I probably wouldn't use this story again in a storytime setting like this.

After the story, our group was ready to move. I love If You're a Monster and You Know It by Rebecca Emberley and Ed Emberley. Our copy was checked out though, so I downloaded the free musical version from the Scholastic page and we danced and snarled and roared like monsters. (The song is sung by Adrian Emberley.)

We passed out some musical instruments and listened and played along to the musical version of There Was An Old Monster sung by Adrian Emberley. I had a copy of the story so I turned the pages as the band played on. We especially loved the fact that monster kept on dancing because he had ants in his pants, scritchy-scratch.

After we bid farewell to our instruments, we read the story Frank Was A Monster Who Wanted to Dance by Keith Graves. This funny book is rather participatory and was a great fit towards the end of our program. Plus it had the yuck factor you need at a monster event, since Frank's head unzips and his eye rolls out the door. After our reading, we did one last dancing song, The Monster Mash. 

We had lots of other monster books at the ready, including Go Away Big Green Monster, The Monsters' Monster, and Monster Mash, but our monsters were ready to create. (We had also created a "M is for Monster" book display early in the month to showcase all of those monster books we have!)

We sent the monsters on their way to make their own Big Green Monster cupcakes, painted monster pumpkins (or squash), and wild thing masks. We have so many wonderful businesses in our town and local area, that we were able to get 50 vanilla cupcakes (unfrosted) and 40 pumpkins and squash donated. We purchased the frosting, some candies, and bottled water. This entire program cost under $20.

Many families stayed for over an hour and half, so we thought it was monster mashing success!  

Fall Fun

Fall is the most glorious time of year, in my opinion. It's a true feast for the senses; the vibrant colors, the warm smells of seasonal favorites, the feel of the crisp air, and the sounds of crunching leaves under your feet. Luckily, my coworkers feel the same way about amazing autumn. We couldn't handle it any longer, we just had to turn one of our unused columns into a tree [display]. It's been a great way to showcase some of the underappreciated books that feature forests and woodland animals.  

In the spirit of all things autumn, here are a few of my more recent favorites for this time of year.

A is for Autumn by Robert Maass
I love this ABC book all about the joys of autumn for kiddos ages 2 and 3. I was drawn in by the cover and photos on each page, so I can forgive some of the not necessarily fall fiting pairs (i is for ice cream, n is for neighborhood...). Understanding that books with photos can become dated quickly, I will keep going to this nonfiction book for as long as I can for my fall storytimes.

Bear Has A Story to Tell by Philip C. Stead and illustrated by Erin E. Stead
We meet lovable Bear, who has a story to tell, but all of his friends are too busy preparing for winter.  A sweet story that discusses migration and hibernation in an enchanting way. And who doesn't love the Philip and Erin Stead team?

Flora's Very Windy Day by Jeanne Birdsall and illustrated by Matt Phelan

I absolutely adore the illustrations in this charming picture book. The watercolor images of leaves and siblings floating through the air are the most lovely part of this whimsical story of an older sister and her younger brother who struggle against a "very windy" autumn day.

Awesome Autumn: Fall Facts and Fun by Bruce Goldstone

A wonderful book full of photos, facts, and activities all about fall changes (migration, hibernation, why leaves change color, fall holidays, etc). An important resource for teachers and students in the prek-2 classroom. Due to the nature of the format it is a little tricky as a straight read aloud, but the bright colors, engaging photos and informational text make this one a keeper for sure.