This Week

Does anyone know what happened to my sweet peas?

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Shane: "I'm glad I always have my evil laugh with me."

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Dirt for Saturday arrived Tuesday! Ever try to keep large groups of children away from a big pile of dirt for 5 days?

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This weeks craft was either hanging gardens,

or potato dolls

modelled after this guy:

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Ugh.

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$15 well spent!

Wednesday was a sad day. 13yo Bella, who had seemed fine the day before, appeared to have a stroke. We sat with her in the morning until the vet's office opened, but she passed away on the trip down the hill. We will miss her 'talking' to us (no dog talks like a husky does!), and sleeping on TOP of the dog houses in snowstorms.

She was a really great dog!

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People frequently leave things behind at the library, and if I think something belongs to one of my Facebook friends, I will sometimes post a picture to see who claims it.

This one resulted in a cross-country tussle, with people in several states declaring they left it right where I found it. Wherever that was.

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I can totally do plumbing and construction, but electricity is not my thing. So, of course, I planned a Teen program centered around making light-up cards. I was able to explain the basics of closed circuits, and made one of my own with one light, but I wasn't able to make two lights work off of one battery.

The kids experimented, and a few were able to make it work! That's scientific exploration that will stick in their brains!

Super simple program, you just need cover stock, batteries, LED lights, and copper tape. I got all that off Amazon, and have a ton left.

Why yes, that is the Death Star.

The program went way over because they were still experimenting. We will definitely have to do it again!

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The kids like to explore the fields and forest, and bring home old rusty treasures. An old railroad spike. A broken tool.

A car.

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In other news, Psycho Cat still hates my guts.

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Logan's head is filled with so many awesome ideas, even when he is sleeping he needs to write them down.

Story Time: Boxes

No, I didn't drop off the face of the earth - I just started summer reading! This is NOT a time of year when librarians have time for such frivolous pursuits as blogging, laundry, sleeping, or eating. I did want to share a few of our story times with you, however, so here is this week's.

Like many libraries across the US, we are using the theme of "Build a Better World". This week we were building with boxes, and getting our imaginations warmed up for the weeks ahead. I used the same theme and roughly the same books for all ages this time around:

A lift-the-flap book, which means it won't survive on the shelves for very long. Great for audience interaction, though, and the kids' responses were both perfect and varied.

A board book, yes, but Patricelli's humor spans many ages. I introduced it by asking the parents in the room, "Have you ever asked each other, 'why do we even buy presents when all the want to play with is -'" and of course they all answered, "the box!" There happens to be a puppy inside this box, but the box itself is treated as the gift, which is pure awesomeness.

One of my FAVORITES growing up - although now I'd be with Christina's mother, in raptures over the new refrigerator. Yep, I'm officially old! Not so old that I don't still feel the urge to hit up the appliance store trash bin, though...

For the older kids, I added this one, after a short discussion of the phrases "thinking outside the box" and "putting someone in a box."

A little more abstract, it delves (briefly) into boxes as places of safety or confinement, mysteries or magic.

In between books, we looked at mystery boxes I had made up with riddles about what was inside. Some were super easy ("You wear me on your head and I rhyme with cat."), to medium ("You have to break me in order to use me"), to one that stumped the super-smart older kids ("I can be stinky when I am alive, but I smell good when I am dead.")*

For our craft, of course, we needed to make something with a box. We will be doing something with big boxes later in the summer (pleasedon'trainpleasedon'train), so we used little boxes this week. My wonderful patrons and friends have been saving me their cereal and pasta boxes for weeks! Another staff member helped me wrap them all in plain paper, and I set them out with markers, glue, scissors, and scrap paper.

After stories, I pointed out how empty our stage area was, and told them I needed their help building a 'world'. We talked about what buildings might be in a town, and I let them loose from there. It was funny, one group became obsessed with hotels, while another was very animal-conscious. Some chose to keep their finished product, but there were more than enough for a multi-layer village by the end of the week:

Hindsight: If I had left the tops open, I could have reached in and stapled each one to the wall, easy peasy. Instead, this is the result of a LOT of tape, both packing and masking, some staples, and one total collapse. I think it is secure now. Except for that white one on top, which is flipped over. Sigh.

Here are some close-ups:

Vets for Pets! Catchy!

One of several libraries - and the only one with it spelled correctly ;)

Brown one on the left: "Mountain View Dental and Orthodontics. When you smile, we smile!" (Why, yes, my dentist's children were in attendance, how did you guess?)

Cute kitty...and upside down Game Stop.

Notice that the theater at the bottom is ONLY showing "Hamilton"!

After church you can run by the bank and then get a dog. Or a pizza. Your call.

I love the pets in all the windows of the Pet Hotel, sleeping or barking! I have...no idea about the Torture Chamber. He's really a very sweet little boy. 

Is that the Lincoln Memorial at the top right? Impressive.

Fun start to our summer! They all came up with such different, detailed ideas - I can't wait to see what they do next!

* a hat, an egg, and a pig. Because - bacon!

Mother's Day Story Time

Mother's Day doesn't happen for a couple more weeks (so don't panic!) but we don't run preschool programs in May. Besides, any day is a good day to celebrate our grown-ups!

Some of the books I chose are specific to moms, others will work for any caregiver. This is where it helps to know your parents, and where there might be a sensitive topic, so you can switch things around if needed. We read:

9780060088606

My monster mama loves me so! Let me tell you how I know: When I wake up, she tweaks my nose, tickles all my pointy toes,combs the cobwebs from my bangs,and makes sure that I brush my fangs....At once tender and funny, this monster bedtime story is guaranteed to generate giggles, tickles, and plenty of monster hugs.

Did your mama make you cookies with bugs this morning? She didn't??? Well, then tell her you want some for supper!

9780399167638

In this sweet, rhyming book, toddler and (Mother? Grandmother? Aunt? Nanny? It's open!) go through a fun day together, ending with the narrator saying how lucky she is to spend it with her. 

9781416954026

Seven bitty baby birds are hungry, hungry, hungry—and they’re letting Mama know. “Feed us! Feed us!” the little ones chant, and Mama calms them as only a mother can—before she frantically flies away to gather more delectable worms. Readers can count with Mama Bird as she zooms back and forth across the pages, going from seven hungry babies to none…until one by one the babies wake up again…hungry!

Mamas and Papas can both identify with the feeling of, "I just FED you, how can you be hungry again?", while the kids enjoyed yelling "FEED US! FEED US!" along with the babies. At the end, Mama bird tells Daddy it's his turn, so we talked about how grown-ups share the work, rather than let it be a Dad-bashing moment.

Our craft this year was a lot of fun, thanks to someone else's trash! A local businessman found himself in possession of a stack of old machine parts trays he didn't need, and graciously donated them (probably wondering why on earth I wanted the old things!) I gave each a coat or two of spray paint, and set out t-shirts and acrylics:

I love when an art project is aesthetically pleasing before you even start. Look at all the pretty colors:

Those became pretty flowers,

and people

and...other things.

I'm not sure what it was, exactly, but she was VERY serious about it!

And the only person who got paint on the tables was Miss Ami. Now everybody has trays to make Mom breakfast in bed!

Story Time - I Can Do It!

I originally planned this story time because I wanted to read this book:

9781442406209

$17.99

Very sweet story with a million little lessons and great pictures. When the time came, however, I decided it was too long for the group I have had lately (not bad listeners, just skewing younger, with a lot of new faces). I switched to these titles instead:


978-0399242403
(out of print)

This one proved to be a little too long as well, but the kids Monday did like Milli's creations, and they lent themselves well to the craft project. For Wednesday's story time, I switched it with:

9780062250179
$17.99

Review of this one coming up December 7! Even though it mentions going to school, it is great for getting kids talking about all the things they CAN do (which led to some funny conversation with Wednesday's group).


9780762455065
$16.95

Cute story about the pursuing your passions (and not giving up) rather than trying to be perfect at everything - and about parents' expectations.

Finally, a favorite of librarians and art teachers:


9780763619619
$14.00

We had already talked about saying you are not good at something yet. This book addresses finding out you may good at something after all - especially when you let go of assumptions about what that means.

For our art project, I gave each child one 'dot' (plain paper plate) to start off with, but encouraged them to use more. I set out watercolors, scrap paper and glue (no markers!) and invited them to use their imaginations to decorate their dots any way they chose. No wrong ways to do it! The little boy who just kept dumping more water on his? Why not!

Practicing your scissors skills on the finished project?

Good for you!
And here is the one she left intact, which I also thought was pretty cool:

I was very happy that they all did indeed do something different:

This one made me think of The Big Orange Splot, one of our favorite books at home:

(Thank-you, Ellie, for the pictures!)

Lots of fine motor skills and creative thinking going on, as well as Print Motivation. Looking for a fun and easy Christmas gift? Package up:

- a ream of copy paper
- a package of construction paper
- old magazines
- a box of brand new crayons (come on, spring for the big box with the sharpener!)
- glue (lots)
- tape (even more)
- scissors

and let them go to town, no instructions. You can even pack it all inside a small trash can, for all the snips and squiggles that end up on the floor! Add things like yarn or popsicle sticks if you want, but try to shy away from already-prepared crafts. Let their imaginations take the lead!