First off-- I have to say that I am amazed at how much work Shelley has put into this tutorial. Wow. (thanks!)
I did enjoy poking around on the teen site--I left a comment and a review and tried not to sound too much like a middle-aged stalker/poser.
I think that delicious.com will be helpful in terms of having a consolidated bookmark list for the department as a whole-- like many of these tools, however, I just have to actively remind myself to actually use them!
I'm sure I just need practice, but Google docs seemed clunky in terms of producing/editing a document. Not many fonts-- much harder to deal with than Publisher. (But I hesitate to criticize because anything I find difficult I'm sure is because I am a total newbie at this!)
Oh, and:
Shameless baby photos

Babies

OMG! What a baptism by fire this morning. We had 30 tots and 30 adults (& probably more). I did my previous storytime for ones but just read the read-along because I didn't think there would be enough copies to go round. It sure helped to have done it twice before but I still need to do rhymes twice because the time flew! I did mention that I was nervous and needed their enthusiastic support which they gave. Lots of participation on the grown-ups part. I think I did O.K No surveys though, I didn't know where to find them. Thanks to Rory, Heather and everybody for their time and good comments.

Behbehs!

Mad props to Rory for all her time and energy working with Jenny and I on the baby/1s storytimes, not to mention how well she's trained these parents - they're all attentive and love to participate. Sometimes they don't even need me - on our read along of Bow Wow Hears Something this week, two of my pages stuck together and they didn't even notice! They just kept reading aloud without me. I love it.

Rory had some excellent tips, such as splitting up a longer book I found (What Do We Do With the Baby, by Rick Walton) into two, doing half each week. It's a sweet book, very easily divided, and they seemed to enjoy the continuity. That's Not My Puppy was such a hit that I got asked by two caregivers who the author was so they could get their own copies.

At the end, a dad asked me about CDs for babies with more traditional songs, "You know, like the Noble Duke of York that you tried to do." Tried? Nolan's Dad, you're looking a lot less adorable to me right now.

I think both weeks went really well, no parents cried or begged for Miss Rory's return, so I think the next session is going to be great. :) I really need to up my repertoire of rhymes and songs, though - I'd love to hear everyone's favorites.

Cutest baby ever!

From our Babies storytime this morning...

Yay Babies!

I had a lot of fun today at my first ever baby storytime. The babies were really cute, and the grown-ups were very cooperative. I read Where is Baby's Belly Button?, Peek-a-Pet, Baby Faces, and The Baby Goes Beep. They all worked well, but Peek-a-Pet was definitely the most popular. I followed Andy's advice to have the babies listen to the sounds as I pulled different instruments out of my bag and played them. When I played the triangle, you could have heard a pin drop. This one little boy had this huge smile on his face, and even the constant roamer stopped to listen. Sigh. I can see why Rory loves her babies. Also, the babies really liked Heather's flower/bear puppet. Many thanks to Heather and Andy for all their help - you're the best!

The Busy Babies were cute as buttons this morning, with a couple of newbies joining us. I read Ehlert's Color Farm, which I'd never tried before. I emphasized that of course we weren't teaching the babies shapes or colors yet but that it'd might be fun to try something new...let's trace these shapes on our babies' backs or bellies! It was run to watch the caregivers try an octagon, and happily, the heart shape was last. Awww.

It was going along swimmingly when I noticed a two-year-old who just seemed...alone. She was sitting on one of the red chairs quietly and was into all the books and rhymes but I couldn't match her up with any of the adults or babies (because at first, of course, I thought was was a big sister to someone). Finally, about ten minutes into the storytime, just before "Row Row Row Your Boat," I put on a big smile and asked which grown-up belonged to her. No one spoke up so I just kept my sing-songy voice on, excused myself to open the door, and called out, "Is anyone missing a little one?" Within seconds one of our security guards and Leslie and a frazzled nanny rushed over. Phew!

Forever Young

My Wonderful Ones went well today (and, wow, there were a lot of them), but it would have even better if I'd better remembered the difference between a 13-month-old and a 23-month-old. I had a lot of older Ones today, and I'm not sure I challenged or engaged them as much as I could have. My brain is still calibrated toward babies and their caregivers.

For example, I realized that I was asking parents to grab their little ones' feet when I read Charlie Chick (which I need to retire, I think--I've read it in/at least 15 storytimes)...and that's more of something you do with babies. I could have asked the bigger Ones to point to their own feet/beak/belly. I also forgot that felt boards were a magnet for roaming Ones and had to practically swat a few off when I did "Old McDonald" on the board. Doing Moo Bah Lalala as a read-along was a hit, though, as was handing out the puppets (I'm so glad we've got those!) and doing "Head, Shoulders" and "Humpty Dumpty" and "Rockabye Baby" with them.

Of course, when it was time for Busy Babies, I welcomed them as my default . I did almost the same storytime, but provided more talking points ("remember that varying your voice a lot when you read even the simplest thing helps your baby to learn letter sounds!"). We skipped the feltboard and I tried the Color Farm board book, which might have been a little too small for a storytime.

Today doubled my resolve to try a lot of new things with my little guys this term (do we call it a term?) and to be careful with my distinctions between Babies and Ones.

Saturday Babies

We had seven babies, one mom with twins, and quite a few dads on Saturday. The mom with twins was impressive. She would do an activity with one, while the other sat very precariously in front of her, then she would switch them. These had to be the sunshiniest round happy faced babies I have ever performed for. We read So Big, Baby Faces, and Peekaboo Baby (all together). I used the 3 Fat Sausages flannel or 3 Fat Turds as some like to call it. Come on, I ask you, does poop sizzle? Of course not!

I also used the Ravioli snack box with the babies and they did not reject it, although Maxwell did start crying when his dad tickled his chin. You win some, you lose some.

Other rhymes included: Two Little Eyes, Ponies Were Walking, Acka Backa Soda Cracka, Wibbleton to Wobbleton, Sally Go Round the Sun, Grandfather Clock Goes Tick Tock, and Open Them Shut Them.

Babies

My first ever Baby storytime. I started with Come along and Sing with me. I like that one as an opener. A couple babies from ones were also in babies. I had a baby doll in my lap and a couple of babies loved that, they were right up in front. Again, I could have had these memorized better but I felt I had them in my head better than with the ones. I did a face rhyme from Japan and there was actually a woman there from Japan and she had a big smile on her face.

Random Thoughts on Subbing

Okay, so I have been subbing for a few of you (Andy, Rory). And after reading Jennifer's post, I was reminded of my first time subbing for Rory's babies. A mom approached the ST room and saw me greeting: "You mean MISS RORY's not HERE?!" It went downhill from there... I learned my lesson--next time I subbed for Andy, I asked him to PLEASE let them know that there would be a sub the following week. It seemed to work because no one sobbed when they saw me. (Sorry, Jennifer!) I seriously do think it helps, and as a sub, I appreciate it. These people are true creatures of habit. Don't mess with their storytellers.

I did "Owl Babies" with his group and they were mesmerized, especially with the Mama Owl puppet and her blinking eyes. They also enjoyed "Five Fat Sausages" clapping chant and Jim Gill's "Silly Dance Contest" with scarves.

I love reading all your ideas, triumphs and flops. I'm so happy to belong to such a creative and collaborative group.

QUESTION--Is it possible to get an RSS feed for this blog? I would be able to read it more readily. Thanks.

Baby Brains

I offered an "advanced" Busy Babies session this week. I told the caregivers that, since so many of them had been coming the whole session, we were going to try some accelerated stuff for their brilliant littles ones. Which meant...

1. A few more props than they're used to. I read "So Big!" (an Elmo board book, so help me, that Lori had used and triumphed with) and then had a series of ever-bigger plushies to illustrate how BIG they were. I also brought out the xylophone--yes, I still have the xylophone! I just banged on it a bit to start the session, but it was still something different to listen to.

2. A feltboard! A magnetic board, at least. I don't usually bother with these with our youngest patrons, but today I tried both "Hey Fiddle Fiddle" (after we'd recited it together while I showed in in a book) and "This Little Piggy" (which the caregivers did the motions on their kids' toes or fingers).

3. A couple of songs from one of Seasame Street Bob's CDs. Neither of these songs were familiar to my Busy Babies, though they were simple enough. I thought they fell a little flat and that's probably because I wasn't really singing along. I would mouth the chorus and show them all the motions, sure, but I think it'd be better if I memorized every word and really went for it.

Building A [How To Do A Good Baby Storytime] Mystery

Yes, I titled this post with a Sarah McLaughlin reference. Heh.

I just finished my last of three Build Your Baby's Home Library storytimes. We had five kids attend the first week (and only two of whom we'd targeted with our promotions), 13 attend last week (five of whom we'd invited from the daycares and preschools we visited) and 15 come today. And on a rainy day! I hope this means that Lori will have at least that many in her sessions, during the next three Saturdays.

What's really terrific is that, for more than half of the people at this program, this is their introduction to storytimes--if not their introduction to OPPL! So it's even more important than usual to provide a solid, fun, easy-to-get-into experience. For me, that meant planning"Greatest Hits" programs based on what I know works from my Busy Babies. I didn't want to try out too much new stuff!

Lori and I had also spoken about how to reinforce the six early preliteracy skills in these sessions (as we said we would in our proposal to the Rotary Club). We finally decided to NOT make strict outlines or to make the storytime anything like a seminar/workshop. Instead, we would try to seamlessly include prelit skills with our usual patter and fun, rather than pound them home. A couple of examples...

"I love this book for babies because the images are simple, high-contrast and fun to look at. See how Cooper's pointing at the puppies already? That means he's motivated to interact with this book some more. And we definitely want our babies to interact with books. Even if it means trying to digest them, Jacob!" [Then we read Look at the Animals together as a group, doing something different on each page to get the babies interested--counting, pointing, sound effects, sign language, etc.]

"Remember, grown-ups: hearing your voice sing along makes it easier for your little one to pick out the different sounds of the words and tune. And picking out sounds will help their brains be more reading-ready later on! So, a one and a two..." [Then we sung "You Are My Sunshine" to finish up the program. Which was very sweet!]