Rough going

It's been quite a while since I had a ST as rough as this morning's 9:30 1 year old group. It wasn't that the kids were loud and psychotic, or that the parents were loud and inattentive. The kids were kinda squirrely and rather unresponsive, but I've certainly seen much worse. No, the trouble was that I was lacking any kind of spark. I was not having fun, and kept thinking, is this thing over yet? Ouch. I know I've talked to most of you before about putting on my "game face" when I'm not really feeling it, but I felt like this was the first time that the face/mask kept slipping. At this point I thoroughly agree with Heather about 8 weeks being the longest period of time a ST session should run, with 6 weeks being preferable - this current 10 week session is really burning me out.
Thankfully, I drank some more coffee, made a couple of changes (including the insertion of more jokes directed at the parents), and the 10:30 ST went much better: much more fun for kids, caregivers, and me.

Game Stretchers

I really want this blog to survive and even thrive, but I've done very little lately to contribute to it--apologies! Maybe if we all try to post at least once or twice more before this session and re-evaluate whether we wanna keep it for the spring schedule?

Anyway, I thought I could share a couple of things that always work for me, especially in a mixed-age grou. First is "The Rhyming Game" (fancy name, huh?). I usually read the kids a rhyming book (this time it was the excellent and relatively new "Rhyming Dust Bunnies") and ask them if they know how to rhyme. When they inevitably insist that YES THEY DO! I ask them to stand up and repeat after me...

Me: Say 'red'...
Them: RED!
Me: And touch your...head! Now, say 'jelly'...
Them: BELLY!
Me: And touch your...belly! Wow, you really are good rhymers!

Of course, I'm always pointing to the body party I'm asking them to guess while I say the first word. Even then, it takes a few rounds for kids to use the hints. But it's the sort of stretcher you can make as long as you want (they don't seem to lose interest) and just make up as you go along. I always end by asking them to say "belbow," which gets a laugh, because even 3-year-olds know that's not a real word.

Another game I like to use as a stretcher is "Librarian [instead of Simon] Says"--the Pajama Storytime kids dig this. I try to make it library-relevant by asking them to "read a book" or "point to your grown-up" or "wave at the librarian" or whatever. Younger children don't really get the elimination aspect of the game, nor do older kids like the elimination aspect, so I...yeah, generally ignore it. Right at the end I'll shake my head NO emphatically and tell the kids to do something without first saying "Librarian says..." and cheerfully ask them all to sit down. Because they're all out at that point.

oral telling

I was inspired by Lori's most recent post (and the fact that I'm running out of ST books) to do a bit of oral telling yesterday for my in-house STs for 1 year olds. Obviously, the "plot" was really simple for 1s - I used a stuffed monkey and just said, "monkey is hungry - what do you think he wants to eat?" and a couple of older siblings said "a banana!" So then I walked monkey around looking for a banana. He meets his friends: rooster, cow, and horse. "Hello" says monkey, and they cock-a-doodle, moo, and neigh, respectively. Monkey then asks "do you have a banana for me?" and they all answer "no." Monkey finally runs into his ol' pal gorilla, and whaddyaknow, gorilla's got the goods. I used a real banana, and wrapped the monkey's long arms all around the fruit, hugging the banana because he was so happy. I then put on the monkey-eating-a-banana hat and said something like "ooh, bananas taste so good"...yeah, not exactly Nat'l Book Award material, but the kids liked it, and it offered plenty of opportunities to make animal sounds...so, success.

Rubba Dub Dub

To address the large crowds I've been getting at the branch storytimes, I've been looking for ways of doing more storytelling rather than reading. This week I made a flannel board based on the book Rubba Dub Dub and got a surprising round of applause when I was finished, so I think I'm on the right track.

I modified the book to include animals I could actually cut out of felt--two penguins, a snake, a turkey, a butterfly and a rubber duck. When the penguins feet came unglued during the story, I told them I scrubbed to hard (that ought to induce a nightmare in a kid or two).

Before putting each animal in the tub, I put it on the board covered with white felt to resemble soap and said scrub a dub dub, now who's getting in the tub, then revealed the animal underneath. The animals I used made for some good ad libs. I had the turkey scootch to the side when the snake came in. I had the butterfly fly above the tub, so as not to get its wings wet.

At the end, elephant comes and the kids all yelled spontaneously that he wouldn't fit, but instead of trying to get in; he drinks up all the water, and the bath is over. Super simple, but a crowd pleaser.

Baby party!

So there were hundreds of people in my 11:00 Babies/1s ST this past Saturday. Well, I counted at least 28 kids and 26 adults, which felt like hundreds. Amazingly, it went pretty well - I was prepared for it to be chaos, but it wasn't.

Older kids can be fun too

Well, you know how I love my twos, but the family open at Maze was full of three and ups this week and I really enjoyed myself. I got to read longer books, The Gruffalo, Ain't Gonna Paint, Max's ABC. They sang the ABC song, loved the 3 little monkeys in the tree prop with oral story, but especially got into the Two Little Blackbirds flannel when we did it as a fingerplay.

Heather taught me the additional verses awhile back.....and I used a couple, two little blackbirds sitting on a cloud, one named Quiet and the other named Loud, and two little blackbirds sitting on the grass, one named Slow and the other named Fast. I knew twos liked this, but the older kids really joined in, and found it hilarious.

Miss Genevieve's First Storytime!

And I survived!

I went with kind of a half monster theme and used my homemade monster dolls as props, which I think the kids dug.

Read: My Monster Mama Loves Me So (which a parent came up afterwards to get the name of), Leonardo the Terrible Monster, Tickle the Duck, Pig in the Pond (big book) and Dinosaur vs Bedtime.

Songs: Wiggleworms-style Good Morning to you song (sang it, not the CD) and ended with "Good morning to the monsters!", pulling them out from behind me, which the kids seemed to like. Also, 2 Little Monsters (Blackbirds), 5 Ugly Monsters Jumping on the Bed, If You're Happy and You Know It (monster stuff like gnash your teeth, wiggle your horns...) and closed with Ralph Covert's "Driving in My Car."

We had a good turnout despite the snow and *I think* the kids all dug it! They were a pretty sedate bunch, but at least their parents applauded a bit :) The monster stories seemed to be the most popular; I don't think they really "got" Dinosaur, which bummed me out a bit. They definitely liked when I tossed the monsters to bump them on the head and most wanted to pet / cuddle the monsters at the end when they came up for stickers.

Nice little adrenalin rush and it felt natural, not nerve-racking, so, yay!

Pig Pig Grows Up

If you haven't used this book in a family open storytime yet, you must give it a try. It never fails for the three and ups and the punchline always gets parent and child laughs. Amazingly, Adam, an 18 month old, sat for it also.

The branch STs were mostly packed. I had 24 kids at Dole which was a surprise. The room was super hot and I had a heavy sweater on, but we did Ralph Covert's Driving in My Car with the paper plate steering wheels anyway. I think parents like this song as much or more than the kids.