Interstellar Cinderella

A new picture book by Deborah Underwood for today's Smart Girls (see Amy Poehler's Smart Girls) generation. Cinderella likes fixing spaceships and goes to the ball, but doesn't need "prince charming" to be happy. A fun remake of the classic fairy-tale featuring an independent young lady.

Julie of the Wolves

This book was a surprising pleasure. I expected it to be boring. After all, a girl alone in the wilderness? However, Julie of the Wolves was anything but. Julie, or Miyax as she's called in  Eskimo, leaves her life as a child bride in order to live in San Francisco with her pen pal's family. Along the way she is adopted by a pack of wolves and learns their ways. Triumphs and tragedy happen and she must make a choice about what kind of life she wants to live. I found it very touching. I wonder if today's generation realizes that there are people who actually still live with their old traditions and cultures? I hope educators recommend this book to their classes and librarians to young patrons. It may not be a "fun" or "fast-paced" book, but it is engaging and enjoyable.

Storytime: Friends

Today was a blast! It was all about friends and fun. Books:
      
Welcome Song
Song: Make New Friends But Keep the Old (Using sign language, especially "friends" sign).
Book: Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great - amazingly some had tasted goat cheese, but not me.
Fingerplay: Ten Little Friends (counting forward and back).
Activity: Hold Still (Yo Gabba Gabba) Lots of wiggling, laughing, and following directions.
Book: Penguin and Pinecone - a sweet story about frienship.
Activity: If You're Happy and You Know It.
Craft: Penguin paper puppet and pinecone friend (wrap an actual pinecone with orange felt strip and have kids color a penguin picture and glue it to a popsicle stick - now they can re-create the story).
Bubbles
Goodbye Song

Storytime: Moon

My first ever, completely on my own Storytime is in the books. What fun!The theme was the moon. I choose a couple classic books to read: Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes and Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown with a couple extra books for back-up/check-out options.
  
Before reading we sang our opening song: We Clap and Sing Hello to the tune of Farmer in the Dell and also did a stretching song to get out some energy. In between books we did the fingerplay Zoom, Zoom, Zoom We're Going to the Moon. After searching many CDs for moon songs, I found a song called Circle the Moon (a Ring Around the Rosie type activity) . We sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and before craft-time we caught bubbles from the bubble machine.

I was skeptical about doing a craft in storytime. I've read pros and cons about crafts vs. process art  vs free play vs more stories. All these activities are good and have value, but there is limited time. I inherited this storytime structure but I'm embracing it. I see that craft time is a available time in the storytime lineup. It helps the 2-3 year old crowd with their fine motor skills, listening skills, following directions, connections with the theme/story and is a type of play in itself. Do parents need to help sometimes? Sure, the kids are 2. Kids need to learn things like...this is the white paint, the moon is white, let's make a big white circle just like the moon in the sky, just like in the story. I love having a craft!

      
Found on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/287597126181544314/(I want to try puffy paint too). White paint mixed with flour, dab it on, stamp with bottle caps, and stick stars on the background. Viola!

Juv Fic Audiobooks - Hooray!

I've tried audio books on a number of occasions, but never took to them. My mind would wander, I'd have to re-listen, or the narrator was super annoying. Well, recently, thanks to a co-worker, I gave them one more try. Really, you can get more "reading" in with audio books and when reading is part of your job, that's important. This time, it worked. I really got into the stories and when one book was done, I wanted the next one ready to go. I'm on my 4th audio book and thinking about what I'll listen to next.

 

Thumbs Up                                            Thumbs Up

                

       Thumbs Up                                      Thumbs Down

(Kingdom Keepers got a thumbs down because I did not like the different character voices the narrator did...too animated, too fake. In addition, the story was a series of similar scenes over and over. Now it may be a book a 4-6th grader would like, just not me.)

Dinosaur vs. The Library

Bob Shea knows how to entertain kids and grown-ups. Dinosaur is headed to the library and roars with his friends. What will happen at Storytime? Perfect for little ones. Others in the series:

 

  

Pumpkin STEAM!

It's that time of year. Let's learn and play with pumpkins! We had so much fun!
First up was reading 2 books. We chatted for a moment about the difference between fiction and non-fiction books and then I read one of each. First up:

Simple explanation of how a pumpkin grows from seed to pumpkin.

 

Cute story of a pumpkin on the loose. Run through a farm and everyone imagines what they can make with the pumpkin.

After stories, we set off to investigate what the inside of a pumpkin is all about. I had the top carved off ahead of time and the kids estimated how many seeds were in the pumpkin. We had guesses from 19 to a zillion (these are K-2nd graders). Next, they were invited to feel inside the pumpkin and squish the guts around to see if that changed their guesses. (Of course, some didn't want to). 

Our first experiement was making Oobleck with the pumpkin guts. Found a simple recipe on Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/203436108143596025/ It worked great. Simply added 1c. cornstarch and 1/2 c. water to guts and viola! Is it a solid or is it a liquid? It's a Newtonian fluid. 

What else can we do with our pumpkin? Sink or float time! I cleared out a large bin and filled it with water. The kids had to guess which item would sink and which would float. Items used, pumpkin, apple, large rock, little rock, stick, straw, paper clip, rubber band ball, plastic toy. Pumpkin floats, paperclip sinks, kids amazed!

For my favorite part of STEAM, the art. We did a mini-lesson on negative and positive space making a jack-o-latern face. Fold paper in half, cut out half on folded edge. Cut paper in half, glue to background, then glue opposite items. 

Then to top it off, we made pumpkin dip (inspiration: Aunt Roxie). It is yummy, easy and even bashful pumpkin eaters love it .  Simple as can be: can of pumpkin pie puree, tub of cool whip, and small box of instant pie filling. Mix together. Serve with a variety of items including apples, pretzels, gingersnaps, vanilla wafers, graham crackers, etc. 

What a great way to have a STEAM-y kind of day!