Pre-K and Kinder Storytime Knuffle Bunny

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This week for Kindergarten and Pre-K storytime, we are reading one of my faves, Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems.  Let me just say, I love Mo Willems and everything he writes.  The man is genius.  Seriously.  Anyways, I like to share Knuffle Bunny with them because it won the Caldecott Award which is an award given to children's books for their illustrations.  The cool thing about these illustrations is that the background is a black and white photo and the people are in cartoon color.  Before we read it, I point out the title and what Knuffle Bunny is (a green stuffed animal rabbit) and tell them that this book won a special award for it's pictures.  Then I tell them to pay close attention to the pictures and let me know at the end of the story if they notice anything different or creative.  We read the story, blah blah blah.  They laugh, blah blah blah.  We talk about the pictures, blah blah blah.  Then I give them each a black and white picture of the story carpet in the library and crayons and they draw themselves in color in the library reading or listening to a story. 

2012-2013 Texas Bluebonnet Award Winner Postcards From Camp

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By now every librarian in Texas has heard that the winner for the 2012-2013 Bluebonnet Award is Postcards From Camp by Simms Taback.  (insert cheers here).  I was quite honestly surprised that this book won because the majority of kids at my school and in my district voted for Zita the Spacegirl.  But I am glad that Postcards won cause it's fun and interactive and quirky and I like that.  Anyways, it doesn't matter what I think because the beauty of the Texas Bluebonnet Award is that students get to vote and choose the winner. 

So, kudos to Taback (who died about a year ago :( ), librarians everywhere for encouraging a love of reading, and the one student at my school that voted for Postcards From Camp!

Each year we have a voting party and I'm always looking for some new ideas to stress out over and try.  In years past we have tried playing pictionary in small groups with the book covers but that didn't go over so well as I have a limited time and my students aren't very Pictionary savy.  I have also done book cover bingo, but that gets old after a few years.  So this year I kept it simple.  I printed up the book covers and cut them into puzzles.  When they came in, there was a puzzle at each table for them to work on while they waited to get some ice cream and vote.  Then I had a backdrop with bluebonnets on it and some of the book covers and they got to take their picture with the book they voted for "in the bluebonnets".  And that was it.  Boom!  30 minutes.  Done.  Obviously very low stress.  Another librarian friend of mine had a hotdog party and did a whole window display that said, "Hot Diggity Dog, you are coming to the Bluebonnet Party!" or something along those lines.  I thought that was pretty genius.  I could've done some other kind of theme to go along with one of the books.  So, I'm going to keep that in mind for next year.  We could do a whole Macy's Parade balloon theme or something.  (Can you tell I only know about one of the books for next year's list?)  Anyone else have ideas that worked well for you?

We All Go Traveling By Pre-K Storytime

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This week for Pre-K and PPCD storytime, I'm going to "read" one of my faves!  We All Go Traveling By by Sheena Roberts.  I love this book because it is one of those song stories and it has a cd that comes with it so all you have to do is play the song, turn the pages, and keep up with the hand motions/vehicle noises.  Here's how this storytime usually goes:

1. We listen to the story song as I show the book and we do some of the noises of the different vehicles as I see fit with each group.
2. I show them all of the vehicles (bus, truck, train, bicycle, airplane, car, shoes, and school house) and let them come up one at a time to put them on the board and we practice the sounds they make (which is part of the story song, so I don't have to make anything up)
3. We listen to the story song again as I show the book and by this time they are singing along and doing the noises and it is great fun!

To prepare for this storytime, I have scanned and printed out in color all of the vehicles from the back of the book and laminated them. 

One of these days I might get a little over-achiever-y and have them stand up in front of the rest of the group with actual items (like a horn for the bus or a steering wheel for the car, etc...) and let them make the noises.  One day...

February Bulletin Board

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For February's library bulletin board, we cut up some book posters, you know the ones you get every year that have the Newberry or Caldecott or whatever award books on them.  We used the books to spell READING! in WE <3 READING!  And of course the <3 is a book...so WE BOOK READING!  Makes perfect sense!

Alphabet Under Construction Pre-K Storytime

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This week in the wonderful world of Pre-K, our little guys are studying construction.  Kind of a weird theme if you ask me, but they didn't so I guess they can do whatever they want and I will go along with it.  And smile...always smile.  Smiling's my favorite! :)

Whenever I see Pre-K or PPCD, I like to read them a story but also have some sort of activity to go along with the book that they can participate in since their attention span is about .000001 seconds long. 

So this week we will be reading Alphabet Under Construction by Denise Fleming and then I have cut out (using the die cut) the letters of the alphabet and laminated them.  Before the story starts, I'll pass out the letters and make sure everyone knows what letter they have.  Then as I'm reading, they can come up and put their letters on the board in order.  We'll probably also do some motions or sounds or something with each letter too.  Fun, fun, fun!

Heros!

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In my career as a Super Librarian, I have lots and lots of ideas that I want to keep track of and also share with everyone, so I'm starting this blog, Library Heros to do just that!  My first post will be about Captain America...because he is my favorite Avenger guy.  Abdo Publishers had some deal that if you ordered a certain amount from their company, they offered a puppet or a cardboard cut out.  And I chose Captain America...my hero.  *swoon*  And now I make him say things like this: