New Playaway Bookpacks!

February 6, 2019 by Jessica

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(Pictured is Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Friendly Frenemy, I Survived Hurricane Katrina, The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Upside Down Magic, and I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor)

We just received a bunch of new Playaway Bookpacks! If you haven’t checked them out before, they are kits with Playaway preloaded audiobooks that also come with a text copy of the book. This way you can read along with the narrator as you listen! Some of the new ones are pictured, but you can find all of the Playaway Bookpacks next to the Launchpads, behind the Children’s internet computers. If you haven’t taken a look at them before, now’s a great time to try them out, especially if you are signed up for our winter reading program and want to mark off the “Listen to a Book” snowflake. You are signed up for the reading program, right?? If not, you can pick up a log from the Children’s desk or print one off from the front page of the library website.

Miss Jessica

STEAM-a-Rama: Dino Dig!

February 5, 2019 by tesshurt

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What We Did in Storytime: 2/4

February 4, 2019 by Jessica

Hello and welcome to What We Did in Storytime! Once again I did not use a theme this week.

set list

Song: Same intro song as always! To the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It.”

Book: Bunny Roo, I Love You is super cute and the illustrations are lovely, but it was a bit long for how wiggly everyone was today.

Song: Popcorn Kernels

Popcorn kernels, popcorn kernels

In the pot, in the pot

Shake them, shake them, shake them,

shake them, shake them, shake them,

Till they pop! Till they pop!

I got this song from Jbrary. It’s to the tune of Frere Jacques/Are You Sleeping. Popcorn Kernels and Jack in the Box are both songs we do with the scarves.

Song: Jack in the Box

Another scarf song! This one is chanted more than sung, balling the scarf into your hands and then throwing it in the air at the last line. Since it is so short we repeated it 3 times.

Book: Hello Lamb. I really like this sweet little board book about animal sounds!

Song: First session we ended with Walking, Walking, second session we did Hands are Clapping.

Our craft today was making snowmen with cork stamps. The pictures were clip art I found online and we had a container of corks left over from…I have no idea what. With Crayola washable paint clean up is a breeze, but I brought out the smocks and would recommend using an old t-shirt if you try this at home. Better safe than sorry, as the saying goes.

We also usually have homemade playdough and playdough toys out during playtime, so if you’re interested in making your own at home here’s the recipe we use:

2 cups plain flour
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
Up to 1.5 cups boiling water (add a little at a time until it feels right)
Food coloring (optional)
A few drops of glycerin (optional, but makes it shiny!)

Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar, and oil in a large mixing bowl. Add food coloring to the boiling water then into the dry ingredients (color optional). Stir continuously until it becomes a sticky, combined dough. Add the glycerin (optional). Allow it to cool down then take it out of the bowl and knead it vigorously until all of the stickiness has gone. This is the most important part of the process, so keep at it until it’s the perfect consistency! If it remains a little sticky then add a touch more flour until just right.

Miss Marta added cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg to our current batch of playdough, so it smells wonderful as well as being fun to play with! If you want your playdough to last longer, store it in a ziploc baggie in the fridge.

And that’s what we did in storytime today! If you’d like to see what we did in past weeks, click on the “What We Did in Storytime” tag. And be sure to come back next Monday to check out what Miss Marta did!

Miss Jessica

This Week @ MPL

February 3, 2019 by Jessica

Five on Friday: Favorite Storytime Songs

February 1, 2019 by Jessica

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Hello and welcome to this month’s 5 on Friday! I wanted to share with you 5 of my favorite storytime songs. I do our Storytime for Littles (for kiddos birth to age 3) on alternating Monday mornings and 2 Wednesday evenings a month. Since I work with such a young audience, I have to find songs that are fun and simple enough for them to enjoy. But as often as we repeat the songs, I also want ones that I like too! So in no particular order here are my five current favorites that you and your kids will love.

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

Zoom, zoom, zoom
We’re going to the moon.
Zoom, zoom, zoom
We’re going to the moon
If you want to take a trip
Climb aboard my rocket ship.
Zoom, zoom, zoom
We’re going to the moon.
Zoom, zoom, zoom
We’re going to the moon
In 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 – BLAST OFF!!!

I got this song from the wonderful ladies at Jbrary. They also have several other verses about going to the sun or Mars that I will add if the song is going well with a particular crowd.

Roly Poly

Roly poly, roly poly
Up, up, up.
Up, up, up.
Roly roly poly. Roly, roly, poly.
Down, down, down.
Down, down, down.

Roly poly, roly poly
Out, out, out
Out, out, out
Roly roly poly. Roly roly poly.
In, in, in.
In, in, in.

Roly poly, roly poly
Fast, fast, fast!
Fast, fast, fast!
Roly roly poly. Roly roly poly.
Slow, slow, slow.
Slow, slow, slow.

Another song from Jbrary! I used this song in my very first storytime and it was an absolute hit! I’ve used it frequently since then and it’s so much fun to see how the regulars’ eyes light up when they realize we’re doing this song again. The “fast/slow” verse is especially popular.

1 Bright Scarf

One bright scarf waiting for the wind to blow,
Wiggle it high and wiggle it low.
Shake it fast and shake it slow.
Where did it go?

This is from Loons and Quines. For this song (as you can probably guess) I bring out the scarves. Follow along with the directions in the song, and then at the last line hide it behind your back. You can also change it to “where did you go?” and play peek-a-boo!

Mama’s Sleeping

Mama’s sleeping, don’t wake her up.
Mama’s sleeping, don’t wake her up.
Mama’s sleeping, don’t wake her up,
We must be very quiet!

Wake up mama, we want to play!
Wake up mama, we want to play!
Wake up mama, we want to play!
Let’s be very noisy!

Unfortunately I don’t have a source or a video link for this song, but it is sung to the tune of Skip to My Lou. I do this song with shaky eggs, with everyone shaking softly during the first verse and loudly during the second. Starting off quietly can be a challenge for some kids, but everyone loves getting really loud to wake up mama! Sometimes I will add additional verses for baby, grandma, etc.

5 in the Bed

There were five in the bed and the little one said
“Roll over, roll over”
So they all rolled over and one fell out
There were four in the bed and the little one said,
“Roll over, roll over”
So they all rolled over and one fell out
There were three in the bed and the little one said,
“Roll over, roll over”
So they all rolled over and one fell out
There were two in the bed and the little one said,
“Roll over, roll over”
So they all rolled over and one fell out
There was one in the bed and the little one said… “Goodnight.”