Ahoy, Matey! Pirate Day

I missed the boat (ahem, I mean, pirate ship) in September for International Talk Like a Pirate Day and after helping several students locate swashbuckling books in the library, I was inspired to have an impromptu Pirate Day with first grade. Saying they "loved it" would be the overstatement of the century.

How does one host an impromptu Pirate Day, you ask? Well, it's simple...

 

First, gather together the following:

-Black, long-sleeved shirt

-Black pants or skirt

-Plain white t-shirt that has been "distressed" to look pirate-y

-Several red scraps of fabric to use as a belt (aka-sword holder) and headband

-An eye patch (what librarian DOESN'T have an eye patch?)

-Gold chains

-A menacing look

I also happened to have a pirate chest and gold coins in my office (oh, the things you can find in my office. Seriously).

The choices for pirate-themed books are endless (as are the options for fun accents when reading said books):

Pirates by John Matthews

Pirate: a DK Eyewitness Book by Richard Platt (I love to include non-fiction books for these thematic lessons. I pick small sections of text and the kiddos are always fascinated by what they learn)

Pirates Love Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort

No Pirates Allowed Said Library Lou by Rhonda Gowler Greene and Brian Ajhar

How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long and David Shannon

 

We finished up by creating these too-cute pirate decorations using paper plates, black construction paper scraps and red fabric. They were displayed in the hall and were a big hit.

Well, matey, might it be time for your own impromptu Pirate Day? Me thinks so!

Preschool Storytime: Owls

I. Love. Owl. Storytime. Between the plethora of resources, the adorable owl crafts and the way that even my youngest kiddos enthusiastically say, "Hooooooot," it's easily one of my favorites.

The owl books are so popular that when I shot the photo for this post, a number of the books that had been included in the Owl Storytime had already been checked out by excited little readers.

 

My top picks for owl books are:

 

Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace

Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton

Good Night, Owl by Pat Hutchins

Owl Babies by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and John Schoenheer (for older audiences)

The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear and Jan Brett

 

Today's felt board rhyme came from Leah and Mollie over at Sunflower Storytime, their "What a HOOT" storytime post is adorable.

 

Five Little Owls

Five little owls sitting in a tree

One flew away! How many do you see?

One, two, three, four.

 

Four little owls sitting in a tree

One flew away! How many do you see?

One, two, three.

 

Three little owls sitting in a tree

One flew away! How many do you see?

One, two.

 

Two little owls sitting in a tree

One flew away! How many do you see?

One.

 

One little owl sitting in a tree

 She flew away! How many do you see?

 Zero!

 This was a big hit!

 

Before the kiddos left, they made these adorable (and very easy) owl handprints. Once the handprints dried, my lovely library assistant and I added the darling details. I am in love with these! I was also thrilled to discover that I could feed construction paper through the printer and would be able to add the titles of the books for our parents to reference.

Layers of the Earth Clay Models

Do you remember studying the layers of the earth when you were in elementary school? Yep, me neither. If I had made a clay model of the earth that was later cut open to expose the layers, that might be a different story...

This project came about after talking to the third grade classroom teacher and the art teacher, we all worked together to incorporate our areas of expertise into one cool experience for our kiddos. The students have been learning about the earth for a few weeks now so the kids have a great deal of background knowledge.

Before this project even began, I bought (lots) of Crayola Model Magic, this stuff is great to work with, dries over time and comes in lots of fun colors. I bought six colors, one for each of the layers of the earth the students were asked to represent:

I then divided the clay into individual bags, one for each student. I also included handouts for all of the tables and made my sample earth model:

After a very short period of instruction, students set to work on making their models:

I purposely did not give the kiddos much direction, they discovered that if they make a ball for the very center of the earth and then wrap the remaining colors around that ball, it works well:

They loved this project!

The earth models looked great, they wanted to immediately cut them open to expose the layers, but I made them wait until the clay had a chance to dry.

Sadly, because we had a few weeks without library time, the earths got a little too dry and the seams started to crack. Fortunately, the models still held together and looked good:

After meeting with the art teacher, we decided these models should go on display for the entire school community. Therefore, we needed backdrops... What a great opportunity to re-visit the layers of the earth. The art teacher worked with the kiddos to create a diorama (of sorts) that both held the model and showed the layers of the earth:

Next step, cutting the models open, yaaay! And, yes, I let them wield the knife (brave, I know, but I watched them closely and they were so careful knowing this was a big responsibility):

It was so fun to see the variations in the layers!

After cutting open the models, the students made labels of the different layers of the earth using sticky envelope labels and toothpicks (the simplest supplies are sometimes the best option):

The models turned out GREAT and the kids were so proud!

Preschool Storytime: Thanksgiving

This week's storytime post comes as both a sharing to fellow librarians and an instructional tutorial to families. Never have I sent a craft home as an extension activity, but this week the craft was too cute and the amount of time was too short.

This morning a parent came in to look for a particular non-fiction book and left saying, "I'm just so impressed. It's a relatively small library and I'm leaving with three books on this very particular topic." It was a proud librarian moment. The pride then continued when I went to look through the Thanksgiving bin and found more fun titles than I expected. I did pick up a few new(er) titles and ended up with the following for storytime:

I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson and Judy Schachner

10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston and Rich Deas

Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman

The Amazing Turkey Rescue by Steve Metzger and Jim Paillot

The Almost Unschooling Mom posted a fun brown paper bag puppet to accompany I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie and I was hooked. Like the Almost Unschooling Mom, I used Marcia's Lesson Links for the body, Utah Education Network's Old Lady Puppet for the head (I like that the mouth is bigger and the kiddos can fit the cards in easily), and Make Learning Fun for the pieces of food.

We finished our storytime with I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie and as I was reading, the kiddos brought up the different pieces of food and dropped them in the old lady's mouth. Too much fun. They loved being part of the story.

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To make your own Old Lady puppet at home, follow these steps:

Step One: Color the Old Lady and the pieces of food.

Step Two: Cut the Old Lady (including inside her mouth, big people help will be required here) and the pieces of food. I cut the rectangle outline of the food so they were all the same size and shape.

Step Three: Lay the paper bag on the table with the seam of the bottom of the bag, face up. Glue the Old Lady's face to the bottom of the bag. I suggest using a glue stick for this part, anything else will soften your brown paper bag.

Step Four: Glue the Old Lady's body to the bag, make sure your hand can still fit inside the bag and the seams all move.

Step Five: Here comes the tricky part... Use a scissors to cut out the mouth of the Old Lady, I used tape to reinforce her mouth to the bag.

Step Six: This step is option, you can tape the plastic sandwich bag inside of the brown paper bag to catch the pieces of food.

Step Seven: Retell the story and enjoy!

 

Character and Setting Dioramas

I am a huge fan of cross-curricular collaborations to make learning more meaningful. My second graders are reading The One and Only Ivan in class so I recently constructed a bulletin board to feature the book and share with the community what is happening in one of the classrooms. Check out the bulletin board post here. Needless to say, the bulletin board worked. Everyone loved it, faculty, students and visitors asked second graders about the book and were encouraged to read it themselves.

When I found out the second grade kiddos were studying character and setting, I knew it was the perfect opportunity for another collaborative project. I contacted our amazing art teacher and she showed me a 3-D diorama that her daughter created for a book and we knew it was perfect for this project. I created my example using a different book so the students could be free to create without a per-conceived piece of art in their mind:

I wish I could figure out the official name of this process, I know there are other educators out there doing this and I would love to give them credit. If you have seen this process done before, or if you're doing it yourself, please contact me in the comments section.

The students received three pieces of thick card stock, each piece is slightly smaller than the one behind it. For example, the back piece of paper is 8.5" x 11", the middle sheet is 8.5" x 10" and the front sheet is 8.5" x 9." This makes it so the final product curves inward and makes the diorama stand up on its own.

I cut the papers down to size and cut the window out of the front paper prior to handing them out to students. The kiddos were instructed to thinking about the following:

• The back page (the largest piece) is to show the setting. Where did Ivan live? What did his cage look like? What was on the walls?
• The middle page (the medium-sized piece) is to show the character(s). What did Ivan look like? How large was Ivan compared to his cage? Were there other important characters in the story?
• The front page (the smallest piece, already cut into a frame) is to tell others what book you're sharing. What is the title of the book? Who is the author? Who created this diorama?

It's important to note that I cut around the character(s) after the kiddos finished their art. The pieces that turned out the best were those that were connected to the frame on 3-4 sides (the head, the arms, the legs), this made the character stay upright when on display. You can see this in some of the examples below:

The art teacher stopped by to check in and remind students to pay close attention to their craftsmanship. What details can be included to make your art even more interesting? In beautiful paintings are the backgrounds blank or do they include colors and interesting features? These questions really helped students to create some amazing pieces.

These dioramas went on display in the foyer of the school and they were a bit hit. I love successful collaborations that work to serve our students and provide them with a wonderful learning experience!

Updated! Shark Week Storytime

A few weeks back I planned to do an ocean-themed storytime to go with my Reader's Reef genre bulletin board. What started as ocean-themed quickly turned into something attuned to Shark Week in the library. There are just too many adorable shark projects and ideas on Pinterest. I couldn't help myself!

My book selections were good, but I will definitely make some changes for next time around. I absolutely love Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen, it is a new favorite! The kids loved, loved, loved it!

I think I'm a Shark by Bob Shea is an adorable book for students to read and check out, but it wasn't great for reading aloud. I think next year I'll display it, but not use it in the storytime.

Last came Wave by Suzy Lee. This. Book. Is. Wonderful. I actually really enjoy using wordless books for storytime, the kids always impress me with their level of engagement and focus. The pictures are amazing and the "story" is so sweet. Love this one!

Between books we sang "Five Little Fishies" and used the shark and fish felts (my husband's favorite). All credit for this goes to Jane from Piper Loves the Library! I fell in love with her shark so much, that I had to make one of my own. I love his big-toothed smile and semi-grimacing eyebrow furrow. Like Jane, I mounted him on black felt so that his tail and fins wouldn't be so fragile.

"Five Little Fishies"

(Sung to the tune of Five Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree)

Five little fishes, swimming in the sea.

Teasing Mr. Shark, "You can't catch me."

Along comes Mr. Shark, as quiet as can be ... and ... Sssnnnnnap!

Four little fishes, swimming in the sea.

Teasing Mr. Shark, "You can't catch me."

Along comes Mr. Shark, as quiet as can be ... and ... Sssnnnnnap!

Three little fishes, swimming in the sea.

Teasing Mr. Shark, "You can't catch me."

Along comes Mr. Shark, as quiet as can be ... and ... Sssnnnnnap!

Two little fishes, swimming in the sea.

Teasing Mr. Shark, "You can't catch me."

Along comes Mr. Shark, as quiet as can be ... and ... Sssnnnnnap!

One little fishie, swimming in the sea.

Teasing Mr. Shark, "You can't catch me."

Along comes Mr. Shark, as quiet as can be ... and ... Sssnnnnnap!

Burp ... I'm full.

Thank you, Jane, this was a wonderful success!!!

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Update: Thanks to Shark Week on Discovery Channel, there are a gazillion shark-themed ideas on Pinterest. These are just a few I tried (and loved!):

 Shark Fin Hats, aren't they fun! Pinned by Raquel Hernandez, I was unable to locate the original source. I simply cut strips of blue construction paper, stapled them together and added a fin (with some CHOMP marks). So easy and so fun!

The idea for this darling clothespin shark comes from Estefi Machado. The blog is in Portuguese and while I was able to translate the post through Google, it was still a challenge to understand. So, I took my best guess.

 I did a sketch on white card stock, outlined it with black marker and added some color.

 The fishy is attached with a small section of wooden toothpick, glued to the back of the clothespin.

 Cute and fun!

 Another fast and fun shark craft? The shark clothespin for developing fine motor skills, from Make, Do and Friend. Just paint, glue and play!

 I painted my sharky with blue acrylic paint, added a construction paper fin, and squiggly eyes.

The white paint was tough... I had to clamp the clothespin open in order for it to dry and even then, the teeth stuck together. Still cute.

Up next... I'm debating creating a storytime entirely dedicated to peas. Hmmm, what do you think? You might be asking yourself, "Why peas?" Well, they're healthy, they're green (I'm a fan of doing color-themed storytimes) and peas in a pod are absolutely adorable. Think of the craft possibilities! Pinterest, here I come!