SRP Week 3 Reflection

As I predicted, this week was slower because 3 of the 4 day camps were on vacation and I had no programs on July 4th. I presented 15 programs with an attendance of 198.

Here are the links to my program plans for this week:



The preschool story times (all four of them) went well. I struggled a little with book selections. I used When Moon Fell Down by Linda Smith with my first group and it fell flat. It may have something to do with the large attendance (I've had 57, 41, & 47 including adults). I'm actually considering having 2 story time sessions at that branch next year capping attendance at 25-30 kids per session. The next time, I tried The Moon by Robert Louis Stevenson and illustrated by Tracey Campbell Pearson. It did a little better, but didn't get the reaction or attention I hoped for. I finally used Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes to start the story time. It worked well with the kids enthralled by the story and laughing at the kitten's antics. The second book I used was Moonlight by Helen V. Griffith. It's a new book (published 2012) and I love it. The kids didn't really like the butter imagery, but they did like naming and counting the animals on each page. The transition to dancing wasn't planned but worked so well with the rabbit dancing at the end of the story. My felt version of "Hey Diddle Diddle" worked well. The majority of the kids knew the rhyme and enjoyed repeating it as I pointed to the figures.

I was quite pleased with how the school age event turned out. Aliens Are Coming was a great read-aloud for elementary age kids. Both the craft (make your own alien) and the game (planetary tag) were hits. I hope the other programs for this age goes as smoothly.

This was also the week that I present the first of 4 Stuffed Animal Sleepovers. The attendance wasn't great, but I think the kids enjoyed it. As you can see from my program plan, I had a hard time deciding on which books to read. Before it's all over, I'm sure I'll change it again and again. I first tried this event in February and liked how it turned out. Also, if you're interested, here's a link to the photos from the 1st Summer Reading Program Stuffed Animal Sleepover.

The fourth week will be busy much like the 1st and 2nd weeks with community groups, 3 day camp groups, and a  tween event.