Summer Reading Week 2

This was the first week of story times and events at the branch libraries. I survived, but just barely. I presented 22 events with a total attendance of 531.

Here's a break down:

• 5 community story times
• 4 community school age events
• 2 day camp story times
• 9 day camp school ages events
• 1 movie
• 1 special event (1st Peter Rabbit Party)

This week the story time theme was Digging Up Vegetables. The school age theme was Dig Into the Past--Pyramids. Links are to my wiki for full agendas. The story times went very well. The books were interactive and the flannel board sets well received. At two of the branches, story time attendance swelled to 43 and 56. The branch that had 43 usually only has 10 during the school year.

The pyramids (and Egyptians) event went well. I don't really read so much with this age as I share information, but that varies week to week. This week I shared, next week I'll read some. The activities (mummy wrap and writing their names in hieroglyphics) were fun...at least the kids seemed to like them. I had a hard time getting them to "Walk Like an Egyptian." Kids hit a certain age and don't like to dance in public anymore.

The first Peter Rabbit Party went okay. I had some rambunctious children who made things interesting. I'll definitely be improving my plan before the next one on Tuesday. We didn't get to half the things I had planned. I hope to post about it by itself at some point, maybe early July.

Registration for the reading contest ended for all age groups except teens this week. I have 245 kids & teens registered at my four branches. That's a 55% increase from last year's number. We'll continue to register teens until about July 18. (This is because they could still read 5 books in 2 weeks. The younger groups are counting days so keeping registration open is not possible.)

Next week, I have 19 events including my first teen event of the summer, a Mad Hatter Tea Party.

#FlannelFriday: "Gopher in the Garden" by Jack Prelutsky

I stumbled across this poem in Prelutsky's collection Zoo Doings. As soon as I read it, I knew it would be perfect to use with this year's summer reading theme: Dig Into Reading. The first line reads, "There's a gopher in the garden, and he's eating all the onions." As usual, I used a mixture of clipart and coloring pages for patterns.

The pieces are all felt with puff paint details. The pieces are gopher, onion, broccoli, beet, bean, carrot, corn, cauliflower, parsley, peas, pumpkin, radish, greens, cabbage, and watermelon.

White Fur Flying by Patricia MacLachlan

Zoe and Alice live in a world where white fur flies. Their dad is a vet and their mom rescues Great Pyrenees dogs. When a boy who doesn't talk moves in next door, Zoe and Alice make it their mission to draw him out...with a little help from the dogs.

What I thought: Only 112 pages, White Fur Flying is a quick read and a charming book. The story is uncomplicated yet powerful. I like all the characters. As a dog owner, I understand the power of canine therapy. Everything is better with a dog!

(Margaret McElderry Books, 2013)

Bears in Beds by Shirley Parenteau

Time for bed, bears! Big Brown Bear leads the way and soon all five bears are in bed. But a noise in the night disturbs them. Will they ever get back to sleep?

What I thought: This follow-up to Bears on Chairs is delightful. It will be a nice addition to my bedtime story time theme. I can see it as a flannel board story. I love the pastel colors and soft lines of the illustrations.

Story Time Themes: Bedtime, Bears

(Illus. David Walker. Candlewick, 2012)

Summer Reading Week 1

June 3-6 was registration for the summer reading contest at my four branch libraries. I had 9 registration sessions and registered 176 kids for the contest. Including adults, I saw 279 people last week. Registration will continue through June 10-13.

I divide the contest into the following age groups: 0-2 years, 3-5 years, 6-8 years, 9-12 years, and 13-18 years. The 0-2 group complete and early literacy log and receive at rubber duck at the end of the contest. I was inspired by Marge Loch-Wouters' post about her library's Rubber Ducky Club to start doing something for this age group.

The 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12 groups all read for at least 20 minutes per day for 48 days. Each day they read, they color off a clipart image on their log.

I used the "additional" clipart from the CSLP Early Literacy and Children's manuals to create the logs.

 

Ages 13-18  read 5 books in a specified length of time.

 

Two of my branches are showing children's, family, and/or teen movies to correspond with the Summer Reading Program theme and dates. We had 2 movies during registration week with an attendance of 19.

 

Even in the midst of the chaos that is Summer Reading, I find myself looking ahead to my fall story times and programs and even next year's Summer Reading Program. I think the science theme is going to be very fun.

 

Events start this week. I'm having 5 community story time sessions, 4 community school age events, 11 day camp groups, a Peter Rabbit Party, and 2 movies. I'm hoping to post a Summer Reading Update every week during my program. I'm enjoying reading about other libraries' and librarian's events this summer. 

Black Dog by Levi Pinfold

The Hope family has a visitor, a huge black dog. Every member of the family is afraid, but one.

What I thought: I like this book. It's something different and that is always refreshing. Love the page layouts--text and small sepia colored illustrations on one side and full color, full page illustration on the other. My favorite illustration is of mom. Notice the owl figurines. Black Dog will be a great book to share with elementary students.

Picture Yourself Writing Fiction: Using Photos to Inspire Writing by Sheila Griffin Llanas

Another title in the Fact Finders: See It, Write It series suggests using photos as writing prompts to write fiction.

The Organization-
Introduction: A Fairy-Tale World
Chapter 1: All About Character
Chapter 2: Setting & Genre
Chapter 3: The Plot Thickens
Chapter 4: Shaping a Story

What I thought: Very interesting approach to creative writing. Like Picture Yourself Writing Poetry, this title offers photo prompts as well as an introduction to writing creative fiction. As you can see from the chapter titles above, the book covers the following topics: characters, setting, genre, plot, and story arc.

There is one statement in the book that I could not agree with: "Scary description work for horror, but not for fairy tales" (16). I couldn't disagree more and cite the original Grimm's Fairy Tales and Adam Gidwitz's A Tale Dark and Grimm and In a Glass Grimmly as evidence to refute the statement.

My favorite photo is of the camels "talking" (11). I could make something of that.

(Capstone, 2012)