Storytimes are coming soon!

Our August hiatus is rapidly coming to a close.  I am putting together last minute plans for Fall 2017 storytime programs.  Each week I will continue to post the outlines from my preschool and music storytimes so stay tuned!  I will also be including some additional information about the weekly math activities that I will be introducing in preschool storytime.  It's never too early to start preparing the kids for what they will see in kindergarten.  After taking a look through my daughter's kindergarten math workbook, I see a lot of things that look familiar from my recent training on including math in storytimes.  She was impressed when she asked me if I knew what a ten frame was, and I said yes. :)

Also coming soon, I will be sharing info about the six skills of early literacy and how to incorporate singing, talking, writing, reading, and playing.  It will most likely be one topic a week.

We survived!

 

Hurray!  We survived the eclipse!  The last couple of months, and especially the last couple of weeks at the library have been INSANE.  Once upon a time back in very early 2017, my boss told me about StarNet Libraries and how I could submit an application for our library to receive free solar eclipse glasses.  This sounded awesome, especially because I had several programs planned for the eclipse, so I did it and honestly kind of forgot about it.  Then in May I got an email saying that we would be getting 1,000 pairs of glasses.  My first thought was, "How in the world am I going to give away 1,000 pairs of glasses?"  Oh what a silly librarian I was!  Over the next couple of months we found out that our branch was being advertised as a location for glasses, with my email as a contact.  Thus began the great email barrage of 2017.  My inbox was BOOMING!  After that newspapers, radio, and tv stations began to advertise (without truly fact checking whatsoever) that ALL libraries were getting them.  Enter the literally thousands of phone calls (just at my branch alone) during August leading up to the eclipse.  My supply dwindled fast, with half of my supply needing to go to other branches in my system because they couldn't order them anymore.  The rest was given to staff, rationed for programs, and given out to one household each.  We ran out before the eclipse, but the calls kept coming to the point that we were all slowly going insane.  Memes were shared, venting sessions were held, and I even did rain dances because I didn't even want the eclipse to happen.  I was OVER it.

Then August 21, 2017 arrived.  It was a beautiful sunny day with occasional passing clouds.  One of our staff members even put together a special treat in honor of the occasion, dark chocolate candy surrounding a round container of Eclipse gum.  The children's librarian in me loves a good theme!  At 1:15 I thought, "Oh what the heck!" and went outside with my glasses.  The sun vaguely resembled Pac Man at this point, and I thought it was pretty darn cool.  Suddenly I was very happy that my ragey rain dances failed.  Over the next two hours staff and I shared our glasses so our customers could take a look.  It was very cool to have everyone gathering together in the parking lot to view something so special.  I loved the reactions of the kids.  One girl was so excited because the sun looked like the moon.  My own daughter even said, "Oh my, that's fascinating!"  At its peak (about 80%), I took a look, and it was awesome.  It made me very excited for April 8, 2024 when my area will experience totality.  Hopefully the eclipse glasses madness won't be quite so intense next time!

Were you able to see the eclipse?  What did you think?  Will you be in the totality zone in 2024?

Awesome math resource from a colleague

One of my colleagues, Joanna put together an awesome presentation about incorporating math into storytimes and library programs, but it would totally work for every day activities to help prepare kids for school.  Before she was a librarian, she was a math teacher, and she definitely knows her stuff.  The presentation really hit home to me as a parent more than as a librarian because she was highlighting things that kids should know before kindergarten and talked about things they will learn during kindergarten.  As a mom of two going into kindergarten and preschool, my ears definitely perked up.  It's amazing to think that things we probably learned in 2nd grade, kids are learning in kindergarten.  Plus there's all this "new math" and crazy ways to show work that just boggles my mind. 

I asked Joanna if I could share her presentation with parents who may be interested, and she said the more the merrier!  It's really cool.  She has video clips, book suggestions, and activity suggestions.  I'm currently planning my fall storytimes, and am definitely including more math activities.  It's never too early, and I think it's really important to make math FUN!  Enjoy!

https://prezi.com/view/5YtIiFhxJ5laRjMIsnV9/

Kindergarten Readiness at the Library

It's never too early to start preparing your child for kindergarten.  As a librarian, I am absolutely going to stress the importance of taking your child to the library and promoting the value of literacy.  As a parent, I can see what a difference this has made on my own children as they prepare to enter preschool and kindergarten.  Libraries are awesome, filled with all kinds of materials to not only teach and educate parents and children alike but also to encourage and inspire imagination.  Children's library staff are there to encourage and support families.  Best of all, libraries are FREE!

I am currently in the middle of a five week Operation Kindergarten series that I am leading for children ages 3 1/2 to 5 and their caregivers.  It's based on program in a box materials available through my library system as well as on information that I have gathered from a variety of educational websites as well as from the awesome brain of my mom.  She has been an early childhood educator for years and has taught me so much.  Her insight is invaluable to me.  While I've led kindergarten readiness programs before, this year it's a little more personal since I have a daughter going in to kindergarten,  This has been a chance for me to witness firsthand how everything comes together and shapes a child for this monumental milestone.  (Insert tears here because I cannot believe she is going into kindergarten!!!!)

My program is designed to introduce some basic concepts in areas that kids will be exposed to both before and during kindergarten and beyond.  I found an awesome website http://www.readyatfive.org/ that broke things down into curriculum content areas that helped me come up with the breakdown for each week.  This site is an absolute gold mine!  So much great information can be found here.

Week 1:  Social Emotional Development

Week 2:  Science

Week 3:  Math

Week 4:  English Language Arts/Literacy & Social Studies (These actually go hand in hand very well because there is a lot of opportunity for kids to talk about the world around them and develop their narrative skills.  Creating a map of their town also promotes writing which is so important.)

Week 5:  Physical Health & The Arts (I think these go together as well because so much of it is about taking care of your body and exercising while also learning how to use their bodies to do different things such as singing, acting, dancing, etc.)

Library storytimes are also a great way to begin preparing children for school.  In storytime we introduce the six skills of early literacy:  print motivation, print awareness, phonological skills, narrative skills, letter knowledge, and vocabulary.  We also talk about how these six skills can be learned through simple, every day activities of singing, reading, writing, talking, and playing.  In future posts, I will explore the six skills and provide examples of activities that you can do to promote the five activities.

In the meantime, I want to share some websites that provide some information for how you can begin school readiness at home.  Don't forget your local library is also there to help!

https://www.worthingtonlibraries.org/borrow/lists
http://www.getreadytoread.org/early-learning-childhood-basics/early-literacy
http://www.earlylit.net/ecrtr/

Potter Podcast! What? What?

If you are a fan of Harry Potter, check out this podcast. My cousins, Meg & Katie are 50% of the cast. :)


https://www.facebook.com/swishflickcast/