Book Review: Benji, the Bad day and Me

Benji, the Bad day and Me is a story of two brothers.  The story opens with the older, Samuel, struggling with a really bad day.  A rotten day at school, getting wet and cold on the walk home, and coming home to a little brother, Benji, who also had a difficult day.  The younger brother has autism, and the reader learns through the interactions between mom and Samuel that Benji is hypersensitive to sensory input. I'm not going to give summarize any more.  Read the story. This JE is owned by three branches and listed as a "Supplementary Title" on Children's Core Collection (H.W. Wilson).  
However, having worked with youth with autism for many years I think this is better than supplementary...I highly recommend it.  And yes every child is different, so not all children will react as Benji does in the story, but it is a jumping off point to open the conversation about behaviors, feelings, kids that go to different schools, and much more i.e. who and why kids ride the little yellow bus (there is a stigma). Oh, I've put it in the cart because ROHN doesn't own it.

Ocean Storytime

Craft:
Paper plate fish with dot stickers and pens. A couple parents said this was their favorite craft.  I should have asked why, as it is so simple, and I don't think it is very creative.
Supplies:
scissors
white cheap paper plate- large
circle stickers in various sizes
markers
masking tape for tail




I read a variation of the same books at my Toddler Time and Preschool Storytime.

Rub-a-Dub-Sub by Ashaman 

Is a story about a boy in the tub playing with toys, but the reader does not know that until the very end.  There are rhyming sentences on every page that include the sea creatures in the verse. Bright fun colorful pages.  Great read-a- aloud book!

Poor Little Guy by Allen

This is a book with a cute fish that looks harmless, but isn't.  I had to do some explaining and deeper discussion with the toddlers.  It was over their heads, but the parents loved it.  The older preschool kids however did get it and thought the book was funny.

Hooray for Fish by Cousins

This a a staple fish book, I think, for toddler story. The covers colors, shapes, and more.  I think it is too low for preschool.

I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Sherry

I love this book!  I wish it came in BIG BOOK size.  It is about a egomaniacal giant squid 

Owl Storytime

hoot! hoot!

this morning the babies and i got in touch with our wise old owl selves. 

we read the following picture books together:   

wow! said the owl, by tim hopgood

good for: color association, repetition

good-night, owl! by pat hutchins

good for: animal sounds, repetition, humor

in my opinion, good-night owl! by pat hutchins
goes by smoother during story time

 when you paper-clip some of the pages to shorten it.

i made this flannel to go along with the following rhyming game:

"barn owl, barn owl, where could you be? 

are you under the purple tree? 

let's see!"

   

i adapted the traditional 2 little black birds rhyme:

"two little barn owls 

sitting on a hill

one named jack, one named jill

fly away jack, fly away jill

come back jack, come back jill!

two little barn owls

sitting on a cloud

one flew quiet, one flew loud!

come back quiet, come back loud!"

i've finally learned a new song on the ukulele,

which i copied from the children's librarian
at greenwood public library.

here's are the lyrics w/ the chords, 

 using a simple island strum: 

                                             C

i'm in the mood for singing

                                            C                       G7

hey, how about you?

                                            C                           

i'm in the mood for singing,

                                            C                       G7

hey, how about you?

                                            C                                    

i'm in the mood for singing,

                                            C                            F

singing along with you!

                                                       C

hey, hey

                                           G7

what do you say?

                                            C                                 F

i'm in the mood for that today

                                                       C

hey, hey

                                              G7

what do you say?

                                            C

i'm in the mood for that!

here's her youtube video: 

happy storytime,

courtney

   

Transportation Storytime & Spring Displays

beep beep!

On Tuesday we did transportation story time with the babies.
I was inspired by the new picture book
by Kate Dopirak & Mary Peterson,
"Twinkle Twinkle Little Car" :

 

  

After surfing the web & finding a cute flannel song, I made the following truck to go along with the lyrics:

There were 5 in the truck and the little hen clucked 

"MOVE OVER! MOVE OVER!"

So they all moved over and one fell out...4...3...2...1...

There were none in the truck and the little hen clucked.... 

"I'VE GOT THE WHOLE TRUCK TO MYSELF, 

I'VE GOT THE WHOLE TRUCK TO MYSELF!"

This spring I am focusing my passive displays on local wildlife & conservation to promote my upcoming programs: Design Your Own Bird Nest, Make a Bee Hotel, and Where Do Birds Nest? - a talk with guests from the Native Songbird Care and Conservation nonprofit in Sebastopol.

           

To peak patron interest and stimulate introverts, I put together the following displays to promote these upcoming sustainability STEM programs for K-3rd & 3rd-5th:

                  

The Stick Together display for Read Across America was such a hit, that we've decided to keep some kind of passive activity in that area for middle grade kids & families. This season we are encouraging kids to trace their Laguna de Santa Rosa neighbors. I printed out and laminated illustrations/photos of local wildlife from Pixabay, referencing the "Field Guide to the Laguna de Santa Rosa." The purpose of this activity is to instill a deeper connection between resident and local wildlife. 

 

  

To compliment this activity I made a "Meet Your Laguna de Santa Rosa Neighbors" display, giving names and friendly gestures to various native plants, mammals, birds, and insects. My goal for this display is to make patrons aware and more conscientious of the diverse wildlife in their area.

       

This season's Early Literacy Scavenger Hunt bookmark was easy to make because of these displays:

All images used are fair use / public domain or given express permission to me to use for such purposes. I collected them from Wiki Commons and credited them as required, and Pixabay. We are maintaining a google spreadsheet to keep track of the images we use.

Happy Thursday,

Courtney Klein, Sebastopol

Yoga and Play Storytime

We lost our Yoga instructor last month, and rather than cancel the events or try to hire someone, I decided to try yoga and play storytime. This morning we had four kids and four adults all participating in the yoga stories, games, songs, and cards, helping each other playfully try to stretch and move our bodies. 

Our First book was Good Morning Yoga by Mariam Gates, and was a great way to get loose and moving. We went right into The Yoga Game by the Sea by Kathy Beliveau. While it was challenging to try to hold the book and try the pose, the small group made it work, and we all took turns trying a pose and showing others how to do it. 

We then each took a card from the yoga deck I have and tried to illustrate the pose to the group.

We were flexible and ready to move using Steve Jenkins and Robin Page's Book MOVE! Which was a fun way to run around and pretend to be animals. 

Then I pulled out the parachute. The secret to the parachute is that you can do the song "Parachute Up" 10 times and the kids will ask for it again. 

"Parachute Up, Parachute Down, Parachute dancing all around the town. Shake it at your shoulders, shake it at your head, shake it at your knees, then tuck right into bed!"

We also did "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes"

Finally we did "Popcorn, popcorn sizzling in a pan. Shake it up, Shake it up, and POP it if you can" The kids hung out underneath and loved to have the parachute lift high for the POP!

We then brought our energy down by using the parachute to calmly lift and fall with our breaths. 

For our final calming down we used some breathing and mindfulness exercise cards from my Yoga Pretzels Deck. 

We also read some short selections from this beautiful book of mindfulness poems. Breathe and Be by Kate Coombs. This is the book that a parent loved so much, she took home to help her wiggly four year old work to practice quieting down. 

The caregivers were very enthusiastic about the program and we talked a little bit about how the books I used were available to check out and that you (and I) do not have to be a professional to engage kids in exercise and play like this. Another thing I liked about using this format for storytime is that I was able to talk about the early literacy tools of moving bodies being important for calming down and a bit about the research that shows that exercises and stretches that cross the mid-line of the body help engage a kid's brains for reading, math, and other concept work. Also, I loved this program because my endorphins are flowing and I got a fun 40 min workout in the beginning of my work day. 

Dots and Storytime

We really like to create connections between our programs and our displays. This allows us to draw our patrons in on many levels. Currently our favorite kind of display is the collaborative art project. We loved the gratitude tree experience, we are trying to repeat it in as many manifestations as we can.  Here is our growing dot collage. Using the die cut machine we made a stack of rainbow dots and are encouraging our patrons to design them and put them up in the window. (We do keep the tape at the desk because tape and three year old's are a bad combination) 

                                                            

To help launch our dot display, I hosted a preschool storytime focusing on creativity and imagination. 

We started with Maybe Something Beautiful by Isabel Campoy. It is a little long, but with some quick edits, it worked as the first book. 

Also included were Lots of Dots by Craig Frazier, The Dot by Peter Reynolds, and Not a Box by Antoinette Portis.

We did songs about art (This is the way we paint the wall) and the hokey-pokey with scarves. 

For my flannel board I just cut out many colored flannel dots and encouraged the children come up and help create a design with dots. Mostly they just wanted to put a flannel piece up, but we did get one lovely flower, a stop light, a mouse, and a car. 

For our craft I put out paper plates with three dots of poster paint (red, yellow, and blue) and put out paint brushes and q-tips for dot painting. I brought in some window dots, and a few of the children painted them and put them up in the window! The next thing we are going to add to our window display is some pictures of artrisits who use dots, and some books that families could use 

Littles and How They Grow

Littles and How They Grow by Kelly DiPucchio

I just read this new book in Babytime and I really enjoyed it because it shows diversity among the families.  It was a tad long for Babytime, but I'm sure there is a way to make it shorter.