C & D

C = Chameleon

D = Dinosaur

D items in the box = Duckie, dog (2), dinosaur

C items - Cotton ball, crayon, car, coin, and cowboy (believe it or not, this cowboy was one of the ones I got at the thrift store in a sack, all for a quarter; antique stores are asking $5 for them sometimes!)

https://preschoolmom.com/preschool-crafts/alphabet-crafts/

A & B

I have perhaps commented on it before, but when I first started doing storytimes at the library back in the early 2000s, the director at that time did not allow us to do crafts at storytimes.  They were to include stories, rhymes, songs, etc., but no crafts, no snacks, etc.  At that time, it was really no big deal.  We had fun, but I didn't have to worry about crafts.  Well, after not doing storytimes then for several years while I raised my daughter at home, things changed at the library. New directors came and went and different ladies led storytimes.  Crafts and snacks came to be accepted as a part of storytimes.  So when I took back over a few years ago, I kept doing crafts. I'm a pretty crafty person; I enjoy them, etc.  Coming up with a new craft every week can be a challenge; and now doing 2 storytimes per week, it an be an extra challenge if I were to do different crafts.  (I don't, by the way.)

In searching for crafts to go with the alphabet, I ran across several sites referenced on Pinterest that had animals or other items that begin with the letter in the alphabet being used to actually 'make' the item.  I thought this was pretty cool, but would it be something that would get boring week after week of making the same flat/glue it on activity?

Wa-la!  It came to me!  Why don't we make alphabet books?  It would be a way to do these cute crafts each week, and it would be something to encourage steady attendance each week because you would want a complete book.  I know that sometimes people have to be gone for a variety of reasons, and so for my "regulars" I do actually put together a "Kit" with all the pieces of the craft, in a page protector, with a photo copy of a completed craft item.  Yes, it can be a lot of work, and management, but it seems to be going pretty smoothly.  I am using the Cricut electronic die cutting machine, and the Mickey font, to cut out the letters, so while I'm cutting I just cut a few extra to have on hand. Not that big of a deal, really.  The families are really enjoying it, I think. I was afraid that the little kids would be upset because they are leaving their pictures at the library and not taking it home with them each week, and that was a BIG question the first few weeks, a lot of the littles just didnt get it, but they are doing much better now. I can hardly wait for them to be completed so that the kids can take their books home, and hopefully they will have some keepsakes.

A for Alligator.

B  is for Bumble Bee

One thing that I have been wanting to do is to create some Literacy Center ideas and items for free play use here at the library. With my limited amount of hours that I work at the library, I really, really find it hard to find time to do everything with the ideas that I want to do, especially when I added the Tuesday morning storytime.  However, I had this idea in the back of my mind for a long time, and when I was searching alphabet activity ideas, something similar came up in the searches.

I bought the small storage containers at Dollar Tree; 4 in a bundle for $1.00 I believe.  I cut the letters with my Cricut electronic die cutting machine.  The items that have gone inside has been found and donated items; I did make a run to our local thrift shop, and picked up a third of a sandwich brown bag full for a quarter for a few items.  It's not as easy as it may seem to find items small enough to fit in the containers.  It has been fun for some of our staff members.  They started taking it very seriously to help find things.  I didn't want to make photocopies of anything; I wanted the "real" items. However, when it came to "X" I did have to break that rule for me....took a photocopy of an 'x-ray'!   I have been going back and adding things to letters already done if I find something new along the way.  When we are finished with these in storytime, I hope that we can use them in a Literacy area here in the children's area of the library.

A - apple.

B - butterfly, bandaid, bat, bubbles, block.

https://preschoolmom.com/preschool-crafts/alphabet-crafts/

Fall Storytime Session Begins == ABC

This fall I decided to do an all year theme.  I am doing the ABCs at least until Christmas Break and then see where I am, and in the new year I will do colors, shapes, and numbers.   I was an early childhood/early elementary teacher in my previous life.  Can you tell I miss it?

This is the bulletin board I made for the meeting room that we use for storytime. I like to decorate, but for the entire year usage, it is hard because the room is used by so many different groups.  Included in this, is this year our library will be beginning to do a renovation of the main area of the library, so our room will become office space DURING the renovation.  I don't get to do TOO much decoration. 

I have seen variations of this bottle done different ways. I called it an ABC Discovery Bottle.  The staff all saved their clear water and soda bottles for me.  We washed them out and made sure the inside was dry before we used them.

The night of our first storytime, this was our craft activity.  I had the alphabet sorted out for all of the kids so that they all for sure got beads in the entire full alphabet.  Some of the kids did go ahead and put extra alphabet beads in also, but it was important to ME that each kid did actually get at least one of every letter of the alphabet.  (Call that my anal side.)   The kids then were able to put in their choice of different colored beads and sequins, and some had some colored rice mixed in with the plain white rice.  After filling with plain white rice (leaving a space at the very top for room when shaking), I then hot glued the lid to all of the bottles for each kid.  There was a lot of shaking going on at this point. :)

*A note about the clean bottles pre-filling....I waited until the last moment to take all the labels off of the bottles.  This was a no-no.  The particular brand of sparkling water for the majority of the bottles had a label that left a really sticky residue on the side.  I really didn't have time or resources to use a goo remover on all of the bottles, so I took a white label and put it over the sticky party.  This worked pretty well because then we wrote each kid's name ON the label!   It made it look like I meant to do it! :)

 I saw this idea on Pinterest (what DON'T I see on Pinterest?)  I like to sew and quilt in my home life, so this was a natural attention grabber idea for me!   I drew these letters by hand but you could very easily use a purchased stencil and draw around it on fabric; just be sure to leave enough room on the outside for stitching and cutting with a pinking shears.  I cut through double layers of fabric and put batting in between before I cut so it was like little mini-letter quilts :)    The kids are enjoying playing with them, and I just used scraps of material from home.

I personally do not have a good knowledge of sign language, but I think it is important to at least be familiar with it.  Initially, I wanted to include teaching the kids sign language alphabet each week, but time became a factor, so I now just hang up the cards that I printed off of the website below onto white cardstock.  Honestly, I don't know that anyone is really paying attention to them this year, but I keep putting them up.  I would like to focus on the sign language a little in the future, hopefully.

 http://www.abcteach.com/directory/subjects-sign-language-bulletin-board-cards-689-2-1

T

These are the cards I printed off of the Sharing Kindergarten website onto cardstock also.  I hang them up on the book table each week (one week I forgot and one of the little girls caught me!).

 http://www.sharingkindergarten.com/2012/11/dr-jeans-letter-limericks-and-poems.html

I printed off all of the alphabet coloring pages, and I set copies out each week of the letters we are talking about, and kids and their families can pick them up on their way out. Kids love to be able to take something home with them. This fits the bill perfectly.
http://www.mrprintables.com/alphabet-coloring-pages.html

Fingerplays and Songs for the Littles

http://www.earlychildhood.msstate.edu/resources/curriculumforfour/pdfs/Ch14-activities-4s.pdf

Found this link today.  It is a HUGE 60-some page .pdf file of fingerplays and songs!

MIA?...or just B.U.S.Y.?

Although I have been most definitely MIA from the Small Town Storyteller blog, it is not because I have not been busy.  I don't think that makes sense, but let me explain.

Family storytime and our 4-week trial Tuesday morning storytime ended the end of April/first part of May in order to allow enough time to get ready for the Summer Reading Program, which began in June. 

Theme for Summer Reading was "Dig into Reading".  We have programs for children 3 years through newly completed 4th graders.  We had around 100 kids participate this summer in our reading program, which is improved over last year.  This makes me very happy! 

"Digging" lent itself to a variety of themes we were able to touch on during the six weeks of our program.  We gardened, excavated, went on treasure hunts to find treasure, dug fossils and dinosaur bones, talked about burrowing animals, etc. 

Summer is really a busy time, and although I SHOULD document the activities here on the blog, working my 10 hours a week here at the libary actually implementing the program, it doesn't allow itself for much extra time to update the blog. 

I am hopeful once I start the fall sessions of my regular storytimes again I will be able to do a better job of updating once again. 

The new sessions of storytime will start the second week of September....so see you in a few weeks!

Balloons Songs & Fingerplays and Games

Found on:  http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/balloons_dice_game.htm

Balloons Dice Game

Balloons is an ideal early learning dice game for little kids. We've got a fun printable and 4 variations to play with different ages.
There are a number of ways to play this game. Print out a stack of “Balloons!” printable sheets (you can use the economy setting on your printer) and choose the most appropriate variation for your child.
Age: 3+
Skills:
Number recognition
Pencil control
Equipment:
One die
Printable sheet
Colouring pencils
Our printable
Variation 1.
Roll the die. Colour a balloon of the correct number. There are no winners or losers – just aim for a colourful picture! Try to have coloured at least one balloon of each number before stopping the game.
Variation 2
A competitive game! The first child to colour in a line of three balloons with the same number wins.
Variation 3
Play until one player has three full lines of balloons coloured in (or for a specified time). This player is not necessarily the winner! Total up your score by adding the numbers on the coloured balloons. The winner has the highest score.
Variation 4
As Variation 3 above, but in this game if you already have a line of three balloons coloured in and throw the same number again, you must “pop” one of those balloons by crossing it out! That balloon no longer counts towards the final score.

Mice Songs & Fingerplays

I Like Mice
by Rose Fylerman

I think mice
Are rather nice.

Their tails are long,
Their faces small,
They haven't any
Chins at all.
Their ears are pink,
Their teeth are white,
They run about
The house all night.
They nibble things
They shouldn't touch
And no one seems
To like them much.

But I think mice
Are nice.

Tiny Mouse

There is such a tiny mouse
(make little mouse with fingers)
Living quietly in my house.

Out at night he starts to creep,
(creep fingers)
When everyone is fast asleep.
(pretend to sleep)

But always by the light of day,
(circle arms over head to form sun)
The mouse quietly, quietly creeps away.
(creep fingers again)


Three Blind Mice

Three blind mice
Three blind mice
See how they run
See how they run
They all ran after the farmer's wife
She cut off their tails with a carving knife
Did you ever see such a sight in your life
As three blind mice.

Little Gray Mouse
In a little round house
Lives a little gray mouse
On a bright sunny day
He runs outside to play.
He spies a cat...
And THAT is THAT!

Creeping Mouse
The little mice go creeping, creeping, creeping.
The little mice are creeping in the barn.
(fingers creeping on lap)
The little mice are eating, eating, eating.
The little mice are eating in the barn.
(nibbling motion at mouth)
The little mice are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping.
The little mice are sleeping in the barn.
(rest head on "hand"pillow)
The old gray cat comes slinking, slinking, slinking.
The old gray cat comes slinking in the barn.
(snake motion with hand)
The little mice are running, running, running.
The little mice are running 'round the farm.
(running motion all over the air)

Five Little Mice
Five little mice on the pantry floor,
(run fingers on table top)
This little mouse peeked behind the door,
(wiggle thumb)
This little mouse not a sound did make,
(Wiggle middle finger)
This little mouse took a bite of cheese,
(Wiggle ring finger)
"Ah-choo", sneezed the kitten
(sneeze)
And "Squeak!" they cried
(Make fingers "jump")
As they found a hole and ran inside
(Hide hand behind back).

The Quiet Mouse
Once their lived a quiet mouse
(Hold up finger)
In a little quiet house
(Cover finger with other hand)
When all was quiet as can be
(Whisper this line)
OUT POPPED HE!
(Shout the line then pull finger out of hand)

Hurry, Scurry
Hurry, scurry, little mouse
(wiggle fingers on one hand)
Starts down at your toes)
(point to toes)
Hurry, scurry, little mouse,
(wiggle fingers up leg)
Past your knees he goes.
(wiggle fingers on knee)
Hurry, scurry, little mouse
(wiggle fingers up body)
Past where your tummy is,
(wiggle fingers up chest)
Hurry, scurry, little mouse,
(fingers on cheek)
Gives you a mousie kiss: (smack)
(on "smack" open hand wide)