Thanksgiving is later this week, but I didn’t lean hard on a Thanksgiving theme. Grace Lin’s beautiful, simple Dim Sum for Everyone is about sharing food, however, and I prepared a craft to go with it. Usually the craft is a collaborative one, but this was an individual project kids could take home, and they did such interesting things with the choices! I also heard one grown-up say, “I don’t think she’s ever used a glue stick before…” and that’s great – the library can be a place for kids to encounter new art supplies and tools for the first time. Experimenting with crayons, markers, glue sticks, scissors, etc. all improves fine motor control.

• Welcome and announcements
• “Hello Friends” song with ASL (Jbrary)
• Name song (“___ is here today”): We started with eight kids, two more came in during the song, and two more after that
• Stretch
• Sophie Johnson, Unicorn Expert by Morag Hood: This is probably better for an older group or one-on-one, as so much of the humor depends on the illustrations.
• Tyrannosaurus Wrecks! by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen: There is always at least one dinosaur fan in the audience. I think there was also a kid for whom the “WRECKS!” part was too loud; she moved to a grown-up’s lap.
• Song cube (I Had A Little Turtle, I’m A Little Teapot, If You’re Happy and You Know It)
• Just Add Glitter by Angelia DiTerlizzi (“sprinkling” glitter with our hands, and feeling the glittery pages at the end of the book)
• What sounds do birds make? (Cheep, peep, whoo-whoo, coo, quack, etc.)
• Froodle by Antoinette Portis: The librarian at the Fox Branch Library in Arlington read this book at storytime a few weeks ago and it was a hit. It definitely got one kid today giggling too.
• Song cube (Itsy-Bitsy Spider, Zoom Zoom Zoom), Where is Thumbkin?
• Dim Sum for Everyone by Grace Lin
• “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”: One time at a regular pace, one time fast, one time slow. They liked the different speeds!
• Mouse House game: They are nuts for this! Children’s librarians and teachers, I need your help: How do you get them to sit down?? Otherwise it becomes a mosh pit very quickly, which is why I moved it from the middle of storytime to the end.
• “Goodbye Friends” with ASL (Jbrary)
• Clean up mats
• Dim Sum craft: Each kid got a mini paper plate and a glue stick. I scattered different colored paper shapes on the floor so they were spread out. Most kids assembled a little plate of “dim sum,” but two used the shapes to make a face with arms, legs, and even eyebrows instead! Very creative.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Last week the library was closed on Monday for Veterans’ Day, and last weekend was quite cold, so today’s group was large and squirrelly! I used all my quiet down and redirection strategies and it was still pretty rowdy (although to be fair, it was mostly the four in front; there were several in the back who were sitting pretty quietly and could have listened to more books).

• Welcome and announcements (please fill out our community survey if you have 5-10 minutes!)
• “Hello Friends” with ASL (Jbrary)
• “The More We Get Together” with ASL
• Pom Pom Panda Gets the Grumps by Sophy Henn (everyone can say “Harumph!” together)
• Will Ladybug Hug? by Hilary Leung (this is a board book, but they really seemed to enjoy it, and I think the message about consent is a good one to fit in before the holidays, when kids are likely to see some family members and family friends they might not know very well).
• Song cube: “Wheels on the Bus” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It”
• Roly Poly Pangolin by Anna Dewdney: They liked this one a lot, actually; I’m not sure whether that’s because it’s in rhyme or because they were sympathetic to the main character’s shyness. It also has big, bold illustrations that are easy from anywhere in the room.
• The mouse house game (“Little mouse, little mouse, are you in the ____ house?”) They react to this game the way that Stones fans react to Satisfaction. The same three kids kept shouting out colors so I asked to hear from some of our quieter friends in the back to try to ensure everyone got a turn.
• Want to Play Trucks? by Ann Stott and Bob Graham: This is usually a great storytime book for this group, but their attention span was completely gone at this point.
• “Shake Your Sillies Out” with egg shakers
• Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett: We stayed on our feet for this book so we could do the animal impressions; with the repeated “monkey and me” singsong part, it’s equal parts movement activity, song, and story.
• “Goodbye Friends” with ASL
• Clean up mats; reminder about surveys
• Art: coloring with markers and crayons on brown butcher paper with a tape shape on it. (On reflection, the markers were not a good choice for today, and I got less help from grown-ups than last time with putting the caps back on. But the tape shapes were a hit! And there were so many kids I added a second paper and shape, because there wasn’t enough room around the first paper.)

Storytime today started with a small enough group (just 8 kids, plus an infant) that I swapped the name song in for “The More We Get Together.” I always like to do the name song if there are ten kids or fewer, because (a) it helps me learn the kids’ names and (b) some of them really love being the center of attention! Usually we have more than ten kids, though, so the name song would take up too much time. Today some more came in throughout storytime, and we ended up with about 11.

• Welcome and announcements (I remembered – I’m very proud of myself – that next Monday is a holiday and the library will be closed, so my next storytime after this is in two weeks)
• “Hello Friends” song with ASL (Jbrary)
• Name song (“___ is here today” x3 “we all clap our hands, ___ is here today”)
• Three short poems from The Frogs and Toads All Sang by Arnold Lobel
• Are You A Monkey?: a tale of animal charades, by Marine Rivoal, translated/adapted by Maria Tunney. This is a much longer book than I’d usually use for a group of 2-3-year-olds, but it has so many opportunities for participation (animal sounds and motions) that it worked as a lead-off book…
• …provided we did “Shake Your Sillies Out” with egg shakers right afterward!
• And we kept our egg shakers for The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett. I would have liked to have Monkey and Me in the lineup instead, but it was checked out, and The Odd Egg worked well with the shakers – I asked the kids to shake on page turns or when we said the word “egg.”
• Mamasaurus by Stephan Lomp: This is a “where’s my mother?” plot, but with dinosaurs. It’s not my most favorite picture book of all time, but I thought the dinosaurs might appeal. It seemed to hold their attention well enough.
• The mouse house game! They love this. We played three times.
• “Where is Thumbkin?” song/fingerplay
• A Parade of Elephants by Kevin Henkes: I have felt elephants for this, but didn’t use them today; we just counted, marched, and made elephant sounds.
• “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”
• “Goodbye Friends” with ASL (Jbrary)
• Put away mats, color with markers(!) and crayons on butcher paper (This is the first time I put out markers. I did ask the grown-ups to help make sure the caps got on the markers when they were done, and they did!).

“Little mouse, little mouse, are you in the orange house?”