For a virtual Columbus Day program, the Christopher Columbus stand-ups were made for a re-telling of Columbus's discovery of the Americas.
They include, the Santa Maria, Columbus, Portugal and Spain. As an activity for the kiddos, I made printable copies for them to take home and complete.
Johnny Appleseed was supposed to get a biographical retelling with fun props, similar to the Columbus Day story .... However, that didn't happen due to timing issues.
So this post is more of a dump of undeveloped ideas and intentions that you might can work with and build on.
Characters and visuals made from construction paper were going to be used in the storytelling process, much like in the Columbus Day storytime and a script was written using library materials.
Books I used to write this up were....
Johnny Appleseed by Marianne Johnston
Who Was Johnny Appleseed by Joan Holub
Johnny Appleseed by Patricia Demuth
Johnny Appleseed: The Story of a Legend by Will Moses
This was a poem/ action rhyme that I wrote.
My thought for actions was tossing a pretend bag over your shoulder, putting on a hat, walking in place, and pretending to rest then shaking your finger "no".
Again, severely under-developed, but I wanted to share, nonetheless so my efforts wouldn't be wasted. Y'all get it 😃
Cleaning up and reorganizing My Documents and my USB and stumbled across this YA display from last September when everyone wanted to storm Area 51.
Notice the prime spots go to one of my favorite YA series, The Xenith Trilogy Chani Lynn Feener.
Two new alien books that have come out in 2020 are It Came From the Sky by Chelsea Sedoti and Sia Martinez and the Moonlight Beginning of Everything by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland.
This is an English fairy tale about an old woman who can't get her new pig to go over a stile. It's getting late, she's in a rush to get home before dark and asks the other animals for help. The way she asks for help is by getting each animal or object to be unkind to the other. For example, she wants the stick to beat the dog because the dog won't bite the pig to make him go over the stile.
It gets to the point where she wants the cat to get the rat because rat won't gnaw the rope. Rope won't lasso the farmer and the farmer won't punish Ox. She wants Ox to drink water because the water won't quench the fire. Fire won't burn the stick and stick won't beat the dog, who won't bite the pig. In the end, the cat asks her to do a favor and it all works out.
Originally I found this story on Project Gutenberg in a book called "Boys and Girls Bookshelf" published in 1920. It's full of old rhymes, stories and songs.
 |
Click HERE for my pdf. It includes the original text from the "Boys and Girls Bookshelf" and my rewrite.
Click HERE for the pdf of my characters. These were pulled off google images for the most part. The stile and stick were free-handed so no template on those.
Here's my giant disclaimer: This has been my first flannel story to create from scratch. The characters were made with construction paper, laminated and felt was glued to the backs so they would attach to the flannel board.
They're a little heavy though and don't hold very securely to the board. I'm sure there's a better way to do them with paper, but I don't know what that is.
Happy storytelling!
I'd forgotten how fun Bingo sheets were to make until this summer. Click the links for Buffy Bingo and Pokemon Bingo!
There are two different storytimes we do during a normal library week: PreK storytimes for ages 3+ and Book Babies for ages 3 and under.
Around age 3 we encourage families to try out both programs and see what works best for them. Even attend both of them if they like!
This program was originally planned as a virtual Book Babies program but on paper, it looks more like a storytime. It hasn't yet been filmed but I thought I'd go ahead and share it with you anyway.
One thing that I will say about my storytime notes is that I have to write my segues out. The other children's librarian at our library was an early elementary teacher for several years so she's able to do storytimes like that [insert snapping motion here].
That's not always the case with many of us and that's alright. At the risk of looking like an utter LOON, I'm going to include my little segues into this post. It helps me so much when I read other people's script-like prompts that I want to share a little of mine.
Ok, enough with my gibbering. Let's get some work done!
Intro Song: The More We Get Together...
This was originally done by Raffi and is to the tune of Did You Ever See A Lassie? Book Babies and Storytime each get different Welcome Songs and this has been the babies Welcome Song for several years.
Song: Good Morning Mrs. Perky Bird
Out Mrs. Perky Bird tweets when she's squeezed. The kids love it about as much as I love this song!
Today we're going to share some songs and books about frogs and bugs. Can you think of any types of bugs? Bugs are sometimes tiny and can be found outside but sometimes they can get inside your house.
Is Mrs. Perky Bird a bug? I've got a book to share with you that's all about bugs and I want you to pay special attention to all the different types of bugs. Then I'm going to ask you again if you think Mrs. Perky Bird is a bug or not.
Book: "I Love Bugs!" by Philemon Sturges
There are so many types of bugs! Maybe your favorite bug was in the story but now for the question: Is Mrs. Perky Bird a bug? No, she's not. She's a bird.
But there were some bugs that flew in the story. Do you remember what they were?
Before butterflies grow into beautiful bugs with big beautiful wings, they're called caterpillars.
Song: Little Arabella Millar
Song/ Flannel Story: Five Green Speckled Frogs
There are 2 ways we do this song. One can be done with the flannel story or another way is with the glove. This glove has velcro on the fingers and on the backside of the frogs, so they attach securely. As you sing, with the glove on your hand, remove one frog from a finger as the frogs jump into the pool in the song.
I think those frogs enjoyed jumping into the water, don't you? Should we practice some jumping of our own?
Song: And We Walk and We Walk....
This song comes from Mother Goose On The Loose and it a great action song. I couldn't find any good videos of but here's one where you get an idea.
Everyone walks in a circle while one person leads the song. "And we walk and we walk and we walk and we stop" When we hear the word "stop" everyone stops in place.
Repeat 3 times and then sing the next verse. (Walk, Skip, Jump)
For an extra interactive element, pass out musical instruments so the kids can play instruments while marching in a circle.
I've got a book about jumping animals to read next. Anytime I read the word "jump", I want you to jump up from where you're sitting.
Book: Jump! by Scott M. Fischer
Action Rhyme: Jack-in-the-Box
This is also from Mother Goose on the Loose. In this rhyme, you pretend to be a Jack-In-The-Box.
So grab your giant imaginary box from behind you, place it in front of you. Climb in and squat down.
(Slowly at first, while winding your box)
Jack-in-the-Box, sitting so still
Won't you come out?
Yes, I will! (Stand up and raise your arms up high)
⬇ Updated 4/15/2021 ⬇
This song was written for a frog story time where "Tad" by Benji Davies was read.
Song: In The Water Of A Shallow Lake (original)
In the water of a shallow lake (crouch on the ground)
A tiny egg begins to shake (shaking)
A tadpole hatches out and it looks like this (stand with feet together)
With a giant head, that's hard to miss. (arms in circle overhead)
But then...
Two Legs... (jump feet apart)
Two Arms (lower arms)
And his tail disappears (shake your tail)
What animal is it? It's a frog!
The story that went along with these was "When Turtle Grew Feathers" by Tim Tingle. This is a Choctaw version of Aesop's "The Tortoise and The Hare".Crafts were prepped and packaged in brown paper sacks. They were set out on tables for families to come in and pick up. During this time, we also began curbside service so families could call in to ask for a kit and have it delivered to them outside of the building.Crafts aimed at tween aged children and would be good for a school-aged book club.
 |
| Step 5 |
 |
| Sideways? Blogger, why do you do this to me? |
Rapunzel's Tower STEM Activity
We've built things like this at the library so I didn't even think twice before adding this activity to the Grimm Brothers bag. During previous times, we've used toothpicks + marshmallows and spaghetti noodles + marshmallows before with success. 
