Guest Post: 5 Whales in the Bathtub

I'm hosting a guest post by Syntha Green, a Youth Services Librarian at Troy Public Library this week. Here's what Syntha had to say about "5 Whales in the Bathtub"

I am doing a summer fun theme for storytime and one of the books I am reading is I Won A What? by Audrey Vernick. I remembered the 5 Sharks in the Bathtub Flannel I made for a shark storytime a few years ago (found on Flannel Friday, of course), and decided to turn it into 5 Whales in the Bathtub.
One whale in the bathtub going for a swim.
Knock, knock (clap hands twice)

Splash, splash (slap your knees twice)
Come on in! (wave to enter with both hands)

(Repeat with 2,3,4 whales)

Five whales in the bathtub going for a swim.
Knock, knock

Splash, splash
It all fell in!

I simply made a whale tail, cut 5 out of different colors and I'm all set since I'm reusing the bathtub.

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Flannel Friday Roundup for July 21, 2017

I'm hosting Flannel Friday again this week so please leave a link to your submission in the comments below! Look for the roundup late Friday evening or Saturday morning.

Syntha shared 5 Whales in a Bathtub for some good clean fun.

Laura contributed her version of Stone Soup, one of my favorite traditional tales.

Kathryn posted her Crazy Traffic Light, and is that GLITTER FELT I see??

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STEM + Stories: Fairy Tales

For the second summer, I have been doing STEM + Stories programs. I start by reading a few stories to the kids and then we explore some STEM projects loosely, sometimes very loosely, inspired by the reading portion. For this program, we concentrated on fairy tales: specifically Cinderella (time) and the 3 Billy Goats Gruff (bridge engineering). I also threw out some other stuff we had on hand and tied it into the theme with the explanatory signs. 

3 Billy Goats Gruff bridge design from Family Engineering

Rapunzel's tower with KEVA blocks

Cinderella's Clock from Bedtime Math

Cinderella's Silly Stunts: kids timed themselves writing all the letters of the alphabet, looking up "temporal" in the dictionary, and other tasks

Hansel and Gretel's Sweet Shop Gears

The stories I selected to read were The Three Billy Goats Gruff and Interstellar Cinderella. 

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Flannel Friday Roundup for May 12, 2017

I'm hosting Flannel Friday this week, so if you have a post to add to our roundup, please leave it in the comments below! I'll edit them in later.

Have a great week!

Five Little Monkeys by Laura

My Colorful Toothbrush by Laura

Song Cube 2.0 by Keith

Five Hungry Ants by Sarah

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Library Mini-Golf!

This year, we decided to host a small, indoor mini-golf (AKA putt putt golf) course at work for National Library Week! Our program ran from 4-5:30 and we had people register for 30 minute tee time blocks at 4 pm, 4:30 pm, or 5:00 pm. Next time we will try 15 or 20 minute blocks to spread everyone out a little better.

Adult size golf clubs were located by the teen department for their mini-golf after hours event previously. I believe most of them were thrift store finds. We borrowed those clubs from the storage area. We also had a some small plastic toddler size clubs which we used for decorations for last year's sports-themed summer reading program. I bought 2 more sets for this program as well. The sets each came with plastic "holes" which I used masking tape to secure to the library's carpet. We were short a few of these, so I substituted plastic reusable drinking cups on a few holes.

Some of the materials I used to build holes: pool noodles, cardboard blocks, construction cones, stuffed zebra, cushioned blocks for the tunnel. A co-worker made speed bumps out of foam core board. We used pipe insulation, more pool noodles, and poles we already had for hole borders. The hole flags are made out of craft foam, chopsticks, and styrofoam containers. We plan to re-use them for similar programs in the future.

I found a scorecard online and cropped it for my purposes. I only had enough prep time (about 2 hours) to make 6 holes but I had originally hoped for 9. Instead, I allowed kids to repeat 3 holes for a total of 9 holes. The library was open while I was prepping so I started with the last three holes, in our separated program room. As the time grew nearer to the program, I completed the first three holes in the nonfiction stacks nearest the program room doors.

When families arrived, they checked in at a table in the program room, picked out a club, ball, scorecard and golf pencil and then proceeded to hole 1. If a number of people arrived at the same time, I had them start at a later hole and circle back.

We all had a great time and I would love to do this program again! Here are some pictures:

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Shapes Poem

Today for Flannel Friday, I'm sharing a poem I did during my STEM playgroup on shapes! I found it in 1-2-3 Math by Jean Warren. Instead of making it a felt board, I used some snack containers I found at Dollar Tree a while ago. The kids had fun taking off the lids and putting them back on so there was a bonus small motor skill element to this task.

Shapes Poem

The circle is a shape
That's easy to be found.
It has no corners on it.
And is completely round.

The triangle is a simple shape,
I think you will agree.
Count its sides and corners
And you will find just three.

Here's a shape that you should know,
A square has its name.
It has four corners and four sides
That measure all the same.

This shape is called a rectangle,
It's found most everyhwere.
It has four corners and four sides,
Sort of like a square.

But if you call this shape a square,
You would be very wrong.
Since two of its sides are short
And two of them are long.

--Author Unknown

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Announcing MI KidLib 2017!

Just wanted to let everyone know that registration is open for MI KidLib 2017, Michigan's unconference for youth services staff (and library school students are also welcome!). This a free professional development event with lunch on your own.

The event will be held Friday, May 5th at my library, the Alice and Jack Wirt Public Library in Bay City, Michigan. I'm very excited to have many colleagues come and see our space. 

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Flannel Friday Roundup for Friday, January 13, 2017

I'm hosting Flannel Friday this week! Please leave a comment below with the link to your post and I will combine all the posts entered into the roundup. Deadline is 10pm Eastern on Friday night.

First up is Storytime Ukelele with the traditional song Aiken Drum. 

Mr. Keith has Five Enormous Dinosaurs.

Lisa wants to Build a Snowman with her participatory flannelboard.

Jessica is serving up two heaping posts about vegetables: The Veggies in the Soup and Veggie Riddles.

And Kathryn is representing Pandas!

Kate is sharing her version of one of my favorite rhymes "Way Up High in the Apple Tree" 

And Wendy shared her version of one of my favorite folk tales,  The Enormous Turnip! 

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Tea Party

We recently had a stuffed animal tea party. We invited kids to bring their favorite animals and dress for a party. We served mini-cupcakes and drank juice, read stories, and had a photo booth. The kids also designed and decorated teapots from Oriental Trading. It was a simple but fun party! Both boys and girls came and they were adorable. :)

Books:
Tea Rex by Molly Idle
Mary Had a Little Glam by Tammi Sauer

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Emoji Bulletin Board

I put up a new bulletin board in the children's department today. :)

I used stuffed emoji ornaments (guessing here--they came on a string) that were a Happy Meal toy at McDonald's a while back. Printed emoji pictures would also work if you want to replicate it on your own.

I cut the letters out on the library's Cricut. Hope you like it!

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