Abby the Librarian

So, things have been a bit bananas lately, eh?

Virtual storytime! Photo shows my toddler nieces watching a video of me reading a book

My library closed to the public on Monday, March 16 and we had an all-day staff meeting (keeping appropriately socially distanced from each other - we literally were sitting at eight separate tables for our leadership meeting) to inform staff and come up with a plan. Leadership brainstormed all the things we needed to think about and make changes to for when we closed. We ended up officially closing our physical locations that night and are currently closed through March 30.

It's super important to note that as of this writing, not every library building is closed and there are many still expecting staff to report in ways that I think are really dangerous. The American Library Association has released a statement have recommended that academic, public, and school library leaders evaluate closing libraries to the public to prevent the spread of COVID-19. We can continue to serve patrons without demanding that staff risk their lives by reporting to work. If a library in your community is still open or still requiring staff to report, speak up to library Board members and funding bodies (county or city councils, mayors, etc.) and tell them that for the safety of all, library staff should not be reporting.

How are we serving our patrons while our physical buildings are closed? 

There's an important distinction to be made here. Our physical buildings are closed, but that does not mean that library service has stopped. Our digital collections are available and we're working on making virtual programming available.

Ensure Access

One big task that we have on our plates right now is to make sure that as many people have access to our digital materials as possible. I worked with our ILS this week to extend due dates and hold pickup dates for our patrons, including anything checked out since 1/1/19, even if it had gone to lost. We also extended card expiration dates to the end of the year.

At this time we do not want anyone blocked from access to our digital materials. We are already a fine free library, so for us this includes forgiving outstanding fees and finding ways to work around lost materials and staying accessible so that if patrons have issues with their accounts (don't know their PIN, expired card, etc.) we can help them resolve those issues as quickly as possible.

We also provide online borrower registration. Typically, that gives new patrons 90-day access to our digital material without having to come inside the building to get a card. We extended the 90 days to provide access through the end of 2020.

Be Present

Facebook is our main source of patron interaction and we're making sure to check notifications and messages frequently. We are also checking our general information email regularly and staff have been assigned to check our various voicemails and respond to patrons. We are also offering programming as best we can.

Behind the scenes at the library! Photo shows library staff recording a puppet show and song on the ukulele

For children's programming, that's included recording story readalouds and storytimes ourselves, as well as sharing resources that others are providing.

Many publishers are responding to the COVID-19 school closures by offering special permissions for digital sharing of their books. Author Kate Messner has been collecting these policies on her website, which you can view here. With publishers doing their best to meet us halfway while still honoring their legal copyright contracts, librarians need to be doing our best to hold to these copyright standards when sharing materials online.

Some publishers are stipulating that materials only be shared in a closed group, such as a Google Classroom, etc. that's only available to a subset of students. My library hasn't explored what this looks like for us yet - so far we have been concentrating on titles from publishers that have offered more flexible options for public libraries. But it's something we're thinking about!

To round out what we're able to offer to patrons, we're also frequently posting resources from other sources that parents and kids may find interesting and useful. There are tons of folks and organizations offering virtual programs right now. Some of my favorites include:

• LUNCH DOODLES with Mo Willems from The Kennedy Center
• Home Safari from the Cincinnati Zoo
• Music classes from Candy Mountain Music (she offered a super cute St. Patrick's Day class this week and will begin MWF classes next week)
• Draw Every Day with JJK - drawing classes from Jarrett Krosoczka, author of the Lunch Lady graphic novels
• Storytime from Space - stories from the International Space Station

Abby pours hot chocolate while a beautiful family poses in front of the first StoryWalk frame. Full disclosure: this is my brother and his beautiful family!

This weekend, we had a fabulous, super easy event to promote our StoryWalk, a Hot Chocolate StoryWalk. It was the brainchild of our Marketing Coordinator who thought it would be a good way to encourage families to come out during the winter months when our StoryWalk might not see as many guests. He was totally right and I was super excited that so many people made it out to see The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (a favorite favorite of mine) before we switch it over for our spring story.

We lucked out with a beautiful, sunny day that wasn't too cold for February and we saw over 100 people during the 2 hours of the event. We mainly advertised via social media and sent out an email blast. Our Parks Department cross posted on their social media, too. I definitely saw some library families that I know, some of whom had visited the StoryWalk before and some not.

Honestly, all we did was purchase hot chocolate, hand out drinks and snacks, and direct people where to go for the StoryWalk. And we got SO MANY great comments about the event on Facebook. We will definitely do some similar events in the future because it was very easy to set up and run and seemed to have a big impact for the amount that we spent on it.

The nitty gritty...

We purchased hot chocolate from a local coffee shop and it cost about $100 for a cambro that served 50. We tried to pour half cups (for the kids, at least) to make the hot chocolate stretch farther and because a full adult hot chocolate is a lot to drink for little kids. We told everyone that they were welcome to come back and get more if they wanted. We did also use 3 cans of whipped cream.

We had coffee donated, so there was that for adults too. We have found that many coffee shops are willing to donate coffee for events, but we have not had luck with getting hot chocolate donated due to the cost of making it. We also provided individually packaged snacks - Goldfish crackers, cookies, etc. and small waters.

While the hot chocolate was the star of the show, we did have several kids who just wanted water or snacks. I think it was great to have a variety. A couple of things (which may be obvious, but they're things I hadn't thought about before the event)...

• Pour it yourself. That way you can control the portions and try to prevent waste. Plus, there's no risk of a young person accidentally scalding themselves or anything. We were glad we did this! 
• Keep any packaging you can for nutritional info. We had one child who was diabetic and their parents wanted to check the carb content of the whipped cream we use. When serving food at a kids' event, I think it's always a best practice to keep all packaging. Lots of families want to check it for a variety of reasons. 
• Ask the coffee shop to make the hot chocolate at child temperature! I do not have any kids, so this did not occur to me, but we definitely should have done that. We didn't have any problems with it, but after one parent asked about the temperature we definitely warned everyone else that it might be a little hot. Having them make it child temperature probably would have been a better call. 
• Get extra cups! Since we were doing half-pours, we definitely needed the extra cups that we brought. We were super glad to have planned ahead on that one. 
• Bring paper towels. We were really glad we did this, too. 

This summer, my husband made us a PVC Pipe Xylophone for the front porch of our library.

A xylophone made of PVC pipes.

Here is where we found instructions to make it: How to Make a PVC Pipe Xylophone by Frugal Fun 4 Boys.

We delivered it to the front porch of our library where it has lived musically since June 1 when our Summer Reading Program started.

I bought a handful of flyswatters and doctored them with fun foam to make a "mallet". They didn't walk off as I thought they might, but the fun foam only lasts so long with regular use as a mallet, so I have made two replacement "mallets" so far, which is about what I expected.

The signs are posted in our windows.

I also made up some signs that we posted on the front windows near the xylophone to give families ideas of what to do with it. Most used, I believe, have been the songs. Since the pipes are color coded, anyone can play these color coded songs, no musical ability or music reading required. I'm posting the PDFs here and you're welcome to use them or edit them if you'd like to use them at your library:

• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
• The Itsy Bitsy Spider
• Early Literacy Starts with You... and this Xylophone
• Science of Sound

Image of an orchestra playing

This is a program I have wanted to do for literally years and with our Libraries Rock summer reading theme this year, this was the summer to do it: a musical petting zoo. I was inspired by Anna's awesome marching band storytime (a post from 2013, so you can tell how long this has been percolating!) because band was one of the great loves of my life as a kid. I wanted to present a program that might inspire young kids to want to pick up an instrument.

First, I needed a partner. My first choice was to recruit teen volunteers because I wanted to give teens a chance to show their talents and talk to younger people about their music. Teens learn so much from opportunities where they can teach and lead others, so I knew I had the opportunity to make this program a double-whammy: a learning experience for young children and a leadership experience for teens. I didn't really have any connections to the music programs in my local schools, so I started with some cold emailing. Luckily, I hit the jackpot and our local high school orchestra teacher was excited to bring some of her students in for the program.

In addition to the orchestra students, I was able to recruit adult volunteers to play the harp and accordion (!!) and a staff member who plays the trumpet. I also brought in a few instruments that I play (with wildly varying levels of expertise): a flute, a piccolo, a guitar, and a ukulele. You don't have to actually play instruments yourself to make this program happen. Many musicians are happy to demonstrate their talents to inspire future generations of musicians.

If I hadn't hit the jackpot with my high school volunteers, I next would have reached out to local community orchestras (we have a couple around here), college music programs, or local music stores. You can even put the call out to your colleagues, Board members, and Friends of the Library. Many more people play or own instruments than you might expect!

Here's what we did at the program:

The orchestra kids had just finished up a week of "summer strings" and had some pieces they could play for us, so we started with them playing a few songs so the attendees could hear how the instruments sound playing together. Then I asked each of the kids and volunteers to talk a little bit about their instrument and play a little scale or something so we could hear what the instruments sound like on their own.

After we'd gone through all the instruments we had, I told the audience it was time for the "petting zoo" part of the program. They could come see the instruments up close, touch them or play them if it was okay with each musician, and ask any questions. I also put out a box of student rhythm instruments (triangles, tambourines, etc.) that we had as part of our storytime props.

I learned a ton at this program, too! I had never actually seen a harp up close and Ms. L showed me what the pedals are for and how she tunes it. Mr. T showed us the inside of his accordion so we could see what hitting the keys does.

I had intended to read some books at the program and had pulled Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman (Simon & Schuster, 1995) and The Remarkable Farkle McBride by Jon Lithgow, illustrated by C.F. Payne (Simon & Schuster, 2003), but with the way our audience trickled in there wasn't really a great opportunity to do that. I did pull a book display with titles our families could check out afterwards. I had also thought about pulling some teen books that would appeal to musicians and doing some brief booktalks for them, but I wasn't sure how many kids would be coming, so I skipped this. I would definitely add it next time because I think I had some teens who would have been into it.

Both attendees and volunteers had a great time and we had a nice turnout, which is especially pleasing on a Saturday for us. There were a lot of in-depth conversations happening about different instruments and I hope that more kids will now be inspired to pick up an instrument or take music classes when they have the chance.

We started Lego Challenge Nights this summer as a way to add an evening program to our packed summer calendar. Since the program is relatively self-directed, it's a fairly easy program to offer and it doesn't require a huge amount of advance prep, set-up, or instruction.

It's been a kind of surprise hit this summer, attracting way more people than our Lego Club had attracted in previous years. I think part of that has to do with how we're marketing it ("Lego Challenge" sounds more mature and more interesting than "Lego Club") and part of it has to do with setting it up out in our department instead of in a meeting room (more visibility = more kids joining in).

I handed this one off to my staff to plan and they have really done a great job with it. Ms. A came up with the weekly Lego Challenge topics. Our first week, we challenged them to build a robot and our second week we challenged them to build dinosaurs. Ms. T is the one actually running the program and she does a great job of building suspense for the challenge so that it feels  more like an actual PROGRAM and less like a self-directed activity. As families came in and started asking about it, she would let them know that the program started at 6pm and the week's challenge would be announced at that time.

She put up tables in the department and put out our Lego collection. Once she announced the challenge, kids and families went to town, building their creations. As kids finished up, they brought their creations to the desk to tell her about them. She took photos of them and talked to the kids about what they had come up with.

We do not offer any prizes or judging of the creations. That's not what this activity is about. We asked kids to challenge themselves to come up with an original creation, either working by themselves or with friends and family.

After the program, Ms. T created a poster with the photos she took and posted it in our room so that everyone could see some of the creations the kids came up with. Hopefully this will spark some interest for future weeks!

I got to read from one of my favorite books at our library's first African American Read-In last week.

I read from Brown Girl Dreaming at our African American Read-In

If you've not tried an African American Read-In at your library, you should think about it! It was a program that was easy to put together, easy to run on the day, and one we got great feedback about. We will definitely do it again next year.

I am a librarian because I LOVE books. I know that libraries offer a lot more than books, but events centered around books and literature are my favorite kind of events to do at the library. The African American Read-In is completely centered on coming together to share books, so it is right up my alley.

Lots of libraries and schools have participated in the AARI, so there are lots of ideas out there. And it's super flexible, so you can do what works for you. Basically, as long as your event features reading African American literature and is held during the month of February, it can be considered part of the National AARI. So get to Googling and you can see lots of different possibilities.

We put the word out, invited a couple of guest readers to kick off the event, partnered with the theater department at one of our local schools to drum up some high school readers, and handled the rest of the readers open-mic style with a signup sheet.

We held the event at the Carnegie Center for Art and History, which is a department of our library and located right down the street. They happened to have an amazing art exhibit going on: #BlackArtMatters, which provided the perfect backdrop for our readers. We brought books and a laptop check out station from the library so that attendees could check out the books that were read or sign up for a library card if they needed one.

Our event was successful in many ways. I was hoping to have 50 people and we ended up with 65, which is great for us, especially for a new event. We got lots of great feedback from attendees, including many who asked if we'd be doing it again next year (yes!).

I had hoped to have lots of books checked out from our mobile library station, but only two books were checked out, both by a staff member who was attending. So that's a goal for next year: promote checkouts of library material.

I'd also like to explore getting children more involved and possibly hosting some after-school read-ins like Angie Manfredi posted about. There are definitely possibilities to expand the program next year.

Have you done an African American Read-In? I'd love to hear about what you've done!

This was my favorite summer program this year:




I know, I know. I'm late to the party. While we still have kids who look for and enjoy Lauren Tarshis's I Survived series, the heyday of its popularity is starting to pass here. But I had some ideas, so I wanted to do this program anyway. And since SURVIVAL is a pretty popular topic ANYWAY, I had great attendance and it was a really fun time.

I aimed this program at kids in grades 3-5, thinking that was the age most likely to be familiar with the series. I ended up with about half the attendees familiar and loving the I Survived series and about half who had only casually read one or two of the books or who hadn't read any of the books. It didn't matter whether kids had previously read any of the books; this program was designed to appeal to everyone!

Here's what I did:

Reading time:

I chose three I Survived books to feature and came up with a related activity for each book. I started the program by reading just the first chapter of each book and booktalking some related titles in between. If you're not familiar with the series, each I Survived book starts with a bang - the first chapter is designed to hook the audience and present the drama of each disaster. That makes the first chapters perfect for booktalking and reading aloud to spark interest.

I read the first chapters of:

• I Survived the Destruction of Pompeii, AD 79
• I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912
• I Survived the San Francisco Earthquake, 1906

Today, I'm over at the ALSC Blog with a post about our recent Science Playground. Please click through and check out this easy, cheap, well-attended fall break program!

Today, I am so happy to turn the mic over to one of my awesome librarians, Ms. Teresa. She ran an awesome Comic Book Workshop this summer, which brought in a great crowd of tweens, an age that's been hard for us to reach. Recently, Bryce posted about a similar program she did at her library: Make a Graphic Novel. I'm excited to share Teresa's take on the same idea!

Hi, all! My name is Teresa Scherping, and I have the pleasure of working as a children’s librarian for Abby the Librarian herself.

Program planning for the Summer Reading Club can be a challenge. I want something that will get kids in the door, won’t take a ridiculous amount of prep during an already busy time, and will maybe even relate to our theme. Since this summer’s theme is Every Hero Has a Story, I thought that it might be fun to do a program for upper elementary kids about making comic books. A lot of our young patrons love graphic novels, and we also get a lot of requests for drawing books. Plus, an open-ended art program sounded simple, flexible, and creative.

I did want someone to provide some sort of instruction at this program and offer tips and pointers about drawing comics or cartoons. Unfortunately, I don’t have any training in art. Fortunately, we’ve formed relationships with local teachers who do! I contacted one of our patrons, a local art teacher who has regularly checked out collections of books from us for her classroom, and she said she’d be happy to help.

The afternoon of the program, I set out blank white paper, pencils, rulers, staplers, markers, and crayons on long tables in our small programming room. I also pulled books from our collection on comics and cartoons and spread them around on the tables for inspiration. I had looked through some of the books beforehand and made copies of pages that I thought might be helpful, such as different ways to draw cartoon eyes or a chart of drawing challenges in case kids were stumped.

This summer, we tried out a new program that was really fun and easy: Lunch Bunch at the Library!



Our Lunch Bunch met every weekday for one week during the summer. We met from 12:30-1:00pm and invited families to bring a sack lunch to the library and listen to a chapter book readaloud while they ate.

Disclaimer: This is where I tell you that attendance was really low for this program. The highest I had all week was five children and two adults. I did have one day where I only had one child. This is not really a sustainable number for us, but it was so easy and fun that I want to try it at least once more and see if we can't grow the program a little bit.

AND I will say that even though the numbers were low, the kids who did attend LOVED the program. I had three very loyal kids who came every day they could to hear as much of the story as possible.

Here's how I prepared for Lunch Bunch.

I picked out a chapter book to read aloud. I wanted something that would appeal to our lower elementary age group and that I could easily read in five 30ish-minute sessions. I chose the book Toys Go Out by Emily Jenkins, which turned out to be a really fun read.

A couple of weeks before the program started, I actually read this book out loud in my office, noting about how long it took me to read each chapter. This helped me plot out how much I would plan to read each day and it helped me develop the voices that I would use as I read, so I could try to keep them consistent.



I set up the room with tables facing the front of the room so that families could sit at the tables to eat their lunches. I had space on the carpet for any that didn't bring a lunch and I invited the kids to come sit on the carpet when they had finished their lunch. I kept the lights down a little bit, which made a really relaxing atmosphere (at least for this librarian!). This was my little oasis during this hectic summer week.

I pulled a selection of readalikes and several copies of Toys Go Out to put on a display in the room. If families couldn't come every day, they were welcome to check out a copy of the book to keep reading at home.



How it went: 

Reading a chapter book aloud is a different animal than reading picture books aloud, and it's really fun. This was a program I honestly looked forward to every day, made even better when my small crowd became loyal listeners. This was a program that was fun for kids and librarian alike.

What I did not super realize when I picked Toys Go Out was that the chapters are very episodic, making it easy for families to drop in and understand the story even if they hadn't come every day. This was nice, but not totally necessary. The kids did a great job of remembering what we had read about the day before and I asked them questions at the beginning of the program to refresh their memory.

I found that the chapters took longer to read with the kids than they had when I was alone because I would pause every so often and ask the kids questions to keep them attentive and make sure they understood what was going on in the story. I also took about 5-10 minutes at the beginning of our programs to allow the kids to get their lunches ready and refresh them on what we had read the previous day.

For next time: 

Before I even started, I wondered how this program would go. I thought that if attendance was low, I might try a different format next time: reading the beginning of a different chapter book each day and then providing copies for children to check out. I still may try this format (I think it would especially work as a once-a-week program), but it was really a great experience to read one entire book with these kids.

Maybe I will try one book over a week's time again during our school breaks, and next summer try out a weekly program reading the beginnings of different chapter books.

Although I thought that having an episodic novel would encourage more listeners to pop in throughout the week, it didn't really work out that way. I wouldn't especially look for an episodic book next time. I also wouldn't worry as much about finishing the book within a certain span of days. It's certainly nice to read the entire book from start to finish, but if I'm able to provide copies for check out, that might even encourage families to read together at home to find out the ending.

What I love about this program, too, is that it introduces families to chapter books that make good family readalouds and it emphasizes the importance of reading aloud to kids of all ages.

This might also make a great (easy!) program to take on the road. We may consider offering it to daycares and summer camps (although I guess the concern there would be that we would potentially have ALL the kids, not just the kids who would elect to sit and listen to a book, so I wonder if we'd have behavior issues).

I'm glad that we tried it out. It was a good experience. And I will try it again to see if we can get attendance up.

Last week, we tried a new program that we've never done before: a library family "camp out"! I got the idea for this program from the inimitable Marge Loch-Waters (see her post about it here) and Amy Koester (see her post about it here). It was so valuable to see how two librarians at different libraries had structured their programs, and I wanted to share how ours went!

The program was held at the library after hours. Our building is kind of convoluted and large, so we closed to the public first and cleared the building, set up for the program, and then reopened just for families attending this program. Our library closes at 5:30 on Friday nights and we scheduled the program for 6:30, manning the doors from 6:15 - 6:35. After that time, I had a phone number folks could call if they arrived late (our Children's Room and Teen Scene are down the hall, not within sight lines of the doors).

I let people in at the doors and sent them down the hall to the Children's Room where my lovely Ms. Teresa was there to do storytelling. We provided "walking s'mores" for families to munch on as they gathered in our program room and listened to stories.

That is the question. I asked it earlier this week over at the ALSC Blog, so pop on over and check it out. I'd love to hear your two cents.

This is my beach book bag from St. Croix a few years ago. I really miss the beach...

Do you require registration for programs or offer drop-in programs? Inquiring minds want to know!

Today, I'm over at the ALSC Blog talking about our Winter Reading Club and how we tweaked what we did last year to make this year's even better! We still keep this program really simple and aim for giving kids and families something fun to do together during these cold winter months.



Click on through to read the post, and please comment! I would love to know what you do for Winter Reading!

I've posted before about how our booktalking programs have exploded this year. We're now in the schools more than ever before and I'm LOVING it! Booktalking is truly one of my favorite things to do and I'm so glad to have the chance to do it more!

I have not been posting about my specific booktalking programs, in part because I've been super busy, but also because most of the books I'm sharing are Newbery-eligible and due to confidentiality guidelines, I don't feel right posting about them. But last week, I realized that almost all the titles I had brought to one school were not eligible, so I wanted to share with you how my booktalking program typically goes!

This particular visit was to 3 fourth grade classes at one of our local elementary schools. They combined all three classes in one room, so I only needed to do the presentation once. Some schools prefer to have us visit each classroom individually, which we are happy to do. Usually if we're doing multiple presentations, I try to send two people together so one person doesn't have to talk for 45+ minutes straight.

For this group, the teachers had asked me to bring nonfiction books, especially books that showed problem solving and cause & effect. This tied in with the unit they are doing in their class. Here's what I brought and a little about how I booktalk each one:



When Is a Planet Not a Planet?: The Story of Pluto by Elaine Scott (Clarion Books, 2007).

This is a book about Pluto, but it's also a book about how scientists find out information about space and the fact that scientists can be WRONG. In fact, scientists have been wrong lots of times, all throughout history! When I booktalk this book, I emphasize to kids that when I was their age, when their teacher was their age, Pluto was a planet! We were taught that there were nine planets in the solar system. We had never even heard of a dwarf planet! This gets lot of nods from teachers. At the end, I let them know that scientists are always finding out new information. Who knows what they'll discover next? And I bet there are some future scientists in this room, so who knows what one of YOU might discover next?


The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand New Colors by Chris Barton (Charlesbridge, 2009).

This picture book biography features two brothers who invented new colors. I tell the kids that one of my favorite kind of books is a book that tells me about something I never even thought to wonder about - just like this book! I read the first two spreads and talk a little bit about what Day-Glo colors are - usually several kids are wearing Day-Glo colors, so I can point that out. And I show them one of my favorite things about this book - the illustrations start out black & white in the beginning and as Bob & Joe begin experimenting, more and more color is added in until they have their breakthrough and I show them the spread that's entirely in Day-Glo colors.



Stay: The True Story of Ten Dogs by Michaela Muntean (Scholastic, 2012).

Stay is the story of ten dogs, yes, but it starts with a human. I tell the kids Luciano's story, how he was hurt at his job performing in the circus and he was determined to be able to perform in some way. He had the idea to train dogs to be in a circus act, but Luciano didn't want just any dogs; he wanted the dogs that nobody else wanted. Then I share the story of Penny with them (you could choose any of the dogs to share). This is an easy sell to dog-lovers (many kids are dog lovers!)



Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson (Scholastic, 2012).

The Titanic is always a familiar subject to kids. It fascinates them! Some may have seen the movie, some may have read other books about The Titanic, but this book is different from any book I've ever read about The Titanic. Deborah Hopkinson uses real survivors' accounts to bring this story to life. Reading this book is like sailing on the ship alongside them. There are plenty of facts and anecdotes to share to entice kids to read this book, but I read a part from the beginning where Jenny, the ship's cat, decides to take her kittens off the ship, "one by one down the gangplank" before it sets sail from Southampton. It always gives me chills!



I Survived Five Epic Disasters by Lauren Tarshis (Scholastic, 2014). * The stories in this book had been previously published and are collected here for the first time. *

Here's another easy sell, particularly if you have fans of the I Survived series in your midst (chances are you do). While the I Survived books are fictional, here we get five true stories from actual survivors of disasters. When I booktalked this one, I mentioned the Children's Blizzard, the Boston Molasses Flood, and the Henryville tornado (which happened just a few miles from here in 2012!). This is a great pick for kids who love action and adventure stories or who are interested in learning about real disasters.

When my staff and I go booktalk, we always bring bookmarks with all the book covers, titles, and authors so that the kids can remember what book they heard about that sounded good. A lot of times, kids will bring these bookmarks in to the library. We keep extras at our desk, so if they didn't bring theirs with them, they can easily say "I have a bookmark like that!" and we'll know they're from a booktalking class.

We keep a record of what everyone's booktalking in our Evernote account, organized by school and grade, so it's really easy to look up what books a kid might have heard about at their school. If we're doing a longer program with more than 5-6 books, we'll make a book list handout for the kids. And we always give these to the teachers, too! I think our teachers enjoy and benefit from the booktalks just as much (sometimes more!) than the kids.

Friends, I am mildly uncomfortable with puppets at best. Which is why I am so lucky to have staff members who put on an AWESOME puppet show over the kids' Fall Break last week!

I grabbed some video of the last story Mr. S and Ms. T did: a puppet adaptation of That Is Not a Good Idea by Mo Willems.



Before they told the story using the puppets, Mr. S read the book to the group so that they would know how the story goes and when to chime in with their chorus. The little things you can see the kids holding are chick stick puppets. I believe they blew up the chicks from the book and copied them on card stock, then glued them to craft sticks. Before they retold the story with puppets, Mr. S passed out a stick puppet to each child.

Obviously, you can see that they're having a ton of fun! And they're also learning, of course. Getting kids involved in retelling a story is a great way to build narrative skills, one of six early literacy skills that help children get ready to read. Providing the stick puppets encourages kids to talk (one of five practices that helps build early literacy skills), not only when they engage in helping tell the story, but I could hear them continuing to talk about the story as they filed out of the room after the show.

I hope you enjoy the show!

Lots of ocean books

Today, I want to take a look back over my summer of Preschool Labs and share how the program typically runs and what I've learned from offering it every week.

I started doing Preschool Lab this past fall as part of our Preschool Explorers program. During the school year, we rotate Preschool Explorers between Preschool Lab (science), Wee Dance (music & movement), and more traditional Preschool Storytime. We did this because we had so many great ideas for preschool programs and not enough time in our calendar to offer them all! This way, we have something each week for ages 3-5 and we each get a chance to offer our special programs.

This summer, our library did the Fizz Boom Read collaborative Summer Reading Program and I took on doing a Preschool Lab each week. Since this is a fairly new program for me (I had done six total, I think, before summer), this was definitely a challenge, but a fun challenge! As the summer went on, I definitely found my groove.

Comet toss!

Here are the themes I did this summer:

Week 1: My Body
Week 2: Ocean Animals
Week 3: Dinosaurs
Week 4: Five Senses
Week 5: Colors
Week 6: Sound
Week 7: Birds
Week 8: Space

For Preschool Lab, I typically start with a 20-25 minute storytime about whatever our theme is for the day. I try to include a nonfiction book or a book with real pictures. Then, after we sing our closing song, I briefly explain our stations and give families time to explore. I like to have at least three stations and I've had as many as five or six stations, depending on what I can pull together. Typically my families spend about 15-20 minutes exploring the stations, depending on what captures the kids' interest.

What worked for me as far as planning was to outline the programs in the spring, before we got into the crush of the summer months. I jotted down station ideas (very often inspired by Pinterest) and book titles for each week and I started the take-home packets ahead of time (a book list and ideas for activities families can do at home). I kept track of supplies I needed to purchase and any props/activities I would need to construct. Then as each week approached, I would pull the books I wanted to use and finalize my stations. I definitely used a combination of early planning and week-to-week planning throughout the summer.

Exploring "bird beaks"

Here are some things I learned through doing Preschool Lab this summer:

The Storytime Portion: Don't Overthink It!

My storytime portion of the program doesn't need to be any different than a typical storytime, except I maybe make it a bit shorter. I like to include a nonfiction book, but I don't feel like I have to share ALL nonfiction books. Kids love stories. Go with what engages the kids. Don't be afraid to read parts of books or to talk about photos or pictures without actually reading the text. You're modeling for parents that this is okay! And don't forget to include some interactive elements - action songs, fingerplays, etc.

Signs/Instructions for the Stations

I didn't need signs for the stations. Throughout the school year, I had been putting up signs with instructions for each table. A brief spoken intro to the stations suits us just fine and is less work than creating the signs (which no one was reading, anyway!). If a station needs more instruction, I will demonstrate to the group or make sure I head to that station after storytime so I can explain. During the stations portion of the program, I'm circling so I have opportunity to guide kids and families if they need it. Most are just fine with exploring on their own.

Taste felt board borrowed from Toddler Time

Keep the Stations Simple!

Some of the most popular stations have been the cheapest and easiest to create. I no longer feel like I have to invest a month of creating props and special things to make the stations fun. The kids have lots of fun just adding and removing felt pieces from the board. They spent 20 minutes pouring beans from one container to another. There's no need to overthink the stations, either. And don't reinvent the wheel: if you've done a science program previously, see what you can reuse for a station.

Beware Make & Take Stations

Kids don't need to take something home with them. Learning is in the process (not the product) anyway. After running out of supplies for a craft station early in the summer, I stayed away from stations with usable supplies and focused more on experiential stations. I did still did a few simple make-and-take crafts, but I made sure they were cheap and very easy to grab more supplies if needed.

Make Use of Your Volunteers

If your library is like my library, we're always looking for simple tasks for our dedicated volunteers. I have had volunteers prep craft supplies, cut out felt pieces for the sticky table, etc. Plan ahead and make use of that free help!

Stegosaurus Counting Game

Encourage Parents to Talk, But Understand They May Be Juggling

Our station time is a great time for parents to engage with their kids and talk about all the concepts we're learning. As much as I wish this program was all about one-on-one exploring with a preschooler and a parent, that's not always the reality. Many of my parents are juggling multiple kids, so I help out as much as I can by engaging the preschool kids in conversation as they go through the stations. I try to use new vocabulary words we heard and ask lots of questions. This is good for the kids, but it's also modeling for parents who may not be sure how to talk about science concepts with their kids. (Hint: there's no "right" way to do it - just talk, talk, talk! And ask open-ended questions to get kids talking, too!)

Take-Home Packets: More Work Than They're Worth

I'm not going to bother with take-home packets anymore. During the school year, I was putting together a take-home craft packet and including other ideas and activities to continue the learning at home. This summer, I removed the craft since our Summer Reading Club prize was a science activity pack. I still put together take-home packets with a book list, ideas for activities at home, and printables for practicing writing, etc. Less than half of my packets were taken each week and I feel like it was a waste of time and paper. No one missed the craft. I feel like no one will miss the packets. When we go back to Preschool Explorers this school year, we'll forgo the take-home packets.

We will, however, always have a book display! That's a great way to encourage families to continue the learning at home.

All in all, I feel like my Preschool Labs were really successful and fun. I had great feedback from parents who liked that we offered something a little different for preschoolers this summer. I think kids and parents alike appreciated the self-directed, interactive activities after sitting down for a storytime. This is something we're going to incorporate into every Preschool Explorer program this fall.

I also built my confidence in planning and offering preschool science programs. As the summer went on, each program was a bit easier to conceptualize and implement. Now I'm looking forward to offering Preschool Lab monthly during the school year and already considering a monthly Preschool Lab program for next summer!

Do you offer preschool science programs? What have you learned? What have been your favorite topics?

This is our last week of storytimes for the spring and I held Preschool Lab on Monday. This month, we explored how things grow and we talked about tadpoles and frogs, seeds and plants, and caterpillars and butterflies. Here's what we did:  One little, two little, three little flowers
Four little, five little, six little flowers
Seven little, eight little, nine little flowers
Ten flowers in the spring
Give them rain and lots of sunshine
Give them rain and lots of sunshine
Give them rain and lots of sunshine
So they'll grow up tall!