April Displays

Spring is here, and with it comes a whole host of fun holidays to promote and new displays to create. We don't have a lot of display space in the wide open expanse of the children's room; we're limited to the tops of bookcases and the occasional small table that we reserve from use for our purposes. I'm not a huge fan of either, the table is so low the story time kids wreck havoc on it weekly and the bookcases are too high for anyone other than parents to see whats going on. But you make do with what you have and here are a few examples of things you might see if happen upon our children's room in April.

April is Jazz Appreciation Month! Let's celebrate with Miss Lucy's ever-present tissue paper designs and all the books and CDs we can find on the subject.

Almost all the CDs went out on the first day. Our lone holdout is a late addition, a great Ella Fitzgerald for kids CD that I used as intro music in my Jazz program.

Oh hey Jazz Baby, good to see you again.

There are a lot of truly beautiful and recently remodeled library branches in our system. This particular branch is not one of them. We're on a list, somewhere, to be remodeled once more money comes in, but until then we still get to tape things to our walls- a luxury the newer branches are strictly forbidden from doing.

In this case (a longer bookcase and more books on the topic) I have a stash of extra Earth Day books hidden behind my desk. I've been replenishing the display as needed.

 And last, but certainly not least, a permanent display! Starting this month the wall space above the New Books! display is going to be dedicated to the beautiful make and take crafts from Theme Thursday Story Time that get left at the library. The artwork is beautiful and deserves a home somewhere, even if it isn't with the people who made it.

Flannel Friday: Butterfly, Butterfly

This isn't my favorite flannel board I've ever done. I think I still need to play around with the rhyme; I liked the idea of a simple and visual representation of the life cycle of a caterpillar/butterfly but I just feel so apathetic about the end result.

And it goes like this:

 
First comes a butterfly and lays an egg

And out comes a caterpillar with oh so many legs

 See the caterpillar spin and spin,

A little cocoon to sleep in.

Now we wait and see, shhhh

We wait and see

When out of the cocoon, my oh my

there comes a pretty butterfly!

I know it gets a little confusing with all the pictures so here's the rhyme in its entirety:

First comes a butterfly and lays an egg,
And out comes a caterpillar with oh so many legs,
See the caterpillar spin and spin,
A little cocoon to sleep in.
Now we wait and see, shhh
We wait and see
When out of the cocoon,my oh my
there comes a pretty butterfly.


What do you think, oh Great Brain? Does anyone have a killer butterfly rhyme?

Theme Thursday: Jazz, Baby!

Wrapping up my coverage of Jazz Appreciation Month, we have last week's themed story time on Jazz.

Song: Good Morning Dear Earth

Song: We Clap and Say Hello

Flannel: Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone

Book: This Jazz Man by Karen Ehrhardt

Poem: Big, Big, Big

Flannel: 5 Green and Speckled Frogs

Song: Shake the Sillies Out

Song: Grand Old Duke of York

Flannel: The Trumpet Went Toot, Toot, Toot

Poem: I Had A Little Turtle

Book: Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler

Song: Turn Around from Getting to know Myself

Make and Take Craft: Romare Bearden style collages

Supplies:

-cut out magazine shapes of musical instruments and face parts (prepared beforehand)

-construction paper

-glue sticks
-colorful chalk

Process: Before the Turn Around song, I showed the kids and caregivers pictures from the Romare Bearden book and explained that he was an artist often associated with jazz and jazz musicians. I showed them my example and said we'd be making our own musical collages. Over on the craft table, I spread out the magazine pieces and chalk and gave each kid their choice of colorful construction paper and one glue stick. Since this was spring break, we had a lot of older kids who would normally be in preschool during story time. I think the craft worked best with the older kids, while the younger ones REALLY liked playing with the flannel musical instruments from The Trumpet Went Toot, Toot, Toot.

Time: This was one of the more prep heavy crafts I've done. My initial idea was to go through magazines cutting out the musical instruments and face pieces individually. I quickly realized that this was a fool's errand since the only instrument I could find were guitars (lots and lots of guitars) and very few of the faces were big enough for individual parts to be useful. So I glued what I already had to a single piece of paper, pulled a few pictures of instruments from the internet and enlarged/made lots o' copies with our copier. That made a huge time difference and insured a more equal playing field for the kids.

Seriously, What About the Time?:  Prep took about an hour, it would have been 20 minutes if I had been thinking smartly from the beginning. And the total craft time was about 25 minutes, the older kids got pretty invested in it.

Jazz Age Joesphine, Jonah Winter

   

The Teaser: In this picture book biography of Josephine Baker, little Miss Josephine sure was an odd looking child. To stop her from being teased, her aunt suggested that she entertain the other kids. And so Josephine learned to dance, every dance known to mankind and some she made up by herself. Eventually, and after some hard, hard times, she used her dancing skills to tour the country with vaudeville acts and even ended up in Paris, France where the people went crazy for Josephine and her act.

What Stood Out: I absolutely loved this picture book bio; Jonah Winter is quickly becoming one of my go-to authors when I need interesting non-fiction picture books. He tells the story of Josephine Baker in the rhythm and rhyme of a jazz song that flows smoothly through her childhood, early life and successes in France. It doesn't shy away from the harder facts of Josephine's life like the St. Louis Race Riots, performing in black face, or her stint of homelessness in New York.
What Didn't Work: Because of the content, and the extra explaining or context that might need to be given for concepts such as the race riots and black face, it's a little hard to pinpoint to right audience for this book. While it serves as a great introduction to Josephine Baker, school projects would need a more fleshed out biography, and (in addition to the some of the subject matter) it's a little long for a read-aloud for younger kids.
Anything Extra Special?: I did use Jazz Age Josephine very successfully as a read-aloud for a 4th grade class when I went to do outreach. They kinda glazed over the racial undertones in the story and glommed onto the fact that Josephine had a pet cheetah that she walked on a leash down the streets of Paris. Special props also go to Majorie Priceman's whimsical illustrations that perfectly capture the mood of a an upbeat jazz song and then trajectory of Josephine's life.

Flannel Friday: The Trumpet Went Toot Toot Toot

April is Jazz Appreciation Month and we're celebrating at our library system. There's no lack of jazz curriculum for grade schoolers floating around the internet, Baby Loves Jazz CDs, or picture books on jazz that can be adapted for babies and toddlers but try and find a finger play or poem that can be adapted into a flannel board set. 

Go on, I dare you. 

Here's the one I came up with when the internet failed me, I call it "The Trumpet Went Toot, Toot, Toot"

The trumpet wanted to start a band

So he asked the saxophone to lend a hand

The trumpet went toot, toot, toot

And the sax sang be bop beep

The sound wasn't quite right

Then the drums marched into sight

The trumpet went "toot, toot, toot"

The sax sang "be bop beep"

And the drums said "a rat a tat tat"

But the sound still wasn't there

Then a piano song filled the air

The trumpet went "toot, toot, toot"

The sax sang "be bop beep"

The drums said "a rat a tat tat"

And the piano trilled "plink, plink, plink"

The sound was almost done

They just needed a bass to join the fun

The trumpet went "toot, toot, toot"

The sax sang "be bop beep"

The drums said "a rat a tat tat"

The piano trilled "plink, plink, plink"

And the bass answered "thump, thump, thump"

5 instruments in 1 great band

They play the swingingest jazz in all the land!

Theme Thursday: Outer Space

Let's take a trip into outer space! All without leaving the story time circle.

Song: Good Morning Dear Earth

Song: Clap and Say Hello

Song: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Fingerplay: 10 Little Fingers

Book: Our Stars by Anne Rockwell

Flannel: 5 Astronauts Went Out One Day

Song: If You're Happy and You Know It

Rhyme: Pease Porridge Hot

Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Book: Astro Bunnies by Christine Loomis




Flannel: Blue is the Lake

Song: Turn Around from Getting to Know Myself




Make and Take Craft: Out of This World Necklaces

 

Supplies:

-tissue paper

-glue sticks

-yarn

- Outer Space Shapes (prepared beforehand out of manilla folders)

-hole punch

Process:

As much mileage as I get out of construction paper collages, I get even more out of layering tissue paper. It just looks so pretty! And everyone can do it! 

After story time, I handed out individual shapes, pieces of yarn and glue sticks. Then I placed plates of separated out tissue paper by color and let the kids go crazy. Some of them stuck to color schemes, others went off the book. Some didn't even want to decorate them at all, they just strung the yarn through and ran around with their new necklaces flapping.

Time:

Prep took about 45 minutes, with making the samples, and the total craft took about 20.

Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Part 3

See Part 1 and Part 2 of this series and then read on to see the body structure of my beautiful, beautiful monster. Although I've pretty much given up on using this as a project in my library, I really do think it would be a good summer long program in a different library- one with a little more staff flexibility, volunteer involvement or programming space to get a little messy.

After the head was all clothed up and drying, I turned my attention to the body. Again, this is out of order with Reeder's instructions. He has you fitting the head onto the body first and then filling out the arms and legs to fit around that. But I didn't want to wait that long! So with my trusty serrated knife (that I totally sliced myself open with last week. BE CAREFUL) and some Miranda Lambert on the stereo, I began to cut holes in Hank's body.

I cut off the head hole first so that I could pull out some of the excess newspaper to make room for the other appendages.

I'd already made the legs by taking two of my papermached sticks and joining them with a rolled newspaper ball of a knee joint and a lot of masking tape. I used a small piece of wire to connect the feet with the legs, twisted them into place and secured them with even more masking tape.

To attach the legs (and later the arms) I cut two holes, just slightly smaller than the actual legs and wrestled them into place. By making the hole smaller, I was ensuring a tighter fit. When they looked good I went back to my trusty masking tape and shored them up.

Where's my head?

This wasn't how I pictured Hank's body looking. I wanted a glum, little, potbellied monster with his head in his hands, absentmindedly chewing on his finger. I was going to paint him in dark blues and grays and have him sit on a shelf in my home where I could tell him all about the things that were bothering me and he'd listen and not judge my super melodramatic tendencies.

But I love this body. I love how the hands worked out and how I'll be able to hang necklaces from his fingers if I so choose. I love his legs all splayed out and so disproportionate to his body. I think I know how his head will fit on and maybe, just maybe, I'll have him eating an old book (discarded from the library, of course!) since he won't have his fingers to chew on.