Wednesday, July 31, 2013

#ala2013 Guerrilla Storytime

A little over a month ago, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. With the insanity that is Summer Reading, I just haven't had the time to post about it.

The entire conference was a whirlwind of amazing-ness. However, one particular part stuck out for me and that was a lovely little gathering in the Uncommons called "Guerrilla Storytime". A casual group of librarian gathered together to share their best storytime tips and tricks. It was the brain-child of librarian Cory Eckert and put on by Amy of The Show Me Librarian and Melissa of Mel's Desk. From that one-hour gathering on a Saturday, I learned some great new songs to use in my storytimes back home, such as the "Go Banana" song:

"Go Bananas"

Form the orange, form form the orange (form one half of an orange above your head with your right hand)
Form the orange, form form the orange (form one half of an orange above your head with your left hand)
Peel the orange, peel peel the orange (lower down right hand to your side)
Peel the orange, peel peel the orange (lower down left hand to your side)
Squeeze the orange, squeeze squeeze the orange! (give yourself a good squeeze!)

Continue with:

Mash the potato (use fists to pretend to mash potatoes)
Pop the corn (jump up and down)
Go bananas (go nuts!)

Here's a fun version of the song by "Ultimate Camp Resource" to get a visual

There was also the fabulous idea from an audience member when reading the book Ain't Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont. She gave me the idea to pass out unused paint brushes and let the kids "paint" their corresponding body parts with the story. What a genius way to make it more interactive!



The thing that inspired me the most, however, was when Amy from The Show Me Librarian brought out her ukulele. I discovered that by learning a mere 4 chords, I would be able to play a plethora of popular storytime songs! After doing some research, I found a good starter ukulele, ordered some books on learning the uke from the library, and researched some good websites for chords and songs.

For more information on Guerrilla Storytime, visit the newly-formed Storytime Underground blog. Hopefully, it will inspire you to be a storytime ninja just like it has inspired me!

Toddler Storytime - Trucks

To go along with our summer reading theme, I decided to do the perennial toddler favorite: trucks!

The Plan:

Books:


Where's My T.R.U.C.K? by Karen Beaumont - For this book I cut out the Ellison letters T, R, U, C, and K. I put them on a flannel board and had the kids help me spell "truck" whenever it appeared in the book.

I'm a Truck Driver by Jonathan London

Songs/Rhymes:

"Dump Truck" (to the tune of Ten Little Indians)
I got this great truck song idea from Abby the Librarian's blog.

Bumpity-bumpity comes the dump truck (bounce up and down)
Bumpity-bumpity comes the dump truck
Bumpity-bumpity comes the dump truck
Dump out the load! (tip over sideways)

You can change it up by pretending to have a heavy load and go slowly and then a light load and bounce really quickly!

"The Wheels on the Truck" 

The wheels on the truck go 'round and 'round (roll hands)
'Round and 'round, 'round and 'round
The wheels on the truck go 'round and 'round
All through the town

Repeat with:

The shovel on the truck goes dig dig dig...
The bucket on the truck goes dump dump dump...
The horn on the bus goes beep beep beep...

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