Kindergarten/1st grade Librarian Class Visit

Newspaper clipping of Grandpa Simpson shaking his fist.
Headline reads "Old Man Yells at Cloud".

In November, a K-1 split teacher at a local parochial school wanted a tour of the North community branch library, which is about a half-mile away and therefore walking distance for the small class.

Except, you know, when the high is 17 degrees.

After the class rescheduled twice and cancelled at basically the last minute once, we probably could have just said, "hey, we'll see you in the Spring." But truthfully, this wasn't one of our "regular field trip patron" classes and I really wanted to seize the momentum, not letting them forget about us. So, with the promise that they would in fact schedule a tour in the Spring, I went about concocting an engaging visit that would get a bunch of kindergarten and first graders sufficiently pumped about the library without them actually getting to go to the library, where many of them had never been before. They didn't even have a library at school!

I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916!

When my dad got his BA back in the 70s,
he was probably imagining that one day
he'd have a child who'd have to
free-hand a large shark.

This Spring, Sarah at YA Librarian Tales and me both had the same idea for a summer program: playing into the wild success of the I Survived series by Lauren Tarshis at our libraries! We had a discussion on Twitter about it that many librarians joined, including the kid-culture-programming maven Angie at Fat Girl Reading. The conundrum: Which book could I feature that meets this criteria: 1) is exciting, and  2) will not bum out everyone attending, especially the adults.

The three that were definitely out for me right away were The Attacks on September 11, 2001, Hurricane Katrina, 2005, and The Battle of Gettysburg, 1863. After a pretty rousing discussion on Twitter, Sarah and I came to the same decision: to tackle The Shark Attacks of 1916. If anything, my decision was dependent on 2 factors here: 1) sharks are cool, and it is super-interesting that they were once thought to be as docile as a bunny rabbit; and 2) the death count was relatively low, so the chances that someone in attendance would say that a family member died in these incidents was slim, nationally.

PUFFIN Library Lab: Sasquatch Escape!

Basically one of my favorite movies of all time.

This summer, we decided to work WITH at least one of the many groups that visit our library each week to help make the experience more positive and delay/prevent teacher burn-out. One local group was known for coming into the library for one hour, then bringing in a second group for another hour, sometimes with the same teachers. Needless to say, eventually during the summer the kids would run out of favorite books to read, and teachers would get sick of helping their students make good choices.

To fill a pretty big need the size of everyone's sanity, P.U.F.F.IN Library Lab (Pop Up Free Fun IN the Library) was born. One program done twice every Tuesday (one for each group that visited), the topic of which announced to the public day-of over Facebook. And damn, did it work out well!

Marge held two PUFFIN labs in June, while I took July. My first program was inspired by Ariel's Monster Party. My rendition of a monster party was based on the book Imaginary Veterinary #1: The Sasquatch Escape by Suzanne Selfors.

As you might remember, I'm kinda into cryptozoology, so I'll basically talk about it whenever I get a chance.

PJ Puzzles PK-2 Storytime (with Bedtime Math)

oversized tangrams

Hey everybody: I did a program where the oldest kid participant was 8 years old. AND it was not pop-culture-based. AND the attendees LIKED it!

I feel like I have to start this off by saying: I wasn't the biggest fan of Bedtime Math when I first heard about it. This is because:
When they rhetorically ask, "We read bedtime stories right before bed! Why not do math?"
This is supposed to elicit the following response in the reader:
"Hmm, yes, why not?"
BUT: I really feel like the CLEAR ANSWER to this question is:
"...because listening to stories for fun employs cognitive skills that are far less demanding than math, even when done 'for fun' (you know, Webb's Depth of Knowledge and all that)."

Here's where that gets us into a pickle:
a. Children need a good night's rest to perform well in school.
b. Higher-demand cognitive processing delays sleep, not even starting with the fact that math anxiety is a real thing.
Check out these tips for a good night's sleep. Not one involved doing a word problem. Kids need wind-down time, too.

This is not at all to say that we shouldn't make a point to include mathematical themes in play and throughout the day as much as possible. I have strong opinions on this and how we're doing math all the time and we need to be deliberate about it so our kids realize that. This is why I really, really like Bedtime Math's new offering, Crazy 8's. Everything they do comes with scripts and everything! And I do appreciate that they emphasize on their website that it's about adding math to a daily routine whenever that happens!

ANYWAY:

Robots vs. Aliens!: Second Grade Outreach

As I've mentioned before, this year we've piloted in Grade School Menu. While I'm currently immersed in Hella Busy No Sleep, I want to make sure I don't get behind on documenting my programming and giving you (and future me) School Tools 4 Days. Luckily enough I just recently wrote out the script for the Second Grade Outreach: Robots vs. Aliens!

Robots vs. Aliens works for 2 reasons: 1) everyone has an opinion on this debate and 2) the kids decide who wins. I patterned the idea after the Shark vs. Train Story Action Pod I made, but fleshed it out into a 30-45 min program

(I feel the need to stress that if you're going to try elementary outreach, in order to get teacher buy-in you're going to have to be able to promise 30 min door-to-door. That way you can be in and out in that magical time period between lunch and math, or during lunch and recess, or after Special Areas but before the bell, when the teacher actually has the time to do a fun activity. If you happen to be scheduled on a Friday with no spelling test, however, for instance, you may be able to stretch it out to 45. Have a craft or game ready if you get that extra time.)

Here's how Robots vs. Aliens! works:

Thrive Thursday: Illusionology! 3rd Grade Outreach

This post is part of Thrive Thursday, a school-age programming blog-hop started by Thrive After Three in the same vein as Flannel Friday. Check out the round-ups here and join the fun!

So my library decided we needed some grade school outreach up in here. You know, over 3 years ago, when Abigail started the idea of the "Elementary School Menu," a few offerings the department would bring out each year to the elementary schools. And then she left the outreach to die on an island because I was hired and I hardly knew anything about libraries. (Except for what my MLIS prepared me for, of course, but we all know that's why blogs like this exist.) But after a chance trial-run at outreach with a local group of second graders, I felt ready to pilot the menu this year. I started with kindergarten, second grade, and third grade. This was a deliberate choice: kindergarten and second grade are both coming into the library on field trips this year, and third grade just saw us last year as Library Stars. Each of these is pre-made and stored in a bin, with a script so that anyone can do it (But I usually want to because it's the best).

Why, if it's already written out, did I wait so long to post this awesomeness?! The world may never know. Or maybe it's the existence of C.O.P.S. on You Tube.  You understand.

Kindergartners are treated to a Pete the Cat theme, second graders enjoy an Aliens vs. Robots program, and third graders celebrate Illusionology from the -Ologies series! This post is about the third grade outreach,  because I've not only gotten the most requests for it, it's also SO FUN TO DO and the kids and teachers love it and the entire time you're just like:

Prescriptions for Literacy: An Unsolicited Rant

Source

“If children know six nursery rhymes by age four, they are more likely to be in the top reading group at school by age eight.”

“Experts in literacy and child development have discovered that if children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they’re four years old, they’re usually among the best readers by the time they’re eight”

These are two quotes attributed to Mem Fox. That is each quote in its entirety. They both get at the same thing, but have different ages and different numbers of rhymes. And, there is no citation

These are the things that keep people like me, Amy at Catch the Possibilities, and Mel at Mel’s Desk awake at night. Probably because I found a great cohort of nerds that I have the pleasure of talking shop with at all times. In case you’ve ever wondered what my Twitter feed is all about, it’s mostly discussions that lead to rants like the one you’re reading right now. You're welcome.

The Think-Aloud Librarian

Source

Over the weekend, I helped an 8 year old girl find a "Jack and Annie book." I led her to the Magic Treehouse books, talking the whole time: "Oh yeah! The Magic Treehouse books. I know exactly where those are. They are in our Chapter Book section, under O. The author's last name is Osbourne. So here's books by authors who start with N.... Okay, O! Here we go, Osbourne. Right here."

Sound familiar?
You're a Think-Aloud Librarian.

Why Do We Do This? 
It sounds like we're talking to ourselves, right?
In the education world, we call it the "think-aloud": a little tidbit that helps students follow your train of thought or reasoning; or, in a student-directed lesson, help you understand the student's train of thought or reasoning. In either instance, it's a chance an opportunity for learning.

Why 1000 Books Before Kindergarten?

Our library has a 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program. It's awesome.

Here are the reasons that it's awesome:
1) The kids know that they're a part of something. Something big.  Whenever they finish 100 books, they come to turn in their sheet, waving it in the air and skipping. You can tell they're really proud.
2) Parents are cognizant about their role in school readiness. Reading before school is not only a fun way to bond as family, it actually does terrific stuff to the brain. Like map it to be smart.
3) It benefits us, it benefits them. Our circulation numbers increase. The families have a successful, productive visit to the library. The kids feel good coming to the library. Snag 'em early.

Here's not a reason why it's awesome.
1)Studies show that kids should read 1,000 books before Kindergarten. Despite that the idea has been passed around a lot for the last year, no one has ever scientifically concluded that kids should read 1,000 books before Kindergarten.