I’m back in the baby storytime routine again, though still getting used to filming at work. I have an interesting personal conundrum with filming on our new iPad–everyone else in our department has been filming on Apple devices so that they can see themselves. I am an Adroid user, so I’ve not been able to see myself during the last five months of filming. When testing out the new iPad Pro, I realized that I find watching myself extremely disorienting, particularly because of the flipped screen. Also, I am way too focused on myself–and I am not the reason I am running storytime. I have a feeling I’m going to be flipping the iPad and still filming from the camera on the back of the device.
Another themed Saturday storytime special, this time celebrating the one and only Doc McStuffins! I didn’t have much knowledge about the young toy doctor before my deep dive for Doc McStuffins Storytime, but I genuinely enjoyed the episodes I watched. I’m surprised she isn’t more of a focal point in pandemic times, as she has a series of songs that align perfectly for kids and current times–songs about handwashing, playing outside, and even one about not being able to hug your friends right now so you don’t spread germs.
I made another “commercial” for this program, which you can view below:
To help continue the Doc McStuffins fun at home, I curated a PDF packet that we shared with event participants. Download it here.
Doc McStuffins Storytime Video
Unlike past storytimes, I didn’t create individual YouTube videos portionsof of this storytime. Most of the storytime included a lot of Doc McStuffins music, and the internet does not need more videos of me dancing along to music without clear motions.
I am going to risk the wrath of the copyright overlords and share a video of the complete storytime. This may be removed in a few weeks, but I am particularly proud of how this storytime came together, and I think it will make more sense in its full effect:
*The storytime starts about 5 minutes into the video. We start our livestreams early to allow viewers time to login and make sure technology is working.
Doc McStuffins Storytime Outline
Little ones were encouraged to bring their own stuffed animal to storytime.
Doc McStuffins Theme Song Intro: We got ready for storytime by dancing to the original Doc McStuffins theme song.
Book: Guess Who, Doc!
First Patient: Stuffy
After a quick explanation of how our program was going to work, I accidentally knocked down Doc’s Big Book of Boo Boos and Doc’s stuffed dragon, Stuffy. Poor Stuffy was instantly flattened, and we had to figure out what was wrong and how to fix it.
(How to do: Stuffed Stuffy was on the bookcase. Paper Stuffy was on the floor since before storytime began. I “accidentally” knocked stuffed Stuffy onto the floor with the Big Book of Boo Boos. When I bent down, I picked up paper Stuffy. We talked through our activity and song, and then put Stuffy down so he could stomp his own feet. After the song, we picked stuffed Stuffy back up.
Cured Stuffy by moving and grooving to shake out his stuffiness by dancing along to Doc McStuffin’s Dinosaur Stomp.
Second Patient: Gustav the Gator
Now that Stuffy was all better, we checked into our waiting room and discovered Hallie Hippo had a patient for us: Gustav the Gator! Gustav has been warned in the past by Doc about eating the right foods for him, and we had to talk to him again about foods he should sometimes eat versus foods he should always eat.
Taught Gustav about foods he can always eat and foods he should just eat sometimes as a special treat.
For our Always vs. Sometimes activity, I divided a magnetic cookie sheet in half, and we sorted chocolate chip cookies, apples, french fries, bananas, carrots, and ice cream (doughnuts and water were cut for time).
Third Patient: Lambie
Now that Gustav was feeling a bit better, we let him rest. We were about to check in on our waiting room again, when we started to smell something odd. Lambie was covered in mud! We needed to give Lambie a bath to get her nice and clean, and then we also practiced washing our own hands.
Gave Lambie a bath with the song “This Is the Way We Wash Our Legs.”
Practiced washing our own hands to the Doc McStuffin’s Wash Your Hands song.
We sang “This Is the Way We Wash Our Legs” to the tune of “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”:
This Is The Way We Wash Our Legs This is the way we wash our legs, Wash our legs, wash our legs. This is the way we wash our legs, Wash our legs, wash our legs, When we are nice and dirty!
We continued with our arms, bellies, and heads.
Fourth Patient: Chilly
We realized that we were missing one of Doc’s friends! We hadn’t seen Chilly all morning. Doc left us a clue with a guessing game activity. We found a picture of Chilly behind a picture of a white bear, and we found the real Chilly behind the real stuffed bear in our waiting room. Chilly was a bit nervous about seeing so many people for storytime, but we helped him get over his nerves by finding ways to say hello virtually.
During Chilly’s turn as a patient, we:
Played “Chilly, Chilly, Where Do You Hide?” to find Chilly.
Found stuffed Chilly behind our white bear.
Diagnosed Chilly with a case of The Shy Guys.
Said “hello!” three different ways with the song “We Wave and Sing Hello!”
We played our own version of the storytime classic, Little Mouse, Little Mouse, by checking behind various toys to see where Chilly might be hiding. We used the words:
Chilly, Chilly, where do you hide? Are you behind the _______________? Let’s look inside!
After we found Chilly, we taught him different ways to say hello:
We Wave and Sing Hello We wave and sing hello! We wave and sing hello! With all our friends at storytime, We wave and sing hello!
We continued with: Sign and Sing Hello, Smile and Sing Hello
Fifth Patient: Hallie
All this time, we had left poor Hallie in the waiting room, but we realized that she hadn’t been talking much. We found out she was very tired today, even though she slept a lot last night, and we realized she might need some exercise to get some new energy.
Cured Hallie by doing some exercise with the Doc McStuffin’s Ready for Action song.
Showed off Hallie’s talking skills (she is a squeeze and talk stuffed animal).
Closing
We wrapped things up by reviewing everyone we helped today, talking about our Doc McStuffins School of Medicine Certificates (in those Doc McStuffins At Home Packets), and dancing along to the Doc McStuffins Theme Song – Toy Hospital Edition.
I wasn’t sure about attendance at this program, as the Doc McStuffins tv show ended in April, but this was my second highest Saturday Special attendance yet (after Baby Shark). Lots of Doc love, and now that I’ve spent some time with the character, I see why.
You might have noticed from our weekly It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? posts, but I read a lot. I don’t typically read as much as I have been during pandemic times, but I have recently thrown myself into reading even more than usual. For a few months, I’ve been interested in writing brief reviews of some of the books I read, but I don’t want reviews to affect my reading pace. I like recording my thoughts about titles that really stand out to me, but I don’t feel a need to recreate a publisher summary for every book I’ve read this week.
Personally, I really appreciate It’s Monday! What Are You Reading posts to find new books that I haven’t heard of, so I don’t want to limit the number of books shared on my Monday posts. This has led me to a new feature for Book Cart Queens–Book Review Tuesdays.
Book reviews are going to be brief, focusing on what I want to remember and books that stand out to me (these don’t replace professional reviews by any means).
Happy reading!
Class Actby Jerry Craft (graphic novel) Gr. 5-7. New Kid was my dream Newbery winner, and the sequel does not disappoint. Readers get more detailed glimpses into the lives of Jordan, Liam, and especially Drew, with even a touch more character development from Andy. Drew takes center stage here, with a different perspective on his classmates than Jordan. So many real issues are discussed in ways that never feel preachy, with Craft’s appealing artwork balancing humor and reality (race, bullying, class differences, microaggressions, friendship, and more). Hoping for more books in this universe. Read as an eARC.
Mary Had a Little Glam written by Tammi Sauer and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton (picture book) PreS-K. Vanessa Brantley-Newton’s illustrations shine here, bringing young Mary to life. Brantley-Newton sprinkles in details from nursery rhymes and fairy tales, going beyond the written words to add humor and a bit of sass to young Mary’s fantastic outfits (the sheep crossbody purse is my favorite). Between the fun illustrations and the rhythmic beat, there is a ton of storytime potential packed into this title.
I Am Not a Label: 34 disabled artists, thinkers, athletes and activists from past and presentwritten by Cerrie Burnell and illustrated by Lauren Mark Baldo (nonfiction, biography) Gr. 3-5. This gorgeously illustrated collective biography features the stories of 34 disabled individuals who are artists, musicians, athletes, innovators, activists, and more. While there have been a plethora of collective biographies in recent years, this one’s focus on people with disabilities (a group very underrepresented in children’s books) is refreshing, along with its well thought out collection of diverse people from around the world with a variety of types of disabilities.
Nana Akua Goes to Schoolby Tricia Elam Walker and April Harrison (picture book) Gr. 1-2. Zura is nervous about bringing her Nana Akua to school for Grandparent’s Day. Nana Akua is Zura’s favorite person in the world, but Nana Akua also has tribal markings on her face from a family tradition from her childhood in Ghana. Sometimes, those marks scare strangers when Zura and Nana Akua go to the park or the store. What will Zura’s classmates think?
Zura’s nerves won’t feel unusual to children hesitant to share their own familial differences with their classmates. The blend of designs and patterns in the artwork make this story shine, helping teach readers about empathy and accepting people’s differences.
Grime and Punishment (Dog Man 9) by Dav Pilkey (graphic novel) Gr. 2-4. I’m a Dog Man fan through and through. Dav Pilkey never ceases to amaze with the themes and messages he can pack into a series that is considered by so many to be slapstick superhero books. Petey’s character progression-from standard villain to caring papa-is a personal favorite, and the newest title doesn’t disappoint with lessons about forgiveness, love, and happiness as well as an ending that left me a little teary eyed. Looking forward to Book 10 and excited to keep recommending this series to young readers.
Note: I was a bit under the weather with a migraine the last few days, so I do apologize that I added my reads after this was published originally. But I am working on an actual blog post, so gasp! there will be a teen update this week. 🙂
And we are back! I haven’t presented a baby storytime in over two months, which feels a little odd, but makes it more refreshing to come back to this age range. Trying out some new bounce rhymes, a new action rhyme, and a new puppet activity. I’m also super excited about my Shaker Song this week–Baby Loves Beignets by Jazzy Ash.
I also really wanted to use this perfect new baby storytime book, but alas, my August counterpart claimed it for storytime two weeks ago. But you should use it!
Early Literacy Tip: Sing all the time with your little one—make it a part of your routine. Tune “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush” is great for singing about daily activities.
Book:Wheels on the Bus by Jane Cabrera
Song: Row, Row, Row Your Boat by Old Town School of Folk Music
I am a Disney fan. I worked at Disney for about a year though the Disney College Program, we grew up growing to the parks and watching the movies, in non-pandemic days I vacation there fairly regularly. So hosting Disney Trivia was a bit of its own dream come true.
We didn’t have a big audience for this – about 45 people (this was no Dog Man Trivia). I think the questions might have been a bit too hard for the intended age range (6-11), though for the players who stuck through to the end, everyone had near perfect scores.
Content
I shared the questions via screensharing a PowerPoint on Facebook Live (details below under Logistics). Twenty questions, followed by going back through the twenty questions faster to review the answers.
Watch the full video here:
*The video cuts off at the very end. I think the internet went out.
View below and download the PowerPoint here. The fonts I used (that didn’t seem to copy over) were Century Gothic and Grobold:
Like many of our school age programs, trivia took place on Facebook Live, though this could easily be translated to whatever platform your library is using for virtual events.
There are many great tools out there for trivia. Kahoot is a particularly popular tool that I’ve seen used frequently. That tool asks participants to play along on their phone or another device while watching the livestream, and the system times the questions and ranks participants. While I like that concept for an adult or maybe teen trivia, when there are no prizes involved, I don’t like that system for kids. Plus, it involves a second piece of technology, and for families playing along, it may be especially difficult to have each kid play individually.
I added the questions to PowerPoint, shared to Facebook using their livestreaming screenshare technology. Some detailed tips for those interested in trying a program this way:
Make your slides “widescreen” so they fill up the viewers full computer, phone, or TV screen. Do this by going to Design – Slide Size in Microsoft PowerPoint.
I don’t like the clunkiness of viewers seeing me open my powerpoint after going live. To always just have the powerpoint as the center of your screen:
In PowerPoint, start the “Slide Show” mode, making your PowerPoint full screen.
Use the Windows key (not ESC) to exit the Slide Show presentation view. This key leaves it open in the background.
Start your Facebook Livestream. Instead of sharing your entire screen, just share one application — the Slide Show view of PowerPoint.
Return to the Slide Show view to change slides for your participants. Always use the Windows key to exit. If you use the ESC key, you won’t be able to restart the slideshow without creating a new livestream.
Using the steps above, you cannot easily see the comments during the presentation. I have my phone nearby with the livestream running, allowing me to see questions and comments as they come in. A coworker posts links and types responses to the comments, and I respond verbally as I can.
These are supposed to be 30 minutes, but I talk too much, and this, like previous similar programs was closer to 45 minutes.
This is part of a weekly livestream “after school” series on Tuesdays at 4:30 pm in September. I’m not sure if our audience will stick around, but I sure hope we keep up a following with this style event at a consistent weekly time.
Last week of toddler storytimes until October and then I actually get to do a few fall/spooky activities! I’ve only done baby storytimes during the fall season before, and I always preference age appropriateness and literacy skills over themes, so I’ve never really looked at fall-themed activities. So much to sprinkle into toddler time! I basically have those storytimes already planned with the amount of stuff I’ve saved…
I do want to look for more toddler books generally, and more specifically, diverse toddler books. Some of my diverse baby books could overlap with this age, but I really want to find more content ideal for toddlers. So many of the great diverse books being published now are solidly preschool or are essentially books for babies (baby body parts, baby faces starring diverse babies). A lot of toddler books that I enjoy star animals–I need to expand that.
Background: While my library is closed during the COVID pandemic, we are hosting five virtual storytimes a week, livestreamed through our Facebook page. While those livestreams are deleted soon after they are complete, we are also making YouTube clips of select elements of our storytimes that our patrons can view anytime they would like–and that I can share with all of you!
Early Literacy Tip: Introduce new vocabulary to your child during imaginative play. Use the big words AND the small words. Use as many words as you can.
Our library is closed to the public, including for browsing. Our county COVID numbers just dipped low enough for us to allow for appointment based services, but, sorry to all of the school districts that decided to start the school year with blended learning at the last minute, but I do the same math the governor’s team does every day, and our county numbers are increasing. Again. The reason any of that is relevant to this post is that the public will not be browsing our shelves anytime soon…meaning reader’s advisory is not the same experience.
And browsing is something we hear about frequently. Kids in particular often don’t know what they want to read (or they know EXACTLY what they want to read and will take nothing else). Parents are trying to homeschool or supplement in-person schooling, and they are eager for beginning reading books in particular. How can we recreate the browsing and reader’s advisory experience for our users?
These short clips are designed to be Instagram posts or Instagram stories (identical, vertical versions are used on that platform, all under 15 seconds to accommodate Instagram story rules). There seems to be a positive response to these reader’s advisory tools–the first Instagram post got a lot of happy feedback (I think people missed seeing inside the library). The most recent Instagram story (first chapter books) got more click-through response than other stories I had created in the past.
I really wish there was a way around the 15-seconds, or a way to make it easier for viewers to see titles and immediately put them on hold. I recognize the books in the video, but I can’t imagine many parents do without having to put in the effort to watch multiple times and pause a clip.
New & Overflow Books (July 2020) (this was a first attempt and this video is longer than most)
New Books (August 2020)
Beginning Readers
First Chapter Books
Parent Teacher Collection Titles
Virtual Reader’s Advisory
These reader’s advisory videos have a few purposes:
Reader’s advisory tool to supplement the lack of browsing
Possible substitute for in-person book talks that take place in local classrooms
We’ve had an okay response to these reader’s advisory YouTube videos. I hope that these are useful to teachers and students, especially as the school year progresses (and post-COVID too!).
My book talk video filming tips:
Film in Short Clips. My filming structure involves me talking for 1-2 sentences before cutting to a new clip. I find this really valuable when I am trying to get my words exactly right (especially important when sharing books that talk about racism, neglect, or aspects of a culture that isn’t my own). I don’t memorize what I’m going to say, but this quick structure makes it a lot easier for me to redo a clip as needed. Refilming something 20-30 seconds long is easier, and it is much less frustrating than getting to the end of the clip and messing up a pronunciation.
Add visual interest. Add images from the book whenever possible. Some books are chapter books without images where this doesn’t make sense, but whenever I can, I add images and change them regularly. An adult has about an 8-second attention span in non-COVID times. Watching me sit and talk at a screen for even just a minute is boring. Images help.
Talk about books you like. Always. I only book talk books I’ve read, enjoy, and can vouch for. I’m not this strict when I’ve got an in-person reader’s advisory experience, with a patron in front of me asking for Wonder readalikes, but when I’m only able to take a handful of books to a classroom, or in this case, select what books I want to put my time and effort behind highlighting, I want to make sure they are books I genuinely enjoyed and think kids will enjoy too.
Recommend diverse books. Following the last tip, this means you need to be reading diverse books. Hopefully you are. I don’t care how white your community is–even if your community is made entirely of clones of one Christian, straight, physically and mentally able white boy–there is a whole world out there that those kids need to be aware of and empathetic toward. (Also, if you are living in a community filled with cloned children, I would suggest you stop reading now and run. Fast.)
Look up those pronunciations. Author names, illustrator names, character names, settings. Look up them all. Don’t be the Annamarie of three years ago who mispronounced Amina’s name repeatedly in a book talk video for Amina’s Voice that still makes me cringe every time I see it on YouTube.
Of course, all the regular technical things:
Film with the highest quality camera you can access
Good lighting (don’t sit in front a window, avoid shadows)
Good sound
Consistent feel/intro/conclusion
Easy access for a viewer to put the book on hold in your catalog
I’ve made a lot of videos, and this post is already long, so I’m going to try to highlight grade level playlists and list links to specific titles underneath. Many books appear on multiple grade levels because they appeal to multiple ages.
Book Talks: Preschool We are focusing on books for the ages we regularly book talk to in the schools (Grades 2-6), so there are fewer videos for this age.
Book Talks: Kindergarten We are focusing on books for the ages we regularly book talk to in the schools (Grades 2-6), so there are fewer videos for this age.
Book Talks: 1st Grade We are focusing on books for the ages we regularly book talk to in the schools (Grades 2-6), so there are fewer videos for this age.
Collection Videos These videos cover more than one title connected by a common theme. These seem to be getting slightly more views, but, be warned, they take a lot longer to make. A 10 Readalikes Video is essentially the equivalent of making 10 individual book talk videos–a lot of effort for what feels like less of a result. I’m going to keep chipping away at these, but they are exhausting, so I don’t make them as frequently. Maybe I’ll focus on these more when I feel like I am slowing down on a regular pool of titles to book talk individually.
12 New Graphic Novels (published in the first half of 2020)
Note: I want to give a shout-out to those awesome series by own voices authors featuring amazing, diverse characters in everyday situations. My current favorite characters:
Note: I fell down a little rabbit hole and read all that we had of one manga this week. But I did sneak in a few heavy hitting teen reads so the brain candy was needed. I know I say this a LOT, but I am gonna try to write an actual post this week. I owe it to Annamarie to actually pull some weight on this blog and contribute, even if it is the shortest post in the world.
First time filming in the building, which was a little bit of an adjustment. It is nice to get back into the toddler groove for a while, though I am missing the simplicity of having a long stretch of the same storytime. At the end of summer session, I ran with preschool storytime for about 6 weeks, allowing me to build on activities and more intentionally look at growth and skill development. Only three weeks with toddlers doesn’t give quite the same amount of time, and since a lot of our storytime presenters have different styles, I know that when I come back to this age in October, its a little more like starting over than flowing from what happened before.
Background: While my library is closed during the COVID pandemic, we are hosting five virtual storytimes a week, livestreamed through our Facebook page. While those livestreams are deleted soon after they are complete, we are also making YouTube clips of select elements of our storytimes that our patrons can view anytime they would like–and that I can share with all of you!
Early Literacy Tip: Read books with excitement and anthusiasm–this can be much easier with books that encourage silly actions, voices, or behaviors. Try being extra silly! Nothing is over-the-top to your kid.
Book Recommendation:Is Everyone Ready for Fun? by Jan Thomas
Song: Jelly in the Bowl by Kiboomers
Retelling: Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley
