Re-cap of last couple of weeks

The last weeks of May and the first weeks of June are among the BUSIEST weeks a children's librarian faces, with the only exception being the start of the school year, when we're busy talking with schools and arranging library visits, signing students up for library cards, talk like a pirate day, etc.  This explains my long absence!

A Recap:
Our last storytime of the year happened on May 13th.  It was a campfire themed storytime. I created a campfire out of tissue paper, a paper plate and decorative rocks that I bought at the dollar store (yes, I bought rocks.)  Here is a picture of all the books I used:

Mm... hot dogs.

In case you can't see, they are Maisy Goes Camping by Lucy Cousins, Just a Little too Little by Mercer Mayer, Duck Tents by Lynne Berry, Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog by Mo Willems, Ruby's Sleepover by Kathryn White, Camping Day by Patricia Lakin and Ladybug Girl and Bingo by David Soman.  The crazy construction paper taped to the front of the table are my visual representations of We're Going on a Bear Hunt, a popular repeating chant game that Michael Rosen made into a picture book a few years back that I love doing at least once a year!  My simplified version is just saying "Grab your nets, put on your helmets! We're going on a BEAR HUNT!  Repeat after me!  'We're going on a bear hunt!' (we're going on a bear hunt) 'I'm not scared!' (I'm not scared.)  We walk by sitting cross legged and tapping our hands on our knees.  "Uh-oh! Tall wavy grass!  Repeat after me!  'We can't go over it! (we can't go over it) We can't go around it! (we can't go around it!) We have to go through it!'" And waving your hands side to side say "Swish, swish swish."  I like pretending there a bugs, smack them, or whatever.  After you get through, shake yourselves off and continue saying "We're going on a bear hunt!  I'm not scared!"  Go through a deep, cold river, a big dark forest, thick sticky mud, a swirling whirling snowstorm and a gloomy creepy cave.  You get to the cave and whisper "We're going a bear hunt!  I'm not scared!" and "Tiptoe tiptoe tiptoe...." and then YELL "A BEAAAAAAAAAAAAR  RUUUUUUUUUUUN!"  and go through everything in reverse order as you tap your hands on your knees quickly to simulate running.  Once you get "home", sigh in relief and say "I wasn't scared, were you?"  The end.  Le fin.

Other rhymes I used were:
A-camping we will go, a camping we will go,
Hi ho, what do you know?
A-camping we will go.
(First we build the tent; Then we make a fire, Then we roast marshmallows, Then we eat them up!)

My one little two little counting and subtraction game was hot dogs after reading Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog. 

For our craft, we made s'more magnets!  They were quite awesome, I have one on my desk still!

Don't eat it!

All you need are light brown and dark brown foam board pieces cut into squares, a cotton ball and a little magnet to glue onto the finished product.  You can adapt it to make a pin, a necklace, whatever strikes your fancy.  The older students who visited the library loved making them too, so it's not just confined to the little ones.

LEGO Club:
Our LEGO Club theme on May 14th was Pirates!  Our clubmembers made a swashbuckling pirate ship and a haunted treasure island.

Yarrrr!

Then, I took a break from programs to prepare for the summer, catch up on librarian-related stuff (orders, organization, brain-storming, meetings, etc etc etc.)  This past week was the NJLA conference in Atlantic City!  I attended a few seminars on building relationships with school libraries and incorporating superheroes in the library.  I got to see Jeff Kinney give a speech thanking us NJ librarians for giving him two Garden State Book Awards this year, for his Diary of a Wimpy Kid:  The Ugly Truth and his Diary of a Wimpy Kid:  The Movie Diary.  Now, Diary of a Wimpy Kid is one of my favorite all-time children's books because it's so FUNNY.  I remember the first time I read it, I was manning the children's room and the assistant director was walking around with Justin the Teen Librarian, introducing him to staff because he had just started.  She walks up to me as I was reading the big about eating the cheese and said, "Vicki, I'd like for you to meet..." as I immediately busted a gut laughing out loud.  So, yeah, like Jeff Kinney and got giggly at the chance to share a space with him.  PROOF:

He's in the purple shirt at the podium. 

Our keynote speaker was David Levithan.  Unfortunately, I did not snap a picture, but that's because he is such an awesome speaker and person that I was enthralled by his speech and forgot to get my camera out.  Seriously, this guy is an AMAZING author, on par with John Green (whom he even wrote a book with a few years ago!), so do yourself a favor and read his books.  I recommend Every Day.  He read from his newest book, Two Boys Kissing, and it's going to be an amazing read.  It takes place during a 32 hour kissing marathon to break a world record and features four different stories of some of the couples taking part.  It is narrated by a Greek chorus of the spirits of the last generation of gay men who died from AIDS.  It sounds a bit whackadoodle, but his writing left me absolutely enthralled.  It's on my "to read" list and should be on yours, too.  He also wrote Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, which the movie was based upon and is thus his most well-known work. 

I also attended a Teen Author Panel with David Levithan, Judy Blundell (aka Jude Watson, the author of about a million Star Wars books and at least three of the 39 Clues books) and Lara Zeises.  All three are funny, charming and it was an absolute delight to listen to the three of them chat about their books and life experiences.

That catches us up!  Book reviews and a discussion on my Little Diggers Teeny Weeny Storytime will be upcoming!