Books

  • Bertie Was a Watchdog by Rick Walton and Arthur Robbins
  • Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
  • Russell the Sheep by Rob Scotton
  • I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry

Art Activity – Squid Hats

  • construction paper
  • glue
  • crayons
  • scissors if pieces are not already cut
  1. Make a crown by joining construction paper into a circle
  2. Leaving a gap for the face, glue strips of construction paper for tentacles on the inside of the crown so that the strips are point down
  3. Glue or draw eyes directly on the crown
  4. (optional) Curl or accordion fold tentacle strips

I did my first story time as a full fledged librarian today!  No, it wasn’t at my real library but soon!  It was a bit unexpected.  I was just supposed to observe which I did for the first story time of the day but I actually ran a story time on my own in the evening.  I say this is my first one as a librarian because I’ve been running story times and programs for a year prior to my appointment but not actually as a librarian.

No worries that I found out today.  I generally walk into the library on story time day without a clue what to do.  I go through books and sit down with the craft materials.  Planning a regular story time never works for me because I’m going to dump whatever precious plans in favor of what I’m caught up in.

Since I don’t know what kind of materials I really had on hand at this library, I went for squid hats.  They’re fun and all you really need is construction paper and glue.  I look pretty stupid with it on and I would have taken a picture of my awesome squid hat but someone wanted to take it.  Ah well.  It’s pretty much a band of paper that forms a crown with eight strips coming down.  You stick eyes on it and you’re done.  If you want to be fancy, you curl the ends.  Accordion folding the tentacles look pretty neat too, but I’m more inclined to curl.  If you flip the hat upside down and use black construction paper, it could be a spider.  I always use blue because the two times I’ve used this art activity, it’s been paired with one of my favorite books.  The squid hats clearly go with I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry.

It went over pretty well but I’m sorely out of story time practice.  I think I’ll be less fearful of story time once I get settled in and know my community more.  I’m playing with the idea of incorporating flannel boards and even some songs later on.