CRAFTS | Old MacDonald’s Barn 2.0

Some photos on my new, improved! barn, now with more a barnlike roofline and hay instead of grass. Plus, MacDonald’s sign over his animules’ home. A definite improvement over the prototype.

 

CRAFTS | “Old MacDonald Had a Barn, E-I-E-I-O!”

 

 

 

 

Most of my Storytimes include a rousing rendition of “Old MacDonald” accompanied by an assortment of farm animal stuffies that I pull out of a library bag at the appropriate moment. Kids love it. Parents anticipate naming the farm animals with their kids, and I thoroughly enjoy performing this bit of Storytime magic.

Last week, however, I got tired of pulling the animals out of a bag so I decided to build them a proper home out of a 12- x 18-inch corrugated carton shipping box and lots of glue.

I resized and printed on tabloid-sized paper an image of a barn that I liked from the ‘net (tip of the hat to whoever designed this one) …

 

 

 

… and thoroughly gluesticked it to the box.

Then I decided the bottom needed finishing, so I went for some grass:

(Next time I’ll start with the bottom sheets first.)

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few images of the prototype I made last week:

 

 

 

 

Today the editor inside of me decided to make it a bit better, so I’ve been tinkering with the barn images a lot.

I also decided that the bottom would be better as hay, not grass (duh!).

I’m still not happy with the box’s non-barnlike roofline, but hey – it’s a box from which animals magically appear and as such it “does the trick.”

 

PHOTO > Mom Sandie (thanks!)

So …

Here are some JPEGs of my reworked barn and hay …

---

 

 

 

Much nicer, eh?

If you’d like to build yourself a replica, here’s a tabloid-sized (11 x 17 inches) PDF of the barn and hay ready to  print and glue down whenever you decide to give your farm animals a proper home. I mean, who likes living in a bag?

 

PDF TEMPLATE > OLD MacDONALD’S CARDBOARD BARN

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

 

 

 

NO GIRAFFES IN THIS BARN!

CREATORS | Charlotte Diamond Workshop

I was very fortunate to have attended a workshop on November 14, 2013 hosted by the the amazingly talented, charming, and hypercreative Charlotte Diamond.

On sale were some amazing felts, including the “made-in-Canada” Slippery Fish, above. Not cheap but excellent quality!

And… I won a copy of Ms. Diamond’s new board book, Slippery Fish in Hawai’i, charmingly illustrated by John Aardema. Nice! (I was feeling lucky that afternoon!) Thanks for being a great teacher, Ms. Diamond, and thanks for the autograph and this one:

Charlotte Diamond

John Aardema

FROM AUSTRALIA for AUSTRALIA DAY | Koala Newspaper Collage

Canada Day is fast approaching (July 1), but I’m more intrigued by this great craft from Australia (Australia Day is January 26). Many thanks to Phillipa at House of Baby Piranha (!) for this great activity for kids.

House of Baby Piranha | Koala Newspaper Collage

DLTK | Koala Template

designKULTUR | ENVIRONMENT | «A Hot Koala» + A Canadian Beaver

CREATORS | Oliver Jeffers Visits Vancouver

The incredibly talented, charming, and self-deprecatingly humorous author/artist gave a presentation about what it’s like being Oliver Jeffers before a sold-out audience on Saturday, 23 February 2013 in Vancouver.

I took a stack of my favourite books for Mr. Jeffers to sign (photos, below) but, alas, the capacity crowd meant a limit of 2 autographs per devotee.

Along with the photos of my books, I’m including some video links for those who don’t yet know how amazing Mr. Jeffers is. Watch them and you, too, will become a devotee.

2012

2012

2005

WALLPAPER

2010

2006

2009

2012

Oliver Jeffers | Facebook

Oliver Jeffers | Instagram 

Oliver Jeffers | Tumblr

Oliver Jeffers | Twitter 

Oliver Jeffers on YouTube

National Post | Big li’l pictures: Oliver Jeffers leads a new generation of children’s illustrators

National Post | Big li’l pictures: Oliver Jeffers leads a new generation of children’s illustrators PDF

Quill & Quire | Q&A: Oliver Jeffers

Quill & Quire | Q&A: Oliver Jeffers PDF

Westjet Up | Oliver Jeffers’ Brooklyn

Maclean’s | The march of his penguin

QUOTE OF THE DAY | What Makes a Great Children’s Book?

Brain Pickings | The Night Riders: A charming and unexpected adventure story by one of today’s most extraordinary comic artists

FELT STORY | 5 Little Snowgirls

A tip of the HAT to my colleagues, Alicia and Nicole, who kindly shared their version of this fashionable felt story:

I really like Alicia’s penguin hat!

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When I was cutting out my own snowpeople yesterday, a couple of curious coworkers went, “aah … cute!” and wanted to know the story.

Their feedback: “Those words are way too sad for little people’s sensitive ears!”

So, I took their advice and found a more optimistic version, here:

Five little snowmen were very fat,
Each one wore a funny hat;
Out came the sun and melted one,
And four little snowmen stood in the sun.
(Continue counting down to one)

One little snowman was very sad,
He still had his funny hat,
Down came the snow
and the children played,
And built four more snowmen on that winter’s day!

* Feel free to change this to snow women, snowgirls, etc.

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I then took some liberties with those words and accepted the author’s advice to do away with the “man” in snowman.

These, then, are my snowgirls and they’re showing off their new winter hats in the biggest September issue ever. Thanks, Alicia and Nicole!

FELT STORY | 5 Little Snowgirls PDF

UPDATE:

FAT is politically incorrect, apparently.

So, I’ve reworked the rhyme to eliminate excess baggage.

I know the second verse doesn’t rhyme very well… I’m thinking, I’m thinking …

FELT STORY 5 Little Snowgirls PDF

“A snowgirl can never be too fat or too rich.”

“This season’s millinery was a special delight. The Alicia C penguin hat is to die for.”

CREATORS | Children’s Books by Famous “Adult” Lit Authors

I recently discovered Brain Pickings and thought you might like this site as well. Here are some visuals and a link to a post by Maria Popova to whet your appetite for more from Brain Pickings.

Aldous Huxley

Gertrude Stein

James Thurber

Carl Sandburg

Salman Rushdie

Ian Flemming

Langston Hughes

Brain Pickings | 7 (More) Obscure Children’s Books by Famous “Adult” Lit Authors

Brain Pickings | 7 Obscure Children’s Books by Authors of Grown-Up Literature

STORYTELLING PROPS | The Rabbit in the Carrot Pop-Up

I was called in at the last minute to give a Family Storytime to a group of caregivers and their charges. Needing some extras, I went into the “closet” and found a cute Made-in-China pop-up toy featuring a little rabbit hiding inside a carrot.

I asked my boss what she knew about this object and she replied:

Well, I was mesmerized and so were the kids and their caregivers.

So, I decided to buy one for my regular Storytimes.

A long search came up empty-handed. As no bunnies in carrots were to be found, my crafty side began to think that I could build one myself.

I already had a finger puppet from IKEA that I could use:

So, I gathered together a pair of scissors, a stick, a plastic funnel,  squares of orange and green felt, a piece of white fabric to make a “skirt” for the bunny, a sewing kit, thick rubber bands to hold the skirt to the funnel, and a bottle of Weldbond to hold the last layer of felt in place, and … got busy!

Weldbond – It’s the best!

About an hour or so later (twisting the felt just-so was somewhat frustrating!) I had my bunny on a stick. Up and down she goes, depending on her shyness quotient (or how enthusiastically the kids shout out their part in the play: “Yes, she will!”).

Total cost: less than $3. That’s a lot of joy per buck.

And, if I may say so, I think it’s better than the Made-in-China one back in the box in the “closet” at work.

pinterest.com/flannelfriday

and …

librarystorytimeabcs.blogspot.ca/2012/04/flannel-friday-round-up.html

ILLUSTRATORS | The 59th Annual NYT Book Review Best Illustrated Children’s Books :: 2011 Edition

Migrant, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault

3 NOVEMBER 2011

By PAMELA PAUL

The New York Times Book Review has announced its list of the 10 Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2011. Artwork from this year’s winners will appear in the special Children’s Book section of the Book Review’s November 13 issue.

The judges this year were Jeanne Lamb, the coordinator of youth collections at The New York Public Library; Lucy Calkins, the Richard Robinson Professor of Children’s Literature at Teachers College of Columbia University; and Sophie Blackall, an author and artist who has illustrated 24 books for children, including one of last year’s Best Illustrated winners, “Big Red Lollipop,” as well as “The Crows of Pearblossom,” “Spinster Goose: Twisted Rhymes for Naughty Children” and “Are You Awake?” — all published this year. They chose from among hundreds of children’s picture books published in 2011.

The Book Review’s 10 Best Illustrated Children’s Books for 2011, in alphabetical order, are:

“Along a Long Road,” written and illustrated by Frank Viva (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

“A Ball for Daisy,” written and illustrated by Chris Raschka (Schwartz & Wade)

“Brother Sun, Sister Moon: Saint Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Creatures,” written by Katherine Paterson, illustrated by Pamela Dalton (Chronicle Books)

“Grandpa Green,” written and illustrated by Lane Smith (Roaring Brook Press)

“Ice,” written and illustrated by Arthur Geisert (Enchanted Lion Books)

“I Want My Hat Back,” written and illustrated by Jon Klassen (Candlewick Press)

“Me … Jane,” written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

“Migrant,” written by Maxine Trottier, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault (Groundwood Books)

“A Nation’s Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis,” written by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Dial)

“A New Year’s Reunion,” written by Yu Li-Qiong, illustrated by Zhu Cheng-Liang (Candlewick Press).

GOODREADS: About the iIllustrator:

Zhu Cheng Liang was born in Shanghai in 1948. He studied fine arts at Nanjing Art Institute and is currently deputy chief editor at the Jiangsu Fine Arts Publishing House. His achievements include an Honorable Mention by UNESCO’s Noma Concours for his illustrations in Flashing Rabbit-shaped Lamp. Zhu Cheng Liang lives in China.

Next year, The New York Times Best Illustrated awards will celebrate its 60th anniversary.

The New York Times | The 2011 Best Illustrated Children’s Books

OPENING SONG | “So Happy You’re Here” by Hap Palmer

A brilliant way to start storytime! Thanks, Mr. Palmer!

SO HAPPY YOU’RE  HERE

Sing Doo wah doo, Tra la la, Yo-dle-ay, Sha na na
Hi dee hi, Howdy doo
It’s all a funny way to say, “We’re glad you’re here today!”

Now give yourself a pat on the back
Reach out and shake your own hand
Give a gentle squeeze to say you’re pleased We’re so happy you’re here today, today We’re so happy you’re here today

Sing Fee fi fo, Fiddly dee
Shooby doo, Golly gee
Skizzamaroo, An a hi to you
Now turn and face someone and say, “We’re glad you’re here today!”

Now give someone a pat on the back Reach out and shake a hand
Give a gentle squeeze to say you’re pleased We’re so happy you’re here today, today We’re so happy you’re here today

Activity:
This is a song to warm up our voices and welcome everyone to music and movement time. Listen to each funny phrase, then sing it back like an echo. During the first chorus, give yourself a pat on the back, shake your own hand, and give yourself a hug and squeeze. During the second chorus, give someone else a pat on the back, shake her/his hand, and give that person a gentle squeeze to say, “We’re so happy you’re here today!”

Instrumental:
Make up your own funny phrases. Write them on the board, then sing the song using your ideas. You can also create a funny motion that goes with each phrase and play follow the leader

PDF > OPENING SONG: So Happy You’re Here by Hap Palmer

CLOSING SONG | “I Love My Library”

I adapted “London Bridge” to create my closing song for storytimes:

I LOVE MY LIBRARY

(Tune: “London Bridge”)

 

Now it’s time to say goodbye,

say goodbye, say goodbye.

Now it’s time to say goodbye —

Un-til … next time!

 

See you at the library,

library, library.

See you at the library —

I love my li-brar-y!

 

Everybody, one more time!

CLOSING SONG: I Love My Library – PDF

PUPPETS | Introducing Chester Brown

New to the game of children’s librarianship, I watched an amazing puppet performance by a colleague — a fellow guybrarian — whom I truly respect.

After the show, I asked his advice about puppets. His words: “Choose one and stick to it. Develop its personality and you’re set for any show.” I asked him how long he’s had his “special friend” and he responded: “Thirty-five years.” Solid advice from a pro.

So, without further ado, I present my one and only “special friend” (other puppets may come and go for special occasions, but this guy is the main attraction at my storytimes) — Mr. Chester Brown, from Guilford, Surrey, England.

 

FLASHCARD STORY | Cosmic Panda: Chapter Two

Ta da! …

Introducing the second installment of THE INTERGALACTIC ADVENTURES of COSMIC PANDA.

If you’d like to read about Cosmic Panda’s intergalactic adventures, click on the PDF at the end of the post (please be patient while it downloads — the story is 62 cards long).

I’ve formatted the story to print double-sided so that you can read the story on the back whilst showing the picture front to your audience:

I hope you enjoy COSMIC PANDA and I invite your feedback.

Peacecakes!

… lots of giraffes!

FLASHCARD STORY | Cosmic Panda: Chapter One

In a previous post I wrote that I really liked YouTube’s “Cosmic Panda” Beta release graphic of a supercute panda and that I wanted to archive him for posterity by turning him into a flashcard story.

Ta da! …

Introducing the first installment of THE INTERGALACTIC ADVENTURES of COSMIC PANDA.

If you’d like to read about Cosmic Panda’s intergalactic adventures, click on the PDF logo at the end of the post (please be patient while it downloads — the story is 45 cards long).

I’ve formatted the story to print double-sided so that you can read the story on the back whilst showing the picture front to your audience:

I hope you enjoy COSMIC PANDA and I invite your feedback.

(BTW, Chapter 2, “Trouble at the Double Helix,” is  in production. Stay tuned for its début on Guybrarian in the supernear future.)

Space Bunny!

… lots of penguins!

EXTRAS FOR STORYTIME:

Note that the dialogue in COSMIC PANDA is in script form. To liven things up, I’ve made a character chart and stick puppets. Before I start the story, I go over the characters using the chart and then pass out the sticks (multiple copies of each).

Whenever a character in the story has a speaking role, the members of the audience with that character stick hold up their  character. In a few places, up  to four characters speak at once. Try it — it’s fun!

To wrap things up, I hand out a Cosmic Panda colouring sheet and button.

PDF > FLASHCARD: Cosmic Panda Character Card 

PDF > STICK PUPPETS: Cosmic Panda – Main Characters for Chapters 1 + 2

PDF  > COLOURING SHEET: Cosmic Panda – Fill in the Stars

BUTTONS!

CHANTS | The Hippopotamus Chant

“Mooooooove over!”

A Hippopotamus

A hip, a hip, a hippopotamus
Got up, got up, got up on a bus
And all the people on the bus said,
“Oh, you’re squishing me.”

A cow, a cow, got up on the bus
A cow, a cow, got up on the bus
And all the people on the bus said,
“Mooooooove over.”

A snake, a snake, got up on the bus
A snake, a snake got up on the bus
And all the people on the bus said,
“Ssssssssit down.”

A sheep, a sheep, got up on the bus
A sheep, a sheep, got up on the bus
And all the people on the bus said,
“Baaaaack up.”

PDF > CHANTS: The Hippopotamus Chant

FLASHCARDS | Shapes

I really liked the way my little felt monsters turned out and decided to photograph some close-ups of the little guys’ ID shapes and turn them into flashcards. PDF below.

PDF > FLASHCARDS: Circle Square Triangle Rectangle Diamond Heart

PDF > FLASHCARDS: Circle Square Triangle

FINGERPLAY | Five Little Monkeys Sitting In a Tree

I really like this one!

Five Little Monkeys Sitting In a Tree

5 little monkeys sitting in a tree,

Teasing Mr. Crocodile:

“You can’t catch me!”

Along comes Mr. Crocodile,

Silent as can be.

And …

Snap!

4 little monkeys …

3 little monkeys …

2 little monkeys …

1 little monkey …

And no more monkeys.

And away swims Mr. Crocodile,

As full as he can be!

VIDEO INSTRUCTIONS:

PDF > FINGER PLAY – 5 Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree

RESOURCES |“Tell Me a Story” :: King County Rocks!

Looking for great storytime resources? Be sure to check out King County’s fantastic array of rhymes and songs. King County Library System rocks!

2009 Videos

2010 Videos

2011 Videos

RESEARCH | G&M :: On Books as Alien Devices

Another article (link below) from The New York TImes about kids’ books and technology presented the view that many parents prefer the tactility of books over ereaders. Ivor Tossell of The Globe and Mail suggests that some children prefer the tactility of a tilting iPad. What do you think?

Illustration for The Globe and Mail by Graham Roumieu

PUBLISHING

For some kids, a book is just an iPad that doesn’t work

IVOR TOSSELL

18 November 2011

At the age of 2, Calvin Wang’s son seems to have learned a truism that is already ricocheting around the Internet: A book is an iPad that doesn’t work.

Wang designs interactive storybooks for the iPad. He was inspired, he says, by watching his daughter interact with a movable cardboard book. Since then, Loud Crow, his Vancouver-based firm, has turned an array of children’s picture books that take the pop-up concept into the digital age. Books such as Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit now respond to touch by moving, twirling, speaking and noise-making.

Having experienced the app, he says, his son is puzzled by the fact that creatures in the original cardboard books don’t move. “When he opens the book, the first thing he does is start tapping the creature in the book.”

Turning children’s literature into iPad apps is a new and potentially lucrative business; successful creators have seen products fly off the virtual shelves, and venture capitalists are showing interest. But traditional publishers face challenges entering this market: Interactive applications are expensive to make, difficult to perfect and tough to market in the App Store environment. And even children’s authors are asking: Does a product that blurs the line between a book and a game destroy the joy of reading? And is one more screen what young children need in their lives?

Adaptations of kids books have been around almost as long as the iPad itself, a device so entrenched in the public consciousness that it seems as though it has always been a fixture on the landscape even though it has been on the market only since April, 2010, a mere 19 months. The first to make a splash was an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, simply called Alice. The creation of a laid-off journalist and a former financial-sector programmer, the $8.99 app took Lewis Carroll’s text and the iconic original illustrations from John Tenniel – both of which have passed into the public domain – and used the iPad’s innovative capabilities to turn them into tactile experiences.

When the iPad is flipped, Alice grows or shrinks. When the device is tipped, the queen’s crown teeters, or even falls off its pillow. Because the iPad can sense acceleration, developers could endow objects on-screen with realistic physics – the kind that young users find especially intuitive.

Chris Stevens, the app’s co-creator, says it hardly sold at all for the first couple of days. Then, he says, he released a YouTube video of the app, went to bed and woke up the next morning to see that 500,000 had seen it: This new medium’s potential had caught the public imagination. The app would later turn up in The New York Times and on Oprah.

“It was the right market to get some attention,” he recalls. “There was some excitement about the idea that the iPad might be the future of publishing.”

The Alice app would be the first of a bumper crop, mostly coming from the heady world of new-media app developers. It was one of the inspirations for works that followed, including Wang’s growing business in Vancouver. (This week, Loud Crow announced that it had snagged the rights to adaptPeanuts TV specials, including iconic entries such as A Charlie Brown Christmas, into the app format.)

But for all the hubbub, traditional children’s publishers are approaching the emerging market with caution.

One challenge is economics: Flashy, full-colour, animated interactive projects that run on high-end tablets are a different creature from eBooks, which typically aren’t interactive and can be read on a variety of devices, such as simple black-and-white Kindle or Kobo readers. The eBooks adhere to popular standards, making them relatively simple to make, whereas each children’s app is a unique creation that requires attention from authors, designers and programmers.

However, publishers can typically charge more for eBooks than they can for apps, which consumers are used to buying for less than $10. For instance, Loud Crow’s Peter Rabbit books cost $3.99 in the App Store.

“The interactive apps cost a lot of money, need to be updated frequently and the price point is incredibly low,” says Barbara Howson, vice-president of sales at House of Anansi and Groundwood books. All the same, Groundwood is currently working on an interactive adaptation of one title, Cybèle Young’s A Few Blocks.

“I think we’re in early days for kids books, in terms of demand and technology,” says Denise Anderson, director of marketing and publicity for Scholastic Canada. The publisher has embraced eBooks, with 400-odd titles already available in the format. As for interactive apps, few are currently available from the publisher, but she expects that to change within a year.

“Our mandate is to get books into the hands of children, however they’re delivered.”

So far, many of the interactive apps that have appeared in the marketplace have been adapted from books that are already cross-platform properties, such as Stella and Sam, a series of children’s books by Montreal author Marie-Louise Gay, which has been turned into a successful animated TV show.

For Gay, it’s important to distinguish between books and games – and the app, she says, is primarily a game. Where it comes to replacing books themselves with apps, she worries that the immersiveness of the technology can break up the shared experience of a child learning to read with a parent.

“You could actually put an iPad in a baby’s crib, and the pages will turn by themselves,” she says. Apps that read stories aloud and present interactive widgets threaten children’s ability to explore pages at their own pace, turning a social experience into an isolated pursuit, she says.

“That’s something that’s dangerous, because it’s like putting a child in front of a TV.”

That is a sentiment that has some support, even within the app world. The best interactive kids apps are the ones that actively depart from the source material, says Jason Krogh, the founder of Zinc Roe, the Toronto developer behind the Stella and Sam app, among others.

“The least successful examples take the book, put it on the screen, and they make hot spots so that when you press it, something happens,” he says. That’s why his firm is pushing interactive children’s technology in a new direction: letting kids tell their own stories. A new app called DoodleCast encourages kids to draw on the iPad screen, while making a real-time recording of what they’re saying aloud. After all, a child’s scribblings can be visually indecipherable, but its meaning comes clear as they explain it aloud.

“If you’ve ever drawn with a four-year-old, there’s always a narrative. They’re telling you about their day,” he says.

Kids books have gone through the looking glass, indeed.

Ivor Tossell is The Globe and Mail’s technology culture columnist.

FELT BOARD STORY | Slippery Fish by Charlotte Diamond

Fishy fun!

Slippery Fish by Charlotte Diamond 

(Make swimming motions as you sing)

Slippery fish, Slippery fish,

Swimming in the water.

Slippery fish, Slippery fish,

Gulp … gulp … gulp …

Oh no,

(put your hands to your mouth)

it’s been eater by an –

 

(Make squiggling motions as you sing)

Octopus, octopus –

Squiggling in the water

Octopus, octopus,

Gulp … gulp … gulp …

Oh no, it’s been eaten by a –

 

(Make flashing motions as you sing)

Tuna fish, tuna fish,

Flashing in the water,

Tuna fish, tuna fish,

Gulp … gulp … gulp …

Oh no, it’s been eaten by a –

 

(Make lurking motions as you sing)

Great white shark, great white shark,

Lurking in the water,

Great white shark, great white shark,

Gulp … gulp … gulp …

Oh no, it’s been eaten by a – 

 

(Make spouting motions as you sing)

Humungous whale, humungous whale,

Spouting in the water,

Humungous whale, humungous whale – 

Burp! Ex-cuse me!

PDF > FELT BOARD STORY: Slippery Fish

AUDIO > Listen to an audio sample of Ms. Diamond singing “Octopus (Slippery Fish)” MP3 | RealAudio

FAMILY STORYTIMES | A Baker’s Dozen’s Worth of Books, Felts, and More

13 weeks of Family Storytime programming, by theme and week. Use, re-use, and recycle.

Start of the series: The magic of books via Hervé Tullet.

“Clap your hands if you’re here for the magic of Storytime! Ready? 1, 2, 3, Let’s Go!

 

Press Here by Hervé Tullet

PDF > JOKES: Jokes About Our Bee Friends

 

The Honeybee and the Robber: A Moving/Picture Book by Eric Carle

PDF > FINGER PLAY: Five Big Bees on a Billygoat’s Knee

PDF > SONGS: Bee Song + Bumble Bee

PDF > SONGS: Bees Here

The Very Greedy Bee by Steve Smallman, illus. by Jack Tickle

PDF > FINGER PLAY: Here Is the Beehive

Be-wigged by Cece Bell

I Love Jerry Bookmarks

MAKE YOUR OWN BOOKMARKS > I LOVE JERRY BEE BOOKMARKS – Word Document Template

Jerry Bee Colouring Sheet

MAKE YOUR OWN COLOURING SHEETS > I LOVE JERRY BEE – FILL IN YOUR STORYTIME – Word Document Template

Bee Stamp

  

Goodnight, Little Monster by Helen Ketterman, illus. by Bonnie Leick

Creepy Monsters, Sleepy Monsters: A Lullaby by Jane Yolen, illus. by Kelly Murphy

Taming Horrible Harry by Lili Chartrand, illus. By Bonnie Leick, illus. by Rogé, translated by Susan Ouriou

LINK > FELT BOARD STORY: Five Little Monsters

LINK > Week 2: Full Program

 

 

Pajama Time by Sandra Boynton

Man on the Moon: A Day in the Life of Bob by Simon Bartram

Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! I’m off to the Moon by Dan Yaccarino

LINK > FLASH CARD STORY: COSMIC PANDA: Introducing Cosmic Panda

LINK > Week 3: Full Program

 

Pouch! by David Ezra Stein

Who Ate All the Cookie Dough? by Karen Beaumont, illus. by Eugene Yelchin

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly illustrated by Simms Tabak

LINK > FLASH CARD STORY: COSMIC PANDA: Chapter 2: Reunion at the Double Helix

LINK > Week 4: Full Program

 

 

Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin (aka Mr. Eric), illus. by James Dean

OR

Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes by Eric Litwin

Splat the Cat by Bob Scotton

There are Cats in This Book by Viviane Schwarz

Bark, George by Jules Feiffer

LINK > Week 5: Full Program

 

 

It’s My Birthday! by Pat Hutchins

The Birthday Fish by Dan Yaccarino

Happy Birthday, Moon by Frank Asch

LINK > FELT BOARD STORY: Ten Little Candles

LINK > Week 6: Full Program

First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert

Butterfly, Butterfly: A Pop-up Book of Color by Petr Horáček

LINK > FELT BOARD STORY: Slippery Fish

LINK > Week 7: Full Program

 

 

 

Dog’s Colorful Day: A Messy Story About Colors and Counting by Emma Dodd

Animals Should Definitely NOT Wear Clothing by Judi Barrett, illus. by Ron Barrett

What Pet to Get? by Emma Dodd

LINK > FELT BOARD STORY: Little Mouse

LINK > Week 8: Full Program

A Splendid Friend, Indeed by Suzanne Bloom

Hugless Douglas by David Melling

Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers

TAKE AWAYS:

Footprint Penguin Instructions

LINK > Week 9: Full Program

Call Me Gorgeous by Giles and Alexandra Milton

Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae  and Guy Parker-Rees

Mind Your Manners, B.B. Wolf by Judy Sierra, illus. by J. Otto Seibold

LINK > Week 10: Full Program

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do You Hear? by Bill Martin/Eric Carle

The Wheels on the Bus by Jane Cabrera

Penguins, Penguins, Everywhere by Bob Barner

LINK > FELT BOARD STORY: The Monkey and the Crocodile

LINK > Week 11: Full Program

On My Walk by Kari-Lynn Winters

Wow! City! by Robert Neubecker

Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty

LINK > Week 12: Full Program

Shark in the Park by Nick Sharratt

Every Friday by Dan Yaccarino

No, David! by David Shannon

LINK > Week 13: Full Program

 

A Zeal of Zebras by Woop Studios

Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton

Brian Wildsmith’s Animal Gallery by Brian Wildsmith

Cat Secrets by Jef Czekaj

Look! A Book! by Bob Staake

Moo, Baa, La La La! by Sandra Boynton

Is Everyone Ready for Fun? by Jan Thomas

The Cow that Went Oink by Bernard Most

Mig the Pig by Colin and Jacqui Hawkins

FLASHCARDS | Cosmic Panda

I thought that YouTube’s “Cosmic Panda” was extra-cute and thought I should grab some images of him before he disappeared forever.

I made some flashcards; now I’m thinking of how to incorporate them into a storytime. Perhaps a felt board story about Cosmic Panda’s intergalactic friends?

WEEKS LATER … Well, I didn’t go for the felt board idea. Instead, I’ve been working feverishly on a fairly long and complex story about Cosmic and his galaxy of friends that I’m printing on card stock. So far, I’m up to two chapters.

Click on the last link below to see how this project unfolded. I hope you’ll enjoy reading about Cosmic Panda and his intergalactic adventures.

PDF > FLASHCARDS: Cosmic Panda (Original Version; Complete Version > link below)

Google Operating System | No More Cosmic Panda

PORTFOLIO | Marketing Tools for Storytimes

What’s the point of throwing a par-tay if no one shows up?

I think it’s extra important to spend time developing catchy marketing tools to get the message out to your audience.

This portfolio is where I park my marketing projects for future reference.

LIBRARIES | Happy Holidays, Mayor Ford!

If you care about the future of  libraries, follow the link below.

I walked the walk and I’m glad that I did. If libraries helped shape who you are, now is the time to take a stand.

INFORMATION BOOKS | Collective Nouns :: A Zeal of Zebras + Brian Wildsmith’s Animal Gallery

Who knew?

• An ambush of tigers
• An array of hedgehogs
• An army of ants/caterpillars/frogs
• An ascension of larks
• A badling of ducks
• A bale of turtles
• A ballet of swans
• A band of coyotes/gorillas/jays/men
• A barrel of monkeys
• A barren of mules
• A bask of crocodiles
• A battery of barracudas
• A bazaar of guillemots
• A bed of clams/eels/oysters/snakes
• A bevy of quail/roebucks/swans
• A bloat of hippos
• A bouquet of pheasants
• A brace of ducks/grouse
• A brood of chicks/hens/pheasants
• A building of rooks
• A bury of conies/rabbits
• A business of ferrets/flies
• A caravan of camels
• A cast of falcons/hawks
• A cete of badgers
• A chain of bobolinks
• A charm of falcons/finches/magpies
• A chattering of choughs
• A clamor of rooks
• A cloud of gnats/bats/grasshoppers
• A clowder of cats
• A cluster of bees/grasshoppers
• A clutch of chicks
• A clutter of cats/starlings
• A colony of ants/beavers/gulls/penguins/rabbits
• A company of parrots/widgeons
• A congregation of plover/people
• A congress of baboons
• A conspiracy of ravens
• A convocation of eagles
• A corps of giraffes
• A cover of coots
• A covey of grouse/partridges/pheasants/ptarmigans/quail
• A cowardice of curs
• A crash of rhinos
• A crowd of people
• A cry of hounds
• A culture of bacteria
• A deceit of lapwings
• A descent of woodpeckers
• A dissimulation of birds
• A dole of doves
• A down of hares
• A doylt of swine
• A draught of fish
• A dray of squirrels
• A drift of swine
• A dropping of pigeons
• A drove of cattle
• A drumming of grouse
• A dule of doves
• A durante of toucans
• An earth of foxes
• An exaltation of larks
• A fall of woodcocks
• A family of otter
• A fesnyng of ferrets
• A field of racehorses
• A flight of birds/butterflies/cormorants/doves/goshawks/swallows
• A flink of cows (12+)
• A float of crocodiles
• A flock of geese/lice/sheep
• A fluther of jellyfish
• A gaggle of geese
• A gam of whales
• A gang of buffalo/elk
• A gatling of woodpeckers
• A generation of vipers
• A grist of bees
• A gulp of cormorants/magpies
• A harras of horses
• A herd of buffaloes/curlews/elephants/horse/kangaroo/pigs/wrens
• A hide of tigers
• A hive of bees
• A horde of gnats
• A host of sparrows
• A hover of trout
• A hum of bees
• A husk of hares/jackrabbits
• An intrigue of kittens
• An intrusion of cockroaches
• A journey of giraffes
• A kennel of dogs
• A kettle of hawks
• A kindle of kittens
• A kine of cows
• A knot of snakes/toads
• A labour of moles
• A lamentation of swans
• A leap of hares/leopards
• A leash of foxes/greyhounds
• A litter of cubs/pigs/puppies
• A mask of raccoons
• A mob of kangaroos/emus
• A murder of crows/magpies
• A murmuration of starlings
• A muster of peacocks
• A mustering of storks
• A mutation of thrushes
• A mute of hounds
• An obstinacy of buffalo
• An ostentation of peacocks
• A muster of storks
• A mute of hounds
• A nest of hornets/mice/rabbits/vipers/wasps
• A nye/nide of pheasants
• A pace of asses
• A pack of hounds/rats/wolves
• A paddling of ducks
• A pair of horses
• A pandemonium of parrots
• A parade of elephants
• A parliament of owls/rooks
• A party of jays
• A passel/parcel of hogs
• A peep of chickens
• A piteousness of doves
• A pitying of turtledoves
• A pladge of wasps
• A plague of locusts
• A plump of waterfowl/wildfowl
• A pod of boar/dolphin/seals/walrus/whales
• A pounce of cats
• A prattle of parrots
• A prickle of hedgehogs/porcupines
• A pride of lions
• A quiver of cobras
• A rafter of turkeys
• A rag of colts
• A ramuda of horses
• A rhumba of rattlesnakes
• A richness of martens
• A romp of otters
• A rookery of penguins
• A rout of wolves
• A rumpus of baboons
• A run of poultry
• A rush of pochard
• A school of fish/porpoises
• A scold of jays
• A sedge of cranes
• A shiver of sharks
• A shoal of bass/pilchards/shad
• A shrewdness of apes
• A siege of cranes/herons
• A singular of boars
• A skein of geese/pheasants
• A skulk of foxes/larks/quail
• A sleuth/sloth of bears
• A smack/smuth of jellyfish
• A sneak of weasels
• A sord of mallards
• A sounder of wild swine/boars/foxes
• A span of mules
• A spring of teal
• A squabble of seagulls
• A stand of flamingo
• A stench of skunks
• A streak of tigers
• A string of ponies/horses
• A stud of mares
• A swarm of ants/bees/eels
• A team of horses/ducks/oxen
• A swarm of bees
• A thunder of hippos
• A tiding of magpies
• A tittering of magpies
• A tok of capercaillie
• A totter/tower of giraffes
• A tribe of goats/monkeys/dotterel
• A trip of goats
• A troop of baboons/monkeys/kangaroos
• A turn of turtles
• An ubiquity of sparrows
• An unkindness of ravens
• A volary of birds
• A wake of buzzards/vultures
• A walk of snipe
• A warren of rabbits
• A watch of nightingales
• A wedge of geese/swans
• A wing of plovers
• A wisdom of owls
• A wisp of snipe
• A yoke of oxen
  

SOURCE >www.collective-noun.com

I came across these two extraordinary — and strikingly dissimilar in style — books today and they prompted me to do some more research about collective nouns.

Who knew that the English language had so many strange names for collectivities of animals?

Woop Studios — Miraphora Mina, Eduardo Lima (photo, below), Harriet Logan, and Mark Faulkner — have a contemporary graphic style that is extremely appealing. The words are engaging, too!

The cover of A Zeal of Zebras sets the tone for what’s inside. The Studio’s artwork captures the essential “animalness” of each of the collective nouns they cover in this gorgeous book.

I’d recommend A Zeal of Zebras as a gift for your graphically-minded friends — they’ll appreciate its bold style.

Woop is, I think, bent on becoming a repository for all of these, as they put it, “eccentricities of the English language.” Be sure to check out WOOP WORDS (link below) for more collective nouns.

From their website:

We believe that making a comprehensive A-Z list of collective nouns freely accessible will help those who share our fascination learn new terms and enjoy and share familiar. We hope that irrespective of whether you are browsing for fun or researching for homework that you will find these words, images and facts entertaining and informative. If you enjoy exploring this list you may well find our forthcoming book A Zeal of Zebras worth a look.

Some of the collective terms listed have real pedigree and lineage and can be found in JThe Oxford English Dictionary, ames Lipton’s 1968 An Exaltation of Larks or even The Book of St. Albans published in 1486. Some are of a more dubious and newer vintage than the original terms of venery. We make no apologies for being eclectic and hope that you will have fun with the words and enjoy our graphic interpretation of some of them.

Brian Wildsmith is, to me, the Eric Carle of England (though he resides in France). He liberated children’s picture books in the mid-sixties with his emphasis on minimal text and brilliantly conceived (art directed, really) page spreads with lots and lots of white space to let his images breathe on the page.

Wildsmith has never achieved Carle’s level of success because he refuses to repeat himself. I think his artistry is unique and superlative and underappreciated.

Trust the Japanese to know a quality artist when they come across one: the Brian Wildsmith Museum is located in Izu-kogen, south of Tokyo (link below).

Here are a few words about Wildsmith pulled from The Guardian:

Korky Paul on Brian Wildsmith

Brian Wildsmith’s work came out in the 1960s and he changed picture books. It was revolutionary stuff. One of his best books is The Hare and the Tortoise. He uses his own colours. He plays with scale, and his animals have characters: roosters strut their stuff, chickens are always eating, cats always sleeping.

What I like about his work is his wonderful use of white space; there are raggedy edges and extraordinary detail. He uses a mixture of media: watercolour, wash, then he works on top with chalk or pen. There is a lot of movement there.

My work is more spiky, but I love trying to create a fantasy world and to stylise it. Children’s books allow artists of all kinds to explore their own vision, how they see the world, and that’s what Wildsmith achieves so well. Exposing children to that teaches them that there are all sorts of ways of viewing the world.

Korky Paul has created illustrations for books including the Winnie the Witch series.

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Click on the links below to find out more about these brilliant artists and their fact books for children that illustrate the strange collective nouns we use to name animals.

These two books are full of strange and fascinating collective nouns accompanied by rich illustrations drawn with flair and élan.

Though utterly different in style, both are highly recommended for kids of all ages.

Brian Wildsmith Museum of Art

ワイルドスミス絵本美術館

POEM | The Moon Game

Be sure to check the  Moon Phases Calendar for the moon phase of your storytime!

THE MOON GAME

I’m the moon and I play a game.

I don’t always look the same.

 

Sometimes I’m round,

A silver sphere.

 

Sometimes just half of me

Seems to be here.

 

Sometimes I’m a crescent,

Shaped like a smile.

 

Sometimes I surprise you

And hide for awhile.

 

Look up in the sky

For my friendly light.

 

What shape will I have

When you see me tonight?

– Author unknown

PDF > POEM + FLASHCARDS: “The Moon Game” + The Phases of the Moon