Summer Reading Program - Week 8

The last week! I had originally been scheduled to miss one day this week for a vacation in Colorado (and my birthday). But life likes to throw us curve balls, and we had to rush back to our home town in New York because of a death in the family. As a result, I missed most of the last week of SRP, so the details below are second hand. But I made it back to Texas in time for the last day of the program!

Reading Program

This week's prize was...

A book!

We had several different titles of varying reading levels available for the children to choose from. This is always their favorite week, and they're always so excited to start going through our selection.

Storytimes

Though my substitutes had little time to prepare, they both did wonderful storytimes. I'm very lucky to be in a system with enough children's librarians to help out in a time of need.

Program

This week's presenter was a magician! We had a good turn out, and I'm sorry I didn't get to see his cool tricks.

Sea How Much...

No picture this week, but we ended our program with 20370 books and hours read. Wow! This year's group went above and beyond last year's record. So proud!

Summer Reading Program - Week 7

Reading Program

Dinosaur bouncy ball, a good prize for all ages! We even had some that were pink with glittery dinosaurs.

Storytimes

Who doesn't love dogs! Apparently not everyone, because attendance was even lower than last week for all three groups.

Programs

Teen Gaming Night

They came! We had fun! I had a Wii set up with Super Smash Brothers Brawl and several tables with board/card games. The boys were entertained with SSBB for a little while, but then they gradually became more interested in what the girls were doing: playing Apples to Apples. If you've never played, you're missing out. It's the best party game in the history of mankind, and doesn't involve embarrassing and/or lewd behavior. Some of the cards went over the teens' heads, mainly those with names of celebrities who were well known before 1999, and if it weren't for the other staff member there, I might have walked away feeling extremely old. But fun was had by all, and were surprised when I announced that we were all done for the night.

Clowning Around

I will admit that I am not a huge fan of clowns. In fact, they are pretty creepy. We managed to find the one clown that does not give me nightmares, for which I'm grateful. His act is more geared toward younger children, and they do not even blink their eyes when he's on stage. We had a good crowd, not too big, not too small, and everyone had a great time. Attendance: 78 people.

Sea How Much...

16280 Books/Hours

Summer Reading Program - Week 6

Reading Program

Toy truck! Though the girls weren't too thrilled about it, the boys were ecstatic! These lasted a bit longer than the other prizes, but not by much.

Storytimes

Wee Read and Toddler Time had an average amount of attendees, but attendance was WAY down for Preschool Storytime (which means we actually had room to move!), which was fortunate considering that our air conditioner decided to conk out on us. This week's theme was camping, and you can find my lesson plan here.

Programs

We had a mad scientist come to visit us, and this program always draws in a big crowd. We had some of the same issues we did with the zoologist. I didn't give out tickets this time, but we had to limit the amount of adults who attended and block others from coming in when we reached our maximum occupancy. Add to this our issues with the A/C, and there were some unhappy patrons. Luckily, the children didn't notice the heat, and the parents were happy to vacate their spaces after just a few minutes in the room. Total attendance: 173 people.

One new issue cropped up this week: day cares. I've had day cares come to summer programs before and were well behaved, but the two that showed up this week were overly excited and talkative. To make matters worse, the presenter was still relatively new at his job, and didn't quite have his crowd control skills down pat, so it was a very loud and chaotic experience for everyone.

Sea How Much... 

13090 books/hours! We've read so many books that I had to expand our sea!

Flannel Friday - Five Little Doggies

I'm happy to be making a comeback with a flannel board I used in my doggie storytime this summer. I used doggy clip art from various sources, laminated them, and then glued velcro to their backs. I was inspired by Melissa's post called Down Around the Corner to write my own song. Thanks, Mel!

Five Little Doggies

Five little doggies in the doggie pet store.

Looking so lonely, they want a child to adore.

When along comes a child with a dollar to pay

She buys a doggie and takes him away.

Check out the weekly roundup hosted by Anna at Future Librarian Superhero. 

Flannel Friday is now on Pinterest! You don't need an account to view our felt boards, but if you'd like an invite, just let me know.

Storytime - Camping

Books

Let's Go Camping by Jan Mader

Toddler

The Big Storm: A Very Soggy Counting Book by Nancy Tafuri

Toddler

Camping Day by Patricia Lakin

Preschool

Let's Play in the Forest While the Wolf is Not Around by Claudia Rueda

Preschool

Special Songs/Rhymes

Let's Go Hiking
Sung to: "Frere Jacques" 

Let's go hiking, let's go hiking,
Along the trail, along the trail.
I love to hike fast,
I love to hike slow,
Along the trail, along the trail.

--from PreschoolEducation.com

Campfire Pokey
Sung to: "Hokey Pokey"

You put your marshmallow in, 

You take your marshmallow out, 

You put your marshmallow in 

and you shake it all about, 

You do the campfire pokey, 

and you turn yourself about,

That's what it's all about, hey!

 

End with: you put your whole dinner in, 

you put your whole dinner out.

Substitute "marshmallow" with hot dog, potato, apple, popcorn, and anything else that you can roast over the campfire. 

--from PreschoolEducation.com

Craft

Toddlers

Campfire

Each child was given a paper plate, two brown construction paper logs, and some red, yellow, and orange tissue paper squares.

Preschoolers

Starry Night

Black construction paper + construction paper crayons + glitter = awesome