Felt Friday Special edition: Owls

This is a special Felt Friday because it is dedicated to Baby Girl G. Our second rezling baby is due next month, and her parents are decorating with owls in mind. Above is the gift bag that contained my present for the lovely Baby G; I made the felt owls (one on each side) myself, and they are sewn loosely on so they can be snipped off and incorporated into Baby's room.*

Owls! Owls and I go way back: back to Westmount Public Library days, in fact. Being the connoisseur of random WPL tour-guide-themed facts (seriously. Ask me about the flowers in the frieze in the Findlay Rooms. I dare you!), I can even tell you how the owl ended up in the centennial bookmark at right. You might think it is there because of the association of owls with wisdom (via the goddess Athena), and that's a good guess. There is, however, a real-life story about owls at WPL: during the 1995 renovations, the wonderful team behind the work discovered an owl living in a tree in what is now the reading garden; although his habitat was certainly displaced, shall we say, he coped, and he became an unwitting mascot. In the mid-2000s, a children's department logo was designed, using an owl as the central image.

The owl became a beloved symbol for staff, as well. I have wonderful memories of Ann's owl collection in her office, a tradition which the current director, Julie-Anne, has happily continued; I like that her owls are keeping an eye on things in the library (at left). Whenever I see owls, I think of my Westmount friends; I always want to buy owls for them!

The fabulous Lora (my fellow Digestive Librarians' Digest blogger) also has an impressive owl collection in her office at Westmount, to which I have contributed via the fabulous Workshop Boutique here in town). Look at them all chillaxin' there on top of her cabinet! I just want to hang out with them every time I visit, although that little dude at the bottom of the group there looks like he's too cool for me.

My bestie Caroline also has some impressive owls, including the felt one at left inherited from her grandpa (it used to live on his fridge).

Yeah, so, if this is a Felt Friday, I should offer some reading and singing recommendations... Here we go!

Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton (the author and illustrator is was named one of Time Magazine’s DESIGN 100 for his work for Fair Trade in 2007): Houghton blogs about the making of this book here (a fascinating look at owls in art!)

Over in the Hollow by Rebecca Dickinson: I love the somewhat complex melody of the song "Over in the meadow;" when you've mastered it, you can graduate to this Halloween-themed picture book featuring an owl family on a double-page spread, as well as a host of other Halloween characters...

WOW! said the Owl by Tim Hopgood: all about colours, as seen by yonder wide-eyed owl. Deliciously vibrant.

There is also the old favourite (and slightly scary for little folk) Owl Babies by Martin Waddell, and the classic Good Night, Owl! by Pat Hutchins.

To sing and rhyme:

There’s A Wide-Eyed Owl
There’s a wide-eyed owl
With a pointed nose,
He has pointed ears
And claws for toes.
He sits in a tree
And looks at you,
Then flaps his wings and says,
"Who... who... whooo!"

Little Owl (tune: This Old Man)
Little Owl, in the tree,
He is winking down at me.
With a wink, wink, wink, wink,
All through the night,
Little Owl is quite a sight!

Little Owl, in the tree,
He is hooting down at me.
With a hoot, hoot, hoot, hoot,
All through the night,
Little Owl is quite a sight!

Owls Are Sleeping (tune: Frère Jacques)
Owls are sleeping
Owls are sleeping
In their trees
In their trees
Soon it will be nighttime
Soon it will be nighttime
Wake up, owls (clap)
Wake up, owls (clap)

If you’re an owl and you know it
If you’re an owl and you know it, BLINK your eyes,
If you’re an owl and you know it, BLINK your eyes,
If you’re an owl and your know it ,
Than you really ought to show it
If you’re an owl and you know it, BLINK your eyes.

If you’re an owl and you know it, FLAP your wings....
If you’re an owl and you know it, Shout WHOO– HOO....

A final fun fact via The book of general ignorance (accurately skewered by the always-pithy John Crace, but nevertheless interesting... as Crace says, to geeks, anyway....):

"William Shakespeare first used the phrase 'tu-whit, tu-whoo' in his song, 'Winter,' from Love's Labour's Lost [...]. No single owl has ever gone 'tu-whit, tu-whoo.'Barn owls screech. Short-eared owls are largely silent. A long-eared owl makes an extended low pitched 'oo-oo-oo' noise. The owl noise that most resembles 'tu-whit, tu-whoo' is made by Tawny owls. Two of them. The male Tawny - also known as a Brown Owl - calls with a hooting 'hooo-hoo-hooo,' and the female replies with a hoarser 'kew-wick.'

Try that at storytime.


* Can I just say... really hard to take a pic of a hot pink bag with an orange felt. Yeah. That's all.

Penguins

Since these have safely travelled to (and now arrived) at their new home, I think it is safe to post a picture of the penguins custom-made for the winner of the *first-ever* Felt Friday contest! Congratulations again, Sonia!

As you can see, one of the colony was eager to meet his new mistress...

Felt Friday: Penguins

I abide by the actual calendar for storytime themes, and I rarely crack into winter-themed storytimes until after December 21st. It's Canada, for heaven's sake; I have to draw the line somewhere.

So this month I will do an entire storytime about penguins! ... because, um, they're adorable, and I have 5 felt penguins (above) and 1 stuffed penguin (plus, as you can see, 1 truly ugly iceberg), and there are some excellent penguin-y books out there, including:

• Penguins by Liz Pichon (girl loses camera in zoo; penguins take various hilarious photographs of themselves with camera)
• My penguin Osbert by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel (boy receives penguin for Christmas; many herring later, he realises it's not all it's cracked up to be; penguin and boy return to Antarctic). Penguin by Polly Dunbar is another funny version of a similar tale, with a mute penguin.
  
• (and for variety) Turtle's Penguin Day by Valeri Gorbachev.

• Lost and found by Oliver Jeffers: I wrote briefly about Jeffers early in the life of this blog. Lost and Found remains my favourite winter book: not only is Jeffers a genius at balancing text and image, but he is a master of the understated. 2010's The heart and the bottle made me weep profusely while standing in Nicholas Hoare (oh, don't worry - it's not the first time). Basically, the story here is simple: boy meets penguin, boy attempts to return penguin to his rightful home; boy learns about value of friendship.
  This book was also made into a short film.
  
  Here, just watch the trailer already:

Some other penguin storytime material to keep you occupied:

Five perky penguins (rhyme)
Five perky penguins stood on the shore,
One went for a swim and then there were four.

Four perky penguins looked out to sea,
One went swimming and then there were three.

Three perky penguins said, "What can we do?"
One jumped in the water and then there were two.

Two perky penguins sat in the sun,
One swam off and then there was one.

One perky penguin said, "This is no fun!"
He dived into the water (SPLASH!) and then there were none.

In French, penguins are technically manchots, but they are also often known as pingouins. Here is a French song from my colleague Sonia:

Les Pingouins (air : "Sous le pont d’Avignon")
Sous le pont d’Avignon,
On dandine, on dandine
Sous le point d’Avignon,
On dandine tous en rond.

-Les poissons font comme ça (bouche en poisson) et puis encore comme ça
-Les phoques font comme ça (frappe les mains) et puis encore comme ça
-Les pingouins font comme ça (dandine) et puis encore comme ça

*Bonus contest*: Be the first to find the five penguins hidden in the below photo; comment below with the location of each (click on photo to blow it up) to win a hand-crafted felt penguin of your own!

Felt Friday: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

A Felt Friday bonus: an entirely felt Christmas tree, seen in a department store in Toronto recently. This was a full-scale tree, by the way ... perhaps an ambitious project for me for 2011? Maybe a smaller version!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Felt Friday: Ten in the bed

Ten in the bed:

Ten out of the bed:

This is a great song to use to introduce children to different animals: what's fun about it, especially, is the hodge podge of domestic and farm animals. This leaves the door open for a storytime about cats, dogs, pets, or farm life! The song is useful also for the more obvious reason: it's a counting song.

Here it goes:

Ten in the bed
There were ten in the bed,
And the little one said,
“Roll over! Roll over!” [do motions]
So they all rolled over
And one fell out.
[you can also say "And Dog fell out," etc. or even add noises, eg. "Splat!" "Crash" "Meow!"]

There were nine in the bed ... etc.

[before the last verse I make them go "shhhhh" and make the little girl character lie down in bed]
There was one in the bed,
And the little one said,
"Good night." [motion going to sleep]

This felt was a lot of fun to make, because the animals are really small, which means less detail work and they are still oddly cute, if I must say so myself. The bed is extra-big (about 26 cm) and the burgundy bed frame is that harder, skinnier felt, re-enforced with velcro behind the "bedposts" so that it stays stuck on the board even with the weight of ten in the bed. The blue bedspread is a stretchier, knobbly soft felt, glued and stapled on each side (because we all know there can be accidents sometimes!)

Each animal is about the size of one of my fingers. My favourite is the goat (wait, my favourite is almost always the goat, whether we're talking cheese or felts...).

I used this felt this week for the theme "Families." We read Good night, Sam by Marie-Louise Gay and Les Dents de ma Maman by Antoine Guilloppé.

Other songs you can use with this felt, depending on your theme, include "Five little monkeys" (I laminated a set of monkeys from this wonderful website, which my colleague Courtney told me about years ago - I also sometimes use their stories as templates for felts...), "Skinnamarink" (families - love), "Where is Thumbkin" (families - people in them!), or either of the following action rhymes. Enjoy!

Where are my baby mice
Where are the baby mice? (squeak, squeak, squeak)
I do not see them (peek, peek, peek)
Here they come out of the hole in the wall
One, two, three, four, five. That's all!

Come little chickens
"Come little chickens," calls Mother Hen
"It's time to take your nap again." [Beckoning motion]
And under her feathers the small chicks creep, [Fingers of right hand creep into folded left hand]
And she clucks a song till they fall asleep. [Move hands gently in rocking motion]

Felt Friday: Colours

Back by popular demand! I am pretty sure I won't be able to post every Friday (as I did in May), but I will try to revive Felt Fridays once in awhile.

This is a newly-constructed felt. Heartfelt thanks goes out to the staff of Rideau Branch, who helped me make these mittens during The Great Melodramatic Symphony Update of 2010. They cut out the mittens according to my template and colour specifications; I decorated them (my favourite is the grey mitten with the snowflake design.... and yeah, I hand-sewed that swirly thing on the small green mitten).

I'm breaking this felt in this week for storytime, since my theme is colours. Books I will probably use:

• Wow, said the owl
• Le Rêve de Mimi
• De quelle couleur est ta culotte?
• Blue Goose
  

More titles can be found tagged "colours" in my LibraryThing account here. I prefer to read Frederick in the spring; I had also just read Where Is the Green Sheep? a few months ago.

Now, the reason for specificity with mitten colours: I use the mittens during the below song! In fact, each of the mittens above has a "mate," which I am planning to hand out to kids before storytime. They can then come up and match their mitten to the one on the board.

If Your Clothes Have Any Red (tune: “If you’re happy and you know it;” props to Kaya for coming up with extra verses to this song)

If your clothes have any red, any red,
If your clothes have any red, any red,
If your clothes have any red, put your finger on your head,
If your clothes have any red, any red.

Pink – give your neighbour a big wink!
Blue – reach down and touch your shoe!
White – reach up with all your might!
Purple – make yourself comforturple!
Grey – dance your sillies all away!
Green – wave your hand so you are seen
Yellow – smile like a happy fellow
Brown – turn your smile into a frown
Black – put your hands behind your back.

Other people's felts

I think our own Sarah needs to blog about her amazing felts, and I need to work on some new ones myself, but, in the meantime, I offer you this felt made by Julie Danielson of the blog, "Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast." It's of Henkes' Kitten's First Full Moon (good choice!).

Felt Friday #5: Woof!

You know I had to even it out and do dogs. I am totally a cat person (except when it comes to retired racing greyhounds) but dogs may well make for a better storytime. Is it just me, or are there better songs about dogs?

The fluffy white dog is most popular. Also, you totally can't see, but the dogs have BELLS on their collars.

Somehow, these dogs are gravitationally challenged. I suspect it's their giant heads. So I affixed some velcro to them, which keeps them from toppling off the feltboard and confounds small children from stealing them.

Rob Reid tip: bring nylons or stockings to storytime. Check your shame at the door. Place stockings on your head. Sing, "Do your ears hang low?"

Dog books for all your storytime needs are here. Highly recommended, of course, is Bark, George; I also have a soft spot for Harry (at right), the dirty dog, and Angus (at left below).

Only read The Waiting dog to a mature audience, although it is hilarious and will charm your jaded 9-12 year olds with its gory rhymes.

Other songs and rhymes:

Five little puppies
Five little puppies playing in the sun. (hold up hands, fingers extended)
This one saw a rabbit, and he began to run. (bend down first finger)
This one saw a butterfly, and he began to race. (bend down second finger)
This one saw a cat, and he began to chase. (bend down third finger)
This one tried to catch his tail,
and he went round and round. (bend down fourth finger)
This one was so quiet, he never made a sound. (bend down thumb)

The ubiquitous B-I-N-G-O works here, too.

Don't forget the other verses of Do your ears hang low?:
Does your tongue hang down? Does it flop all around? (yeah, just try that one. If my hands are clean, I like to hold my tongue out for this entire verse and see how that goes. Always good for a laugh)
Does your nose hang low? Does it wiggle to and fro?
Continue as creativity allows....

OMG my life is complete. Bark, George is online:

Felt Friday #4: Camo cats

I know, I need to make a better door.

This is to directly accompany "Five little kitty cats playing by the door..." below, but of course you can use these kitties for other songs and stories! I think the white kitty above looks particularly stunned by my photography.... Also, apparently no one feeds brown or camo kitty.

Stories: I spent awhile being moderately obsessed with Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel; Kitten's First Full Moon (Caldecott winner!) is also good for the toddler set (be sure to make licking noises). Other favs here.

Songs:

Five little kitty cats
Five little kitty cats playing near the door
One ran and hid inside and then there were four.
Four little kitty cats underneath a tree
One heard a dog bark and then there were three.
Three little kitty cats wondering what to do
One ran to chase a bird and then there were two.
Two little kitty cats sitting in the sun
One ran to catch his tail and then there was one.
One little kitty cat looking for some fun
He saw a butterfly and then there were none.

The Puppy and the Kitty Cat
Here is a little puppy (Hold up left fist)
Here is a kitty cat (Hold up right fist)
Puppy goes to sleep (Put clenched fist, fingers down on lap)
Curled up on his mat.
Kitty creeps up softly, (Move fingers of right hand slowly toward left hand)
Tickles puppies chin (Tickle thumb of left hand with finger of right hand)
Puppy wakes up quickly! (Lift left fist)
See the chase begin! (Have left fist "chase" right.)

Bonus:

Felt Friday #3: Preschool prehistoric

This is quite possibly my favourite of all the felts I have made. I also had no idea when I made it how popular it would be, or how many 3-year olds know what a pteranodon is. Humbling. My T Rex's arms kept coming un-glued (he is rawther delicate); eventually, I stapled them on. You may notice, also, that my pteranodon lost his right claw in an unfortunate run-in with a small child a few years ago.

In fact, this was my storytime theme last week, which reminds me, I need to make up French name labels. We do a bilingual family storytime at Rideau Library; despite the fact that I do know that children are at different levels (and especially toddlers should be banished to their own program, ideally!), we have low numbers and this is the only way I can guarantee more than two attendees every week. Inclusive, that's me.

Dino books here! Dinosnores is particularly fun; also, don't forget classics like Barton's Dinosaurs, dinosaurs. En français, il y a: Pop mange de toutes les couleurs par Pierrick Bisinski et Ce jour-là, chez les dinosaures by Shaheen Bilgrami (dextérité manuelle requises!)

Songs:
All Around the Swamp (tune: "The Wheels on the bus")
(most recently sung by Laura and I while doing hill training - anything to distract ourselves!)
The pteranodon's wings went flap, flap, flap,
Flap, flap, flap, flap, flap, flap,
The pteranodon's wings went flap, flap, flap,
All around the swamp.

The tyrannosaurus rex went grr, grr, grr,
Grr, grr, grr, grr, grr, grr,
The tyrannosaurus rex went grr, grr, grr,
All around the swamp.

The triceratops' horns went poke, poke, poke,
Poke, poke, poke, poke, poke, poke,
The Triceratops' horns went poke, poke, poke,
All around the swamp.

Additional verses:
The brontosaurus went munch, munch, munch.
The stegosaurs' tail went spike, spike, spike.

The dinosaurs went zzz, zzz, zzz,
Zzz, zzz, zzz, zzz, zzz, zzz,
The dinosurs went zzz, zzz, zzz,
All around the swamp.
Shhhhhhhh.

Translated by my lovely colleague Mélissa:

Les dinosaures (air: L'autobus)
Les ailes du pteranodon font swish, swish, swish
Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish
Les ailes du pteranodon font swish, swish, swish,
Toute la journée.

Les cornes du stégosaure font toc, toc, toc...
Les dents du tyranosaure font grr, grr, grr...
Les pattes du brontausaure font tape, tape, tape...

Dino-Pokey
You put your claws in,
You take your claws out,
You put your claws in,
And you scratch 'em all about.
You do the dino pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

Additional verses:
...feet in...feet out...stomp them all about
...teeth in...teeth out...chomp them all about
...tail in...tail out...wag it all about

Five enormous dinosaurs
Five enormous dinosaurs
Letting out a roar--
One went away, and
Then there were four.
Four enormous dinosaurs
Crashing down a tree--
One went away, and
Then there were three.
Three enormous dinosaurs
Eating tiger stew--
One went away, and
Then there were two.
Two enormous dinosaurs
Trying to run--
One ran away, and then there was one.
One enormous dinosaur,
Afraid to be a hero--
He went away, and
Then there were zero.

I'm a Mean Old Dinosaur (tune: I'm a little Tea Pot)
I'm a mean old dinosaur (get the kids to make "mean" faces. Resist the urge to laugh....)
Big and tall
Here is my tail, and here are my claws.
When I get all hungry, (rub your stomach)
I just growl (make that growl count....)
Look out kids, I'm on the prowl!

Felt Friday #2: Time's a-wastin!

There are many different forms of literacy, and reading a clock is one of them. In the past few years, I've seen a slew of new books about reading a clock, many with great moveable parts, including Telling Time with Big Mama Cat and Quelle heure est-il, Mimi?

If I was going to re-do this felt, I would make the arms of the clock out of something more durable than felt, but still reasonably light so they don't flop around: maybe leather? Or plastic?

Some tick-tock songs for you:

Clock Song (tune: "The Wheels on the Bus")
The hands on the clock go round and round,
Round and round, round and round.
The hands on the clock go round and round.
To tell us the time.

The short hand on the clock
Goes from number to number,
Number to number, number to number.
The short hand on the clock
Goes from number to number.
To tell us the time.

The long hand on the clock
Goes around by fives,
Around by fives, around by fives.
The long hand on the clock
Goes around by fives.
To tell us the minutes.

Hickory Dickory Dock
HIckory Dickory Dock,
The mouse ran up the clock;
The clock struck One,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory Dickory Dock!

Hickory Dickory Dock,
The mouse ran up the clock;
The clock struck Two,
The mouse said BOO!
Hickory Dickory Dock!

Hickory Dickory Dock,
The mouse ran up the clock;
The clock struck Three,
The mouse said Wheeeee...
As he slid down the clock!

Felt Friday #1: "Things that go!"!

I can hear you now: "Whaaaa? Cars and a bus and some animals? Huh?"

Also, the first thing you should know about my felts is they are frequently not to scale. Look - I got the colours right. Bite me already. Besides, the giant bunny makes me laugh.

I like to combine Ye Olde Traditional Transportation-themed storytime with The Seals on the Bus. Some other favourite stories are on my LibraryThing here.

My advice re. Seals: do the animals from the book, and then let them pick others to do using the felts you have and just using improv: they love the interactivity of that. Save something quiet for the end, though, like the bunnies; otherwise you will have a room-full of hyperactive children and no script left. Oh, and be sure to plug your nose for the skunk.

Here are some songs for you.

Windshield Wiper (tune: “I’m a little teapot”)
I’m a windshield wiper,
Watch me wipe
First on the left side,
Then on the right.
I just love to wipe, and wipe and wipe.
I can wipe all day and night.

Old MacDonald’s Truck (tune: “Old MacDonald had a farm”)
Old MacDonald had a truck, E-I-E-I-O.
And into town he drove his truck, E-I-E-I-O.
With a bump, bump here,
And a bump, bump there,
Here a bump, there a bump.
Old MacDonald had a truck, E-I-E-I-O.

Old MacDonald had a truck, E-I-E-I-O.
And into town he drove his truck, E-I-E-I-O.
With a beep, beep here,
And a beep, beep there,
Here a beep, there a beep.

Old MacDonald had a truck, E-I-E-I-O.
Old MacDonald had a truck, E-I-E-I-O.
And into town he drove his truck, E-I-E-I-O.
With a vroom, vroom here,
And a vroom, vroom there,
Here a vroom, there a vroom.
Old MacDonald had a truck, E-I-E-I-O.

The Wheels on the Bus is an obvious choice. Here is a French version:

Les roues de l'autobus
Les roues de l'autobus roulent, roulent
Roulent, roulent, roulent, roulent
Les roues de l'autobus roulent, roulent
Toute la journée.

Le consucteur de l'autobus dit: "À l'arrière”…
Les essuie-glaces de l'autobus font swish, swish, swish…
La porte de l’autobus ouvre et ferme…
La monnaie dans l’autobus fait, clinc, clinc, clinc…
Les bébés dans l’autobus font wouah, wouah, wouah…
Les gens dans l’autobus font shh, shh, shh….
Les parents dans l’autobus disent je t’aime, je t’aime, je t’aime…
Le klaxon de l'autobus fait tut, tut, tut…
Les passagers de l'autobus font bomp, bomp, bomp…
Le consucteur de l'autobus dit: "Au revoir”…

Seals On The Bus
The seals on the bus go errp, errp, errp, …
The tigers on the bus go roar, roar, roar, …
The geese on the bus go honk, honk, honk, …
The ducks on the bus go quack, quack, quack, ….
The rabbits on the bus go up and down, up and down, …
The monkeys on the bus go eeeh, eeeh, eeeh, …
The vipers on the bus go hiss, hiss, hiss, …
The sheep on the bus go baah, baah, baah, …
The skunks on the bus go ssss, ssss, ssss, ….
The people on the bus go help, help, help, …

And if you're really desperate to entertain the little squirmy worms for awhile, embark on this one...
The Wheels on the Racecar
The wheels on the racecar go round and round,
Round and round, round and round,
The wheels on the racecar go round and round,
All around the track.

The engine in the racecar goes vroom-vroom-vroom,
Vroom-vroom-vroom, vroom-vroom-vroom,
The engine in the racecar goes vroom-vroom-vroom,
All around the track.

The driver in the racecar yells “Go-Go-Go!”
“Go-Go-Go!” “Go-Go-Go!”
The driver in the racecar yells “Go-Go-Go!”
All around the track.

The racecar on the track goes zip-zip-zip
Zip-zip-zip, zip-zip-zip
The racecar on the track goes zip-zip-zip
All around the track.

The driver in the racecar steers and steers,
Steers and steers, steers and steers,
The driver in the racecar steers and steers,
All around the track.

The racecar mechanics go zizz-zizz-zizz,
Zizz-zizz-zizz, zizz-zizz-zizz,
The racecar mechanics go zizz-zizz-zizz,
All around the track.

The gas from the gas can goes GLUG-GLUG-GLUG,
GLUG-GLUG-GLUG, GLUG-GLUG-GLUG,
The gas from the gas can goes GLUG-GLUG-GLUG,
All around the track.

The driver in the racecar speeds on back,
Speeds on back, speeds on back,
The driver in the racecar speeds on back,
All around the track.

The driver in the racecar makes his move,
Makes his move, makes his move,
The driver in the racecar makes his move,
All around the track.

The driver in the racecar zooms to the lead,
Zooms to the lead, zooms to the lead,
The driver in the racecar zooms to the lead,
All around the track.

The checkered flag goes swish-swish-swish,
Swish-swish-swish, swish-swish-swish,
The checkered flag goes swish-swish-swish,
All around the track.

The wheels on the racecar go round and round,
Round and round, round and round,
The wheels on the racecar go round and round,
All around the track.

Announcement: Felt Fridays coming soon!

I had a few positive comments about those felt ducks who made an appearance on this blog last week, so I thought I would try something new here. As you know, my first love in public library services is readers' advisory, and many posts here have been about RA.... but....

I also struggle valiantly against children's services taking over my life. My job is to serve all ages at my branch, which means, on a good day, literary conversations about the next Booker compete with a rollicking storytime about monkeys, and maybe a Twilight read-alike recommendation. On a bad day, it means being told how to spell Margaret Atwood (how stupid do I look?) while filling the printer with paper (x 100), trouble-shooting the PCs (remember to extract the pencil from the floppy drive!), tripping over toys in the early literacy corner, shouting over screaming babies, all while conducting a "conversation" with a monosyllabic teen about his 2 hour+ Facebook use and the need of other individuals visiting the library to use the Internet as well. Man, I really do love my job.

Anyway, I do children's programming, and I like the balance of serving all ages, except that there is always SO MUCH to do for children's programming. Luckily, after 8+ years of storytime experience, I am beginning to get good at pulling the occasional program out of my hat. I have a special place in my heart for felts. When I train new staff who are doing programming for kids, I always say, do what you love. Don't do a stick story if you hate stick stories. Don't do a tell-and-draw if, like me, you suck at tell-and-draw (10 seconds into mine: "It's a whale!" Thanks, kid). Unless you hadn't already noticed, kids can smell fear. Do what you are comfortable doing in your storytime, or practice something so you become comfortable with it. I don't recommend practicing on your family members, though, unless you want your husband to hate every children's book except for Bark, George (well, it is an amazing book, you have to admit. Another great example of the willing suspension of disbelief).

Felts are my security blanket. Not only are they tactile and interactive (given you have indestructible felts and a secure board, and preferably children older than 2), they are a great way to break the ice in storytime: set up the felt beforehand and ask kids if they can tell you what today's storytime is about. Be sure to make outrageous guesses yourself: "Did you say toothbrushes? I don't see any toothbrushes!" "Bellybuttons? I don't think so!" They can also act as marketing if your storytime room, like mine, can be viewed by the public. I leave my felts up unless another group is using our room, so people coming and going can see through the glass the types of programs libraries do. This is also why I never leave a messy program room: duh. Well, except for now, when it's full of boxes for the migration.

So, I hereby christen Fridays on this blog Felt Fridays! I will be posting a photo of one of my handmade (yes, by me! As the wise Kaya once muttered as she and I grimly glitter-fied some felts years ago, F.A.C.E. did teach us some life skills!) felts and some accompanying songs/rhymes/stories in French and English.

Have fun, children's programmers.