ARR!!! We be Pirates!

Ahoy!  Pirates!

Books recommended or used:

Half Pint Pete by Bardhan-Quallen

Pajama Pirates by Kramer

Pirates don’t change diapers by Long

Pirates Go to School by Demas

Sloop John B:  A Pirate’s Tale by Jardine

Tough Boris by Fox

 

 

We find a pirate outfit in the apron pockets:  treasure map, scarf, earring, eye patch, treasure chest, binoculars!  I put it all on and then we read:

 

 

 

This is just a fun little book about young pirates!  Then we read:

 

 

Then it's time for a finger action rhyme:

Ten Little Pirates

Ten little pirates stood in a row

(Hold up ten fingers)

Their bowed their heads to the captain so!

(Lower and raise fingers)

They marched to the left;

They marched to the right.

They shouted “Yo Ho!”

(Cup hand by mouth)

And gave their captain a fright!

(Hands over heart)

 

 

 And then a sea-shanty-like action song:

The Day I Went to Sea Song

When I was one (hold up one finger)

I sucked my thumb (mock sucking it)

The day I went to sea.

I jumped aboard a pirate ship. (Jump)

And the captain said to me (point to self)

We’re going this way (lean, sway, right)

And that way (lean, sway, point left)

And forward and backward

Across the deep blue sea. (spin in circle)

When I was two, I tied my shoe,

When I was three, I scraped my knee

When I was four, I shut the door,

When I was five, I learned to dive…

 

 

Here's the flannel board :

 

 

 

 

This Old Pirate Song

This old pirate, has a hat

Where a skull and crossbones sat.

With an Aye, Aye, Aye, and an AARGH Matey!
(Salute three times, then fist in the air)

This old pirate sailed the sea!
(Make a wavy motion with your hand)

Additional verses:
This old pirate has a shirt
Wears it with a little dirt.

This old pirate has a hook,

Uses it to hold a book.

This old pirate has a map,

Keeps it handy in his lap.

This old pirate has a bird,

Barely knows a single word.

This old pirate has a ship,

Travels the world in a single trip.

This old pirate looking for treasure,

More than anyone can measure!

 

Polly the Pirate Parrot Puppet visits:

 

 

She teaches the children how to speak 'Pirate'!

All of the letters start with an A:  Ahoy!  Arrgh!  Avast!  Aye Aye!

Yay!  We're Pirates!

This storytime was boatloads of fun!

 

We're Goin' to the Zoo!

Books Shared or Recommended:

Color Zoo by Ehlert

Dear Zoo by Campbell
Elephant’s Wrestling Game by Sierra
From Head to Toe by Carle
Life-Size Zoo by Komiya
May I Bring A Friend? By De Regnier
Wild About You by Sierra
Zoolooking by Fox

We find Five little monkey finger puppets in the story time apron this month.  Where can we go to see monkies?  Yes, the jungle!  But, is there some place closer?  Yes!  The zoo!

I start out by reading Dear Zoo by Campbell.  This is a pop-up version and the children seem to love it as they often say, "Again!  Again!"  I point out that it's a made up story.  We don't go to the zoo to get pets!  We go to the zoo to look at animals and leave them there.  Then I show them Life-Size Zoo a book which is full of facts, and not made up (non-fiction).  We look at some of the life size photos of animals and I point out some of the facts. 

Then it's time for an action rhyme:

The elephants goes like this and like that.

He's terribly big (Hold hands up high)

And he's terribly fat!  (Hold hands wide)

He has no fingers, He has no toes!  (Wiggle them)

But, oh!  My goodness!  What a nose!

(Make your arms into the elephant's trunk)

Flannel Board Story:  Lou from the Zoo

I show the children the photo of the habitat of an animal.  Then I say, "My name is Lou.  (Point to self.)  I work at the Zoo.  (point south or wherever your zoo may be.)  I feed all of the animals.  (I point to the children!)  Can you guess who? 

Then I give them clues such as, I live in the trees and have a long tail and eat bananas.  I keep giving the clues even when a child guesses correctly so that everyone is on board.

Here is a picture of the 'habitats' which were randomly taken from an old book:

Here are the animals:

I actually hold up the animals, covered by their habitat, one at a time.

Puppet time!  I get the five monkies onto my fingers and have the children show me their five monkies and the other hand becomes 'Mr Crocodile' or 'Mr Alligator', whatever they are used to calling the animal in this rhyme:

Five little monkies swinging in a tree.

Teasing Mr. Crocodile, 'You can't catch me!'

Along came Mr. Crocodile, quiet as can be,

And SNAPPED that monkey right out of the tree!

Now it's time to say good-bye!  Say good-bye!   Say good-bye!

Now it's time to say good-bye!  I'll see you in the bookmobile!



Frogs!

Frogs!  Frogs!  Frogs!

Books Shared or Recommended:

Burris           Five Green and Speckled Frogs

Faulkner      The Wide-Mouthed Frog
Kalan            Jump, Frog, Jump
London        Froggy Gets Dressed
Seeger         The Foolish Frog
Whippo       Little White Duck

We find frogs, a fly, and a log in the storytime apron this month!

One of the frogs lost a goggly eye, so we call him 'Winky'! 

Five Green and Speckled Frogs

Sat on a hollowed log,

Eating some most delicious bugs.  Yum!  Yum!

One jumped into a pool,  

Where it was nice and cool.

Then there were four green speckled frogs.

Glub, Glub!

Repeat until there are no more frogs.
The children can make their forearms into logs and five fingers of the other hand into frogs.
 

 Then I read the pop-up book, The Wide-Mouthed Frog.

 

 

Little Frog

A little frog in a pond am I, (Form frog with fist)

Hippity, hippity, hop.  (Jump that fist!)

And I can jump into the air so high, (up it goes)

Hippity, hippity, hop.  (Repeat jumping motion)

 

 

IN THE POND
Tune: "The Farmer In The Dell"
 
The frog lives in the pond,
His tongue is oh so long.
It reaches high to catch a fly
And then he sings this song.

Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit
Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit
High, ho just watch him go
His tongue is oh so long!

 

Little Froggy

See the little froggy swimming in the pool.
The water is great, It's nice and cool.
When he gets all cleaned up, out he'll hop.
Squeaky clean from bottom to top.
(point to your head and toes)
See the little froggy on the lily pad.
Trying to catch flies, she's getting sad.
When she catches one she'll gobble it up.
Back in the water she'll go KERPLOP!

 

 

Then it's time for a visit from the puppets!  I tell the story of The Princess and the Frog.

A princess loves to play catch with her golden ball, but it falls into a well.  She cries.  A frog says that he can help her but what will she give him?  The frog doesn't want her dresses, her jewels, or her ball.  He wants her to love him and be his friend always.  She promises.  Anything to get her ball back!  But when the frog brings it up, the princess runs away.  She didn't even say 'thank you'!

Next day, the frog comes to the castle.  The King, her father, makes the princess do as she promised.

You can find this complete story in the 398.2ish section of your library.

Then the frog turns into a handsome prince and they are so happy that they get married and live happily ever after! 

 

The End!

 

Fourth of July Parade!

We marched in our city's Fourth of July Parade!  It was a blast and easy to do!  I would encourage you other bookmobile librarians out there to give it a try!


Here's what we did:We decorated the bookmobile, of course.  That is, we added crepe paper, flags and literary characters such as the wild things you can barely see in this photo:

 



We had about 15 people total.  A few were volunteers but most were library workers.  Several dressed up as fictional characters.





The Cat in the Hat pulled Thing 1 and Thing 2 (his two daughters) in a wagon--until one of the wheels fell off one block into the parade.  The wagon was thrown into the bookmobile, along with Thing 1 and Thing 2.  Thing 1 eventually walked with her Papa, but Thing 2, being only two years old, rode shot gun with my daughter and eventually fell asleep.  Here is a photo before the wheels fell off:



Here is a photo of my daughter and our dog Pearl, riding shotgun:



Little Red Riding Hood passed out library bookmarks.  The evil witch teased people with her poisoned apple.  Snow White was part of the library book cart drill team of which there were four total.  They did not rehearse until just before the start of the parade.  They had four moves which were started with the blast from a whistle.  Very easy and fun, except you need a little physical stamina!

  Here is a photo of my husband dressed up for his book cart drill team fun:

 

This was such a blast!  The only problem was that the parade went too quickly!  Try to get into a parade if your community has one.  It's great outreach for the library.  I can't tell you how many kids shouted out "Miss Leslie!"  or "Library Lady!" or plain old "Bookmo!".  A great time was had by all.