Oops, Shhhhh. Shiver, shiver, brrrrrr.
*The children's staff at the library does frequent tours, preschools, scouts, achievement day girls, elementary, and even high school. Our topics range from standard book care, stained glass window, to specific questions as required by whatever manual the kids are being taught from. Today was a Hibernation themed preschool tour that included some book care. The group was adorable, and since I know we do this at least once a year, I'm saving it here :)
Preschool-aged tour on Hibernation and Book Care
. . . as the group gathers, they are greeted with a display. Hidden under a draped black cloth, I have these guys snuggled together in their little den . . . waiting.
Bear, Skunk, Squirrel, Box Turtle, Frog, Snake, Mouse. We don't have the badger, gopher, and bat that are included in the Yolen book.
After a brief introduction where I ask the kids to show me how old they are, congratulate them on being so well behaved and ready for some stories.
After I have, very dramatically pulled back the black curtain, and revealing the above hibernating animals, we read:
OPL Link
These were some well prepared preschoolers, I bet them that they probably knew more about hibernating animals than I did! Some agreed, others--not so sure :)
Now this next book, I would have considered to be too long, but fortuitously, the copy I picked up happened to have a huge cocoa stain (I hope it was cocoa) on one of the pages--a perfect lead into book care! I did ignore it on the first pass, as I was already pulling out the animals from their cave as we encountered them in the book. As for the animals I didn't have, we made little hand shapes together or made noises so that the kids then became the missing animal.
Sleep, Black Bear, Sleep by Jane Yolen
OPL Link
Tip: I had the snake hiding underneath the 'straw' and when we came to that page, I started to turn it --stopped--and told the kids I thought this next page was way too scary and, "I think we should skip this one, okay?"
Of course, I got some brave kids that were confident it was not too scary.
Timidly, I accepted their challenge--and setting book down--I read the text while I slowly (and very timidly) pulled and pulled the long snake out from underneath!
It was a hit!
Then, when it was time for the mouse, I looked, and --oh, oh-- there you are! I found that he had crawled into my pocket :)
Yes, there was even a child that asked if he was real :)
At the end of the book, I told the kids that I had seen something in that book that, oh dear, was terrible, terrible . . . and, as I slowly opened up the pages to get to the stain, I explained how libraries work. That all these books are for checking out and taking home and bringing back, and -- well, it's just like they are your very own books--and I bet you take such good care of all your books, but something happened to this book . . .
Then I showed them the stain, they suggested it was cocoa, I--well, Librarians have creative imaginations, but we do like to curb them when it comes to speculating what substance is actually in the book. The parents agreed :).
The remainder of the tour was a show and tell of the damaged books we have saved to show to our tour groups, along with instructions how to check your damaged library book into the book hospital.
-------
This was a 30 minute tour for 3-5 year olds. You can get away with having visible props and a longer book with this age group as compared to Laptime or Storytime. I think the hibernation part would have been wonderful in a Storytime, not so much in a Laptime. I was also limited by what books were checked in.
I will list more--and preferred--hibernation books as I find them :)
Because sometimes it's hard to go to sleep, right?
A Nap in a Lap by Sarah Wilson
And hibernating is just like a very Looooonnnng nap, isn't it.
Bear Feels Scared by Karma Wilson
Because as we all know, sometimes going to bed can be a little scary.
Hibernation Station by Michelle Meadows
No comments:
Post a Comment