http://storytiming.com/

http://storytimekatie.wordpress.com/

http://storytime.readingchick.com/

other fun arts & crafts blogs

http://www.thecraftycrow.net/

http://www.artful-adventures.co.uk/

Found a fun “bug” story time song online last week and wanted to share…..Liz

(Warning: once you get the tune into your head you can’t get it out

Caterpillar (Sung to: “Addams Family”)

I’m a striped caterpillar
I’m such a chubby feller
I love to eat and eat,
Those leaves are such a treat

Refrain:

My tummy is fat (snap, snap / or clap, clap)
I like it like that (snap, snap / or clap, clap)
I wiggle around
I jiggle around
I wiggle around
My tummy is fat (snap, snap / or clap, clap)

- great idea for game for phonological awareness

http://www.clarke.public.lib.ga.us/hqdepts/childrens/storytimeonline.html

http://www.kcls.org/parents/kidsandreading/clc/app%20d-1%20center%20story%20time%20outline.pdf

http://www.earlylit.net/workshopmats/ecrrstorytime/handideasskillsST.pdf

http://www.earlylit.net/

http://www.learningandreadingpartners.com/filesharing/files/110.doc

http://media.putfile.com/ems-story-time

Here is the compilation of craft ideas for toddlers. Thanks so much for
all your input!

Pumpkin pie:

Circle of brown construction paper

Larger circle of lighter brown or cream color paper

Use glue stick to glue the dark brown circle to the lighter brown/cream
circle, then rub glue stick all over the dark brown circle. Sprinkle
lightly with cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice (you do the sprinkling!).
It’s especially nice at this time of year.

A variation is pizza: red circle with scraps for pizza toppings. Both
are cute!

Crayon resist scribble pictures are fun — have the toddlers scribble a

picture (the more crayon the better — and be sure to use a good brand

of crayon), then take a paintbrush and watercolor over it — they’ll be

fascinated to see where the paint doesn’t stick!

I find one of the favorites are shapes with stickers to stick on. Ex:
pumpkin and circle shapes for faces or green trees to “decorate”

I love anything with stickers, for example, I do a

tree picture on card stock or construction paper. I

give them crayons and apple stickers in the fall. I do

a similar one in the summer with green foamie leaves

and bug stickers. I also love the foamies we get from

OT. Plus, my twos love dot markers.

We love stick puppets here at Snohomish. These can be as simple as a cut
out shape, a die cut shape, a small picture that relates to your
stories, etc. We put them on large craft sticks or straws with tape. If
you have volunteers, they can cut the shapes out and mount them ahead of
time. Otherwize the caregivers can help the toddlers with this. We
decorate with stickers coloring, etc. We also love to stick stickers on
various shapes. The stickers don’t have to be fancy, simple dots from
the stationery store are fine. Coloing is popular and paperbag puppets,
though these are a little more complicated.

apple tree with hands – use side of hand for trunk (brown). fingers for
apples, green hand prints for leaves. very cute and easy.

With velcro, this may be too old fashioned but we have cut out heavy
paper/card board in the shape of a shoe, then punched large holes in
them The kids thread thick string through the holes, then their moms
tied them.

We have also made little books with blank pages then with the kids made
touch and feel books. The kids glue in fabric softener (for the smell)
cotton puffs, sandpaper, shiny paper, etc.

One of my favorite crafts is to make a construction paper fall leaf
mosaic. I cut 9×12″ light blue paper into 6×9″ pieces, cut “trunks” out
of brown paper, about 1.5×4″ in size, and then tear a bunch of red,
orange, yellow, green, and brown construction paper into smallish
pieces–you decide how small for your kids, but it could be 1/2 inch to
an inch square. The kids glue their tree trunk onto the blue paper, then
decide what color leaves their tree has, and glue them in a bunch at the
top of their tree trunk, and/or put them “On the ground” at the base of
the tree trunk. It’s fairly independent and the different “trees” they
produce are very lovely!

We did a fabric pumpkin craft today that was quite popular and involved
no cutting or gluing. Take an 18″ square piece of fabric in fall
colors/print, lay it out on the table or floor, and set a roll of cheap
toilet paper in the center of the wrong side of the fabric. Tuck the
sides of the fabric up over the roll and into the hole in the center,
leaving it a little puffy on the sides. Scrunch up a piece of brown
lunch bag or grocery bag for a stem and poke it into the hole. Twist a
green pipe cleaner around the stem and curl the ends for a “vine.” The
little ones need help to manipulate things, but there is no mess & it
turns out quite cute!

We made clothespin butterflys, folded a

fireman’s hat, made a rocking farmers truck (had a picture of a truck
that

they colored and then taped it to a small paper plate that was folded in

half. We also made a sunflower (again it was precut ) kids and adults
colored it and taped a green construction paper stem to it. The moms
got

creative and cut the petals of the flowers and folded in every other
one,

they looked cute. Also tissue paper flowers, everyone was given three

different colored squares and then secure with pipe cleaner, a moon and

stars mobile ( a straw and yarn).

A great fall craft project. cut out a large leaf shape and cut out the
middle so there is just a thin outline of a leaf. Stick it to contact
paper and supply a multitude of different color tissue paper. Have the
children stick the tissue paper to the contact paper. when they are
done, stick another piece of contact paper on top and have the parent
cut out around the leaf. It makes a wonderful suncatcher!

My twos love to paint and, contrary to popular expectations, do not make
an unholy mess of the room. I give them each one coloring sheet, one
teaspoon of paint, and a brush. (They can’t spread one teaspoon of paint
that far and wide!) I have a dishpan of suds waiting for them when
they’re finished painting.

I’ve found that:

1- Little ones do quite well with small parts, more so than most people
expect.

2- Little ones like to make things to wear – hats, headbands, et al, but
not masks.

To relate these thoughts to fall I’d:

1- paint pumpkins/leaves/apples/etc.

2- make farmers hats.

3- stick apple stickers onto cutout trees.

4- glue snipped up yarn to a squirrel’s tail to make it fuzzy.

5- glue leaves together to make pictures. (Did you ever make a Leaf
Man?)

6- glue leaves, pumpkins, apples, corn, … to a headband to wear for
Thanksgiving. (An alternative to this is to make a smaller band that
fits around a baby food jar. Prepare two such jars, perforate the lids,
and you have a set of salt and pepper shakers for the holiday table.)

7- Dress a paper doll scarecrow.

“Notice of Implementation of Constitution and Citizenship Day on September 17 of Each Year.” Federal Register, May 24, 2005 (Vol. 70, No. 99): pp. 19727-19728.

Constitution Day, September 17, 2005 (National Constitution Center)

Charters of Freedom: The Constitution of the United States (The National Archives and Records Administration)
View high resolution images and read transcriptions of the Constitution. Read a history of its creation, and biographical overviews of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, the nation’s Founding Fathers.

Centuries of Citizenship: A Constitutional Timeline (National Constitution Center). This remarkable online experience highlights the key dates and events that characterize the 200 years of our Nation’s constitutional history. View headlines, read news stories, explore maps and graphs, hear audio clips, and listen to counterpoint debates about the Constitution.

The American Constitution: A Documentary Record (The Avalon Project at Yale Law School)
97 documents pertaining to the roots of the Constitution, revolution and independence, credentials of the members of the Federal Convention, the Constitutional Convention, ratification and formation of the government.

I need your help again fellow librarians. A parent asked me if there

is a way for her to find out what grade level a book is. Her daughter

is in 3rd grade but has a level of 4th and 5th grade reading level and

she wanted to find out how to find a grade level of a book for when she

purchased a book.

I didn’t know what to tell her. This is really good question. As an

elementary librarian, I should know this, but sadly to say I don’t. I’m

new to this!

Thank you for your help!

I’m also a “newbie,” but I remember from one of my courses that

Titlewave (Follett website) gives suggested reading levels on books (though I

believe they may only be for textbooks- not sure). Another way to

investigate would be to search the archives of professional journals such

as School Library Journal to see if the particular book was reviewed,

and for which age group it was suggested.

Cindy,

I have added a link to Kathy Schrock’s web page on how to use Edward Fry’s Readability graph which is one of the easiest ways to determine reading level. http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/fry/fry.html

Another way is to use lexile scores. Lexile measure is a number indicating the reading demand of the text in terms of the semantic difficulty (vocabulary) and syntactic complexity (sentence length). http://www.lexile.com/EntrancePageFlash.html

The SMOG conversion tables were developed by Harold C. McGraw, Office

of

Educational Research, Baltimore Co. Public Schools, Towson, MD.

The SMOG Readability Formula is a simple method you can use to

determine the

reading level of your written materials. If a person reads at or above

a

grade level, they will understand 90-100% of the information.

Generally, you

need to aim for a reading level of sixth grade or less. In addition, to

ensure that the text is clear and readable, read your draft aloud.

How to use the SMOG formula:

1. Count 10 sentences in a row near the beginning of your material.

Count 10

sentences in the middle. Count 10 sentences near the end. (30 total

sentences)

2. Count every word with three or more syllables in each group of

sentences,

even if the same word appears more than once.

3. Add the total number of words counted. Use the SMOG Conversion Table

I to

find the grade level.

If your material has fewer than 30 sentences, follow the instructions

for

“SMOG on Shorter Passages” and use SMOG Conversion Table II.

Word Counting Rules:[PARA]* A sentence is any group of words ending

with a

period, exclamation point, or question mark. [PARA]* Words with hyphens

count-as-one-word. [PARA]* Proper nouns are counted. [PARA]* Read

numbers

out loud to decide the number of syllables. [PARA]* In long sentences

with

colons or semicolons followed by a list, count each part of the list

with

the beginning phrase of the sentence as an individual sentence. [PARA]*

Count abbreviations as the whole word they represent.

SMOG for Shorter Passages (< 30 sentences)

Use this formula and SMOG Conversion Table II for material containing

less

than 30 sentences, but not less than 10 sentences.

1. Count the total number of sentences in the material.

2. Count the number of words with 3 or more syllables.

3. Find the total number of sentences and the corresponding conversion

number in SMOG Conversion Table II.

4. Multiply the total number of words with 3 or more syllables by the

conversion number. Use this number as the word count to find the

correct

grade level from Table I.

SMOG Conversion Table I[PARA](for longer materials) SMOG Conversion

Table

II[PARA](use on material with < 30 sentences)

Word Count Grade Level # of Sentences Conversion #

0-2 4 29 1.03

3-6 5 28 1.07

7-12 6 27 1.1

13-20 7 26 1.15

21-30 8 25 1.2

31-42 9 24 1.25

43-56 10 23 1.3

57-72 11 22 1.36

73-90 12 21 1.43

91-110 13 20 1.5

111-132 14 19 1.58

133-156 15 18 1.67

157-182 16 17 1.76

183-210 17 16 1.87

211-240 18 15 2.0

14 2.14

13 2.3

12 2.5

11 2.7

10 3.0

Another Readability Option

The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Index

While the SMOG Readability Formula is an easy way to determine

readability,

another option is the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Index. This test is

automatically calculated on your Microsoft Word documents. After

Microsoft

Word completes a grammar check (under tools in the tool bar),

readability

statistics are displayed.

One of the formulas that is similar to the SMOG formula is the

Flesch-Kincaid formula. This index computes readability based on the

average

number of syllables per word and the average number of words per

sentence.

The score in this case indicates a grade-school level. For example, a

score

of 8.0 means that an eighth grader would understand the document.

Standard

writing approximately equates to the seventh- to eighth-grade level.

However, for Patient Education for U documents, the recommended reading

level is around the sixth grade.

You put your shelf marker IN
You take the book OUT
You KEEP your shelf marker in
And you HOLD the book about
You do the hokey pokey
and you turn yourself around
That=B9s what it=B9s all about!

You put the book back IN
You take the shelf marker Out
You put your shelf marker In
See what another book=B9s about
You do the hokey pokey
and you turn yourself around
That=B9s what it=B9s all about!

(These first 2 stanzas are credited
to Marjorie Pettersen, from Torrington, CT. her email is:
controller53@excite.com)

THIRD STANZA:

You take your book with you
You take your marker too
Wait your turn in line
For the computer to check you out
You do the hokey pokey
And you turn yourself around
That’s what it’s all about!

This stanza is credited to Barb Engvall. From Selah, Wa. Her email is
macbarb@charter.net

Thanks to all of you for sharing!!
This has been the funniest lesson I have ever used! Thank you so much to
Marjorie for sharing it with us, and for those adding the extra stanzas!
When I sent out my post today, I deleted most of the song, so there wasn’t
so much to scroll down to. I am including all 3 stanzas with this post, so
those of you who missed it the first time around, will have it. I cannot
take credit for any of it. I am only the lucky recipient of such a
wonderful idea!

Shelf Marker Hokey Pokey
to the tune of “Hokey Pokey”.

You put your shelf marker IN
You take the book OUT
You KEEP your shelf marker in
And you HOLD the book about
You do the hokey pokey
and you turn yourself around
That=B9s what it=B9s all about!

You put the book back IN
You take the shelf marker Out
You put your shelf marker In
See what another book=B9s about
You do the hokey pokey
and you turn yourself around
That=B9s what it=B9s all about!

(These first 2 stanzas are credited
to Marjorie Pettersen, from Torrington, CT. her email is:
controller53@excite.com)

THIRD STANZA:

You take your book with you
You take your marker too
Wait your turn in line
For the computer to check you out
You do the hokey pokey
And you turn yourself around
That’s what it’s all about!

This stanza is credited to Barb Engvall. From Selah, Wa. Her email is
macbarb@charter.net

Thanks to all of you for sharing!!

http://www.websterschools.org/classrooms/state_library/genres.html

———————————————–
Perhaps with the upcoming election looming, an “Elect
to Read” or “Vote for Books” theme and have the same
kind of idea with the books from each genre added by
tally sheet or something. I intend to have that
bulletin board up until at least January anyway.

Another idea I saw was the Lay’s potato chip theme,
had an owl eating a bag of chips (books entitled
“Books, can’t read just one” with all different
genres…..I may use that the other half of the year.
——————————————————-
One year I did a basic tree design: added leaves or
took them off, made ornaments, hearts, etc.
——————————————————
A really simple one that I use as a display not a
bulletin board is “Check these Out!” and then I keep
displayed there new books. You could put up book
jackets of new books or book reviews that students
write, book posters, etc.
——————————————————-
I did a simple one that I left up the entire year.
The bulletin board read, “All of Emerson (our school
name) Reads.” I had pictures of every staff member
reading something….book, magazine, to their class,
etc. It was a big hit with everyone…staff, parents,
and students.
——————————————————-
I’m starting out with a election theme. After
November I’m doing Step Into a Good Book. I’m
gathering odd and funny shoes to hang with fishing
line and tacks. I’ll use cut outs of shoes for
genres.
——————————————————-
Last year I did a very striking board. I posed
students and staff so all we could see was the title
of the book and and their eyes. I did black and white
photos enlarged to about 4×5 put it up on a black
background. Guess Who’s Been Caught Reading? for the
title. Dye cut cameras added in grey. I didn’t plan
it– but the children with glasses looked so cute.
—————————————————–
I found the cutest puppy – sheepdog really with no
eyes showing. I used our opaque machine and chalked
him and used the caption “We’re gonna have a dog-gone
great year!” I made huge dog bones and placed them
around him with mini-posters of what we’re going to be
doing this year. I usually try to change the board
monthly, but this will hold me until October, anyway -
and you could use it all year if you like
—————————————————
1.- letter the words “Hooked on Books” on the bulletin
board. The background can look like the ocean and be
however fancy you want to make it. You can solicit
kids to make fish to decorate it. I read “Rainbow
Fish” to our K-3 kids and had them draw on coffee
filters with magic makers, fold them and put the point
in water – the color spreads across the filters and
make beautiful designs. Then we painted on glitter to
make the scales. They make a beautiful background.
Then make fishing poles out of dowel sticks (tie on
string and instead of a hook, tie on a bulldog clip).
Attach several of these (depending on the length of
your BB) across the top of the BB and clip book
jackets to them. Then you can just change them
periodically -to match an author study, to match a
theme, to match a season, etc.

2- put a generic BB border (such as the names of the
months of the year or seasons or holidays) then add
book jackets, or pictures of authors with birthdays
during a given month, or book jacket displays of new
book arrivals, book or library trivia, etc.

3 – I used fabric and make the BB look like a window
with curtains hanging. I pulled back and fastened the
curtains to the sides of the BB and then lettered
“Presenting…”. Each month or 6 weeks, I would put
up the name and picture of an author along with book
jackets and some relevant facts about the author, list
of books written, famous characters, etc.

4- I put up some generic BB borders related to
reading. On the BB I put up categories such as Book
of the Month with author’s name and book jacket (for
our Book Club), library trivia (who was our library
named for? What was the name of our first librarian?
etc.), Announcements, New Arrivals, inspirational
quotes, Websites to check out (list author’s websites,
book review sites for kids, other book or literacy
related sites for kids), Review that Book – list a
book title and author (picture or book jacket if
possible) and have slips of paper in an envelope for
students to take and rate the book after they have
read it. They can rate it with a star system, a
thumbs up or down system, etc. Then you can collect
these book reviews and put the info on the library
webpage.

5- make a library word wall. Each week or so, follow
the alphabet and put up a new word related to the
library and/or to books- one for each letter of the
alphabet. You can also solicit suggestions from the
kids and staff and add to the BB. That way the BB
format stays up all year, you just add new word.
(a=author, b=biography, c=catalog, d=donation,…)
———————————————–
I’m doing a similar idea with Dive Into A Good Book
with Treasure Chest Genres.
—————————————————–
How about Transport yourself with a Good book? You
can transport to another place, to another time, with
facts and with emotions for example. you can have
students read books looking for modes of
transportation used in the book and add a clip art of
a car, truck,bike, plane etc with the book title on
it.
————————————————
How about “Get caught