Take Me Into the Land of Books!

It was all about the library at library storytime yesterday. I especially wanted to do a storytime on the library theme, because in addition to my in-house storytime, I did four storytimes at Head Start yesterday.

I go to Head Start once a month to present storytimes for the kids. Our Head Start program here in Orland has four sessions, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. But the kids must be wondering, "Who is this lady who comes in, shows us books and sings songs, and then disappears until we've forgotten about her again?"

Well, it's Miss Nancy from the Library. What's a library?  I recognized a few of the kids, but most of them never come to the library, so they don't know about it. I'm hoping that my visits, plus handouts I give them to take home, will spark an interest in their families.

We read two books: Lola at the Library and Book! Book! Book!  Since Lola learns Twinkle Twinkle Little Star at the library, we did that for a fingerplay, and we sang The Wheels on the Bus.  I tried to teach them part of the Library Cheer. That was a little tricky for them, but I soon had them responding on "LIBRARY--CARD! LIBRARY--CARD!" Below is the whole cheer, and here is a link to the inimitable Margaret Miles leading the cheer at a conference of the Association for Rural and Small Libraries.

L-I-B-R-A-R-Y Cheer

by Garrison Keillor

Gimme an L

Gimme an I

Etc.

What’s that’s spell?  LIBRARY!

What’s that’s spell?  LIBRARY!

One more time!  LIBRARY!

I said L-I-B-R-A-R-Y you say L-I-B-R-A-R-Y

I said L-I-B-R-A-R-Y  you say L-I-B-R-A-R-Y

Where do you go for poetry? You say L-I-B-R-A-R-Y

Where do you go for history? You say L-I-B-R-A-R-Y

Where do you go if you're old and shy?  L-I-B-R-A-R-Y

Where do you go to learn how to fly?  L-I-B-R-A-R-Y

L-I-B-R-A-R-Y

I say LIBRARY you say CARD

LIBRARY – CARD

LIBRARY -- CARD

I got one and it wasn’t too hard

LIBRARY – CARD

LIBRARY -- CARD

Great big building how sweet it looks

So take me in to the land of books

To the L-I-B-R-A-R-Y  L-I-B-R-A-R-Y

It's been in your town for a hundred years.

So let's give the library three big cheers:

Hip-hip-hurray!

Hip-hip-hurray!

Hip-hip-hurray!

For a craft we made magic water bottles. It's easy, and you can see all the instructions right here.

The only thing I might change the next time is the way I glue the lid on. I used tacky glue, and that turned the water a little cloudy. Some kind of clear glue would work better. You can also add some oil to the water and it will look like bubbles.