Storytime in the News!

The Orland Press-Register highlighted storytime at the Orland Library in last Saturday's newspaper. Read all about it! Reporter Rick Longley came out and joined us at storytime, taking photos and talking to parents.

It must have been a slow news week, because the paper had room to publish 4 photos. Here at the library we really appreciate all the great publicity we get from the Orland Press-Register.

Invasion of the Pod People?

Found this strange growth in the garden. It's gigantic. It looks like it's about to split open and some slimy creepy THING come slithering out. What is it?

It's a Casaba melon, and this is my best year yet growing Casabas. This one is a typical specimen. It weighs about 20 pounds. Casabas are huge football-shaped melons from Turkey, first grown in California (and maybe the United States) right here in Chico by John Bidwell. I got the seeds last year from Seedsavers Exchange, and this year planted seeds that I saved from last year.

They are absolutely delicious. Out-of-this-world wonderful. The flesh is pretty much the same as a cantaloupe, but better than any cantaloupe I've ever had---creamy, sweet, yummy, and highly aromatic.

For some reason, there is another melon that goes by the name casaba, which is more like a honeydew, and not as sweet as a Bidwell Casaba.  As far as I know, this is the real deal, just like General Bidwell used to grow.

We're Hopping at the Library!

I didn't really have a theme for today's storytime, but we had a hopping good time, reading Who Hops? and If You're Hoppy and You Know It. Both these books have big, bright, lively illustrations and fun texts that pull the kids in. Both of them were fun to read. "If you're growly and you know it you're a dog, or a bear, or a tummy over there . . ."

As long as we were reading about hopping, we got up and did some hopping of our own, hopping along to the rhyme "I Saw a Little Rabbit Come Hop, Hop, Hop."

I saw a little rabbit come hop, hop, hop.
I saw his long ears go flop, flop, flop.
I saw his little eyes go blink, blink, blink.
I saw his little nose go twink, twink, twink.
I said, "Mr, Rabbit, won't you stay, stay, stay?'
He looked at me, and then he hopped away!

We also sang "Shake My Sillies" and "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me." The flannelboard story was "The Hat" from Days with Frog and Toad, in which Frog gives Toad a hat for his birthday. The hat is too big and falls over Toad's eyes, but Frog solves the problem by telling Toad to go to sleep thinking big thoughts, while he secretly shrinks the hat. Toad is delighted, thinking that his big thoughts have made his head grow larger to fit the hat.

For a craft we decorated old CDs. I know two things to do with otherwise useless CDs, like the ones you used to get from AOL, or the ones from outdated software. One thing you can do is hang them in your fruit trees to scare the birds away from your ripe cherries or plums. The other thing you can do is make decorations with them. 

If you have enough of them, glue two CDs together so that you have two shiny sides instead of just one. Then glue on anything shiny or pretty---stickers, jewels, stars, foam shapes---whatever you like. String a ribbon through the hole and voila!---pretty, shiny doohickey.

Garden Glory

Our storytime kids like peaches, plums, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and green beans. Bunrab loves them all too. Today we talked about gardens and all the yummy things that come out of them.

We read Up, Down, and Around, by Katherine Ayres, and Growing Colors, by Bruce McMillan.  We sang Going on a Picnic and 10 Little Bunnies.  And we spent a lot of time talking about fruits and vegetables.

For our craft we made zucchini prints. I have a lot of over-sized zucchini anyway, so I cut them into pieces about 3 or 4 inches long, and then cut out the end into shapes like stars, hearts, flowers and moons. Zucchini is very soft, so it is easier to cut than potatoes. 

The kids pressed their stamps into paint-soaked sponges, and then onto the paper. To make a paint sponge for stamping, moisten a clean sponge. Put it in a plastic container, one with a tight fitting lid.  On top of the sponge pour 2 tablespoons of washable paint, and 1 tablespoon of white glue. Mix it around with a plastic spoon. Add more paint and glue in the same proportions if you think you need more.

The zucchini can't be reused, but the paint sponge can. Just put the lid on and store it in the refrigerator.

Enjoy your garden, and this great summer weather we are having!

Hola, Amigos!

Today was the last day of our 'Round the World summer tour. I noticed that we hadn't done anything in Latin America---nothing from Mexico on down to Chile. So time to try out some Spanish!

We started with Hello World! Greetings in 43 Languages, by Manja Stojic. I gave this book to my grand-daughters some years ago, and if I'd remembered it, I would have borrowed it back sooner. Since they've outgrown it, I'm adding it to the library collection. It has bright cheerful paintings of smiling children around the world saying hello, from Aloha to Kia Ora, Amharic to Zulu.  Today we just looked at a few that we already learned.

We also read a Latin American folktale, The Rooster Who Went to His Uncle's Wedding, by Alma Flor Ada, and My Colors, My World: Mis Colores, Mi Mundo, by Maya Christina Gonzalez. This one is a bilingual book---I read it in English, but used the Spanish words for the colors.

We sang Bate, Bate, Chocolate, and counted bees from 1 to 10 in Spanish on the flannelboard.

The craft was a world mosaic, easy and fun to do. I have to thank Sheryl at the Chico Library for this idea.

Materials needed:

Blue paper plate
Foam sheets in earth colors (greens, browns, maybe some white, black, or blue)
Glue, hole punch, yarn.

Cut the foam into little randomly-shaped pieces. Give each child a paper plate, glue stick, and some foam bits. Let them make their world of continents and islands any way they like. When they are done, punch two holes in the rim and add a piece of yarn for hanging.

La Belle France

Bonjour! Today we visited France, home of some of children's literature's best-loved characters, like Babar the elephant and Madeline. France is also the country that gave us Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, and many other favorite fairy tales, including Puss in Boots.

I didn't read Madeline, since it is rather a long book, but I did read Fred Marcellino's version of Puss in Boots. This book has one of my all-time favorite covers. No text on the front cover, just a close-up of that confident, unflappable cat, stylishly dressed as an 17th-century French gentleman. He could be one of the Three Musketeers.

We also read Fancy Nancy, which is hardly a French book, but she does like to use French words, because, as she says, "Everything in French sounds fancy." So she throws in a few French words, like merci, parfait, and chauffeur. 

We threw a little French into our songs too. "If you're happy and you know it, frappe des mains!" (clap your hands.)  We sang Frere Jacques and danced to a recording of Sur le pont d'Avignon. (Those are the only two French songs I know, thanks to high school French class.)

We also sang (to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star):

Strawberries, peaches, watermelon too
Good for me and good for you.
They are yummy, they are sweet,
They are such a tasty treat.
Strawberries, peaches, watermelon too
Good for me and good for you.

I have felt pictures of the fruit to put up on the flannelboard. If you also have some felt apples, bananas, or other fruit, you can change the words around and sing about any combination of yummy fruit.

For our craft, we got fancy. I found a pack of "collage cards" from Oriental Trading Co. in the cupboard. These are sticky on one side---though, unfortunately, not sticky enough, because some of the stuff fell off in the process. But it was easy! I gave the children a variety of items to stick on their cards---foam letters and insects, iridescent butterflies and hearts, sequins and feathers. After they had thoroughly decorated the cards, we dusted them with glitter for a fancy glittery one-of-a-kind thingamabob.

Safari to Africa

The vast continent of Africa was today's storytime destination. The lion puppet taught the the kids to say "Hello" in Swahili---Jambo! We sang an Ella Jenkins' song: "Jambo, jambo sanna, jambo."

We read (and sang) If You're Happy by Jane Cabrera, which has lots of African animals in it clapping, roaring, nodding, and going "Kiss, kiss!" We also read Awful Aardvark by Mwalimu, about a snoring aardvark who gets routed by a mongoose, monkeys, a lion, a rhino, and a bunch of termites. We had a flannelboard story about Crocodile and Hen, and why Hen calls crocodile "brother."

At the end we said "Kwaheri!"  Goodbye!

For a craft we made masks. Feathers, pipe cleaners, beads, stickers, foam features---lots of ways to decorate a mask.