The Gingerbread Boy

I think my young audience was a bit dismayed and disturbed today when I got to the end of The Gingerbread Boy and they found out that the gingerbread boy was snapped up and gulped down by the sly fox. They identified with the runaway, and were surprised when they found out his career was over. But that's the way the story goes. "Gingerbread boys are made to be eaten!"

I used the Paul Galdone version, but there are several other good versions to choose from.

 
Jim Aylesworth and Barbara McClintock





Richard Egielski

Eric Kimmel and Megan Lloyd






For the flannelboard I made five little gingerbread men figures. Here's the rhyme we used:

Five little gingerbread men, sitting on a tray.
One jumped up and ran away.
"Run, run, run, fast as you can!
You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!"

 Four little gingerbread men . . .  etc.

I also read them Who Ate All the Cookie Dough? by Karen Beaumont and Eugene Yelchin. This was a light-hearted selection with plenty of repetition and a surprise at the end (a pleasant one this time.) Mama Kangaroo finds her bowl of cookie dough empty and quizzes a variety of other animals: "Eeny Meeny Miney moe, Who ate all the cookie dough?" The jaunty rhyme will remind you of the chant, "Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?" and the kids will have fun trying to figure out who ate the cookie dough.

 

For the craft we made gingerbread men paper dolls, which gave the children a good chance to practice their scissor skills. You will need:

 

brown paper lunch bags

child scissors

crayons or markers

any other decorations you care to add

 

Cut a strip across the bag about 6 inches high, and then cut up the side to make a paper strip 16 and a half inches long. Accordion fold this into five sections, each about 3 and a half inches wide. The folds will follow the folds already in the bag.

 

Trace an outline of the gingerbread man on the top fold. I didn't cut this out, since I wanted the children to do that. Some of them did very well,and some needed help. Remind them not to cut around the hands and feet, or else the paper dolls won't be connected.

 

Once the g-men are cut out, the children can decorate them with crayon eyes, smiles, buttons and anything else they like. I also happened to have some little foam candy shapes on hand, so I let the kids glue those on too. Since I had very few children in attendance today (the day after Christmas), I didn't have to limit the number of candy pieces each used.

The Gunniwolf Puppet Show

 Today being the third Thursday of the month, it was time for some after-school fun at the Orland Library. A puppet show is always popular, and we've done several that came from the NorthNet Library System, a consortium of northern California libraries. Those puppet kits were put together by Stephanie Stokes, and they are wonderful, but I've done all of them.  Time to come up with a puppet show of my own!

The story of the Gunniwolf is a perennial favorite with storytelling librarians. Many of us first encountered it in a picture book retelling by Wilhemina Harper, illustrated by William Weisner, but it an old, probably African-American folktale. In the story, a little girl is told by her mother to never, never go into the jungle, because if she does, the Gunniwolf might get her. The little girl promises she won't. But of course, she does, following a trail of pretty flowers that lead her into the jungle.

It's a very simple story, and one that is easily adapted as a puppet play.  In fact I already had a Gunniwolf. Many years ago a friend of mine named Jean Kibby, a retired librarian, gave me many of her handmade puppets, including a great green gunniwolf.  He came with a stick and styrofoam little girl. 

I wanted a different little girl, so I used that puppet for the mother, and made my own soft doll girl puppet.

 

 

Here's the little girl, with all the flowers she picked, meeting the Gunniwolf for the first time.  He wants her to sing that "guten, sweeten song" again.

 

The play was a big hit with the little ones, as you can see.

After the puppet show we made finger puppets.   I had some blank felt finger puppets in various colors that probably came from Oriental Trading Co.  The kids added wiggly eyes and felt beaks, eyebrows, mouths, and whatever other features they liked, as well as some feathers for those who wanted to get really fancy. Each finger puppet was a unique creation.

Pumpkin Time

It's pumpkin time again, and pumpkins are so fun to build a storytime around.  Our first book was Pumpkin Cat, by Anne Mortimer, which is one of those "how do pumpkins grow" books, featuring a cat and mouse duo. Another good title like this is It's Pumpkin Time by Zoe Hal.

The second book was Plumply Dumply Pumpkin, by Mary Serfozo and Valeria Petrone. Plumply Dumply has fun-to-read language ("Not a lumpy, bumpy pumpkin. Not a stumpy, grumpy pumpkin. But a sunny, scrumptious pumpkin.")  These two make a good pumpkin pair.

Also, off-theme but lots of fun, Dinosaur vs. the Library, by Bob Shea. Roar, roar!

Here are a couple of pumpkin time rhymes:

Pumpkin, Pumpkin (to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)

Pumpkin, pumpkin, on the ground,
How'd you get so big and round?
You started as a seed so small,
Now you are a big round ball.
Pumpkin, pumpkin, on the ground,
How'd you get so big and round?

I'm a Little Pumpkin (to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot)

I'm a little pumpkin orange and round,  (Make a big circle with your arms around your middle)
Here is my stem, and here is the ground. ( Stick one finger up on top of your head, then gesture at the ground)
When I get all cut up, don't you shout, (Draw a circle around your tummy)
Just open me up and scoop me out!  (Pretend to scoop out your innards.)

The craft today is one of my favorites. I got this from Heather Tovey, so yay Heather! 

We started with a real pumpkin.  I cut around the top, lifted off the lid, and let all the kids look at, touch, and smell the seeds inside. Most of them were happy to get their fingers into a pumpkin. (Have some wipes and paper towels handy.) After we finished the touchy-feely demonstration, we made our own pumpkin pictures.



Start with a piece of 8.5" x 11" orange card stock or construction paper.  Cut out a large pumpkin shape.

Give each child a bottle of glue, some pieces of orange or yellow yarn, and some pumpkin seeds.  They can "draw" on the paper with the glue, then decorate it with yarn and seeds.  I love the tactile aspect of this craft.

The easiest and cheapest way to get your seeds is to clean out a pumpkin or winter squash the day before. Wash and dry the seeds so that they will be ready to glue.  I used the seeds from a butternut squash that I grew this summer.

Let's Give the Library Three Big Cheers!

Today's storytime was much the same as this one about the library last year. We read Lola at the Library by Anna McQuinn, and I wanted to also read Dinosaur vs. the Library by Bill Shea, but it's overdue. (Grrrr)  However, I shared a great a new book, perfect for storytime, that has nothing to do with libraries.

The book is Oh No! written by Candace Fleming and illustrated by Caldecott winner Eric Rohmann. (Not to be confused with Oh No! and Oh No Not Again, by Mac Barnet and Dan Santat, which are also awesome.) This is definitely a Caldecott-worthy book. The quality of the production is outstanding, right from the dust jacket flaps and endpapers through the entire book.

A frog, chased by a tiger, falls into a deep, deep hole. He is followed by a mouse, a loris, a sun bear, and a monkey, and none of them can get out--Oh no!  Just when it looks like the tiger is about to pounce on his helpless victims, an unexpected visitor arrives to save the day. This is a perfect storytime read-aloud book.

 We also did part of the Library Cheer and talked about how great libraries are.

For our craft we made bookmarks like the one you see here.  You will need:

colored card stock
patterned paper cut a little smaller than the card stock
stickers or other cut-outs
ribbon
glue and hole punch

The stars (and hearts) were cut with the Cricut machine. I cut a lot of things out by hand, but for small pieces like this a Cricut is ideal. 
The kids glued their bookmarks together and wrote their names on the back. I told the kids that if they didn't need a bookmark themselves, it would make a good gift, and one boy decided to give his to his big brother, who reads longer books.

Sheep A-Leaping

The sheep were leaping at storytime today.  We read Sheep in a Jeep, by Nancy Shaw, and Where's the Green Sheep, by Mem Fox. We also read Here Are My Hands, by Bill Martin, but that had nothing to do with sheep. On the flannelboard we had Baa Baa Black Sheep, which I made several years ago based on the pattern in The Flannel Board Storytelling Book by Judy Sierra.

We've been singing A-Hunting We Will Go every week.  Each time I pick out four animals from my collection of about 20 laminated animal + rhyming thing collection.  This week it was sheep-jeep, duck-truck, goat-boat, and dragon-wagon. Then we talked about which animals they might see on a farm around here, and which one didn't fit on the farm.

Here's a fingerplay rhyme, slightly altered from Hubbard's Cupboard.  Sing it to the tune of Five Green and Speckled Frogs:

Five fat and fluffy sheep (hold up five fingers)
In the pasture fast asleep (hands under head, lean over)
Their wool kept them cozy all night long (hug yourself)
Snore! Snore! (make snore sounds)
The farmer slipped away with one (hold up one finger)
And clipped the wool till he was done (clap)
Then there were 4 fat fluffy sheep (hold up four fingers)
Baa! Baa!

For a craft we made the ever-popular cotton ball sheep. Luckily I had a teen helper to cut out the bodies, heads, and legs. Just add cotton balls and two eyes!

Hoppy September!

Today we had a hopping good time at the Library and at Head Start. Once a month I take my show on the road and go to Orland's Chapman Head Start site to do two morning sessions and two afternoon sessions. In between I do the regular library pre-school storytime. It's great practice!

Our books were:

Who Hops?/Quien Salta? by Katie Davis.  When I ordered this book I didn't know I'd be getting a bi-lingual version, but I'm happy I did. At one of the Head Start session a teacher read the Spanish while I did the English. Great!

Boing! by Nick Bruel. This is a fun story about a little kangaroo, who fails at hopping until she cleans out her pouch, which is overloaded with ribbons, marbles, toys, buttons, and assorted other stuff. Once she gets that taken care of she can Boing! with the best of them.




Of course, we did some hoppy songs, like "I Saw a Little Rabbit" and "One little, two little, three little bunnies."  Here's the words for the first one:

I saw a little rabbit come hop, hop, hop.
I saw his long ears go flop, flop, flop.
I saw his little eyes goes blink, blink, blink.
I saw his little nos go twink, twink, twink.
I said, "Mr. Rabbit can you stay, stay, stay?"
He looked at me, and then he hopped away!

On the flannelboard I did a great new game: Miss Mouse in the House. I thought that I got the idea from Mel's Desk (she has lots of flannelboard ideas), but she doesn't have a pattern, so I borrowed my mouse from Rain makes Applesauce.  Or here's another version.  Mine looks like this:

Hide Miss Mouse behind one of the houses as you put them on the board, then chant:
Miss Mouse, Miss Mouse, Are you in the ____ house?
 Look under the house, she's not there?, try again.  Kids LOVE this.  It was an enormous success.  I did three rounds of hiding Miss Mouse with each group, which means I played the Miss Mouse game 15 times. Or maybe more---I'm not sure.

Make your own Miss Mouse, and have a fun time at storytime!

Other voices, other blogs

Here at the Orland Free Library our homepage is our blog page. The library's homepage is actually a Wordpress blog, with links to the catalog, research resources, and other pages about the library.

Each of us on the staff takes a weekly turn to write for the blog. Wednesday is my day. Yesterday, since Google told me that it was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Julia Child, I decided to write about that icon of cooking, and highlight the books and videos we have about her in the library.

The majority of people who see these blog entries are people who get on the public computers, so I have always figured that no one reads the entries; they just breeze right on past in their haste to check their e-mail or Facebook. So I wrote the entry and went to lunch, just pausing a moment to take Julia's Kitchen Wisdom off the shelf, thinking I might check it out later.

Halfway through my lunch a co-worker came into the break room to ask if she could loan out the Julia Child book on my desk. "Of course," I answered.  Someone had actually read the blog entry and wanted the book! I was amazed---I never knew anyone read those entries. It was worth giving out the book to learn that someone had read what I wrote.

Garden Variety Librarian is not my only blog---I also have one called goldfields that I write about John Bidwell and northern California history. It has about the same number of subscribers, which is to say, very few. But if you are interested in Bidwell and the history he lived, take a look.