The Fox and the Crab

I am preparing stories for my next family story time. The theme is "tails." I plan to tell "The Fox and the Crab Have a Race" using stick puppets. This story is an adaptation of a Chinese folktale and can be found in A Twist in the Tail: Animal Stories from Around the World by Mary Hoffman. In this story the slow but clever crab fools fox into thinking he is just as fast as fox by riding on fox's tail (unknown to fox) for the race. There are several variations of this type of folktale. This one is short and easy to tell.

The stick puppets were easy to make though it took some planning to make them reversible. I used clipart from Microsoft Publisher for the fox and crab. After I enlarged the images to the sizes I wanted, I then copied each image and reversed it. After printing out the images, I outlined them in black marker to make them easier to cut out. I then glued one of the crabs and one of the foxes on card stock. Before I cut out around each image I added a second piece of card stock so that when I cut around the image, the shape would match for the reverse image. After pasting the reverse image to card stock, I taped a craft stick to the back of one fox piece and then glued the other piece over it. Instead of a craft stick I used a toothpick for the crab. The toothpick is smaller and lighter and even helps support the crab on the fox's tail. I cut a slit into the crab figure so it would fit on the fox's tail.

Crab and Fox - Reversible Stick Puppets

Crab on Fox's Tail

This week's Flannel Friday Round-Up is hosted by Lisa of the Libraryland blog.  Flannel Friday has everything you need to know including information about past and future round-ups, Flannel Friday's Pinterest boards and Flannel Friday's Facebook page.

Costume...Or Not?

This week's Flannel Friday Roundup features Halloween storytelling ideas and is hosted by Mary of the Miss Mary Liberry blog. This year I have a Halloween draw and tell story:

Costume...Or Not?

A Halloween Draw and Tell Story

by Linda Meuse

Notes from the Story Room

http://meusenotes.blogspot.com/

Tom and his brother Will had spent the evening trick-or-treating along their street. (1) The last house on the street was set back from the street but there was a path to the door. (2) It was lit by a smiling Jack O' Lantern. (3) They went up the path to the huge front door. (4) After just one knock a ghost came through the door. (5) He was holding two of the biggest chocolate bars that Tom and Will had ever seen. (6) "Thank you so much!" said Tom as the ghost dropped one into his bag. "Wow, thanks," said Will when he got one too. "By the way," added Will, "That's the best ghost costume I've ever seen." "Thank youuuuu...," said the ghost as it floated back through the door. Tom and Will started down the path but suddenly stopped. They both looked at each other realizing what had just happened. "Maybe that wasn't a costume after all!" exclaimed Tom. The boys ran home as fast as they could. What do you think? Costume...or not?

Drawing sequence:

(1) Draw street

(2) Draw path

(3) Draw Jack O' Lantern

(4) Draw door

(5) Draw ghost

(6) Draw candy bars



More Halloween posts:

One Little Ghost (rhyme)

Snacks for Ghosts and Bats in Hats (board story and game)

Big Pumpkin Deconstructed and Big Pumpkin Constructed (props for an audience participation retelling of Erica Silverman's Big Pumpkin)

Evening Family Story Time #2 - Halloween! (family story time program with crafts)

Monsters! - Evening Family Story Time 10/2/12

Family Story Time - Monsters!
Tuesday, October 2, 2012, 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Attendance: 49 (28 children and 21 adults)

Books - My Monster Mama Loves Me So by Laura Leuck
             Monster Munchies by Laura Numeroff
             Go to Bed, Monster! by Natasha Wing

Finger Puppets: "Five Little Monsters"

Cut and Tell Story: "The Mess Monster"

Prop Poem:  "Monster Lunch"

Prop Story: "Sam and the Acorn"

Crafts: Monster Mouth and Monster Feet

A Monster Mouth and Monster Feet (with "hair" between the toes)

Notes: Last year in October I did a Halloween program so this year I decided to do monsters instead. The monster theme drew a large crowd for evening Family Story Time. I've noticed that several families have been attending regularly. It's nice to see several dads at the program. "Sam and the Acorn" was the biggest hit of the program. It made the work that went into making the pieces worthwhile. The group also liked "The Mess Monster." By far the most popular activity of the evening was the Monster Feet craft. The feet were fun to make and the children loved walking around in them. Several cell phone cameras came out as parents took pictures of their little monsters. I changed the craft to make it easier to prepare for a large group by making an easy to cut out foot template. The children drew on the toenails and, instead of tissue paper, small pieces of yarn were used for monster hair. The Monster Mouth craft is similar to the Jack O' Lantern Smile that was one of last year's crafts for the Halloween Family Story Time. Several examples are available online or you can make your own. The children colored the mouth, cut it out and then taped a craft stick to the back.

Monster Lunch

This activity was inspired by a Flannel Friday post by Lucy of the In the Children's Room blog. Her "Monster Lunch" flannel board activity is based on the poem, "A Munching Monster" by Marian Swinger. I used the same poem but made a prop for it instead. The monster eats the monster food and then ends up with a monster tummy ache. This was made for the monster themed October 2 Family Story Time.

Sam and the Acorn

This prop story was created for my upcoming "Monsters!" family storytime. Since I do an all ages program, I like to use material that will capture the attention of both the children and adults so I find myself often creating stories with props. The concept of "Sam and the Acorn" has been used in books and flannel board stories before - wishing for change and then finding out the original is best after all. I've listed some of them at the end of the story which can be found as a Google Document here.

This prop took some time to create. (The story would also work as a flannel board story and the figures would probably be easier to make.) It was worth the effort for Sam is 50 inches tall and makes quite a visual impact when hanging from my storytelling board. Sam is drawn over 6 pieces of card stock taped together in the back. I outlined him in black marker and painted him with poster paint. I like to use poster paint to color large figures. I used hook and loop dots to fasten the "monster" parts. I painted over the dots to make them less noticeable.

Sam and his monster parts

Sam hanging on my front door

Monster!

This week's Flannel Friday is hosted by Katie of Storytime Katie.  Complete information about Flannel Friday can be found here.

2012 ALSC National Institute - Reflections

After attending PLA 10 years ago, I finally made it to another national conference - ALSC's 2012 National Institute. Even though I hope to retire in a couple of years, I'm still interested learning more about my profession and in finding ways to improve as a youth services librarian. So I took advantage of my part-time status to take a week off to visit family and attend the Institute.

Since I was attending on my own time and my own dime, I chose programs that I was interested in rather than those which would be helpful to my library (OK, I did attend one program simply to bring back information for my library.) For example, I know little about copyright so I attended "Quick and Easy Copyright." I love picture book art but know little about graphic novels so I attended "Viewing the Picturebook and the Graphic Novel as Sequential Art." There were other programs I would have loved to attend but there were conflicts. (It seems to be a law of conferences that all the programs you want to attend will meet at exactly the same time.)

The best part of the Institute for me was hearing the authors talk about their art - words and pictures. Every single one was fantastic. I do not collect autographs but I value authors as artists. It was such a pleasure to hear them speak. They were entertaining, inspiring and thoughtful.

I learned to deal with technology on the road. I even managed to get a couple of blog posts up using Blogsy. I missed my full-sized keyboard very much. I can type so much faster on it. The younger librarians were definitely way ahead of me - I was very impressed with the tweets and live blogging that went on during the programs.

It's always nice to meet librarians from around the country but I was particularly impressed with the enthusiasm and dedication of the younger librarians I met. It's nice to know that the future is in good hands.

In a couple of years I may be leaving my job but I won't be leaving the profession. I'm looking forward to seeing how youth services librarians meet the challenges of the future. I will probably be retired when the 2014 ALSC National Institute takes place but that doesn't rule out my attending.

Road Trip - PA Turnpike

Day 3 - 2012 ALSC National Institute

"Quick and Easy Copyright" Professor Tomas Lipinski, Indiana University School of Library and Information Science, presented an overview of coyright law and how it affects libraries. The group attending this program was small so we were able to have an interesting discussion about copyright issues. This turned out to be my favorite Institute program probably because it was a small group and definitely because Dr. Lipinski not only made a complicated subject understandable but his genuine interest in helping libaries and librarians in this area was clearly evident.

"Closing General Session: Exploring Nonfiction though Authors and Illustrators" This panel discussion by three very different authors of non-fiction books for children was excellent. Bryan Collier, Doreen Rappaport, and April Pulley Sayre not only talked about how they research and write their books but also about why they write non-fiction.

Notes: The Institute ended Saturday (Day 3) so these comments are a bit late. I had hopes of posting Saturday evening but it was not to be. Sunday was my big travel day (8 hours) and I was very tired when I got home so again blogging was not going to happen.