This month's icebreaker was emoji book pictionary.  I created the images using the PicCollage app on my iPad.  Participants had to figure out the name of the book title using the emojis.

Mrs. Wormwood's favorite thing to do during the day was to go out and play BINGO.  So, we played a version of BINGO.  I thought of characters, words, events, and places in the book and created a couple of different BINGO boards.  The words and BINGO cards can be found on pages 13-21 of the PDF.

Our next discussion game was Newt in a Pitcher.  I went hi-tech with this game.  I wrote 30 multiple choice questions and put them into a Google Slide Presentation.  I took two plastic pitchers and set up one on either side of the room.  I had participants break into two teams and I stood in the middle of the room with a handful of "newts."  Participants had to grab the newt from my hand in order to answer the question.  Fun was had by all.

DIY Chocolate Mug Cake Mix

I don't know about you, but I am impressed that Bruce Bogtrotter ate an entire chocolate cake by himself.  Talk about #Goals.  Participants made their very own DIY Chocolate Mug Cake Mix so that they can have chocolate cake whenever they feel like it (or when their caregivers say it is okay).

War with Jumbo Playing Cards

The word "war" comes to mind when I think about the adult and child relationships in Matilda.  The children teach the grown-ups  "lessons" by pulling well-planned pranks on them. 

So, naturally, the card game of War came to mind.  Thanks to Amazon, I was able to score two packs of jumbo playing cards.  They are a bit clumsy to shuffle but quite fun to play with.

Build a Lego Car

I created a book trailer to introduce next month's book to The Club. 

Today was our last Lapsit storytime of the spring session.  For some of my sweet tots that have been coming to my lapsit since they were newborns this was their final Lapsit storytime before they move up to Tales for 2's and 3's in the fall.  It certainly has been incredible to watch these Tots learn and grow each session.  I cannot deny that this feels bittersweet!

Next week, we will be launching our special program series called Artsy Babies!  I look forward to sharing the process of planning and facilitating Artsy Babies with you.

My first Lapsit Favorites post has all of the songs and bounces that we did for the month of April.  

Can Somebody Please Scratch My Back?  is about an elephant with a terrible itch they cannot reach so they try to enlist the help of various animals.  This book is a bit lengthy, so I paper clipped some of the pages together to shorten it for Lapsit.  I was able to make some parts of the book interactive - like tickling or at the end when the itch is finally scratched.  There is a bit of ironic humor in the ending (the elephant tosses the helpful porcupine over their shoulder), but I decided to end the story with the porcupine helping the elephant.

We read and recited "One, Two, Three, Four" from My Very First Mother Goose edited by Iona Opie and illustrated by Rosemary Wells. 

After using this book for the entire session, I would like to reflect on this aspect of my Lapsit program.  My goal was to incorporate more nursery rhymes into my Lapsit, but I do not think that the caregivers felt confident in using the rhymes at home.  In the future, I think I will write out the nursery rhymes on chart paper so that the caregivers can see the words better.  I also would like to repeat the same nursery rhyme for 2-3 weeks so that caregivers can learn the rhyme and feel empowered to use it at home with their little one. 

As I reflect on my use of this book of nursery rhymes, I should address a stereotypical illustration in My Very First Mother Goose.  I recently discovered a blog entry on American Indians in Children's Literature by Debbie Reese in which she discusses how the illustrations on pages 60-61 are not accurate representations of members of the Native American Indian community. As a future librarian, I believe that it is important for me to constantly reflect on the books that I chose to share in my programming.  Unfortunately, I did not do my homework prior to using this collection.  While I did not use this particular nursery rhyme, I endorsed this book by using it in a program.  I believe that accurate representation matters and do not plan on using this collection of nursery rhmes in future programs. 

Do Cows Meow?  is a fabulous lift-the-flap book with a fun rhyme scheme and provides plenty of opportunities for caregivers to make animal sounds.  

I decided to try a new room set-up for Lapsit this spring.  I am happy with the functionality of the new set-up and felt that it fostered a welcoming atmosphere for the caregivers and babies.

I curated my Potty Training Resources on Kapsul.  Visually, Kapsul is very clean and uncluttered. Images are presented at the top of the page and links to websites are at the bottom right corner of the page.  This particular pathfinder focuses on library materials, and I liked that I could place the parent guides, picture books, and DVDs in our collection front and center.  I was able to provide bibliographic information for each item in my Kapsul as well as a direct link to its entry in our online catalog. This is a particularly useful tool because patrons can access the Pathfinder and put the books that interest them on hold from the comfort of their home.  I also included two electronic parent guides that can be downloaded at anytime on any electronic device.

I look forward to sharing this curated list with our patrons because they can access this information 24/7 and there are a variety of materials that introduce different approaches to potty training.

Time flies when you are having fun!  I cannot believe that next week Wednesday is the end of our spring storytime session.  I wish I could say that it feels like spring, but winter continues to hang around.  My poor daffodils have yet to bloom!  

In May, we will have a special series called "Artsy Babies." My colleague and I were inspired by the "Busy Babies at the Library" program from Tales for the Tiny.  I am looking forward to facilitating this new program and sharing the end result here.

Since I forgot to grab the bag of scarves last week, I decided to redeem myself and use the scarves today.  ​
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If you would like to see videos of the songs and bounces, check out my first Lapsit Favorites blogpost.

Say Hello Like This!  is a fun and lively lift-the-flap book featuring animals and the different ways they say "hello!"  I invited caregivers to make the animal noises with me as I read the story.  

This week we read "Dance to Your Daddy" from My Very First Mother Goose edited by Iona Opie.  "Dance to Your Daddy" had a really great rhythm to it so I invited the caregivers to bounce baby as we read it.

Clip-Clop!  is one of my favorite books for storytime.  I invited the caregivers to say "Clip-Clop-Clippity-Clop" with me.  As we read, caregivers bounced baby in their lap.  I did warn caregivers ahead of time that the bouncing will start to get faster and encouraged them to pace themselves.  When I said "Plop!" I had caregivers drop baby between their knees.  

What a perfect opportunity to create a tutorial on accessing, searching, and borrowing a book on Overdrive!  Overdrive is one of several digital library catalogs that our library offers to our patrons. Patrons can borrow e-books and e-audiobooks using their computer or tablet.  

One of the requirements of this week’s assignment was a 4-minute time limit, ensuring that our tutorials would be quick but easy to follow.  I have a tendency to get overly excited and provide too much information, so I wrote a script to help me present an effective, basic overview of Overdrive.  I wanted my instructions to be very clear and concise for my target audience (anyone over the age of 9).

Next, I looked at screencasting software.  I decided to use Screencast O'Matic because it was free and had a simple layout.  I was really happy with my choice. Screencast O'Matic’s intuitive user interface made it very easy to use.  A screen popped up that showed an outline of the parts of my computer screen that would be captured and recorded.  There was a simple toolbox that allowed me to adjust my microphone settings and record my tutorial. The developers made Screencast O’Matic accessible through downloadable software or an application you could run on your web browser via their website.  My favorite function was the ability to upload my video directly to YouTube.  For a free platform, I felt that it was accessible, well thought out, and functional.

I hope to use Screencast O’Matic to create more tutorials for our other e-resources and databases. I think that this would be a very helpful tool for our library patrons!  It’s practically like having your own #PocketLibrarian.

This is my fourth social justice storytime basket. For lists of my other social justice storytimes, click here.  I received some positive feedback from a couple of caregivers, so I think that it is safe to say that the theme of "Be Yourself" resonated with several of my storytime attendees. 

If you are interested in seeing the materials I selected for this week's storytime basket - click here.

For my Saturday Family Storytime outline and plan - click here.

Happy in Our Skin celebrates what makes each and everyone of us unique - from freckles to fingerprints, there is no one that is exactly like you!

Be Brave Little One is a very gentle and loving read.  The sentiments expressed in this book are what every caregiver wishes for the children in their care.

My Heart Fills with Happiness features a young girl and the daily activities that bring her joy.
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April is National Poetry month so I wanted to include a poem in storytime today.  I read "Beautiful Bird" from My Village: Rhymes from Around the World.  I selected this poem because it is very vibrant and evokes a feeling of spring, which we could certainly use with the continuation of winter weather.

This Little Baby
credit: Storytime Secrets
The first little baby said, "I'm so big!"
The second little baby danced a jig.
The third little baby sat down on the floor.
The fourth little baby crawled to the door.
The fifth little baby learned to run.
All the little babies had so much fun!
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I found the idea for this flannel on the blog, Storytime Secrets.  I used clipart from Krista Wallden of Creative Clips to create this flannel.  

10 Friends Today
Credit: Fun with Friends at Storytime Blog
​One friend, two friends, three friends, four
In they come right through the door.
Five friends, six friends, seven friends, eight
Nine friends, ten friends make it great!
Ready to listen, ready to play,
Ten little friends are here today!

Hooray!!
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I found the idea for this flannel on the blog, Fun with Friends at Storytime. I used clipart from Krista Wallden of Creative Clips to create this flannel.

To protect Krista's wonderful work, I cannot share the files for the images that I used for these flannels.  If you like the images, you can purchase them from Krista's Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

These are the songs that we listened or danced to in storytime.  If you are interested in checking out these songs, the album cover images have links where you can listen to a sample and purchase these great songs!

We'll Wave Hello Together
credit: Verona Storytime

We’ll wave hello together,
We’ll wave hello together,
We’ll wave hello together,
Because it’s fun to do.

We’ll give a hug together,
We’ll give a hug together,
We’ll give a hug together,
Because it’s kind to do.
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We’ll high five together,
We’ll high five together,
We’ll high five together,
Because it’s fun to do.

Come Along and Walk with Me
credit: The Richards Institute of Education & Research

Come along and walk with me
Come along and walk with me.
We'll walk and walk, 
and walk and walk.
So, come along and walk with me.

Come along and tiptoe with me
Come along and tiptoe with me.
We'll tiptoe and tiptoe,
and tiptoe and tiptoe.
So, come along and tiptoe with me.

Come along and bend with me,
Come along and bend with me.
We'll bend and bend,
and bend and bend.
So, come along and bend with me.
*note for bend: this is a great opportunity to cross the midline and have children invert themselves.

Come along and twirl with me,
Come along and twirl with me
We'll twirl and twirl,
and twirl and twirl.
So, come along and twirl with me.

Come along and sit for me,
Come along and sit for me.
We'll sit and sit,
and sit and sit.
So, come along and sit for me.

I adapted this song for my Baby Lapsit program.  The tune of this song is the same as the Lapsit version except the actions are different.  To hear the tune for this song -- click here.

I like to have a pre-storytime activity for caregivers and children to do while they wait for storytime to get started.  This week's activity asked children and caregivers to share what makes them special.

Each week, we feature a letter of the week.  This week's letter was the letter Yy.  We practiced making the sound of the letter Y then I went through the collage of items that begin with the letter Y.  I like to have participants shout out what they think the items are.  Yak was a bit tricky!

This week’s assignment in my Technology class focused on Digital Storytelling, which is a video created by a library or librarian for marketing or advocacy purposes.  We were placed into groups and tasked with creating a 3-4 minute long video that incorporated images, narration, and music.

My Technology class is a hybrid course, which means we meet in person once a month.  During last night’s April meet-up, we were given time to create our videos. My group members and I traded a few emails over the past week because we wanted to be able to hit the ground running when we met face-to-face.  We also did some brainstorming via Google Docs, specifically about what age groups we work with, programs we have done, and ideas we had for our video. We ultimately decided on a video that promoted diverse books for young children, elementary students, and teens.  Each of us selected two books and wrote a book talk for each book.

When it was time for us to get into our groups, my group retreated to a little techno nook that is the Secret Garden of the School of Information Science (SOIS) program at Dominican University.  I had no idea that this room of technological goodness existed until one of my group members suggested that we go in there to work on our project. One of my group members hooked up her Macbook to the two large monitors in the SOIS computer lab to screencast her computer, which enabled us all to see our project and offer suggestions.  This assignment also provided me with an introduction to iMovie. I liked how iMovie allowed us to record our narration and adjusted the volume of our narrator when we added background music. It was like techno magic!

I really enjoyed putting together this project and felt that my group collaborated well.  We each contributed to the final product: one of my group members is a total whiz at iMovie and made our video look slick, the other group member had great suggestions for edits to the video, and I was able to come up with an introduction and conclusion for our video using some pieces from my Social Justice In the Stacks webpage.  I am pretty proud of what we created.

I think that Digital Storytelling can be a really fantastic marketing tool for libraries.  I am on the planning committees for two of my library’s biggest annual celebrations - Harry Potter Day and Star Wars Day.  I think that highlighting some of the incredible photos taken at last year’s events would be a really great marketing tool for promoting both celebrations this year.  I also think that this could be used to create videos on our library webpage to promote new books, our kid favorites section, and even share some early literacy tips! As a digital consumer, I know that I gravitate toward videos and images and I am certain that the customers my library serves function similarly.  Short videos are a great way to promote library programming and materials.

While February and March felt long, April feels like it is on fast-forward.  We have two weeks of Baby Lapsit left, and our spring programming session will be over.  Then, it will be time to gear up for Summer Reading, Riverwalk, (Not So) Happily After Hours, and my favorite annual magical celebration!  

However, I still get to spend some time with my littlest library friends.  ​In May, my colleague and I will be facilitating a weekly program called "Artsy Babies."  We were inspired by  the "Busy Babies at the Library" series from the blog Tales for the Tiny.  I cannot wait to share our ideas for this programming series with you!

Check out my blog post from last week if you would like to see videos of the songs and bounces for this month.  

Baby Parade is such a fun interactive book.  I have some babies that really LOVE to wave, so this was a perfect read for them! 

Our nursery rhyme for this week was an oldie, but goodie--"Pat-a-Cake" (page 46) from My Very First Mother Goose edited by Iona Opie.  

Is Everyone Ready for Fun?  is another great interactive read.  There are three actions in this book that caregivers can do with baby as the story is being read: bounce (it says jump in the book), dance, and wiggle.

This session I have been using "Wake Up Feet" from Jbrary as my hello song.  I like using the same hello song throughout the session because it establishes a routine with the caregivers and babies.  I have also been using "Cool Cat" a bounce from Jbrary all session because my caregivers love this bounce.  We are all obsessed with the "ch ch ch ch ch ch" part.  It's jazzy, fun, and cool.  

You can download my plans from this week and the lyrics to all of the songs that we will be singing and bouncing to this month down below.

Ten Tiny Babies is a fabulous rhythmic counting book.  

This week, we read and recited "Great A" from My Very First Mother Goose by Iona Opie and illustrated by Rosemary Wells.  I have been trying to incorporate more Nursery Rhymes into Lapsit this session.  I like that the pictures and text are large in this book.

Nose to Toes, You Are Yummy!  is a great interactive cuddly book for caregivers and babies.  Caregivers can touch baby's nose, toes, etc. as you read.

Many of the songs that I am using in Lapsit this month hail from a music literacy program that I have been studying for over seven years called Education Through Music (ETM).  The training is led by the incredibly brilliant master teachers of the Richards Institute of Education and Research.  I highly recommend studying ETM if you have the opportunity to do so.  I promise I will get around to writing a blog post about this "working of a work" and how this approach has impacted me personally and professionally.  

I have adapted some of the ETM songs to use in my Baby Lapsit program because these songs are engaging, rich in language, and elicit a playful state of being in adults and children.

I learned a dangerous new skill this week: how to make a book trailer!  If you are not familiar with book trailers, think of them as movie trailers for books.  I am now already planning to make some trailers for Book and Cookie Club. I think this would be an amazing way to announce the next book!  

The process of creating my book trailers required some time, beginning with deciding which book to feature.  I was originally going to make one for I Text Dead People by Rose Cooper, which is the Book and Cookie Club book for October.  As I was putting together my trailer, though, I realized that I could not remember some of the plot points because I had read it over six months ago!  I decided to instead go with a book that was still fresh in my mind from the March meeting of Book and Cookie Club: What We Found in the Sofa and How it Saved the World by Henry Clark.

I wrote down what I thought were the most exciting and engaging parts of What We Found: a rare zucchini colored crayon, a mysterious sofa, three friends, flash mobs, a devious plot, and saving the world.  Those plot points helped me decide what images I needed to find for my book trailer.

It is important to note that you should always follow copyright laws when you use images and video to create your high-quality book trailer.   I found the bulk of my images on Pixabay, many of which are under the Creative Commons license and are free to download -- as long as you are human.  Computers and robots do not get to download anything. The Captcha will stop them! I had a bit of trouble finding the right image for a trio of friends similar in age to the three main characters of What We Found: Freak, Fiona, and River.  I ultimately purchased a few credits on iStockphoto because I found two pictures that were perfect for my video.  I wish iStock had a student plan because $33 for three images is a bit expensive.

The assignment for this week stipulated that we had to create two book trailers using two different web-based applications.  One application, Animoto, was assigned to us and the other application could be one of our choosing.

This is the first time that I have used Animoto.  I signed up under the trial membership to create an Animoto Memories video.  The video styles are organized by classroom, event, and holiday. Each video style has a unique layout and format which, unfortunately, are not customizable.  You are committed to using the font and background that comes with your chosen layout. I liked that Animoto has a stock music library of songs that are three minutes or shorter to help support the tone of your video.  The tracks range from lilting instrumental to creepy organ music. Videos made using the free trial of Animoto are limited to 30 seconds in length. One particular annoyance I encountered was that the preview playback on Animoto’s site was not working.  I had to produce (publish) my video to check my work in order to know what edits I needed to make. Overall, Animoto has some pretty slick features, but not enough for me to justify paying $96 per year to use it.

I used Adobe Spark for my flyer last week and was curious to see how the video application would fare.  I must admit that I was pretty impressed! There is a tutorial that pops up when you click on “video” that walks you through how to make a video.  The user does not have much freedom to customize the text or color scheme because they are predetermined in each of the eight available themes. For each “slide” in the video, the user can select from one of four layout options: fullscreen, split screen, caption, and title with text.  The stock music library is not as extensive as Animoto’s, but users are able to upload their own audio. Viewing the video was very simple: there is a video reel located on the bottom of the screen that allows the user to play each “slide” and preview the video in its entirety. For a free service, I felt that Adobe Spark offers some great options for the first-time video creator.  I will definitely continue using Adobe Spark to create book trailers.