Mr. T’s out…

Hi folks…this will be my final posting : (

I have accepted a new position, in the same library district, but at a totally different location.  It looks like as of now, my StoryTime days are over.  And I am bummed!

StoryTimes will of course continue at the QC Library, under the leadership of our new librarian, Alex Cybulski (otherwise known as Mr. C!).  He is truly awesome and will no doubt take Toddler Time to all new levels of excellence! 

I want to thank everyone for their support & kind words of encouragement over the past few months.  Y’all have made my time at QC Library life-changing, to say the least, so thank you very, very, much.

Cheers all,

– Mr. T

Mar. 6th & 7th

Hey everybody!

This week we read a book (one of Mr. T’s favorites) called Actual Size by Steve Jenkins:

So our theme was animals…large & small!  This book has illustrations of animals that are drawn to scale, so that a giant squid’s eyeball is as big as the page!  And a goliath frop leaps accross three whole fold out pages!  Please check-out the book if you haven’t already…it lists several facts along w/ the pictures too, so it’s a decent reference book, in case you ever need to know how big the smallest fish in the world is : )

For our craft, we made “Gorilla Gloves”!  Where kids traced the outline of their hand (and sometimes wrote their names) on paper cut-outs of the open-palmed gorilla hand on the cover of Actual Size.  Then, we glued that piece onto a paper sack to that we could where them as…well…gorilla gloves!  I, of course, insisted on getting high-fives from everyone.

It was a real blast!  Thanks for all your helpful input, thanks to Miss Karie for the “glove” idea & thank LFPL for all their great ideas: www.lfpl.org/documents/actual%20size%20outline[1].doc

Feb. 28th & 29th

Howdy folks!

This week, our theme was “We Miss You, Miss Sarah!”  She was our ToddlerTime leader, who has now, sadly for us (good for her family), put in her notice to be a full-time mom at home.  For those of you who were here for her several years of StoryTime excellence for the Queen Creek Library, I asked that you decorate a special card for her!

Here’s the truly wonderful work (I can’t wait to actually hand them off to Miss Sarah…she’s gonna flip & I’ll definitely get a picture!):

Next, we read one of Miss Sarah’s favorite authors, Ian Falconer, in Olivia Save the Circus:

As the DIY craft, folks got to take home a small “Olivia” book, where kids can make up their own story to fit the scenes of the book…or, they could just scribble on it.  Either way, it’s a work of art, I’m telling you!  This idea came from Scholastic’s own site, so don’t worry about any copyright issues, o.k.?

Here’s the downladable mini-book, in case you ever want to print one out yourself: CRAFT – Olivia make-your-own story

Thanks for the awesome StoryTime experiences – I can’t image my life without ’em : )

Feb. 21st & 22nd

So, this week marked our return to a normally scheduled StoryTime, yeah!  Thanks again to everyone for bearing with us – Miss Karrie & I thought that the mashups went pretty well overall, & the crowd seemed to enjoy them too!

In the Tuesday & Wednesday ToddlerTimes of this week, we read I Love My Mommy & I Love My Daddy by Sebastien Braun:

 &

I experimented w/ reading two books this week (Tuesdays, poor Tuesdays, had the great joy of watching Mr. T awkwardly stumble & sweat through a slow version of each story).  But because one was for mommy & one was for daddy, I couldn’t resist!

I laid off of the craft for this week for two reasons, 1) because the author’s website really didn’t have any useful resources, and 2) because parenting can be such a touchy subject.  My opinion is that relying on outside sources to find parenting advice, if even just for activities & stories, is not always the most ideal strategy…serious “research” is always needed!

But, if you’re interested in further bond-building child-to-parent books, check-out this awesome booklist from Nesting.com: http://www.nesting.com/experts/article/86681/Books-for-Baby-Mommy-and-Daddy-Too.html.

Thanks y’all for reading & coming to StoryTime!  As always, if you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to post or drop me a line : )

Thanks for the great StoryTime everyone!!

So…as most of you know, this week’s StoryTime schedule was c-r-a-z-y!  But, everything went off without a hitch – thanks so much to everyone who came & supported our program : )

Remember, we’re back on a regular schedule next week.  Our updated calendar can always be found on our website. 

On Tuesday, we celebrated Arizona’s 100th birthday w/ a visit from the acclaimed author Conrad Storad!

 

 Then, on Wednesday we had a crafty story time where we sang a song about living in Arizona!  It was super silly & I had a great time!  I feel so blessed to be a part of this library team & your story times…thanks folks : )

Oh, and guess what?  Me n’ Miss Karrie got a valentine!!

Conrad Storad, tomorrow!! Tuesday, February 14th @ 9:30am!!!

Hey all!

Please don’t forget that this week’s StoryTimes have been shrunk to a one day, one showing format, with Arizona children’s author Conrad Storad!

This will be on Tuesday @  9:30am!!!

Come and listen to author Conrad Storad tell stories and read from his books.  Children ages 6 and under, please.  This event will require tickets, which will be distributed at 9:15 a.m.  For a glimpse into what his StoryTime entails, please see Miss Tara’s post about Perry Branch’s fun experience: http://storytimewithmisstara.blogspot.com/2012/02/2-9-12-conrad-storad.html

Feb. 7th & 8th

Hi folks!  Thanks for bearing w/ us as we try our new “mashup” idea…it means so much to me, and the library, that we have you there!

This week’s theme was chocolate!  Everyone even got a little treat @ the end…

We tried a few new songs, including “Don’t Worry, Eat Chocolate” w/ shaky eggs.  I also had the great joy of meeting PreSchool StoryTime folks that I wouldn’t normally get to see.  For the whole breakdown of what we covered, please see Miss Karrie’s blog @: http://qcfriends.org/misskarrie/?page_id=35

Please remember to check our “online calendar” for the latest times & such, so that no one has a disappointing StoryTime experience!  I’ll post later this week on what we’re doing next week, where we’ll have a visit from the acclaimed author Conrad Storad!

Jan. 31st

Hi everyone, this past Tuesday’s StoryTime rocked!

We did more advanced parachute stuff, like running under the colors, which was awesome!  Our story was Big, Bigger, Biggest by Nancy Coffelt:

Please check-out the author’s website for all of those great illustrations & coloring-sheets: http://blog.nancycoffelt.com/.  Also, don’t forget that next week is our mash-up StoryTime, it runs from 10:30am to 11:00am.  The ages will be mixed, from 1.5 to 6, so user beware ; )

No StoryTime tommorrow : (

Sorry folks, me n’ Miss Karrie (of PreSchool fame) are going to a Youth Services meeting on Wednesday, February 1st…so all story times are cancelled for that day.

Dang : (

The good news is that we’ll hopefully have tons of cool new songs/rhymes/craft ideas to share with all of you once we get back.  We haven’t been to one of these in quite a while (in fact, I’ve never been), so we’re excited to share our awesome experiences just as much as hearing other folks’ tales.

As a parting gift, I offer you the most tantalizing compilation of kitty cat videos on the Internet (set to “Jump” by Van Halen, of course), enjoy…I think!

Be sure to watch QC Library’s calendar!!

Hi again, I just wanted to remind folks that StoryTimes at the library will be juggled a little bit, so for the most up-to-date times & such, your best bet is to check with the library’s online “calendar of events” before every week: http://www.mcldaz.org/library/userdef/branches/ud_mcld_branch_QC.aspx 

Just as a side-note, on Wednesday of this week, we officially rocked the house by doing our first “run” under the parachute.  This activity has been a bit touchy for me because it’s a bit unprecedented for the Queen Creek Branch’s ToddlerTime…so I need to be really careful or I won’t be able to do it anymore.

Part of being careful is not risking little ones bumping into each other by running underneath the parachute during our “activity” portion of StoryTime.  So, w/ the caveat of “enter at your own risk” & “grown-ups w/ little, little, little ones may want to step back before we do the run”, we actually attempted the stunt!

And guess what?  It went really well!  No collisions, lost limbs, bumped heads, or tears of any sort!  In fact, I look forward to making “the run” a part of our normal line-up starting next month.  So RIGHT ON, to all those grown-ups who helped me get the crowd under control!

Oh, and also for next month, I hope to change our song line-up a bit…please let me know what tunes you’d want to sing & unless it’s really wacky, I’d be happy to give it a shot.  For now, I’m thinking let’s keep the repetitiveness of “Hello and how are you” & “Goodbye, goodbye” (I’m trying to tackle an acoustic Beatles cover as we speak) and maybe ditch the “Hokey Pokey” (in part because I keep goofing the words!).  And…let’s replace “Two Little Black Birds” with “Old MacDonald”.

This means more guitar & less finger-plays, so we’ll see how it goes!  As always, all comments are welcome & your input is appreciate, whether it be positive or negative.  All will be used to build a better StoryTime! 

Cheers,