Happy Valentine’s Day!

Yesterday was a busy Wednesday at the Bush library. Here’s what went down:

3rd grade: Jody and I returned the kids’ computer catalog worksheets and talked about some of the problems we saw. Then we split into groups to do Readers Theatre. I took 10 kids to do “The Miller and his Donkey” and Jody took 4 to do a modern Cinderella. I assigned parts to the kids and we read through the play. We talked about Aesop and the moral of the story. I gave them some notes on how they could improve their storytelling, too. Next week is Mid-Winter break, but the week after that, we’ll record the plays.

Kindergarten and 2nd grade: I performed a story for the little ones today: “The Monkey’s Heart” which is an old Sawhili/Indian (depending on the version you read) tale. I wrote my own version to connect it to Valentine’s Day and when one of the students suggested a really good alternative ending, I put it in my final telling and the kids really liked it. Jody and I talked to the students about the differences between storytelling and story reading, too.

As usual, after we finish our story room time, Jody and I help the kids pick out books. I had, as usual, many requests for Star Wars. I also did some readers’ advisory with a boy who said the last thing he really enjoyed was a Woody Guthrie cd. So we found him a book about Woody Guthrie so he could learn more. There were also two 2nd grade girls who wanted to read the same book together. I helped them find books by just browsing the Beginning Readers section of the library. It’s not very big and we have a few duplicates there (though, in general, the Bush library has very few duplicates).

When I had some free time today, I also checked the catalog to see which books Bush already had from a list of Notable Picture Books Jody gave me. Bush only had 3 out of 12, so I think they’ll be ordering some.

I also contributed to a list Lindy and Lisa were making for a student designing an independent study. She wants to look at how written works are interpreted as movies, so I suggested we look at the list of Oscar nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay. I also had a few favorites that I suggested:

• Clueless, based on Emma by Jane Austen
• The Shawshank Redemption, based on the short story by Stephen King
• The Hours, based on the book by Michael Cunningham and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
• One Flew Over the Cuckoos Next, based on the book by Ken Kesey
• The Golden Compass, based on the book by Philip Pullman

When I took my storytelling class last quarter, we made a list of “fillers” or things you can do when you have a few minutes and a bunch of kids. I already knew a ton from my experience with preschoolers, and today I had a chance to use one while the kindergarteners waited to go to P.E. I lead them in a chorus of theme song from “The Elephant Show” which goes like this:

Skinnamarink e-dink e-dink
Skinnamarink e-doo
I love you.

Skinnamarink e-dink e-dink
Skinnamarink e-doo
I love you.

I love you in the morning
and in the afternoon.
I love you in the evening
underneath the moon.

Skinnamarink e-dink e-dink
Skinnamarink e-doo
I love you.

I love you in the morning
and in the afternoon.
I love you in the evening
underneath the moon.

Oh, Skinnamarink e-dink e-dink
Skinnamarink e-doo
I love you.
I do.

First Friday

Today was my first Friday at the Bush library. On Fridays, Jody (the Lower School librarian) isn’t in the library, so I can use her desk and computer to work on projects, which I very much appreciate.

I arrived at 9 and got started on putting together a display of Tall Tales. To do this, I searched the Bush library catalog for “tall tales,” “johnny appleseed,” “paul bunyon,” etc. until I had found a good number to use. I made sure to include one of my favorite tall tales, Carolinda Clatter. I arranged the book for maximum visibility on the table, and then made a sign for the display. I’ll insert a full list of the books I used later and maybe add a picture of the display.

Then I took some time to prepare for book talks I’m going to give to Fifth Graders next week. They’re focusing on award winners, so I decided to book talk Batchelder Award winners and honor books. It took me quite a long time to look up all the possible books in the Bush catalog, but I finally discovered that we had eight of them, only one of which was checked out. So I gathered the seven books available and looked through them. I’d only read one previously, The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke. I was impressed by the variety of books I had (fiction, non-fiction, biography, historical, jokey) so I think this group of books will make for an interesting set of book talks. Hopefully they’ll be something for almost everybody.

Then Jenine Lillian, the Middle School librarian and a former professor of mine at the iSchool, asked me to help her with a collection development project. She’d just returned from the ALA Midwinter Conference in Philadelphia where she served on the Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers committee. She had a bookcart full of free books she’d gotten at the conference and I helped her go through them to determine what she’d donate to the Bush library and what she’d raffle off to students. This mostly involved checking the catalog to see what Bush already had and separating the winning books from the nominees.

I left a little bit after 1:00 feeling like I’d accomplished quite a bit. It was a good day.