Dragon Storytime

With our medieval armor and trusty steeds, the Sunday storytimers and I journeyed into the mountainous terrain of of books only to come face to face with fire-breathing (and taco eating) DRAGONS!

That's right! Yesterday's storytime theme was DRAGONS! (I feel the word DRAGON should always be in caps, don't you agree?) We read some of my favorite dragon picture books and then made our very own fierce fire-breathers.

Dragon Storytime Line-up:

Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin, illustrated by Daniel Salmieri

What?! You didn't know dragons love tacos? Well, they do.. they like them a lot. What don't dragons like? Spicy salsa. The kids loved listening to this new picture book hit.

The Sunflower Sword by Mark Sperring, illustrated by Miriam Latimer

A personal favorite, this picture book is about what happens when you replace fighting with friendship.

The Best Pet of All by David LaRochelle, illustrated by Hanako Wakiyama

After one boy's mother constantly rejects the idea of getting a dog, she agrees to adopting a dragon. It's only a mater of time when they both soon find out that dragons make terrible pets.

King Arthur's Very Great Grandson by Kenneth Kraegel

This story about a 6-year-old boy, the very great great great great great great great grandson of King Arthur, takes off in search of adventure on his donkey, Knuckles. The dialogue in this book is hilarious.

Fire-Breathing Dragon Craft:

This fun and fiery dragon craft idea come from KangarooBoo Blog! What you don't see from this image is a hole in the back of the dragon head. Blow into the hole and make the dragon's flames flicker and spark.

Materials needed: Paper cups, pom-pom balls, googly eyes, crepe paper, construction paper, stickers, liquid school glue, tape, pen, and scissors.

First, punch a hole in the bottom of the cup. I did this to all the cups pre-storytime.

Cut the crepe paper into 5-10 inch strips and tape to the inside lip of the cup.

You are going to want to tape the strips to the top part of the dragons mouth for maximum fire-breathing effects.

To decorate the dragon's face, glue two pom-pom balls where you'd like the eyes to be.

Count to 20 and then glue the googly eyes on top of each pom.

This example dragon was also decorated with construction paper and stickers. I cut the paper into small triangles and folded them at the base. Then I glued them on using school glue. Since I ran out of prep-time for this particular craft, the kids didn't use construction paper triangls. Instead they used the foam shape stickers left over from last week.  We also used left over star stickers from Olympic Storytime.

Final product: Fire-breathing DRAGONS!

Here L demonstrates how to wreak havoc.

A lot of kids loved this craft and a lot of them found it difficult. The little ones needed extra help and I ran out of supplies. But everyone had fun listening to stories and was able to take a dragon home with them. Quest completed.

Note: No children were burned during this project and the library still stands today.

Seeing Things

Shallow waters.

Recommended reading.

Crimson petals.

Summer in a bottle.

Pipe cleaners and popcorn.

Weatherized library style.

Bee in a buggy.

Fan mail.

Evening river walk.

Looking up.

Growing up.

We are nearing the end of the summer. A majority of the kids that frequent the library have gone back to school. I've switched from working my summer schedule of longer hours to my school year schedule of nights and weekends. Summer school ended two weeks ago for Will and fall semester will start Monday. It's back to being just L and I during the daytime. We are transitioning.

The illustration of a women to reading to children is from an article written by Elizabeth Bird in School Library Journal about becoming and being a children's public librarian. The article is available to read online here.

The picture of a table full of pipe cleaners is from the library's last bash of the summer, celebrating summer reading participation. The the street was blocked off, and people enjoyed live music outside, the kids made a couple different crafts including this crown craft and there was free kettle corn, cotton candy, and hotdogs.

I summer-ized of my uniform. Snip, snip! Because I felt sleeves just wasn't an option at 103 degrees.

Speaking of attire, L's preferred accoutrement is a slightly-too-small bumble bee garment.

I received a postcard from a storytime fan. All the way from Vancouver. Now that is a library.

Made. my. day.

Lawrence is slowly starting to fill up, as university towns do the August before class starts. Young people are everywhere. They are younger every year.

Now before I go, I want to take you back for a moment. Now look at that last image.

Go back again if you'd like.

My baby mine.

Wild West Storytime

Howdy, partner!

Had quite the fandango down at the local library yesterday... Cowboys, outlaws, ladies, and BOOKS! That's right, books. Didn't you know that cowboys love to read? Anyway, I've been awaiting to do this theme for quite sometime, especially since just south of Lawrence, Kansas is Dodge City, one of the most iconic cowboy towns in history. Yee-haw!!

Wild West Storytime Line-up:

How I Spent My Summer Vacation by Mark Teague

With summer almost over, this was the perfect intro into our storytime lineup. One boy thought he was going to be sent to his Aunt Ferns for a relaxing vacation when a band of cowboys kidnapped him. After that, his summer vacation was anything but ordinary.

Don't Touch My Hat! by James Rumford

Sheriff John thought he could do anything with is 10-gallon hat, but he quickly learns that a hat is a hat. It's the person who's wearing it that saves the day.

She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain by Jonathan Emmett, illustrated by Deborah Allwright

This book was so fun to read aloud, especially since their is a hand-action guide that goes along with the traditional song. So, I encouraged the kids to chime in with the expressions and hand-motions. They were laughing throughout the story. A must-read for Wild West Stortyime.

The Day Dirk Yeller Came to Town by Mary Casanova, illustrated by Ard Hoyt

What do you give an outlaw who comes to town, itchin' and a scratin' for something to keep him still? A library (and sweet as pecan pie librarian) of course! The perfect remedy for the restless.

Sheriff Badge Craft:

For our wild wild west craft we made sheriff badges. Since our library's summer kick-off theme was "Mustaches & Lawngames", we own the accucut dye cut for various mustache shapes, so I cranked a few out for the kids to wear with their sheriff badges as well.

Materials needed: metallic gold and silver poster board (cheaper than metallic card stock), fake jewels, stickers, tape, sharpie, white school glue, scissors, and colored construction paper.

Pre-storytime, I traced out star badges from a left-over Oriental Trading Company craft.  Not so great at drawing free-hand (like myself)? Print out these sheriff badge templates here or here to use as a guide.

Cut the badges out. Smaller scissors seemed to work well.

At storytime, the kids decorated their badges by gluing jewels with white school glue and also applying star stickers.

Sharpie markers we left out to write "Sheriff", "Deputy", "Cowboy", "Best in the West", a name, etc.

And that's it. Short and sweet.

I left out masking tape in case the kids wanted to affix their badges to their shirts AND paper mustaches with a roll of double-stick tape for instant sheriff-appeal. Yippie-kay-yay!

Here, my lil' pardner, Sheriff L, models the Wild West Storytime craft in true cowgirl style.

Stick 'em up! Don't anybody move a muscle. This is a heist.  I want to watch 10 hours of Elmo while eating strawberry icecream. Or else.

Seeing Things

Love is all you need...

Love and libraries...

And music.

And coffee.

Evening pool haze.

Wheels turning.

Castle making.

Cool dips.

Placid waters.

Fire in the sky.

Summer slumbers.

Warm celebrations.

Hovering planets.

How he sees me.

Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon.

Midsummer latelys... Triple digit heat, librarying, reading, lots of reading, Lawrence to Ludington, MI and back, pool trips, lake dips, kiddo's birthday, crafting, more reading. Repeat.