Anansi the Spider

In honor of April Fool's Day I wanted to read some trickster tales, so we read Anansi stories and learned about spiders. 

Outline:

Opening Song: Put Your Hands Up High

Opening Rhyme: Hands Go Up

Story: Anansi and the Talking Melon by Eric A. Kimmel

Movement activity: Spider yoga pose

Story: Anansi Goes Fishing by Eric A. Kimmel

Activity: Label a spider

Final Story: Anansi and the Magic Stick by Eric A. Kimmel

Activity: Spiderweb game

Craft: Resistance painting

Goodbye song

How it actually went: 

I had drawn a giant spider diagram on the whiteboard, so that was the first thing the kids saw when they entered the room. Some of the kids were a little freaked out to see a giant spider, but they quickly noticed the books on the table and made the connection. One of my kids had read all of the books at school, and was well familiar with the stories. 

When we read Anansi Goes Fishing, the children all felt bad for Anansi when he gets tricked into doing all of the work, but gets none of the fish.

The children did a really good job with the label a spider activity. After the first story, I showed them a pre-labeled picture because some of the vocabulary was unfamiliar even to me. I wanted them to have a chance to learn the names for the various body parts first. After the second story, we turned to the larger spider that I had drawn on the board and filled in the blanks. 

After our third story, I tried playing a spider web game with the kids before turning to our craft. It was an idea I found on Pinterest that looked like a lot of fun, but it didn't quite work like I thought it would. The idea is that you use sticky tape (like masking tape) to create a spider web in a door frame, sticky side out. Then the kids get newspaper that they can ball up and throw at the spider web. I don't know if my tape wasn't sticky enough or what, but the newspaper kept bouncing off the web. I think only one or two pieces of paper wound up sticking. 

Next we made some resistance paintings using crayons and watercolors. The kids used a white crayon to draw a spiderweb, and then painted over it with various colors and watched the web appear under the paint. 

Have you used Anansi stories with your kids? What did they think?

*Disclaimer* I include links to Amazon, but am not an Amazon affiliate, and receive no compensation for any sales which may result. 

Tortoise and the Hare

I remembered making inclined plane wheelers when I was a kid. We used old records and a pencil with some rubber bands or clay to hold them in place. They were a lot of fun, so this week I decided on that for the activity, and planned a Tortoise and the Hare storytime around it. 

Outline: 

Opening Song: Put Your Hands Up High

Opening Rhyme: Hands Go Up

Story: The Great Race by Kevin O'Malley

Movement activity: Move like a tortoise, move like a hare

Story: The Tortoise or the Hare by Toni Morrison & Slade Morrison

Activity: Memory Match Game

Final Story: Hare and Tortoise by Alison Murray

Craft: Inclined Plane Wheeler races

Goodbye song

How it actually went: 

I wound up going home sick the day of this storytime, so one of my fellow librarians ran it for me. So, unfortunately, I don't have the level of detail for you that I would normally have. 

Only one of my regulars came this week (it was Spring Break week). When it came time to race it was librarian vs. child. She used the inclined plane wheeler that I had made up as a sample, and the child made his own. It turns out that he's better at it than I am. He repeatedly won the races, and made a sign for her that he expected her to wear saying, "I was beaten by A___ 300 times!" I couldn't stop laughing when I saw that the next day. 

Have you tried using Tortoise and the Hare with your kids? How about different racing techniques? Share your experiences in the comments.

Bremen Town Musicians

Bremen Town Musicians was one of the tales that I was not at all familiar with until I decided to use it for storytime. I love the comedy of errors that happens, so I decided that the whole cause/effect thing would be a good way to bring up simple machines and have the kids try to build a Rube Goldberg machine. 

Outline: 

Opening Song: Put Your Hands Up High

Opening Rhyme: Hands Go Up

Story: The Bremen-town Musicians retold by Ruth Belov Gross

Movement activity: Yoga poses – Rooster (modified), Cat, Downward Dog, and Donkey (3 legged downward dog)

Story: Ol' Bloo's Boogie-Woogie Band and Blues Ensemble by Jan Huling

Activity: Simple Machines

Craft: Rube Goldberg

Goodbye Song

How it actually went: 

The kids enjoyed the stories, although when we read the New Orleans inspired version, they kept asking me why the donkey was called Ol' Bloo since it was, in fact, not blue. As I had hoped, they seemed to enjoy the comedy of errors that caused the robbers to believe that the house had a monster in it. This was also the scene that I used for the basis of my STEAM concept this week. We talked a little bit about cause and effect and simple machines. 

We tried yoga poses for the first time in storytime. One of our other branches has yoga mats that I was able to borrow. I found some simple poses online to go along with each of the animals. Well, okay, so the rooster pose that I found was not at all simple. I modified that one for this storytime. Some of the kids really liked adding yoga to storytime, some did not. 

Next, I gave a brief introduction to the six simple machines with the Learning Resources set that I ordered from Amazon. This gave the children the chance to see the machines in action, and explore for themselves. 

For our craft time I wanted the children to try their hand at building some simple machines, and if they could, see if they could build more than one machine and have them interact. One of our maintenance guys helped me come up with a simple pulley mechanism using cardboard and wood dowels. This was another craft where I gave the kids everything from the box under my desk and just let them have at it. Many of them started with the pulley, and added to it from there. 

My original vision had been for some cool Rube Goldberg style machines, but I opted to keep it simple and let the kids determine how far they wanted to take it. 

How about you? Have you ever done Rube Goldberg machines with your kids? How did they turn out?

*Disclaimer* I include links to Amazon, but I am not an affiliate so I do not receive any compensation for any sales which may result. 

Irish Stories

This storytime was the week of St. Patrick's Day so I decided to look at some Irish stories. 

Outline: 

Opening Song: Put Your Hands Up High

Opening Rhyme

Story: Fin M'Coul The Giant of Knockmany Hill by Tomie de Paola

Song: Bog Down in the Valley-O

(Chorus)
O-ro the rattlin' bog, 
The bog down in the valley-o
O-ro the rattlin' bog, 
The bog down in the valley-o

And in that bog there was a tree, 
A rare tree, a rattlin' tree
With the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.

(Chorus)

Now on that tree there was a limb, 
A rare limb, a rattlin' limb
With the limb on the tree 
And the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.

(Chorus)

Now on that limb there was a branch, 
A rare branch, a rattlin' branch
With the branch on the limb 
And the limb on the tree 
And the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.

(Chorus)

Now on that branch there was a twig, 
A rare twig, a rattlin' twig
With the twig on the branch,
And the branch on the limb 
And the limb on the tree 
And the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.

(Chorus)

Now on that twig there was a nest, 
A rare nest, a rattlin' nest
With the nest on the twig,
And the twig on the branch,
And the branch on the limb 
And the limb on the tree 
And the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.

(Chorus)

Now in that nest there was an egg, 
A rare egg, a rattlin' egg,
With the egg in the nest,
And the nest on the twig,
And the twig on the branch,
And the branch on the limb 
And the limb on the tree 
And the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.

(Chorus)

Now in that egg there was a bird, 
A rare bird, a rattlin' bird
With the bird in the egg,
And the egg in the nest,
And the nest on the twig,
And the twig on the branch,
And the branch on the limb 
And the limb on the tree 
And the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.

(Chorus)

Now on that bird there was a feather, 
A rare feather, a rattlin' feather,
With the feather on the bird,
And the bird in the egg,
And the egg in the nest,
And the nest on the twig,
And the twig on the branch,
And the branch on the limb 
And the limb on the tree 
And the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.

(Chorus)

Now on that feather there was a flea, 
A rare flea, a rattlin' flea 
With the flea on the feather,
And the feather on the bird,
And the bird in the egg,
And the egg in the nest,
And the nest on the twig,
And the twig on the branch,
And the branch on the limb 
And the limb on the tree 
And the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.

(Chorus)

Source: Mama Lisa's World

Story: Fiona's Luck by Teresa Bateman

Activity: Leprechaun rocks

Activity: Walking Rainbow

Craft: Leprechaun trap

Goodbye Song

How it actually went: 

The stories seemed to go over okay. Fin M'Coul is a little on the long side, but I think my kids are used to that by now. I was impressed that they were more observant about hidden imagery in the pictures than I was (there are 3 little men in several of the pictures in the giants' home). 

As you can see, the traditional Irish song that I found is quite long. I taught the kids to sing the chorus and I sung the verses. Even still, their attention spans weren't up to it, so I cut the song short after a couple of verses. 

Fiona's Luck is a really cute and clever story. I don't know if it's based on an actual Irish legend or not, but it's fairy-tale-esque and that was good enough for me. Plus, Fiona's dog looks a lot like my dog, so how could I resist. 

Picture of my dog, Baldur for comparison to the cover above.

I made the leprechaun rocks a day or two in advance. For those who opt not to follow the link above, leprechaun rocks are made with baking soda and water. Make a nice paste, something that you can form into a rock-like shape, and then hide toy gold coins inside. I added some green food coloring also for that St. Patrick's Day flare. Then I gave the kids spray bottles with vinegar so they could hunt for treasure. 

Using a spray bottle takes a while, so most of the kids wound up taking the spray top off and pouring the vinegar on. I had some rocks left over, so I used them again a few days later for another storytime. They definitely get harder the longer they sit, so that's something to keep in mind. 

The walking rainbow is cool, but it takes a really long time to get the full effect. Again, for those who didn't click the link, I'll describe what I did. For the walking rainbow you need 6 glass jars (I used old pasta sauce jars). In 3 of the jars you'll add water and food coloring: a jar of red, one of yellow, and one of blue. In between each of these, put an empty jar. Lastly, roll up some paper towels and connect the jars with them. So you'll have a paper towel half in the red jar and half in an empty one, and a paper towel half in the yellow jar and half in the same empty one, and so on and so forth. So through capillary action the empty jars become full of orange, green, and purple. ( I wish I had pictures, but I left my phone at home.)

I set this up about 4 hours before my program and it still wasn't long enough. A little bit of green had started to appear, so I was able to show that to the kids, but red wasn't doing its job so I didn't have any orange or purple. I think it took about 6.5 hours before I started to see any orange and purple (I had a timer running next to the experiment). This was another one that I used for my next storytime a few days later, and after 3 days it looked beautiful. 

I gave the kids some photo inspiration to get them started, but the leprechaun traps were basically one of those crafts that you do when you have too many scrap supplies sitting under  your desk. Or maybe that's just me. In any case, I hauled out that big box of tp tubes, paper plates, straws, scrap paper, etc. and let them have at it. They came up with some really cute stuff. 

I had some other Fin M'Coul stories ready to go if necessary, but the kids spend most of the time on their projects (as I thought they would). 

So did you try any fun St. Patrick's Day STEAM projects with your kids?

*Disclaimer* I link to Amazon for informational purposes, but I am not an affiliate so I do not receive any compensation for any sales which may result.