Little Scientists: Slime

By far, this was the messiest program ever! But it was the easiest cleanup:-) We used disposable everything- tins, spoons, etc. We just rolled up the tablecloth at the end and tossed it in the trash.

We read stories about slimey things.

Intro: Bread & Butter

Sign: Wet

Book: The Wide-Mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner

Fingerplay- I Had a Little Turtle

I have a little turtle,
He lives inside a box.
He swims in the puddles
And he climbs on the rocks.

He snapped at a minnow
He snapped at a flea
He snapped at a mosquito
And he snapped at me.

He caught the minnow,
He caught the flea,
He caught the mosquito,
But he didn't catch me!

Flannel Board: Five Little Turtles (I just used the Ellison machine to make felt turtles and gave them google eyes.)

One baby turtle alone and new.
Finds a friend, and then there are two.

Two baby turtles crawl down to the sea.
They find another, and then there are three.

Three baby turtles crawl along the shore.
They find another, and then there are four.

Four baby turtles go for a dive.
Up swims another, and then there are five.

Song: Froggie Song (with puppets)

"Gonk, gonk" went the little Mr. Froggy.
"Gonk, gonk" went the lady froggy, too.
"Gonk, gonk" went them both together.
And their eyes went WOO, WOO, WOO!
And they kissed each other, (kiss, kiss)
Just like little froggies do.
And he said, "Good-bye!"
And she said, "Oh, my!"
"Wait! I'm coming, too!"

Book: For Pete’s Sake by Ellen Stoll Walsh

 Now to the making of the slime! 

I had this book on display and explained to the children that some books are stories and some books teach us how to do things.  This book taught me how to make slime so that I can teach you but they were going to need some grown up help.

Ingredients:

 

 

1/2 cup of water  (with eight drops of food coloring of your choice- I used green)

1 cup of cornstarch

Instructions:

Pour the water (with food coloring) into a pan.  Slowly add the cornstarch a little bit at a time to the water and stir. If you add it all at the same time, it will be too difficult to stir.  You have made slime when it becomes difficult to stir in the cornstarch.

(It took a while to add the cornstarch to the green water, so some of the kids were getting a little impatient.)

Here's what happens:

Water and cornstarch don’t mix completely. The slime is mostly tight packed bits of cornstarch and the water flows around those bits. When your hand moves slowly through the slime, the cornstarch moves around.

By the time we had made the slime, some of the children just didn't want to touch it! I don't know whether it was an odd consistency for them or what. 

All in all- I would say that the adults enjoyed the slime just as much as the kids:-)

Crafty Kids: Insects

So yes, I've been a little behind on this blog. Chairing an NJLA committee and actual Summer Reading got in the way, but I'm hoping to catch up with some useful programs.

During the summer we substitute Crafty Kids for our regular storytime. This preschool program for children ages 2-5 involves, rhymes, stories, songs, activities and a craft. In fact, I love this program so much, we're getting rid of regular storytime and replacing it with this program in September.

Our summer program runs for seven weeks, so we have seven weeks of Crafty Kids. I'll try to post all of this year's science-themed Crafty Kids here.

So the first week of Crafty Kids was insects! Here's the basic outline for what we did:

Intro : Bread & Butter Thank you to the ladies over at Jbrary who do this much better than I do!

Book: Butterfly, Butterfly by Petr Horacek

Rhyme: Bumblebee, Bumblebee (with puppet)

Bumble Bee, bumble bee, Landing on my nose,
Bumble bee, bumble bee, Now he's on my toes.
On my arms, on my legs, on my elbows.
Bumble bee, oh bumble bee, He lands and then he goes.

Flannelboard: Where is the Bee? This is like Little Mouse, Little Mouse, but there is a bee that hides in flowers in a garden.

Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider (with puppet)

Book: Tiny Little Fly by Michael Rosen

Activity: Insect Matching Game- handed out laminated insects to kids (with what it was on the back for parents) and when the child saw their insect on the board, they brought it up. I bought this by chance at the Becker's outlet by me. It was really meant to be a bulletin board set but I used it for something else:-)

Craft: Bee

Crafty Kids: Dinosaurs

To me, there's nothing that screams science like Dinosaurs. Sure, we did them last summer when the theme was the underground, but there are so many dinosaur stories and crafts out there it was hard to resist.

Intro: Bread & Butter 

The ladies over at Jbrary do it the best!

Book: How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen

Song: Dino Pokey (to the tune of "Hokey Pokey")

You put your claws in,
You take your claws out,
You put your claws in,
And you scratch 'em all about.
You do the dino pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

Additional Verses:
horns in
horns out
scratch them all about

teeth in
teeth out
chomp them all about

feet in
feet out
stomp them all about

tail in
tail out
swing it all about

Flannel Board: Five Enormous Dinosaurs 

Sharon at King County Library System does this the best. I have the children stand up and do this with me- the roaring and stomping that is. Because really, who doesn't like to roar and stomp?

Rhyme: Dinosaur, Dinosaur (with puppets)

Dinosaur, dinosaur where can you be?

Hiding behind me where you cannot see.

Here comes one, he's been waiting for you.

Here comes another and now there are two.

Book: Simms Taback’s Dinosaurs

Activity: Dinosaur Spots & Spikes flannel

I made a plain green dinosaur but doesn't he look like he's missing something? 

So I made spots and spikes that were purple and orange. I handed them out to the kids and then asked them to help give our dinosaur spots. If you have the "orange circle" bring it up and give our dinosaur some spots.

Craft: paper plate dinosaurs

Activity: Dinosaur Feet
On the way out huge dinosaur feet were set up for children to walk on.

Elvis: The King

Today would have been Elvis Presley's 79th birthday. Why not turn that into a library program? So I did! Despite the record breaking low temperature in Matawan, eight children ranging grades K-3 came out to celebrate Elvis' birthday at the library yesterday! I have to be honest, though, none of the children had ever heard of Elvis before. I had a feeling this was the case, so instead of our usual jokes in between stories, we shared facts about the king himself, and his career.

I started out by showing everyone some pictures of Elvis, most notably one in a sequined jumpsuit:

And...another of him with his infamous lip curl.

After a brief introduction to Elvis, we read Bawk & Roll by Tammi Sauer & Dan Santat. This is a story about a rooster, Elvis Poultry, whose back up dancers (two chickens) have a bad case of stage fright. Does the rooster look familiar?

Since I was short on time, we only read one story. Next came the craft. We all know Elvis was the king of rock n' roll, so what better craft than a crown, complete with Elvis hair and sideburns along with some gems and sequins. One of our regular Afternoon Adventurers, Colin, sported his completed crown, with an Elvis lip curl. Elvis' Greatest Hits served as background music while everyone crafted.

After the children crafted their crowns, everyone was offered a sample of Elvis' favorite food: peanut butter and banana sandwiches! (I noted on all program advertisements that peanut butter would be in the room in case anyone had any allergies.) Meanwhile, I hooked up the laptop to our sound system, pulled down the movie screen and everyone was entranced with the "Jailhouse Rock" music video.

I also showed a video clip of Elvis' first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956.  This sparked a new discussion about how TV and movies used to be in black and white. After we watched the videos, I asked the children if they liked Elvis.  Another regular, Aubrie, responded with, "If I could vote for Elvis for something, I would vote for him at least six times!" My interpretation is that she thought he was awesome:-)

I like to incorporate all aspects of the library when I do a program, and since we only read one story, I wanted to plug a library resource. MAPL subscribes to a music download service, Freegal. With their library cards, patrons can download up to three songs a week from the Sony music catalog.  About thirty Elvis albums are available through this service, so I wanted the children to know there was a place to get his music for free. I sent each child home with a Freegal bookmark with a note at the top that read, "Download Elvis' music for free!"

Overall, it was a great program- everyone had a great time, including me. When the children see me having fun, I think the program is more fun for them!