Week 2 results

First, a detail I'll explain a bit: I do *two* preschool storytimes for the Head Start, meant to be the exact same storytime twice back to back. I do this because this Head Start is the biggest in Oakland, with more than 80 kids enrolled. They're divided into four classrooms, and I read to classrooms 1 and 2 at 10:30, 3 and 4 at 11. When I first started at this library, I had all four classes come at 10:30, and it was so big and noisy that the kids had no hope of paying attention. I asked the director if she would like to send just two groups at a time and she said yes.
This will be especially relevant this week...

Okay, so group 1. I started with the sit-down-shut-up song, then my two standard openers:

Good Morning, Dear Earth (note, I do not know this kid, and the video's not mine, it's just really cute)



and Two Little Bluebirds, aka Two Little Blackbirds, aka Two Little Dickey Birds, which I could never say to a class without laughing.

(again, not my video. Also I don't end by running into the wall.)

On to the first book: Big Sister, Little Sister, by LeUyen Pham. Sorry to say it because I like this book quite a lot, but the little ones were not impressed. There's not much of a *plot* to speak of, it's mostly a list of things the big sister does with responses as to what the narrator can/can't do because she's the little sister. As I was reading it, the lack of a dramatic storyline jumped out at me for the first time.

The kids looked bored and started getting squirmy by the 10th page.

Book 2: To Hilda, for Helping, by Margot Zemach. WOW, was this a polar opposite from the first book. Barely any dramatic tension in BSLS-- the sisters compete a little, but always in a fun-loving way. It's not hard to picture the sisters in THFH someday having really awkward Thanksgiving dinners that turn into screaming fights with hair-pulling. And the kids were *riveted.* When the mean sister started saying mean things, they repeated them with that glassy doe-eyed stare. Hilda's sister calls her medal "nasty," which I read like nay-aaassty, the East Oakland way. Local pride! At the end, they had a lot of comments about how medals don't really grow on trees and we talked about how that's in her imagination. Even the ending of the book isn't what I'd call positive-- it's Hilda rubbing her medal in her sister's face again. But yeah, they liked that too.

The truest sign that this one worked? In week 3's storytime (yeah I'm behind), a character was helping and I asked what reward Hilda got for helping last week, and one little boy called out "a medal!" Week-to-week retention!

Book 3: George and Martha, by James Marshall. Fortunately, I did not make the mistake I've made before and pick up the G&M book where Martha smokes a cigar.

George and Martha is a subtle book. The humor lies in a difference in scale; the words will say "Martha was mad" while the picture shows her fuming. I've had classes that didn't get these books. This one did, but I think the stories dragged on for them-- there are several short stories in the book and they started squirming around story 4. All was redeemed though by the image of George creeping on Martha in the bathtub, and then the next picture with the bathtub on George's head.

So remember how I said the two storytimes thing was relevant? The second group showed up early. We were nearing the end of G&M and they all started filing in. Bad news! I ended the book a bit early (just skipped the last story) and segued into our goodbye song and dismissal routine. Still a little hard getting all the kids around each other. The aisles are not wide.

When I give stickers, the kids always yell out "I want blue!" I want red, etc. I tell them "you get what you get!" meaning you don't get to choose your color. Seems simple, but come on- we'd be there all day.

Next week, I explore BEING the big sister. Circle up!

--Miss Amy