Supercharging My Storytimes: Winter Break Snow Fight

On December 28, 2017, I had the great opportunity to host a Winter Break Snowfight. While most of the country has been battling extreme temperatures this winter, our state has had it's normal 70-degree temps for Christmas time. The majority of the kids who came to my class have never seen snow. For a couple of weeks before the class, teen volunteers and I made snowflakes to decorate the room. We had several hanging from the ceiling made out of popsicle sticks and cardstock, and several more made out of coffee filters on all of the windows, cabinets, and doors in the storytime room. I also went to Walmart and bought the fake snow you can use for Christmas villages and discounted Christmas lights (I LOVE after-Christmas sales) to decorate the countertop.

Books used:

 This books is absolutely hilarious. The snowman in the story keeps trying to warm up, but with each thing he and the children attempt, he tends to melt faster and faster. I read this book first because of the length, but it was crowd pleaser. The children loved helping me put our snowman back together with the words, "MAKE ME BRAND NEW".

This book was a great way to show Florida kids how much fun snow can be. Most of the kids in the storytime had never seen snow or if they had, they were too young to remember it.

Flannel Boards:

    

              Build a Snowman 

                   I created 20 flannel board folders by gluing a big piece of felt over one side of a double pocket folder and created a small copy of the flannel board for each kid to play with as I used our larger flannel board. I wish I could remember where I found the rhyme for our flannel board, but the rhyme I used was:

Build a Snowman First the body (add 2 white balls of felt) 

Then the head (add 1 more white ball of felt)

 A stove pipe hat (add a black top hat)

 And a scarf of red (add red scarf)

 Two buttons for his eyes (add 2 eyes) 

And a carrot for his nose (add orange triangle) 

Then add some raisins Standing in a row (add black yarn for the mouth)" 

Instead of using raisins, I cut out smiles from black felt for all of the snowman packets.

Music: 

I totally used the excuse of the program taking place immediately after Christmas, I played Christmas music.

Jingle Bells we used our hand bells to attempt to keep the rhythm of the song

Let it Snow: scarves

Ring around the Snowman we played ring around the rosie around a snowman.

Special Activity:

The  thing I was the most excited to do during this storytime was our snowball fight. I found fake snow from Lakeshore Learning. This stuff is called Speedy Snow and it really lives up to it's name.  The powder in the container grows when you add water to it. I added the powder to a small inflatable pool (with plenty of tablecloths underneath it) and added a couple of pitchers of water. The children were able to watch the powder turn into cool to the touch "snow". They were fascinated by the process. After the kids played with the fake snow, I brought out a bunch of Styrofoam balls and crinkled paper and let the kids have a snowball fight in the library.  Not going to lie, clean up was a monster because one little boy had more fun stomping on the styrofoam balls and crushing them. Maybe it sounded like crunching through the snow to him, I don't know, but it made clean up more than I anticipated.

Supercharged Storytime:

Since this was the first storytime after my Supercharged Storytime training began, I was careful to find a way to apply what I've been learning to this storytime. I decided that the Early Literacy Domain I wanted to focus on was Phonological Awareness and I would have the children demonstrate the ELD by completing certain phrases with the books. With Sneezy the Snowman the children helped me say, "Make me brand new," and in Snow Happy, the children replied with, "SNOW HAPPY" at the end of each page spread.

Our Early Literacy tip (which I wrote out on big easel paper) was: Preschoolers love silliness including silliness around words. You can play with words—making up  nonsense words as you make up as many rhymes to one word as you can. Hearing those smaller sounds in words is so important to being able to sound out words when they learn to read.  

New Rules:

 

I also did something a little daring. I actually told parents and caregivers to PUT THEIR CELLPHONES AWAY. I know, what was I thinking? I was so nervous telling a group of adults that they needed to put their phones on silent or vibrate and put them away, but you know what, every single adult did what I asked them to do. Not one adult complained. I even noticed that when the adults didn't have their phones to distract them, they focused on the little ones they brought with them. Which perfectly tied into the other new rule: Parents/Caregivers must sit with their children and actually interact with them during the storytime. I know, a complete revelation. Adults and children interacting during a storytime, and it was amazing. I was pleasantly surprised that no one complained one bit.

Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston

"Hermione Winters has been a flyer. She's been captain of her cheerleading team. The envied girlfriend and undisputed queen of her school. Now it's her last year and those days and those labels are fading fast. In a few months, she'll be a different person. She thinks she's ready for whatever comes next.
But then someone puts something in her drink at a party, and in an instant she finds herself wearing new labels, ones she never imagined: Victim. Survivor. That raped girl.
Even though this was never the future she imagined, one essential thing remains the unchanged: Hermione can still call herself Polly Olivier's best friend, and that may be the truest label of all.
Heartbreaking and empowering, Exit, Pursued by a Bear is the story of transcendent friendship in the face of trauma." (book jacket)

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What  I really liked about Exit, Pursued by a Bear was that E.K. Johnston was not graphic in talking about Hermione's rape. One moment things fade to black the next moment she wakes up in an emergency exam room with her best friend and a nurse. She wakes up disoriented with holes in her memory of what happened to her. I also like that the book doesn't open up with a rape. You meet Hermione and get a peek into her life, cheer camp and her squad before we get to the party that changes her life.

The aftermath of the rape is the central focus of the book, what Hermione remembers and how she handles the changes and surprises that come her way. From realizing that the DNA evidence was compromised because of where she was found and knowing every boy on her squad was a suspect to those same boys volunteering to give DNA samples to help solve her rape, Hermione learns a lot about herself, her best friend and her squad.

I like that E.K. Johnston gave Hermione her best friend, Polly. Polly was able to be a grounding force in Hermione's life. She had Hermione's back at every moment and I can only hope that I have a friend as amazing as Polly.