August 15th - Last Day!

My First Story Time Presentation
I presented my first story time today on the theme of "Up and Down". Pamela counted the crowd and she said there were 95 people there - and probably more with people coming and leaving during the presentation. The presentation lasted 35 minutes. Here's the outline:

Up and Down Story Time:
Fingerplay - I've Got Ten Fingers
Song and Sign Language - The More We Get Together
1st Story - The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens
2nd Story - Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
Song and Movement - The Grand Old Duke of York
3rd Story - My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohmann
4th Story - Silly Sally by Audrey Wood

The presentation was a great success. When we sang "The Grand Old Duke of York" the crowd started singing another verse I had never heard of but I just went along with it. We sang it three times - each time faster. When I read Going on a Bear Hunt the crowd voluntarily started a call and response with the repetitive part "Can't go over it, Can't go under it" etc. It was a blast! Children came up and thanked me and parents thanked me too. One grandparent said I was "radiant and jubilant". A few technical things I need to work on are projecting from my diaphragm instead of using my throat - my throat was really soar by the end of the presentation. Practice holding the book so everyone can see it. And feeling comfortable letting children know they need to sit down. I sort of blocked out all of the crying and wiggling kids. I think as I get more comfortable with presenting I can be more present and manage the crowd better.

Reader's Advisory - Developmentally Disabled
An older woman came in looking for books for her developmentally disabled 21-year old grand-daughter. She said she wanted picture books with not many words but that weren't too babyish. She said she was looking for subjects that were familiar to her grand daughter, for example she has a dog; she likes to ride her bike; she likes roller skating, bowling and gardening; and she had visited Norway on an airplane. Initially I started to search for subjects on the computer but then I just went to the stacks to browse with the woman. We went to the non-fiction section and got a book on bicycles, airplanes, and Norway. Then we went to the picture book section and got a story about dogs, (Circle Dogs by Kevin Henkes) and picture book about gardens (I thought it was Rainbow Garden, but now I can't find the title in the catalog!)

Folktales on CD
A woman needed some stories on CD for a car trip. She said her sister had checked something out that was about an hour long and had several stories on it. I asked if it was something like a storyteller telling a series of Irish folktales or something. She said that sounded right. We found folktales on CD in the catalog (folk tale*, folktale*, folklore) but nothing at the library. We did find several CD/book kits and and book on CD (Looking for Bobowicz by Daniel Pinkwater, the sequal to the Hoboken Chicken Emergency).

And that's the end of my Directed Field Work at the Seattle Public Library's Ballard Branch! Thank you Pamela LaBorde for all of your excellent mentoring!!!