A dragony moment or two...
This morning saw the second of my official Summer Reading Challenge storytelling sessions, all about dragons today. It was fab! We even have our own dragon in the library - Stanford, who sits on top of his dragon's lair, guarding his box of treasure and listening to the stories with us...
Last week - Mermaids and Monsters - was very nearly a disaster, because for a start I got the time wrong. I turned up about 9.45 for a 10.30 start, and discovered we were actually starting at 10. Cue Squidge maniacally running around in the children's section, trying to find books on said mermaids and monsters, set out craft stuff and sign people in. Fortunately, I had some wonderful helpers in terms of library staff and a couple of reading champions, teenagers who've signed up to help through the summer and who already know me through my daughter and their primary school.
This week, I got organised. Turned up in plenty of time, found plenty of dragon picture books to read, and - most importantly of all, I think - had an audience where the ages of the children were very similar. We shared a good half-dozen books and then went on to making dragon bookmarks and Chinese dragons.
We asked for feedback from parents/carers who attend with their youngsters, and I wanted to share what one dad wrote, because it made my day and meant we'd pitched the session just right;
We had lots of stories about dragons burning wood.
The reader we had (that's me!) was friendly and good.
Then after that - and this bit is true -
We got to cut things, to colour and glue.
How cool is that?
Next week, it's stories from around the world, so I'm on the hunt for myths and fables with an international flavour. We've already worked out a rather...visual version of the wonderful Handa's Surprise, so I'll let you know how that goes! And I'll be on the lookout for simple Anansi the Spider and Garuda stories to share too...
Last week - Mermaids and Monsters - was very nearly a disaster, because for a start I got the time wrong. I turned up about 9.45 for a 10.30 start, and discovered we were actually starting at 10. Cue Squidge maniacally running around in the children's section, trying to find books on said mermaids and monsters, set out craft stuff and sign people in. Fortunately, I had some wonderful helpers in terms of library staff and a couple of reading champions, teenagers who've signed up to help through the summer and who already know me through my daughter and their primary school.
This week, I got organised. Turned up in plenty of time, found plenty of dragon picture books to read, and - most importantly of all, I think - had an audience where the ages of the children were very similar. We shared a good half-dozen books and then went on to making dragon bookmarks and Chinese dragons.
We asked for feedback from parents/carers who attend with their youngsters, and I wanted to share what one dad wrote, because it made my day and meant we'd pitched the session just right;
We had lots of stories about dragons burning wood.
The reader we had (that's me!) was friendly and good.
Then after that - and this bit is true -
We got to cut things, to colour and glue.
How cool is that?
Next week, it's stories from around the world, so I'm on the hunt for myths and fables with an international flavour. We've already worked out a rather...visual version of the wonderful Handa's Surprise, so I'll let you know how that goes! And I'll be on the lookout for simple Anansi the Spider and Garuda stories to share too...