Wednesday, April 9th, 2014

Aaaarrrgg!!!

I've been pondering about writing another blog post and have decided to start doing a Wednesday post (the second Wednesday of the month for now) about the "miscellaneous" of the KC. Meaning, I guess, that I am going to write about whatever's on my mind at the time. It's a little deviation from the norm weekend and weekly recaps that I do on Monday and Friday. (Whispered to the side: They are nice, but straight up run-of-the-mill BORING!!!) So, here goes...

A couple of weeks ago, ALL of our local schools (that's four counties worth of schools) were on spring break. That meant complete and utter craziness for the library's youth services staff (i.e. me and awesome co-worker). That also meant a heap a lot more kids for our weekly story times, too.


In an effort to curb the crazy, awesome co-worker and I created a super fun story time for our youngest patrons (and their older siblings) to enjoy including castles and treasure maps. Say what? Yep, we hosted a Pirates and Princesses story times over spring break.  

Of course we invited the kids (and caregivers) to dress the parts in the weeks leading up to the pirates and princesses story time event. The day of, the story time started with the norm songs, stories, and action rhymes. Here's what that looked like:

Opening Song: If You're Happy to be Here

Story: Not All Princesses Dress in Pink, by Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple

Action Rhyme: Little Princess (tune: Frere Jacques)
*Note: This one is a Miss KC original because I couldn't find any princess action rhymes. I sang the first line and had the kids repeat the line back to me for uber participation.

Little princess.
(Little princess.)
Curtsy low.
(Curtsy low.)
Curtsy to the front.
(Curtsy to the front.)
Little Princess.
(Little Princess.)

Little princess.

(Little princess.)

Dance around.

(Dance around.)

Dance to the front.
(Dance to the front.)

Little princess.

(Little princess.)

Little princess.
(Little princess.)
Wave goodbye.
(Wave goodbye.)
Wave to the front.
(Wave to the front.)
Little princess.
(Little princess.)

Story: Do Pirates Take Baths?, by Kathy Tucker

Action Rhyme: Ten Little Pirates

Ten little pirates stand in a row,
(hold both hands up with 10 fingers raised)

They all bow down to the captain, so.

(bend fingers down, then up)

They march to the left and they march to the right,

(move hands to left and right)

They shout “Yo Ho!” and give their captain a fright!

(shout loudly and clap hands on “fright”)

Story: Pirates & Princesses, by Jill Kargman

Closing Song: The More We Get Together

Before we sang our last song and closed out the "norm portion" of story time, we surprised our patrons with a treasure hunt, complete with treasure map and treasure chest, in the story hour room. It was a blast trying to get everyone to guess where the treasure chest was located according to the treasure map (it was "in" the castle).



After we found the treasure chest and divided the "booty," we did the special craft, a pirate hat or princess crown. The kids and parents really enjoyed personalizing this simple craft.

To finish out the story time, the young pirates and princesses got to sample "Pirate Hardtack" and "Princess Cookies" (sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies).

I daresay that it was an absolute and total success. Now onto planning for our next big event...