Tri-Fold Board

I decided to use a tri-fold board to display my original storytime and then show it morphing into two other storytimes. I mapped out on paper how I want the board to look. I will start putting it all together this coming week.

Project Information Form

I sent my Project information form to L.A. today. I hope that my tongue in cheek commercial will be acceptable. I just wanted to grab the audience’s attention and also use the Mary Poppins motif in the final project. Over the weekend I designed a book mark as a handout for the Showcase and included elements of the project information form in it.

Checking and Double Checking

Over the weekend I put the results onto an Ex-cell spreadsheet and also made a Word Document to explain my project. (This all took so MANY hours!) Then I stole a minute at work today to ask the Children’s Librarian to assess my project and see if I am on the right path. I was very happy that S.B. took the time to see how my project is coming along. She said that she thought it looked good and also that it was a good idea for other substitutes. I am going full steam ahead with it.

Real Life Practice

I have figured out what a good outline for 3-5 year olds; Two’s and Babies with Books should be. I tested it this week because I had to Substitute for our Babies with Books and Tales for Toddler storytime this week. The writing of the outlines took me a long time because it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. But once I did it, I was happy and relieved to see that this worked out after all. Now I have to figure out a way to display my findings.

A Change

When looking over my proposal to Sherry back in May and trying to refine the outlines to show how they are similar, I discovered that I really need to use the resource of the excellent traveling storytime boxes that FCPL has for the branches. These boxes would enable the subs to use a themed, age appropriate resource at their fingertips. I revised my original plan and will instead use them in my project because I have gained the knowledge of them over the past few months since I submitted my project idea and gained experience planning and performing storytimes.

Project Homework

Over the past weeks I have been refreshing my memory as to the developmental skills of the different age groups by re-reading reference books: Literate Beginnings : Programs for Babies and Toddlers by Debby Ann Jeffery. As well as Lap Sit Services for the Very Young II : A How-To-Do-It Manual by Linda L. Ernst. In these books there was a lot of information to be found, not only refreshing me on the age appropriate activities but also a bit of psychology and practical advice for the different developmental stages of children. Studying this has allowed me to think about the task of putting the outlines into similar structures without overloading a small child or not having enough to do for the older age group. Today I am still thinking and trying to put this all together.

The Project Begins

This week I have decided to seriously think about my project as I am the sort of person who likes to work a head because you never know what's around the corner! I also like to not lag behind. So far I have posted my idea and looked at previous projects. I have also gotten the go ahead with my branch manager, well as the children's srvices supervisor at the main branch as well as the supervisor who is in charge of training new substitutes. They have all been positive and I am hopeful that I can begin this process. I have also read and printed out the module. I took a lot of time to break it down in a word document and take small bites out of it. This way I think it will be more manageable.