Family Programming at the Public Library -- Story Kits
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Laura Charlotte, by Kathryn Galbraith |
Library outcomes:
Educational outcomes: Directions for Implementation Summarized: Materials Provided: Materials You Need to Collect: Things to Do Ahead of Time: Staff Responsibilities: Staff member:
Staff member:
Parent Preparation: Pre-reading activity: Model reading "Laura Charlotte." Introduce parents to "The Marvelous Toy Describe how parents and children will make their marvelous toy Explain that each family will then build a toy. Discussion: How the Parents Can Work with the Children This discussion time should be a time of clarification and review for the parents of the techniques that were demonstrated during the modeling of the reading activity. This time is intended to build the parents ability and confidence for working with their children.
Description of Family Activity: Note to Facilitator: Limited English adults may want to do the family activity in their native language. Since it is hoped that these activities will enhance parent-child communication, they should use any language in which they are comfortable.
Recommended Age of Children: Ways to Alter Activity for Younger or Older Siblings: Extension Activity:
Related Books: Evaluation: To make suggestions and comments, email: ccolletti@ilsos.net
Notes to Myself - Lessons Learned for Next Time:
If the audience is new to the library, introduce them to the library. Sign them up for cards, introduce the borrowing procedure, and the books in the collection. Inform them that books are free to take home, but must be returned within a certain time period.
Participants will be introduced to the author Kathryn Galbraith.
Participants will be introduced to the theme of family stories.
Participants will be introduced to the library's collection of audiotapes.
Participants will learn a variety of ways to share family stories.
Participants will learn through the different mediums that family stories can be sad or funny, and that family stories could have happened recently or long ago.
Divide participants into two groups, one is an all child group and one an all parent group.
Provide storytime or other activity for the children while the parents are preparing for the family activity.
Reunite parents and children for the family activity of reading "Laura Charlotte," listening to the audiotape of "The Marvelous Toy," making a marvelous toy, and sharing the toys they make with the other families.
Offer related books and the extension activity.
In conclusion, complete the Participant Evaluation forms.
"Laura Charlotte" 20 copies of the book, one for each family
Cassette audiotape "Peter, Paul and Mommy" containing the song, "The Marvelous Toy" performed by Peter, Paul and Mary.
Lyrics of "The Marvelous Toy" in the Facilitator's Guide.
A black and white master of the shapes taken from the lyrics of "The Marvelous Toy."
Building materials for the marvelous toys to be made: 1. Large white cardstock and, 2. Shapes copied on green cardstock
Scissors in adult and children's sizes
Glue sticks.
Markers, washable in assorted colors.
Original of participant evaluation form in the Facilitator's Guide.
The book "The Marvelous Toy" by Tom Paxton
Cassette tape player.
Building materials for the marvelous toys to be made:
Collect or buy the materials needed.
Make a display of books on the themes of toys or family stories. Prepare a list of books on this theme in your collection as a handout. See
Make sure the cassette player works and that an electrical outlet is available at the location of the activity. Try the audiotape to make sure it is working.
Make copies of the "Participant Evaluation" form for each participant.
Staff member:
Work with the parents to do a "pre-reading" activity. The "pre-reading" activity is the presentation of questions that relate to the subject of the book or activity. These questions are asked and discussed before reading the book.
Ask the parents if they remember a special toy they had when they were children. Do they still have it? What happened to it? Have they ever told their children about it? Have they ever shown it to their children or given it to them?
Ask the parents if their children have or had a special toy. Where is it? Are they keeping it to give to their children when they are grown?
Parents can share books.
Have the parents look at the book's cover and share what they think the story is going to be about.
Begin reading the first couple of pages and point out that Laura has been told the story about Charlotte many times. Explain how throughout the book, Laura often guides her mother and contributes to the story.
Have the parents read through the entire book.
After everyone is through reading the book, summarize the story with parents contributing their ideas.
Have the parents share some comprehension questions they might ask their children after they have read the book. Specifically, did the children understand that they story was primarily about Laura's mother and how the doll becomes Laura's? (Possible responses; who was given Charlotte as a birthday present first? Who made Charlotte and repaired her ear after the cat chewed it off? How is this woman related to Laura?)
Discuss the importance of family stories and how they tend to be told over and over.
Tell the story line of the song. Highlight what is taking place "now" versus "then" when the father was young.
Play the song for the parents.
Hand out a copy of the lyrics of the song and replay the song so that the parents can follow along.
Replay the song and have the parents sing along.
With the parent's suggestions, list the marvelous toy's characteristics as described in the song - how does it look, what sounds does it make, how does it move? (Possible responses: it has many colors, two big buttons that look like two green eyes, it goes zip when it moves and pop when it stops and whirl when it stands still.)
Explain to the parents that their family is going to make a marvelous toy. Although each family will make their own toy, all the toys will have the characteristics that they just discussed. Each toy will have the characteristics that are described in the song.
Explain that during the family activity the parents will:
Explain that after building the toy, the families will present the toy to the group and tell everyone else how it moves, what sounds it makes, and anything else special that they built into their toy.
Have the parents share what questions they can ask their children as a pre-reading activity. (Possible responses: Do you have favorite toy? What story have I told you about when I was young that you like the best?)
Have parents share questions they can ask after reading the book. These questions can check that the children understand who the grandmother is, who the mother is as a small girl, what each of the character's names are. The generations can be slightly confusing in the story.
Parents and children will read "Laura Charlotte" together.
Parents and their children will listen to "The Marvelous Toy."
Parents and their children will make a marvelous toy.
Parents and their children will reunite with the large group to share their marvelous toys. Specifically, they will show how it moves, how it sounds, where the sounds come from, and anything else special that they want to mention about their toy.
Look in the book "The Marvelous Toy" to compare their toys to the one in the book's illustrations
Seven to ten years old. The children need to have some fine motor skills to build the toy.
Younger children (four to six years old) will be able to complete the activities as described with the assistance of their parent in making the toy.
Younger children could dictate their own marvelous toy's description to their parent and the parent could draw a toy from the description rather than constructing one.
Talk about the displayed books and hand out the prepared lists of related books.
Talk about the library's audiotape collection.
Talk about the idea of extended family. Suggest that they ask members of their extended family to tell them about a favorite toy or game from their childhood.
The Chalk Doll," by Charlotte Pomerantz, "The Quilt," by Ann Jonas, "Tell Me A Story Mama," by Angela Johnson, "The Patchwork Quilt," by Valerie Flourney, "Tell Me a Mitzi," by Lore Segal and "Miss Rumphius," by Barbara Cooney.
There is a brief Participant Evaluation Survey included in the Facilitator's Guide.
These can be completed in writing or orally (by interview of staff one to one or in a group) depending on the English reading and writing abilities of the participants.
Explain that by telling us what they liked and what they didn't like, they help us put together better activities and they teach their children to think about what they liked.
The Participant Evaluation form asks about their satisfaction level and what they learned about reading and listening to family stories in books and songs.
It asks what they plan to do with what they learned. It asks for their suggestions to improve this activity and suggestions for future activities.