[Music]

>>> Sue Parson

And we all come and

[Singing] “Everybody sit down, sit down, sit down, Everybody sit down on the floor”.

And the we do Packo. Hello, Hello my friends

[Singing] “Hello friend”. (This is Pocko.) “Hello friends.” (Lots of singing.) “Hello friends. Hello friends, it’s time to say hello”.

“Hi, my name is Mrs. Sue. This is Packo. Would you like to meet my bird? He likes it quiet. Can you be quiet and still? May I pass it to you? What’s your name? Are you ready? He won’t hurt you. It rests right on your fingertip. He’s really nice”. Then I pass it. They love it and they pass and say their name. And I give them the microphone. They like the mic and then they pass the bird and we kind of go through that and I don't rush that. I think the relationship building is the most important part of any story time. I love books. I’m a bibliophile, but a library must be the center of joyfulness if we’re gonna survive and so relationship building is where it’s at. And we share and this is the sign for share. I love that. I think that’s right. “Some for me and some for you. Some for me and some for you”. So if there’s any sharing problems I'm like: “Pocko loves to share, time to pass Pocko, he wants to meet the next person”. And then after that we uh, now that I know everybody’s name. You get a beat on your knees and we do...

[Singing] “Tyler has a red shirt (this is Tyler) Tyler has a red shirt, 123”.

“Tyler come get the red shirt. Which color is red”? And he’ll come up and choice red. If he doesn’t know we’ll help him and up it goes on the felt board and then whoever has… We go through all the colors and we repeat names that way and that’s that. Then the sensory ball is

[Singing] “Roll, roll, roll the ball, roll the ball… to Holly… Holly, Holly Holly, Holly, roll it back to me, please.Weee”!

Good job. And we do it to everybody else and of course it’s a small story time so you can do this kind of thing and drop whatever if it’s going to long, but if they like it why not. So we do that and then…

[Singing] “What’s in my bag” (I hide this in a really cool velvety bag). “What’s in my bag” (they can all feel). “What’s in my bag? I think there’s something special, who’s grumpy, in my bag”.

What do you do when your grumpy? You ever really grumpy? This is a book about a grumpy bird. Does he look grumpy to you? Before that…

[Singing] “These are my glasses. (Who else has glasses. Look at you, beautiful in your glasses. Handsome.) This is my book. I put on my glasses and open up my book. I read, read, read (do you know this song) and I look, look, look. I put down my glasses and close my book”.

“It’s time to read about that grumpy bird”. And then we read about grumpy bird and it’s wonderful. It’s all about friendship and then after we read that  I’m like, “who wants to be grumpy bird”. And I just copied and cut on cardstock simple, cheap, very nice. And then a piece of velcro and then you redo the story on the felt board. There’s an extension activity. Repetition is the mother of all learning. And we just repeat the story that way in accordance to the pages of the book. The handout is a little mini book about feelings. I make sure that’s at the exit so I don’t forget it. And we do a rhyme: “Once there was a grumpy bird and all he did was moan and groan. He moan high and he moan low. High and low. He moaned fast and he moaned slow. Once there was a grumpy bird and all he did was moan and groan”. If there is time cause it’s all. I always have more than I use, but this was a very successful extension activity. I asked them about what that looks like today. “Does she look sad or does she look happy”? Emotions are important with this population. Identifying empathy. What is empathy and then I made two of everything. And then we did a matching game. We put them all over the floor. “Is she happy or is she sad? Do we feel that way sometimes? It’s okay to be sad. I think he’s, he’s grumpy”.  So we go through all the emotions and then we put all the matching cards out, face up. Then if they want to do it face down, that’s fine too. And then that’s an extension activity that helps them deal with emotion, identify emotions, and know that all of the emotions that we feel are okay, but how we deal with it, like grumpy bird, is very important. You can also associate yoga to this lesson. “Do you sometimes feel like (roaring sound) a lion? Do you just want to roar because you’re so angry? I do. Sometimes I just want to roar cause i’m so angry, like a lion. Let’s all do this. Let’s just roar like a lion. Roar! Like get it out of your system because we’re gonna have fun again today. Maybe you don’t feel like a lion today. Maybe you feel like… Do you feel joyful and calm and happy like a butterfly”? And then there’s a butterfly pose. And then, i’m courageous like a cobra. I love physicality with all children, not just this group. Some will do it. Some won’t. And then we’re stronger as a mountain. “Who can balance like a mountain”. Maybe I stand and do the mountain pose. We talk about how wonderful, what a miracle they are. That in their ear is their balancing mechanism. How miraculous is that. And then we make sure we’re centered and we breath. And We tell the parents, I really encourage the parents to do it and then there’s a wonderful song that’s on that list called strong as a tree and then we played that.

[Singing] “I’m as strong as a tree”.

Then we practice…(breathing)... doing that breathing act with the song. And then that’s it. We say it’s time to go. It’s been so nice to be together. I’m suppose to be pulling down the bookmarks as we go along. But you know, I… I’ll do that if I sense I need to, but frankly… you know if we captivate an audience why interrupt it. You know, I really, you just feel it, but if they need and if they all have that. I’m gonna do that strip because that would solve this problem. Then I don’t think we need to interrupt if it’s flowing. And then we say goodbye.