Officer Buckle, Gloria, and a Few Scans

Book:  Officer Buckle and Gloria  by Peggy Rathman

Puppets:  None

Props:   Dog ears or similar; Police hat and badge or similar;  Pile of papers (safety rules, but they can also hide a script)

Presenters:   Three (though two could work)

Technology:   Projector and scanned illustrations

Audience:  K through 2nd grade

Sheila had the great idea to act out this book as part of our K-2 Book Adventure “Dogs and Cats” theme.  It’s one of my all-time favorite picture books, but not a preschool storytime book really, so I don’t get to use it often.  We used three people to tell it, but I think two could work it out.  In our version, I narrated, Terri was Officer Buckle, and Sheila was Rosie the Dog.  We adapted the text  to just the essential bits and projected selected illustrations from the book, mostly towards the beginning and ending.  For example, when Terri read off a boring list of safety rules, we showed the illustration from the book with the bored, sleeping kids.  When Officer B. gets Rosie, though, the focus is more on the characters, so no slides for a bit. 

The safety presentations work just like the book.  Terri says a rule as Officer B. (“Never leave a thumbtack where you might sit on it!”), then Sheila, sitting behind Terri as Rosie, jumps up as if she just sat on a tack.  And the kids in our audience respond just the way the kids in the book, do, laughing at Rosie while realizing that Officer B. doesn’t know what she’s doing.  Sheila gives a little “woof” each time she’s sitting again, to signal Terri that she can look behind at Rosie again.  We did several of these and each one got funnier.  It’s that puppet show effect where puppet A does stuff, puppet B doesn’t see, then as soon as puppet B looks, puppet A stops.  The timing is trickier with two real people, but they pulled it off just right.  And of course the anticipation builds each time as the kids wonder what Rosie is going to do next. 

When Officer Buckle and Rosie watch themselves on tv, the Sheila and Terri sit down and look up at our screen, where we projected the illustration from the book where Officer Buckle learns the truth.  I liked the way our projection screen actually became Officer B’s television for that bit. 

We didn’t dramatize the disastrous accident at school (after Gloria and Officer Buckle stop doing shows together)…for that we showed the two page spread from the book on the screen.  The conclusion, where dog and safety officer are reunited, worked well:  Terri and Sheila get back together on stage, while the last illustration of the book goes up on the screen, along with the last safety rule:  “Always stick with your buddy.”  I’ll post a of our whole K-2 Book Adventure – “Dogs and Cats” program soon.

* a note about the dog ears:  We had regular dog ears available like the pair shown, but Sheila would not accept these: she insisted on making some more German Shepherd-y ones, which turned out very nice…I just forgot to get a photo.   

Pete the Cat - This Time With Mud

Book:  Pete the Cat:  I Love My White Shoes  by Eric Litwin,  Illustrated by James Dean

Puppets:  none

Props:  Cat ears, whiskers or equivalent; four big containers; four smaller containers;  strawberries;  blueberries;  mud;  water pitcher;  squirt bottle;  five pairs of identical shoes (two white, one red, one blue, one brown); big water jug or something else for percussion, slide whistle.

Presenters:  Three

Audience:  K-2

  

I used Pete the Cat in Toddler Time several months ago.  Co-worker Brad Clark does a great version of it with drums.  It’s one of those books that works in ways we haven’t even thought of yet.    For our K-2 Book Adventures program (theme:  “Cats and Dogs”), we decided to do a three-person version.  Terri narrated and provided rhythm with an empty 20 gallon water jug.  Sheila was Pete, wearing a pair of white slippers on her hands (aka front paws).  Pete walks along, singing his song, and then Terri cues a big Freeze! with her drum and they both stop and stay still.  Then I come out as a sneaky, silent dog, signaling the audience to stay quiet.  I bring a big plastic bin covered in red with a strawberry picture on the front.  Pull a handful of strawberries out, then drop them into the bin, and sneak off.  Terri’s drum unfreezes everything, they sing Pete’s song again, and….”Oh no!”  Pete steps in the strawberries (as I do a slide whistle from behind the screen for sound effect).  Sheila slips off her white slippers and slips on the red ones that are in with the strawberries (the strawberries were dropped into a smaller container so they didn’t get the shoes icky).  And off she goes singing about her red shoes!

Blueberries and blue shoes follow the same pattern.  Then we do mud, which is really fun, since the kids can see it’s the real thing and can even hear the plop as it lands in the bucket.  The final surprise for Pete is water (pour pitcher of it into a bucket hidden within the tub).  And when “Pete’s shoes were wet!" I come out from behind and squirt the audience (and Sheila and Terri). 

This turned out to be just right for this age.  The kids all joined in on the “Oh Nos” and the song refrain.  They stretched their necks to see just how those shoes really did change color and why aren’t they dripping with mud (they would have figured it out, but the story moves on so quickly they don’t have time to).  And they did great with the “freezing” part, which required them to watch quietly for short periods, then be lively participators a moment later.  Terri’s use of the water jug drum worked perfectly.  The beat she had going punctuated the song very well, and she varied the beat and loudness to make the cues for stopping and starting really clear. 

This is the first story I’ve written about twice so far on this blog.  Hmmm….there must be a third way we can come up with…

A Sleepy Sheep

Book:  No Sleep for the Sheep  by Karen Beaumont, Illustrated by Jackie Urbanovic

Puppets:  Sheep, Rooster, plus three or four farm animals (but skip the goat)

Props:  None

Presenters:  One

Audience:   Toddler Time  (ones and twos), Preschoolers
Video:  How to Tell No Sleep for the Sheep with Puppets

I’m not doing as well at spotting brand new puppetry-ready Picturebooks as I used to, so I’m always glad to get suggestions from others.  Diana Stubee of Multnomah County Library told me about this one and she was right:  just right for puppets.

It’s a rhyming book, but the refrains are repeated and easy to memorize:  “A sheep fell asleep in the big red barn, in the big red barn by the farm.  Then there came a loud QUACK, at the door, at the door, and the Sheep couldn’t sleep any more.”  [Duck is still unseen in the bag, when the “quack” happens.  Then it’s:]  “’Go to sleep!’” said theSsheep to the……[hesitate, look down at the bag, Duck pops out] duck at the door. ‘And please don’t QUACK any more!’  Soon the Duck and the Sheep fell fast asleep in the big red barn on the farm.”

At that point both animals lie down, Sheep stays on one hand, while I put Duck off to the side (or in another bag).  Then the refrain starts again:  “Then there came a loud OINK at the door, at the door….”  And this time Pig pops out.

The rhyming, rhythmic language really makes this story work. I especially like the repetition (“at the door, at the door”) that really catches the ear.  So I stick to the author’s very well-chosen words.   The anticipation for the next animal, cued by the sound, is just at the right level for two year olds.    I do I skip Goat, though, as I often do with puppets…having a goat and a sheep in the same story is just too confusing:  one says “Maa,” one says “Baa,” but really, aren’t those basically the same sound?  The story is fun enough for 3 to 5 year olds too, especially if you give Sheep some personality in her voice, making her gradually more and more stressed with each animal.  The puppet handling is straightforward, since Sheep just stays on one hand and the other animals don’t need to do much more than Pop Out. 

The conclusion works very nicely,* with Rooster going “Cock-a-doodle-doo!  Wake up, all of you!  Hey Sheep!  That means you, too!”  But of course Sheep has been awake all night thanks to his visitors, so:  “the Sheep slept right on through…through the neighs and the moos and the cock-a-doodle-doos in the big red barn on the farm.”  

* The conclusion does work nicely if you remember it.  At Toddler Time this week I was so pleased with myself for getting the main refrain right….I didn’t even need to write it down!  What I did need to write down, though, was that last bit with the Rooster, and I forgot to.  So when I got to this point, all I could do was come clean with the audience:  “You know, I actually forgot how this last part goes.  So I’m going to take a quick look at the book here.”   Calm and smiling on the outside, frantic inside, I slip off the puppets, grab the book, rifle through to the last pages, silently curse myself for not taking the time to write a few lines on a 3 x 5 card, put puppets back on, and finish story.  Fortunately, 1 and 2 year olds aren’t highly critical, and parents and caregivers are polite.  And truthfully  storytime mistakes can be seen as just an opportunity to show parents that you don’t have to be perfect and polished when you share stories with kids…as long as they’re only once in a while and you treat them lightly.  At least this is what I tell myself anyway.  And even if it's true, I wouldn't mind "modeling mistakes" a little less frequently....

The King, the Mouse, the Cheese, The Cat, and the rest

Book:  The King, the Mice, and the Cheese  by James Gurney

Puppets:  King, Mouse, Cat, Dog, Elephant, Lion optional

Props:  Cheese

Presenters:  One

Audience:   Preschoolers (though I've used with Toddlers too)
Video:  How to Tell The King, the Mouse, and the Cheese with Puppets

Like the “Frog and Toad” books, this is great for group sharing, but the early reader format means the pictures are too small.  So….puppets!  When you tell this story with puppets you can’t really replicate the hordes of animals that appear on the pages of the book.  So you just use one of each to represent the hordes, and make up for it with chases and other interactions.  When the King who loves Cheese has mouse trouble, I just use one mouse.  He can grab the cheese just as the King’s about to eat it, the King grabs it back, etc.  In the book, the King consults with wise men, but in this scaled down version, there are no wise men, just the King pondering, offstage (or in this case, off hand and on lap or wherever).  

So with Mouse on one hand, it’s:  “The King thought and thought, and then he had a wonderful idea.    To get rid of the mice, he would get….[reach into puppet bag]….Cats!”  And out comes a Cat, who chases the Mouse away.  Then King is back on the hand:  “The King was happy.  Now all the mice were gone.  And he had cats.   [Cat begins rubbing against King, purring].  But the King did not like living with cats.  They purred and meowed and shed their hair everywhere.  [King runs away from Cat, off hand]…so the King thought and thought, and then…”    And then that pattern repeats:  Dog gets rid of Cat, Elephant gets rid of Dog, and to complete the circular tale, Mouse returns to scare Elephant away.  And King learns to live with mice. 

The puppet handling here isn’t that hard, but you do have to plan it out and run through it before telling the tale, making sure you can get puppets on and off with one hand fairly easily (or if not, be prepared to use your other hand briefly).  The patterned scenes can be varied a bit, depending on the puppets.  I like to have Cat do near-miss pounces at Mouse.  Dog versus Cat is more of a fast chase.  Elephant chases Dog with a good slow motion bounce-and-squish (or near-squish).   Same thing when the King decides he doesn’t like living with each animal.  Cat sheds, Dog barks, Elephant crowds…whatever seems like fun.  The book includes Lion in between Dog and Elephant, and it’s fine to follow that, but for Storytime I feel like it works better getting to the end of the circle more quickly. 

As for the telling, I’ve tried this with the King talking more and basically narrating his own story, and that works fine.  You can play on the way his happiness with the results of each plan quickly turns to dismay.  Overall, though, I like it better telling it as a narrator.  I think it puts more focus on the pattern of the tale and on the action, rather than on the King as a personality.  But that’s just me.  

We're starting up Fall Storytimes tomorrow, plus our monthly K-2 Book Adventures returns next week, so I hope to be posting 2 or 3 times a week again, after an August lull....

Whose Mouse?

Book:  Whose Mouse are You  by Robert Kraus, Illustrated by Jose Aruego

Puppets:  Mouse, Mother Mouse, Father Mouse, Sister Mouse, Baby Mouse;  Cat

Props:  Basket (or something else for a Trap);  Car (or something else for Sister to travel Far From Home in)

Presenters:  One

Audience:   Toddler Time  (ones and twos), Preschoolers
Video:  How to Tell Whose Mouse are You? with Puppets

This is one of the first books I did with puppets and props, way back when I first started Toddler Times in 1990 or so.  And still a favorite.  The question and answer format of the text seems a little abstract for ones and twos, but they always seem to get it just fine, and I follow the words from the book pretty much exactly.  I especially like the slightly formal phrasing of the refrain: “what of your Father?...”

So it’s “Whose mouse are you?” (addressing Little Mouse).  “Nobody’s mouse…” says Little Mouse to me.  Then it’s: “Nobody’s mouse?  What of your mother?...?”  and so on.

I kind of draw out Little Mouse’s response, which heightens the suspense a bit plus gives me time to pull out the puppets and props:  “My Mother?  My mother?  [Pull out Mother Mouse]  My mother is…….Caught by a cat!” [Pull out Cat puppet and have her pounce (but not too menacingly) on top of Mother Mouse].  Shake head sadly and ask:  “What of your father?...” 

For this story I place puppets and props on a table rather than stuffing them back into a bag after they appear.  So eventually you’ve got Mother under the cat, Father inside trap (a basket, bowl, or anything traplike), and Sister far from home (in a toy car) all lined up on the table.

At which point the story turns around in a way that’s very satisfying to two year olds:  Little Mouse saves each one.  I have him first declare what he’ll do:  “I’ll save my mother from the cat!” and then show him doing it.  It’s best to go slow with the puppet actions so the very young kids can process it and fully enjoy the sight of Little Mouse pulling Fother out of that trap and tossing that Cat into the air. 

It ends with "Now whose mouse are you?," and Little Mouse lists off his family members, much hapier now.  And there's a very pleasing added twist:  "I'm my brother's mouse!"  Confused Narrator asks:  "Your brother's mouse?!" (because earlier Mouse had said "I have none.")  But now Little Mouse repeats:  "My brother's Mouse!......He's brand new!"  And you pull out your cute little finger puppet mouse (or whatever smallish mouse you can find). 

As a storyteller, tone of voice goes a long way in this story, and you can be pretty broad with them:  worried when Mouse describes his family’s perils; triumphant when he rescues them; pleased when they’re safe; and surprised with Little Brother pops out.  Although it’s a story with puppets, I really think it’s the storytelling that makes it work.  And it’s always fun to notice how strongly even very young children respond to the voices and facial expressions of a storyteller.

We’re on a six week programming break at my library, hence the reduced number of posts here.  But we start up full speed in mid-September, which means more frequent posts soon…

Big and Little Follow-Up

Book: Big and Little by Margaret Miller

Puppets: Various animal pairs of different sizes

Props: Any pairs of things you have around to show size differences

Presenters: One

Audience: Toddler Time (ones and twos)

Many of Margaret Miller’s photo books work well with a Toddler Story Time, and this one shows the concept of big and little very clearly. If I were reading it one on one, I’d stop and ask questions and talk about the pictures with a child, but in a Toddler Story Time presentation, I mostly stick to the words. After the last page, though, there’s a great opportunity to continue and expand on the concept by doing a Follow-Up with puppets. After the book I just go to the bag and say, “let’s see if we have some big and little animals in here.” And pull out samples.

I’ll start with a couple of obvious size contrasts, like Big Bear and Little Bear. Then get a little trickier: Big Fish and Little Fish are closer in size, but the difference is still clear enough for two year olds to see it. So I’ll pull out one Fish and say: “Do you think this is the Big Fish or the Little Fish?” Getting in the idea that size is relative, but in a playful way. I interact with the kids much more with the puppets than I did with the books.

Then I’ll try a couple other variations, like three sizes: Little Frog, Big Frog, and then add Bigger Frog. Another fun one is to do a Big and a Little, then one that’s Identical, like these Turtles. I use mostly puppets for this, because I'm a puppet guy and I seem to have a lot of them.   But I also like to throw in a non-puppet pair. Doing a board book (Small) next to a picture book version of the same title (Big) is fun.  But really any objects similar in name but different in size work.  The idea of taking a concept from a book and playing with it with whatever stuff you have around is a great model for parents and caregivers, and it’s one they can do so easily at home, with or without puppets.

Catching Armadillos, Putting Them on Pillows

Book:  A Hunting We Will Go by John Langstaff, Illustrated by Nancy Winslow Parker

Puppets:  Any 5+ that rhyme with your props

Props:  Any 5+ that rhyme with your puppets

Presenters:  one

Audience:   Preschoolers or Toddlers

Here’s an easy puppets & props story where you mostly just have to pull stuff out of a bag or box.  If the group doesn’t know the song, it’s simple to learn, and it works well to have them all sing “A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go, we’ll catch a….”  And then they stop and wait to see what puppet you pop out.  “…Cat!”  And put him in a “…Hat!...And then we’ll let him go.”  Then after that dramatic sequence, where the words and actions are the teller’s, they naturally re-join you in another verse of the song. 

I like the way the rhymes work with different ages.  In Toddler Time (where I used it last week), the ones and twos just about never guess what object will complete the rhyme, though you can often see the grown-ups whispering it to them.  But I know they do hear the rhyme, even if they can’t yet predict it.  With Preschool Storytime, on the other hand, the kids often do guess, with varied levels of correctness, but almost always with strong evidence of imagination and involvement.   

As for which puppets and objects to use, I like to mix in simple ones with others that are more surprising.  Cat – Hat and Fox – Box are fine.  Pig – Wig can be pretty funny.  I’ve had fun with extending the –og rhyme:   “…catch a Frog and put him on a Hog…and put them on a Dog…and put them all on a Log.”  They puppet holding/stacking gets a little messy, but still fun.  Cat/Rat/Bat/Hat can be done the same way, but I’d only use an extension once. 

With the Toddlers I did another favorite:   “…we’ll catch a….Ball?”  And then I pull out my cool Armadillo puppet, which rolls and velcros into a shelled ball.  I toss him around a bit and then:  “Wait a minute…this isn’t a ball!”  And unroll him to reveal “…an Armadillo…and put him on a Pillow.”  I usually like to close with “Bear…and put him in Underwear…” which gets the automatic laugh that the word always earns, even with two year olds. 

Another variation is to make the catching of the animals part of the fun.  I tried using a net once, but decided to drop the idea.  It was fun for the kids to watch as I nabbed the animal in a big red net, sometimes after a near miss or two.  On the other hand, it’s awkward to get the animal out of the net, put the net aside (where the kids won’t be tempted to come up and try it out themselves), and then pull out the appropriate rhyming prop.  In other words, the net stole the show and detracted from the normally satisfying rhythmic, rhyming sequence.  So instead I just do a little playing around with catching the animal with my hand, doing the near miss thing one time, making the animal hide and asking “where’d he go?” another time…and doing the others just straight.  

Because the song is so easy to learn and remember, I usually encourage the grown-up to try it at home, and remind them that although it’s fun with props, just singing the song works great too, developing phonological awareness and challenging the child’s imagination.