By Awnali Mills
Holey Moley, it must be summer! I had 54 people in storytime this morning, so it was quite a gang!
Storytime today was all about the pirates. The books I chose were Pirates Don’t Change Diapers by Melinda Long, Peg Leg Peke by Brie Spangler, and Bubble Bath Pirates by Jarrett Krosoczka.
Our first book was Pirates Don’t Change Diapers. This is a rollicking good book about pirates who try to help young Jeremy Jacob babysit his sister. I had the kids help me roar out the pirate chorus in the book, and they really enjoyed doing that. And diapers on the heads of pirates is a real winner!
In my planning, I had anticipated handing out different color eye patches for the kids to use with the flannel Pirate Wore a ….. Patch. (Both my flannels today were from Storytime Katie.)
There aren’t enough colors. Fifty-four, remember?
I think I had 10 different colors. So, I put all the colors on the board and had kids call out which color to put on the pirate. Once it was on, we all chanted, “Pirate wore a (red) patch, (red) patch, (red) patch, Pirate wore a (red) patch all day long!” Kids really got into that. A few times I even had them stand up if they were wearing that color, just to help get some wiggles out.
Next we all stood and, because we were all pirates, we sang This is the Way We Swab the Deck. We swabbed, raised sails, steered the ship, walked the plank, saluted the captain and dropped the anchor. I had a few ideas of what pirates do ready to make into verses, and asked kids to come up with the rest. They didn’t even hesitate to shout out ideas.
Our second book was Peg Leg Peke, about a Pekinese with a cast on his leg whom the narrator convinces to act like a pirate as a way of forgetting how his boo-boo hurts. There was a lot of “Ohh!” when the little dog would hurt himself and when he finally finds his treasure—his blankie.
Next, we did the flannel Five Pirates on a Treasure Chest.
Our last book was Bubble Bath Pirates about two boys and their mom who turn bath time into a pirate adventure. The kids really enjoyed this one, and all laughed when the boys’ armpits were ticklish.
Since it was the first Wednesday of the month, it was time for a craft. To go along with our pirate theme, we made these paper bag treasure chests from Hurray for Play.
The Librarian Is on The Loose 