New Storytime Website

Last month we shared a new Facebook group that was started to fill in the gap created when Storytime Underground closed up shop this past fall. 

The FB page's creator, Kate Reynolds, recently reached out to us to let us know that she and a team of youth librarians have created a website devoted to storytime called Storytime Solidarity (the same name as the FB group). The website is loaded with helpful resources including song and rhyme lyrics, thematic booklists to help you diversify your storytime, craft ideas and a resource page as well.

Mental Health Resources for Children and Caregivers

A couple weeks ago I shared a great resource list of nonfiction for teens regarding mental health.  This week, I was pleased to find that Kaitlin Frick over at the ALSC Blog has shared a great compilation of websites and books "to assist young people and their caregivers in recognizing and dealing with mental health conditions".  Websites of note include the Child Mind Institute and the National Alliance on Mental Illness.  The book list includes The Rabbit Listened (Cori Doerrfeld) and The Goldfish Boy (Lisa Thompson).  These resources can help young patrons gain a better understanding of mental health conditions and assist their caregivers with early recognition and support.

Check out the post and all the great resources HERE.

Relight Your Programming Fire

We can all hit a programming wall.  Should you do another round of a well-loved, but much run program?  Should you build a whole new program from scratch?  Where else can you gain inspiration to break out of a programming rut?  not to fear, Chelsea Price, Director of the Meservey Public Library in Iowa is here to light your program fire again!  Over at the Programming Librarian blog, Price lists webinars, blogs, websites and more that inspire her and help her reignite her passion for programming.  Check out her list of ideas and inspirations HERE.

2019 Best Apps and Websites for Teaching and Learning

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced its 2019 Best Apps and Best Websites for Teaching and Learning at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., on June 22. The annual lists honor apps and websites that enhance learning and curriculum development for school librarians and their teacher collaborators.

Recognized apps and websites foster innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration. They were also evaluated for their support of AASL’s “National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries.”

Explore the list of apps HERE.

Best Websites for Teaching & Learning 2017

Each year the AASL (American Association of School Librarians) releases a list of "websites, tools, and resources of exceptional value to inquiry-based teaching and learning."

All the websites on the list are free, user-friendly sites that encourage collaboration, creativity and active engagement.  The list is broken down into sections including: Media Sharing, Digital Storytelling, and Curriculum Collaboration.

Check out this year's list of recommended sites HERE.

More Added to Great Websites for Kids

Great Web Sites for Kids (GWS) features links to high-quality websites of interest to children 14 years of age and younger, organized into diverse subject headings, from Art to Astronomy, Computers & Technology to Politics & Government; and more. Each site entry includes a brief annotation and the recommended grade-level(s). GWS users can rate sites, save their favorites for quick access, and share sites via social media and email. - From ALA

Added Sites
The Radio Adventures of Eleanor Amplified - www.eleanoramplified.org
Space Scoop - www.spacescoop.org
Babyradio (español) - http://babyradio.es/
LEGO Star Wars (español) - http://www.lego.com/es-es/starwars
Engineering, Go for It! (eGFI) - www.egfi-k12.org/
NRICH - http://nrich.maths.org/frontpage
Choose My Plate - https://www.choosemyplate.gov/
Scholastic Election News 2016 - http://election.scholastic.com/
Girls' Life - http://girlslife.com/
KinderArt - www.kinderart.com/

The Write Stuff--Figment

There is an article in this month's edition of School Library Journal about Figment, the free writing platform that allows people to share their writing with others.  There are plenty of ways for teens to interact with this site:  author chats (with luminaries like Ellen Hopkins), posting their own writing, entering contests, commenting on others' work.  Kids who love to write (you know a few, I'm sure) would be very interested in this site--joining a community of writers

In the article, there are suggestions for ways to use the site with a teen group--you might want to launch their own Figment Group (which the librarian can do), which allow teens to share writing with a more select group (each other).  To ensure that all students feel like their work is being read and critiqued, you can assign them to read one another's work--so everyone (even the shy folks) get to receive some comments.  You can post your own writing prompts, lead kids to contests and author chats, and much more.

I think this sounds so fun!  Is anyone using it?  It would be cool to introduce to a homeschooling group, potentially, or a teen advisory group, or just the few kids you know who are always carrying a notebook and jotting things down!

Children's Books and Reading

From Neat New Stuff I Found This Week (August 5, 2011), http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html, Copyright, Marylaine Block, 1999-2009.

http://www.childrens-books-and-reading.com/

"Helping your child become a successful reader." Includes good advice on pre-literacy activities that prepare very young children to make the connection between letters, words, and the spoken language they already understand. Also offers reading games and activities, advice on choosing books, and guides to recommended books for children.

Teen Read Week 2008

Register today for Teen Read Week 2008 which will be held October 12-18. Teen Read Week's 2008 theme is Books with Bite @ your library! Registration ends September 12.

Teen Read Week is an initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). Teen Read Week started in 1998, making this their 11th celebration of Teen Read Week! It’s important to celebrate for several reasons, Teens have so many options for entertainment, so it's important to remind them to spend time reading for pleasure: it's free, fun, and can be done anywhere! Research shows that teens who read for fun have better test scores and are more likely to succeed in the workforce. Also, it’s a great chance to let your school or your public library communities know how important teen services are! Let teens know the possibilities that exist within your doors, and within the covers of books.

More than 4,800 school and public libraries registered to participate in Teen Read Week last year. Join the fun and register now at http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teenreading/trw/trw2008/registration/index.cfm. You do not need to be a YALSA member to participate.

New Website to Promote Banned Books Week

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the American Library Association (ALA) announced today that they are launching a Web site to help bookstores and libraries promote Banned Books Week, which will be held this year from Sept. 27 through Oct. 4. The Web site, www.bannedbooksweek.org, is intended to help the public learn about Banned Books Week and suggest ways they can support it. The key feature of the Web site will be a list that visitors can use to find participating bookstores and libraries in their communities. “Hundreds of bookstores and libraries participate in Banned Books Week every year. Bannedbooksweek.org will make it easy for the public to find them,” ABFFE President Chris Finan said. Judith F. Krug, director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, said the Web site will help promote Banned Books Week nationally as well as provide support for local efforts. “We wanted to increase the attention for Banned Books Week on the Web while simultaneously providing increased support for the bookstores and libraries that are mounting displays and sponsoring free speech events,” she said.
Bookstores and libraries that would like to be listed on the new Web site can submit details of their Banned Books Week celebration directly to the Web site. Use this link to submit information, http://bannedbooksweek.org/signup/. Once the information has been reviewed, it will be posted.

CATCH THE READING BUG WEBLIOGRAPHY (from Rhonda Puntney's CEO Newsletter through April 2008)

Websites are loosely categorized by activities and games, bugs in books, crafts, fingerplays and songs, food and recipes, general education, and miscellaneous.

BUG ACTIVITIES AND GAMES

• A Lesson for the Big Bugs: An Audience Participation Story http://scoutingbear.com/audience/bugs.htm
  
  
• The Making Learning Fun website is features topics you can peruse for your summer programs!
  http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/ButterflyPrintables2.htm
  
  http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/HungryCaterpillarPrintables.htm
  
  http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/spiders.htm
  
  http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/SpiderTheVeryBusyPrintables.htm
  
  http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/LadyBugPrintables.htm

• The Itsy Bitsy Spider Game
  You will need to create a water spout for your Itsy Bitsy Spider out of plastic tubing and a PVC joint, small plastic spiders, water, plastic cups for pouring water down tube.
  
  How to play:
• sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider
• put spiders into tube
• add water to "wash the spider out" (from the Makinglearningfun discussion group)

• Bug-Themed Party Ideas for Kids
• http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/bug_party.html
  
  
• http://www.boardmanweb.com/party/buggy.htm
  
  
• http://www.daniellesplace.com/html/bug_birthday.html
  
  
• http://www.amazingmoms.com/htm/partyslimey.htm
  
  
• http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf000649.tip.html
  
  
• http://familyfun.go.com/parties/holiday/specialfeature/pulldown_butterfliesbugs_sf/

• Who Will Be The Next Etymologist?
  Games are ubiquitous. Turn on TV and you will see people earnestly being apprentices, trying to survive in the boardroom, racing in amazing ways, and dancing their star-studded feet off. In this all-new game by Summer Reading Game Guru Pam Carlson, our young library patrons will complete a series of educational bug-related tasks to find out "Who Will Be the Next Etymologist."
  
  It's easy and fun and everything you need to know is here including the ever-so-high-fashion iron-on t-shirt artwork and a predictably popular PowerPoint Presentation. So download the data and then detail duties to the diligent that are to join you in the "bug room." http://www.librarypalooza.net/nextentomologist.html (From Stephanie Stokes at LibraryPalooza.net)

Other bug games you can buy: Ant in the Pants, Cootie, Bug-opoly, Bug Bingo, much more. I just did a quick search on Amazon.com.

BUG GAMES

Here are several links to online games featuring bugs:

• http://www.orkin.com/learningcenter/kids_and_teachers_games.aspx
  
  
• http://www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus/games/bugs/index.htm
  
  
• http://www.miniclip.com/games/bug-on-a-wire/en/
  
  
• http://www.pestworldforkids.org/bug_games.html
  
  
• http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/bugs.htm
  
  
• http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/BillyBug2/bug2.html
  
  
• http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/bargraphs/bargraphs.html

BUGS IN BOOKS

Insects (and Other Arthropods) in Literature
http://www.kean.edu/~scodella/InsLit.html

Humanity has been reflecting on insects for a very long time. In the Cave of Spiders near Valencia, Spain, there is a 6000-year-old petroglyph that depicts the gathering of wild honey. The Chauvet Cave paintings of southern France are, at 30,000 years of age, the oldest works of art known to us. Amidst the riot of horses, lions and rhinos on the cave walls are apparent images of butterflies and centipedes. Likewise, the oral and written traditions of many peoples include stories that feature insects or other arthropods. Throughout time, these animals have been used by writers and storytellers to flesh out a wide array of thoughts and emotions, as the selection here illustrates. Some of these pieces deal directly with insects; in other cases, the imagery is a step or two removed.

Favorite Bug and Insect Characters in Children’s Literature (in no particular order)

• Charlotte
• Miss Spider (and all variations thereof)
• Stellaluna
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• Giggle Bugs (or any of the David A. Carter bugs)
• Maybelle the Cockroach
• Big Bad Bully Bug
• Fly (from Diary of a Fly)
• Spider (from Diary of a Spider)
• Bow-Wow’s Bug
• Harry the Poisonous Centipede
• Manuelo the Praying Mantis
• Ace Lacewing, Bug Detective
• Hector
• Inspector Hopper
• Crickwing
• The Little Squeegy Bug
• The Grouchy Ladybug
• The Very Busy Spider
• Anansi

BUG CRAFTS

Bug Crochet Patterns

Get the teen stitching groups involved in the action and have them work up these goodies for you.

Dragonfly Pin

http://www.kreinik.com/PDF/Crochet_dragonfly.pdf

Honey Bee

http://www.kreinik.com/kshop/product.php?productid=129&cat=33&page=1

Mosquito Finger Puppet

http://www.hankeringforyarn.com/a-crocheted-mosquito-finger-puppet/

Caterpillars

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=158450.0

Butterfly

http://www.kaleidesigns.com/crochet/patterns/archive/frid001.html

Bug Fridgies

http://www.angelfire.com/on/aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh/bugs.html

Insect Repellent

http://www.craftbits.com/viewProject.do?projectID=312

http://craftbits.com/viewProject.do?projectID=611&print=

http://candlemaking.craftgossip.com/make-your-own-mosquito-repellent-candles/2007/06/18/

Bug Origami

A sampling of folded paper insects you can create.

Paperfolding: Insects

http://www.paperfolding.com/insects/

Features insects from the Origami Insects book by Robert Lang. Order the book from Amazon here http://www.amazon.com/Origami-Insects-Robert-J-Lang/dp/0486286029 or try your favorite vendor.

Insect Origami Folding Diagrams

http://www.fishgoth.com/origami/insects.html

Origami Cicada

http://www.essortment.com/hobbies/makeanorigami_sxde.htm

An Easy Origami Ladybug

http://www.ehow.com/how_2100757_fold-origami-ladybug.html

Origami Butterfly

http://museum.nhm.uga.edu/htmldocs/origamibutterfly.html

Decorate your library with these cute butterflies!

BUG FINGERPLAYS AND SONGS

Songs and Fingerplays about Bugs

• http://www.preschooleducation.com/sbug.shtml
  
  
• http://www.songsforteaching.com/insectbugsongs.htm
  
  
• http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/bugs/songs.htm
  
  
• http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/insect-rhymes.htm

FOOD AND RECIPES FEATURING BUGS

The Family Fun website has included several delicious recipes to make all kinds of bug-related treats!

The Very Tasty Caterpillar

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50509&campaign=NLC-NL_Wkdr&link=Section1Link1

L is for Ladybug Cake

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50161

Bug Mountain Cake

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50106

Web Crawlers

http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/family/feature/dony108creepy/dony108creepy6.html

Flutter Delight Cupcakes

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50063

Lovely Ladybug Candy

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50148

Bug Snacks

If the kids attending your programs next summer aren’t into chocolate covered ants, try one of these snacks instead!

http://www.preschooleducation.com/cbug.shtml

http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/preschool_themes/bugs/bug_snacks.htm

Iowa State’s Tasty Insect Recipes

http://www.ent.iastate.edu/misc/insectsasfood.html

Even featured on Leno one year…… uses real insects

Bug Food I: Insect Themed Food

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/ythfacts/bugfood/bugfood1.htm

For the less adventurous – this only looks like bugs. For those of you who are willing to give insects a try, go to:

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/ythfacts/bugfood/bugfood2.htm

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/ythfacts/bugfood/yf813.htm

GENERAL EDUCATION ABOUT BUGS

Bug Bios

http://www.insects.org/

“Shameless promotion of insect appreciation.” This site aims to help you really see insects for the miniature marvels they represent and to understand how intertwined our cultures have become with these alien creatures. Includes photography, a digest of previous articles, links, educational resources and much more.

Fun Insect Websites

http://www.entomology.wisc.edu/insectam/visitor/funwebs.html

From the University of Wisconsin Entomology Department.

Koday’s Kids Amazing Insects

http://www.ivyhall.district96.k12.il.us/4th/kkhp/1insects/bugmenu.html

Great resource for photos and information for kids. Includes a webliography of other recommended sites for kids.

Butterfly Website

http://butterflywebsite.com/

The complete website for butterfly lovers, gardeners, teachers, students, and farmers. You’ll find butterfly clip art, inspirational stories, butterfly gardening tips, and more.

Digital Dragonflies

http://www.dragonflies.org/

An online collection of dragonflies of all types. Shows specimens at high resolution, and includes a link to the online Dragonfly Museum. Includes information on the hardware and software used to scan photos of the dragonflies and descriptive lists of specimens.

Iowa State Index of Entomological Resources

http://www.ent.iastate.edu/List/

Directory and search engine of insect-related information on the internet. Searchable by content type, taxonomic group, entomological subdiscipline.

The Virtual Insectary

http://www.virtualinsectary.com/

The Virtual Insectary not only provides images of some common insects, but includes information on the foods which they eat as well as the habitats where they can be found. Excellent photographs and close ups of insects.

Bugs in 2D and 3D

http://www.giantscreenbugs.com/

This is an informational web site for a film on bugs produced by Terminix. You can down load the movie trailer, learn more about the insects featured in the film, and click on stills from the film.

Young Entomologists Society

http://www.members.aol.com/YESbugs/mainmenu.html

Organization kids can join to share their interest in bugs with other kids.

Insects for Kids

http://www.kathimitchell.com/insects.html

A very good (and recently updated) webliography of insect sites that will interest kids.

Antbase.org

http://www.antbase.org

E.O. Wilson may be the best-known academic working on the biology of ants, though it is likely that most myrmecologists will find this site rather helpful and interesting. The site and its database are maintained by staff members at the American Museum of Natural History and the Ohio State University. As their website proclaims, they are moving "Towards the 12,000 species!", and visitors can search the database by taxon or author, and visitors can also avail themselves of the help feature. The site also includes a very helpful collection of ant-related websites, along with links to related blogs. For casual visitors, the site also provides an answer to the question "How many ants are there?" and actual lists of the ants of the world. (Scout Report, 8/10/07)

Non-insect bugs:

All About Arthropods

http://cybersleuth-kids.com/sleuth/Science/Animals/Arthropods/index.htm

Spiders, Ticks, and Centipedes

http://insects.org/entophiles/arthropoda/index.html

Non-Insects

http://godofinsects.com/museum/noninsects.php

Non-Insect Arthropod Orders

http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/~dstone/noninsectarthropods.html

Introduction to the Arthropoda

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/arthropoda.html

What’s That Bug?

http://whatsthatbug.com/

I love it – when they redesigned their website they wrote that they are undergoing a “metamorphosis”! Great play on both of the CSLP themes. Great site with a lot of photos, information and commentary from the WTB folks and reader submissions.

A Grand Look at Grasshoppers

http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/Magazine/Mj02/etcetera/index.asp

From Canadian Geographic Magazine’s website. Includes sections called: Friend or Foe?, Pest Detective, It’s a Bug’s Life, Grasshopper Anatomy, Literary Hoppers, and more.

Keeping Insects as Pets

http://www.amonline.net.au/insects/insects/pets.htm

This short fact sheet on pet insects discusses containers, water and food, maintenance, and examples of insects (crickets and stick and spiny leaf insects) that can be kept as pets. From the Australian Museum. (from the Librarians Index to the Internet)

Buginfo: Insects as Pets

http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmnh/buginfo/pets.htm

Brief descriptions of some insects that would be suitable as pets, including field crickets, praying mantids, ant-lions (also known as doodlebugs), caterpillars, and mealworms. From the Department of Systematic Biology of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

BUG MISCELLANEOUS

Library Palooza.net

http://www.librarypalooza.net

Take a look at the buggiest Libraryland Site on the Web -- LibraryPalooza -- and catch

fonts and flies, books and bugs, stencils to crawl your wall, a six--legged mascot and his ANTics, a fly--munching frog (big and green) and FREE bug things that are really keen.

There are t-shirt iron-ons and puppets for your fingers, a 38 page bug strange--but--true factoid display kit and instructions with photos, songs to sing and songs to play, and a Bug Fest! Extravaganza -- we'll show you the way.

You can get the official kids and teens fonts for use in your printed materials and even more fonts, dingbats, and fun banners than there are ants at a picnic.

It's all there for the taking as you read this, and more buzz is being added as each new idea hatches at http://www.LibraryPalooza.net (thanks to Stephanie Stokes for this!)

The Ugly Bug Band

http://www.uglybugband.com/

Website for an indie Canadian band described as a combination of big band and ska. The MP3 links on the their home page wouldn’t download for me, but a quick look at Myspace found them at www.myspace.com/uglybugband and you can hear their tunes there. Fun stuff.

Milwaukee Public Museum’s Puelicher Butterfly Wing

http://www.mpm.edu/exhibitions/permanent/puelicher.php

Description of one of the best exhibits at the MPM.

British Columbia’s Summer Reading Club

http://www.bcpl.gov.bc.ca/src/lib2007/

Website for the province of BC’s summer reading program in 2007, which used the “Catch the Reading Bug” theme.

Insects in Art

http://www.insecta-inspecta.com/art/index.html

Brief historical perspective on the portrayal of insects in ancient art.

http://www.artsmia.org/education/teacher-resources/fivefacts.cfm?v=60

From a teacher resource page at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts website.