Jodi Koplin Is Awesome!
Jodi Koplin is my new hero. Founder of Jigglejammers and an early Wiggleworms instructor at the Old Town School of Folk Music here in Chicago, and she’s been leading tiny tots and their old folks in sing-alongs for many years. She made a delightful album many years ago, but has mostly been touring and teaching for the last several years. I ordered it for the library about a month ago, after going mad for the short clips available on cdbaby.
Ms. Koplin’s ears must have been buzzing because she walked into the children’s department the next day to talk to our delightful program coordinator, Ms. Shelley, to talk about performing at the library. To this day, I feel a bittersweet mixture of sad and relieved that I was working with a patron at the time. Had I been the first person she met at the library, I may have squealed, jumped up and down and/or tackled her into a bear hug. Suffice it to say her introduction to NPLD would have been less than professional.
Anyway, she will be performing at the library this summer, so I will try to get my star-struckness under control by then. Oh and, I highly recommend everyone get their hands on her new album, Jumpin’ Bean. It has many songs that are perfect for storytime.
Jumpin' Bean by Jodi Koplin
Flannel Friday: Popsicle
My #FF is a story stretcher (or rather a song stretcher) for track 8: “Popsicle“. As you can see, it’s doesn’t fit into the Summer Reading Dream Big: Read! Extravaganza. (Sorry!) My library is going with the iRead 2012 theme: Reading Is So Delicious. So this flannel board will fit that theme. Popsicles are, after all ssssooooooo delicious!
I made 2 storytime props to use with this song. One is a flannel version, and the other is a folder story. I used both of them in my 3 storytimes this week (Prek Storytime and Toddler Time on Tues. morning; and a drop-in on Thursday), and they almost went too well. In fact, I wrote to Jodi last week and asked if she would mind if I made props for some of her songs. She agreed, and asked if I could send her a video. Now, I did try, but as I said the presentation were not exactly “film-worthy” The first day we did the flannel board version:
This is the flannelboard. The tongue overlays stick to the backside of the popsicle.
the kids bum-rushed me to get to the popsicles.We had fun, played the song twice, and then added more of our favorite flavors. I got distracted, and wasn’t thinking about the camera placement. When I watched, the board was pushed completely out of the frame. The second time was toddler time. It’s a lapsit, and some of the parents didn’t want to be on camera.
On Thursday, which can be a total madhouse, I decided to try a folder story. Folder stories are a awesome for stories about changing colors, so I knew it would fit the song:
Slip construction paper into folder, and pull the sheets out whenever you change colors. Since the last verse is about eating rainbow popsicles, I taped one of the rainbow popsicles on the back of the folder.
I also decided to make sets of popsicles to pass out to the kids so they could have a prop to do the movements along with me.
Here’s a pattern if you want to make this story prop yourself: Popsicle Face. And here’s a pattern for the popsicle sets: popsicles
We had a packed house, nearly 50 kids and parents packed in to our storytime room. It was simply too crazy for a video. Also the parents were not behaving very well. Boo000000000. So I apologize there is no video.
I am planning make a prop for another one of her songs, and since that one won’t be quite as appetizing, there’s chance it will go a little more smoothly. So check back next week!
Yummy!
