Halloween Reading!!

This week Coach and I had some dates.  We had dates with kindergarten and first grade for reading time!  Being a librarian in the upper division doesn't allow me many opportunities to show off my dramatic flair, so every now and then Mrs. Edwards, our super fabulous, lower librarian invites me down to read a story and I bring Coach along.  (I think they all prefer Coach! I, however, like to think it is my wonderful story telling skills! 8-)  

So on this day I was set to tell the story of Miss Smith and the Haunted Library!  Yikes.  Seems like rather a scary book.

I am sitting in an upholstered rocker with Coach in coat at my feet.  Mrs. Edwards is on my right hand side and the children are seated in front of me.

I liked this book because it had a character with red hair (I have red hair).  The librarian was wacky and had a funny voice (so I got to do a funny voice).  And there was a dog in the story: the hound of the baskervilles jumps out of the book.  So I could point to Coach and yell, "OH NO, the Hound has escaped!"  Or something silly like that.  Coach would run with it.   

This photo shows the whole group watching me read the book .  You can see the backs of the students and me and Mrs. Edwards facing them.  

 So I started telling the story and immediately all the kids got really into it.  It's a very enthralling tale.  Coach wasn't so enthralled.  He rolled over.  He tried to bite someone's shoe.  Then he did a flip.

Here I am showing them a page in the book and reading something dramatically.  Coach is yawning and Mrs. Edwards is smiling.

Still, I continued with the story and the kids stayed with me.  Thank God for small children and their love of stories.  I would ask, "Where is Frankenstein?" and they would yell, "Over there behind the bookcases!"  I love little kids.

Coach decided he loved the story time rug.  He took a bite.  Mrs. Edwards, who was in charge of Coach wrangling, pulled him back to the center.  He sighed.  The story ended.

Then everyone lined up to pet him.

One little girl told me in a very serious voice, "You have the most beautiful dog."

"Why thank you.  I agree."  There were several who told me about their dogs as they gave Coach a body pat and moved on (they were in a single file line).  Then there were three little girls at the end and they didn't really want to pet Coach, but they also didn't want to not pet Coach.  It was a dilemma.

Finally, the one girl came up and put three fingertips on his thigh.  "Thank you," she whispered. Her friends followed quickly: one fingertip, then four fingertips.  Then they were gone.

Story time was over.

Until next week.  We have one more command performance.

Student Library Proctor Retreat

Coach likes laps.  He has fallen into Christina's lap and has his butt sticking up in the air. Christina is laughing.

On Saturday we had our student library proctor retreat where the idea is to train the proctors and also to bond as a group.  We also want to get all of their photos for the bulletin board.  We were going to take their photos with Coach.  We decided to take our photos as well this year!

Coach and Jan are sitting side by side.  Jan is peering over his head and has her arms around him.

 Jan and Christina work in the library with me.  Jan is the library assistant and runs the library proctor program and keeps the library running smoothly and she took most of these photos.  Christina is our collections development librarian and also helps with middle or upper division classes depending on where the need is.  They are both super to work with and Coach loves them.

This is a long distance shot of Coach and one of our student library proctors having a quiet moment. She is sitting and he is getting his ears rubbed.

 We had a full day planned of different activities such as designing t-shirts with our theme (literature is a treasure) and games like musical chairs.

Coach has decided that enough is enough and he should take a break under the atlas stand.

After a few of the games, Coach decided he needed a rest and he found that the atlas stand was a good place to hang out under.  He is very good at deciding when he is tired and walking away from people and lying down either under my desk or on his bed, essentially saying "I'm done!"

Close up photo of Coach under the atlas stand.

But, he's so cute, no one ever gets offended.

Annie is reading a book to Coach who is looking up at her.

 The kids all thought he was the best and even tried to read to him for a cute photo op.

All of the student library proctors got their photos with Coach.  Here is one with Alex and Coach.

Overall, the retreat was a great success.  There was much eating, bonding and game playing.  I think they may have learned how to shelve books.  I'm not sure....

We'll teach them that again!