How is it almost March?  February flew by!  This was our last week of our Hugs and Kisses theme. So I guess you can say we are kissing this theme goodbye ;) 

If you would like to see all of the songs and bounces that I used in Lapsit this month, check out my first Hugs & Kisses post.  If you are interested in seeing how I planned for Lapsit for this week, you can check out my plans here.

The Biggest Kiss by Joanna Walsh & Judi Abbot is absolutely darling.  I invited the caregivers to give their little one kisses and hugs as I read the story.  

I have been making a point to incorporate more Nursery Rhymes in Lapsit this session.  I like Iona Opie's My Very First Mother Goose because of the size of the illustrations and text.  Today, we read and recited "Hey, Diddle, Diddle."

Did You Know That I Love You? by Christa Pierce is a very sweet book with simple illustrations.  I find the text to be very soothing when read aloud.  This was another book that gave caregivers the opportunity to snuggle, hug, and kiss their little one. 

I try to use different musical instruments each week.  This week we used shaker eggs!  

We shook our eggs to "Shake! (Your Shaker Eggs)."  We did not do the entire song as it is over 2 minutes long.  I know it can feel weird not to play an entire song, but it is totally okay to do!  I just played the first verse.  Everyone had a blast with it!  

We sang the first verse of "Going to Kentucky" two times.  We did not sing the "Oh, wobble" part.

This week, my group and I were tasked with creating a proposal and inventory for a Makerspace.  Since my library already has one in place, we decided to create one for the school library of one of our group members; a K-2 primary school in the suburbs that does not have a Makerspace.  We were tasked with finding and selecting items to go in the Makerspace.  The funds for the items are coming from an imaginary one-time $3,000 grant.

The biggest challenge as we created our inventory was figuring out how to allocate the imaginary “grant funds.”  Since this “money” is something that would not be available the following school year, we wanted to make sure that we invested in some pieces of equipment that are sturdy and would last for a couple of years.  We did add consumable items like gluesticks, yarn, crayons, popsicle sticks, etc. We requested those items in bulk so that we could have a stockpile that would last a year or two.

​I enjoyed this assignment because I was able to apply my experience with Makerspaces, robots, STEAM library programs, and purchase ordering.  My library owns BeeBots, Squishy Circuits, Snap Circuits, and Dash and Dot robots that can be used in programming.  I have had the opportunity to use these items in special programs.  I know that they are great for the K-2 age group, so I wanted to make sure that I added those items into our inventory.

I created a Google Doc for my group where we could input our proposal, information about the school, and the list of items we would like to purchase for our Makerspace.  I started inputting items into the inventory based on items my library owns and found additional Makerspace supply ideas from Tinkerlab.  

This is not the first time I have used Google Docs to collaborate on something.  I like to use Google Docs to plan all of my library programming because there are times when I have to work at another location and do not always have access to the files on my desktop.  I prefer to use Google Docs because of the sharing capabilities.  I love that the sharing options allow for users to contribute or just view the Document.  I have used Google Docs to plan special programs with my colleagues at our other locations.  I have also used it to share the storytime songs and rhymes that I have used in Lapsit with the caregivers that attend my Lapsit program.  With this project, we utilized the comment and chat feature so that we could communicate with each other about the items in the inventory, aspects of the assignment, and details about the school.  

I am pretty thrilled with the list of items that we came up with for this assignment. I look forward to sharing these items with my classmates and hearing about the items they have found for their Makerspaces.  The best part will be bringing back some ideas to my library for us to use in our own Makerspace!

Here is a list of the inventory items.

One of our course readings is the book The Non-Designer’s Design Book Fourth Edition by Robin Williams.  Williams shares her four design concepts through the use of a colorful acronym CRAP: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity.  I thought that the information in this book was useful and I tried to keep the principles in mind as I made my brochure for Novelist K-8.

As one of my side hustles, I still maintain a Teachers Pay Teachers Store in order to share all of the resources I created when I was teaching.  When I first started my TPT store, I joined several Teacher Sellers groups to learn the best way to package and upload my resources.  Several Teacher Authors suggested the use of PowerPoint to create the resources because of the ease with which you can manipulate items on the page.  Also, when you save the document, the thumbnail icon displays an image of the cover page.  Many of my resources were originally created in Microsoft Word or Publisher which, compared to PowerPoint, limited how I could manipulate the text and images to make the resource appealing for my TPT store.  

I tried using LucidPress for this assignment, but had limited success.  I think that LucidPress has some great offerings for layouts, but I did not find one that could accommodate the screen shots of Novelist K-8 Plus to look the way I wanted.  I had some difficulty capturing clear screen shots at first but then stumbled on the Snipping Tool in Windows 10.  With a little practice, I was able to use the Snipping Tool to grab the specific images of our library website and Novelist to use for my brochure.  

The biggest challenges with creating this brochure were working within the space constraints (a single 8.5- by 11-inch page), making sure the information presented logically, clearly, and concisely, and having screen captures that were clear and meaningful.

I am happy with the final product and look forward to sharing it with the patrons that I serve.

I cannot believe that it is the third week of our spring storytime session already.  The days are just flying by!  

We are continuing to focus on hugs, kisses, cuddles, and love in Lapsit. This is the perfect weather and the perfect month for this theme - so much snuggling! 

If you want to see a detailed list of all of the songs and bounces for this month's Lapsit theme, check out my first Hugs & Kisses post.

If you are interested in seeing how I planned for today's lapsit, click here.

We read 1,2, I Love you by Alice Schertle.  This is a really lovely book with a great rhythmic pattern to it.  I encouraged caregivers to bounce their babies in their laps while I read the story.  We also read "Hickety Pickety" from My Very First Mother Goose edited by Iona Opie.  Our last book for today was I Kissed the Baby! by Mary Murphy.  I encouraged caregivers to give their little ones tickles and kisses when those parts came up in the story.

In my Integrating Technology into Programming course, we focused on creating a Virtual Learning Commons (VLC) using Google Sites. If you are not familiar VLCs, think of them as collaborative library webpages. VLCs are used most often in school libraries but can also support a public library’s special programs or clubs.

To prepare ourselves for the assignment, we were instructed to look over a site called School Learning Commons. The site had great information but I was frustrated by the site’s unintuitive layout. I believe I missed out on some nuggets of wisdom because I had difficulty figuring out where to look. I personally prefer websites that keep their useful information just one or two clicks away; School Learning Commons required me to click through page after page to find the information I was seeking. The site’s organizational method may have been considered cutting edge when it first launched but I think it needs to be streamlined to keep up with the needs of the typical present-day user.

I used Google Sites in October when I started creating my blog, Social Justice in the Stacks, but decided it did not satisfy my personal preferences. I wanted to have full control over the layout and look of my website. The current font and template options on Google Sites are underwhelming, and the basic options Google offers limit users’ ability to customize their sites. However, the “free” price tag is a good reminder that the platform is still worth checking out, particularly if you are working at a public or school library, just want a basic and usable site, and have limited resources, time, and funds to get it done.

One of Google’s greatest selling points is being able to collaborate with multiple people in real time. I have enjoyed using Google Docs to plan storytime baskets and special programming with my colleagues at the library, so it was practically a subconscious process to create a new site on Google for my group to create our VLC. The site ran efficiently and updated the changes in real time as the three of us worked on it.

Building a functional website takes thought and planning. After clarifying some aspects of the assignment with our professor, we came up with some initial tasks to get our VLC started, divided them up, and hit the ground running.  I put my experience with Google Forms to use and designed forms for material requests, assignment alerts, and personal reading recommendations. I also used past Book and Cookie Club titles to create a “Book Club” page for our imaginary school.  My group members and I worked on pages of the site that played to our individual strengths, which ultimately helped us create a good starting point for a VLC.