Comments for Mother Goose on the Loose

Comment on Librarian on the Loose by Dr. Betsy Diamant-Cohen

Dr. Betsy Diamant-Cohen — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 16:30:32 +0000

Hi Jeanne,

Please contact me at mgolbalt at gmail dot com (I’m writing it that way so I don’t get spam) and I can tell you about upcoming workshops.

Betsy

Comment on Librarian on the Loose by Jeanne Burrell

Jeanne Burrell — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 03:54:45 +0000

Hi!
I have inquired before about any open training sessions in Michigan. Now I wondered if there is any upcoming training in the Chicago area?
Thank you,
Jeanne

Comment on Librarian on the Loose by Bea Taylor

Bea Taylor — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:25:20 +0000

Betsy, so nice hearing from you again and glad to know that you are back at Port Discovery. How is your family?

Comment on Back in action! by Dr. Betsy Diamant-Cohen

Dr. Betsy Diamant-Cohen — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 03:30:21 +0000

Thanks, Mara!

Comment on Back in action! by Mara

Mara — Wed, 11 May 2011 04:39:50 +0000

Betsy,
Glad to hear you are doing well. I’m working madly at preparing an in-service workshop for PreK teachers on ‘music and movement’. I’m pulling songs and activities from a variety of sources and of course I had to use you as well. I’m including your website in the handouts. Since I was visiting it I thought I’d leave you a note. We should speak sometime. Probably after this week though.

Continue to heal and be better and better!

Comment on Indestructibles by Jonas Sickler

Jonas Sickler — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 05:11:52 +0000

Thanks for the kind words. I added a downloadable or viewable PDF of the article, so it can be clearly read. (^_^)

Comment on Indestructibles by Jonas Sickler

Jonas Sickler — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 01:00:10 +0000

Sorry about the image quality. I had to keep it small to fit on my blog. But I did include a PDF that is downloadable, and the quality should be better on that.

Thanks for checking it out!

Comment on What can you do if your groups get too big? by Dr. Betsy Diamant-Cohen

Dr. Betsy Diamant-Cohen — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 04:47:41 +0000

Lisa,
Thank you so much for your detailed response!
Betsy

Comment on What can you do if your groups get too big? by Lisa Eck

Lisa Eck — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 19:47:15 +0000

Hiya Julie, soooooo……here is a brief history of the evolution of my Mother Goose on the Loose Storytimes.
So first, my storytimes used to be about 50 -75 with parents, at that point I dropped :
Drumming out each childs name on the drum.
Hickory Dickory Dare – and pig throwing.
Humpty Dumpty (this made me sad).
What I kept was the Marching to the Drum stuff – and bells, scarves, etc.
Then I had some of my most regular storytime Moms say, that they would like it better if we didn’t March to the Drum, it was just too hard to get everyone up and around. So I dropped that too.

We offered the class half and hour before the library opened, and had registration. We did NOT do any sort of nametags or anything. I always had a HUGE waiting list, we kept adding classes on different days/times and still huge waiting lists.

So then with budget cuts, staff cuts, over a year ago, my boss said, I’ve booked the big meeting rooms out front, we are just going to throw Lisa out there, no registration, and see what happens.
Well 300 people showed up!!! And really it went pretty well, but the room capacity is about 135.
So I added a second class – so I do one at 9:30 and one at 10:30, in a perfect world when the crowd gets to about 135, we close the doors and put up a full sign.

So today for example I had 111 in the first class and 145 in the second, And this is what I did.
Old Mother Goose
Goosey Goosey Gander
Mrs Perky Bird
2 Little Dickey Birds
Five Fat Sausages

Then I do Open Shut them to set up for the story.
Read a book.
Clapping rhyme like Hot Cross Buns

BODY Rhymes
I did three body rhymes – we did not do knee bounces but I do those most of the time too.

Next would normally be Drum Sequence
Instead we all do some standing up “singing”
Today we did I’m a Little Tea Pot, and Hokey Pokey (the other one we do a lot is Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes)

Animal Activities -
I normally do
I went to visit the farm on day, and When the Hen gets up in the morning and skip Hickory Dickory Dare.

Musical Instruments and Scarves.
I normally DO both!! This is a little crazy with all the handing out and picking up – but I have two bags and get a volunteer to help. We ask the kids to stay in their seats as we hand out – they can come up and put the items back in the bags when they are done.
With bells and sticks I have added a couple of favorites – I pretty much always sing the ABC song, and we do a counting song to 100 by 10s. I also have a version of Row, Row, Row your boat that ends screaming about seeing an alligator! We all love that part.
With the scarves, we do the MGOL songs and then I add, counting and throwing them up in the air, first we count from 1 to 10, and then we count from 5 to 0 and throw them up – the kids love this.
Then I add the lullaby to the scarf section we pretend the scarves are our blankets, we cuddle with our big person, and sing. Then we pick up scarves.

I always end with a version of If you are Happy and you know it.
And that is pretty much it.
I have a handful of favorite “puppet” activities in my box.
5 little monkeys – with the 5 puppets
Mr Sun, Sun, Mr Golden Sun – with a sun puppet And 5 Green and speckled frogs – also with puppets.
If we run out of time, and I have to skip bells or something I go to those.

I no longer use a flannel board. I have to stand during the storytime, and sometime I do use the microphone, usually I don’t use it for the first class, and by the second one I need it, lol.

Hope that helps, I’ve found it works pretty well We have also taking MGOL to the Galleria (that is our mall) and I did it out on the playground this summer – once you have favorite sequences you can pretty much fake it with a bigger group. Hope that helps.

Lisa

Comment on New rhymes for MGOL programs by Dr. Betsy Diamant-Cohen

Dr. Betsy Diamant-Cohen — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:53:43 +0000

When I present the full day Mother Goose on the Loose workshops, there is a section where everyone has the opportunity to make their own flannel board piece. Then, each person has a turn using the flannel board piece on the flannel board while presenting their rhyme or song in front of the group. (Since experience is the best way to learn, this hands-on component in the training workshops helps participants feel more comfortable with beginning their own MGOL programs when they return to their libraries). I have been doing these workshops for years, and always learn new things. I was at a workshop in Virginia last week and there were about 6 rhymes I had never heard before. I will try to track them down and post them here!