Outreach: Halloween Festival

             

Halloween is full of sensory experiences. The eerie orange and purple lights, slimy pumpkin guts, tasty pumpkin seeds and candy, and of course the spooky sounds coming from the creatures in the night. Ms. Patricia and I brought a few of these sensory treats with us on our visit to the Wing Lake Developmental Center (see previous posts about Wing Lake) for their Halloween festival on October 31.

Here's the plan:

1. Hello (Talk about Picture Schedule)


2. Talk about theme: "Today is Halloween! What do you like about Halloween? (treats, spooky things like scarecrows and jack-o-lanterns, colorful leaves) Did you go trick-or-treating in school today?


3. Story: Scarecrow, Scarecrow, What Do You See? by Lisa Erwin, SLP
This is an adapted book with interactive images. I enlarged this book and interactive image pieces to poster-size, looped ring clips through the top and attached it to our portable easel to flip through.
(source: My Speech Tools)

4. Flannel rhyme: "Halloween, Who's at My Door?"

Halloween, Halloween -- who will come a-knocking?

Halloween, Halloween -- who will come a-knocking?

Halloween, Halloween -- who will come a-knocking?

Who will you see at your door?

Knock, knock, knock -- it's a ghost that's a-knocking...

Knock, knock, knock -- it's a jack-o-lantern a-knocking...

Knock, knock, knock -- it's a black cat a-knocking...

That's who you see at your door!

(source: unknown)

5. Story with sensory experiences: Shivery Shades of Halloween: A Spooky Book of Colors by Mary McKenna Siddals (available in eBook format for projecting!)

This book is such a fantastic example of sensory storytelling! Each 2-page spread is a different color's sensory experiences ("Halloween is green...slimy-grimy, queasy-peasy, snotty-rotty tinge of green.")

We brought these colorful sensations around to each student to see, touch, smell, and/or hear:

Green: bowls of jello slime

Purple: furry purple monster puppet with squeaker mouth

White: cobwebs (pieces of artificial spider webs found in stores around Halloween)

Gray: tombstones (Styrofoam tombstones from the Halloween store)

Blue: bubbles

Yellow: glowing eyes (cardboard tubes with eye-shaped cut outs wrapped in black duct tape to contrast with the yellow glow sticks inside)

Brown: small tree branches

Black: cauldron and black bat puppet

Red: silky scarves that looked like the vampire's cape

Orange: pumpkins

6. Goodbye Song: "If You're a Monster and You Know It"
(tune: "If You're Happy and You Know It")
If you're a monster and you know it,
wave your arms.
If you're a monster and you know it,
wave your arms.
If you're a monster and you know it,
then your arms will surely show it.
If you're a monster and you know it,
wave your arms.

Additional verses: show your teeth, roar out loud
(source: preschooleducation.com)


7. Craft: Squishy Jack-O-Lanterns
Our clerical assistant, Diana, traced the outline of a jack-o-lantern on 100 large ziploc bags for us. Each student and aids were given one of these bags along with squirts of orange finger paint inside. Bags were sealed and then students could squish the paint around to color the jack-o-lantern orange.

SENSEational Story Time: "All Around the Farm"

Fall is here! That means visiting the animals at the farm, picking out our pumpkins for halloween, and taking a hayride. I had so much fun doing some outreach story times at our local school farm a couple weeks ago, so I decided to keep the farm theme going for sensory story time at the library. We had a small crowd on this day with only one child and her caregiver, but we had so much fun exploring and playing together!

Here's the plan:

1. Hello!


2. Welcome song: "The Story Time Ball"
tune: "Wheels on the Bus"
(Roll ball back and forth to each child)
The story time ball rolls back and forth,
back and forth, back and forth.
The story time ball rolls back and forth,
Let's see who it found. Hi ______!
Now roll it back to me.
(Keep rolling back and forth until each child has said their name.)


3. Yoga pose: "Downward Dog" (adapted pose placing our hands on floor and keeping legs bent for our attendee who has some mobility difficulties in her legs)


4. ASL rhyme: "I Went to the Farm" (We went over the ASL signs for pig, horse, and chicken and then signed the words in our rhyme. This was excellent practice for our attendee who is also primarily nonverbal and just learning sign language!)
I went to the farm, and what did I see?
A big chubby pig oinking at me!
I went to the farm, and what did I see?
A big brown horse neighing at me!
I went to the farm and what did I see?
A fluffy chicken clucking at me!
(source unknown)


5. Story: I Spy on the Farm by Edward Gibbs
We used our board book set, so everyone could look through the spy-cut pages as we read along to see which animal was next.


6. Stretch band rhyme: "Clippety-Clop"
(Pull stretch band up and down as the rhyme goes.)
Clippety clippety clop.
The horsie like to trot.
The feisty mare goes up and down,
until it's time to stop!
(source unknown)


7. Sensory Story: The House that Zack Built by Alison Murray
I love this interactive story! After discovering it for story time, I decided to assemble a story box for it to be added to our circulating collection of accessibility support materials for youth with disabilities. (Note: I am so very excited to announce that this collection, which opened over ten years ago, is getting a name change very soon. More on that coming in another post!) Story boxes are a great way to build comprehension for tactile learners to touch and feel manipulatives that represent items in the story while they are listening. We put together "Zack's house" with the blocks and then our attendee and caregiver helped me use the farm animal puppets and fly to interact with the story as I was reading. 

8. Parachute rhyme: "Ring Around the Pumpkin"
Our attendee loves sitting underneath the parachute as we go around, so she was our pumpkin in the middle. (Walk around the "pumpkin" in the middle, holding the parachute, raising high like the leaves in the tree then lowering as the leaves fall down.)
Ring around the pumpkin,
pocket full of nuts.
Leaves, leaves,
they all fall down!
(source: Everything Preschool)


9. Goodbye song and stretch: "Tickle the Clouds"

Tickle the clouds.

Tickle your toes.

Turn around and tickle your nose.

Reach down low.

Reach up high.

Story time's over.

Wave goodbye!

10. Play time: Block play
I had some pig pictures ready to "muddy up" with some textured brown finger paint, but our attendees wanted to build some more, so we got out our large set of colorful blocks and continued to build more things on the farm like Zack's house. Flexibility is always best!

Book & Play: A Multisensory Exploration

This month my colleague, Nicole, and I looked at sensory story time from a more focused perspective. For some time now, I have been wanting to take a really deep sensory dive into one picture book, incorporating movement, exploration, and play. The program, called "Book & Play," provides an immersive multisensory experience of one picture book. I love, love, love all of the sensory possibilities in the book How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers!

The non-registered program was held in our large community room, so we could arrange sensory experience stations around the room. We started off by reading the story to everyone gathered around at the front of room and then described each of the different stations, talking about each experience from the story.

Sensory experience stations included:

"Catch a Star"

"The boy decided he would try to catch one."
Kids practiced their fine motor skills, using large tweezers to catch the colorful stars in a bin of dried black beans and then dropping them into the buckets on the table.




"Reach for the Stars"

"The boy tried to jump up and grab it."
Kids could try jumping and reaching for stars, just like the boy in the story. Activities were written on each star, so when kids touched a star, they could do that star's activity (i.e. stomp your feet, pretend to be your favorite animal, clap your hands). We found an inexpensive arch in a gardener's supply catalog, set the arch in buckets of sand to stabilize it, attached zip ties through a hole punched at the top of the laminated stars, and tied stretch bands through the zip tie and at the top of the arch.




"Lasso the Spaceship"

"He thought he might lasso the star with a life preserver..."
I was so excited to find out about the Kohl's Cares plushies from Jeffers' stories! We used 4 of the plush rocket ships, with oatmeal container bases decorated by our very talented clerical assistant. Diana designed the base to look like the rocket blasting off. Kids were given "life preservers" (foam wreaths wrapped in colorful duct tape) to try to lasso a spaceship or a star.




"Starfish Discovery Pool"

"And that's when he saw it... washed up on the bright golden sand."

We added dried starfish, like the boy found on the beach, to our discovery bins filled with water and added a little tropical background. Kids could feel the different textures and even smell their slight salt water scent.

"Wrapped Stars"

Of course we had to make some textured stars of our own to take home! Kids were given card stock stars to cut out (or they could choose one of the pre-cut stars) to wrap colorful yarn around.

It was a nice-sized crowd of just over 30 kids and their caregivers. We did also provide sound-cancelling head phones for those who needed a little break from the sounds in the room. Kids and caregivers expressed how much they enjoyed truly experiencing the story hands-on. I look forward to trying this again with another sensory experience-filled picture book in the near future.

My First Program

I would like to introduce you to my co-blogger, Ed Niemchak! Ed is an adult services librarian at the Bloomfield Township Public Library. Three years ago, Ed and I worked together to develop a sensory story time for teens and adults after seeing many group home visitors in the youth room looking for things to do during their library visits. We took elements from my sensory story time for youth and added more age-respectful elements, including fiction and nonfiction picture books with age-respectful illustrations/photographs and a social element at the start, discussing the theme with the group. Ed and I also collaborate on our outreach visits to the Wing Lake Developmental Center for students, ages 3 -  26, with multiple disabilities. Take it away Ed!

Going forward, I will talk about current programming in this space, but first I want to reflect on my first program and things I learned, both positive and negative.

The first program I conducted was in January 2016 and it was rushed because my department head didn't want me to procrastinate. Unlike now, I didn't have the layout well defined and hadn't settled on all of the elements that we utilize now.

The theme I settled on, because of the time of the year was "Animals in Winter." It seemed to be a good topic with all of the snow on the ground and would give us a good chance to discuss a few different things.

We now use a variety of elements including a yoga pose, stories, rhymes, songs, music, videos and a craft activity, but due to the rushed nature of the first program we simply read two stories sang a couple of rhymes and had a simple sensory activity.

The books I chose to read were Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson and Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner.

Bear Snores On tells the story of a group of animals that gather in the cave of a hibernating bear to throw a party. The reason I selected this story is it has a nice rhythm that is easy to follow and also offered the opportunity for us to discuss what the different animals are and what they do in the winter. The illustrations are very colorful and are appropriate for this audience.

Over and Under the Snow is a non-fiction title for youth that introduces a number of animals and how they survive the harsh winter months in the woods, both above and below the snow.

The rhymes we recited were:

Build A Snowman (to the tune of Oh My Darling Clementine)

Build a snowman,
Build a snowman,
Build a snowman,
Big and round.
Shape three snowballs, different sizes
Stack them tall, then add a face.

Dress the snowman,
Dress the snowman,
Dress the snowman,
Big and round.
Dress him in last winter's clothes,
Tie his scarf and add a cap.

When the sun,
When the sun,
When the sun
Shines so bright,
Watch him melt and disappear
Never to return again.

Save his clothes,
Save his clothes,
Save his clothes,
Don't throw them out!
Soon the snow will fall again.
Another snowman will be born.

The Frost Song (to the tune of Farmer in the Dell)

The frost is in the air.
The frost is in the air.
It's wintertime, It's wintertime,
The frost is in the air.

The frost is on the trees.
The frost is on the trees.
It's wintertime, It's wintertime,
The frost is on the trees.

The frost is on the roof.
The frost is on the roof.
It's wintertime, It's wintertime,
The frost is on the roof.

The frost is on the windows.
The frost is on the windows.
It's wintertime, It's wintertime,
The frost is on the windows.

The frost is on the ground.
The frost is on the ground.
It's wintertime, It's wintertime,
The frost is on the ground.

The frost tells me it's cold.
The frost tells me it's cold.
It's wintertime, It's wintertime,
The frost tells me it's cold.

So inside I'll stay.
So inside I'll stay.
Inside it's nice, and I am warm.
So inside I'll stay.

For our sensory activity, I found fake snow called "insta-snow" and a variety of Toob animals. I selected both animals that are and are not found in snow and buried them in the insta-snow. The participants dug up the animals and we discussed the feel of the snow as well as whether the animals are typically found over, or under, the snow.

What Did I Learn?

I had a few challenges with my first program, partially due to the fact that I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing or if anyone would show up. As it turned out, we had seven folks with 2 caregivers. Not too bad for a first time.

One of the first challenges we faced was getting folks into our meeting room in the basement. Many of the folks have trouble with stairs, and our elevator only holds so many, so we spent a great deal of time getting everyone down. To remedy this, after our first three programs, I have been able to consistently book the library's upstairs room, making it easier on all involved since our program attendance has increased greatly.

Another challenge I faced was the ability of everyone to see the book we were reading. I would spend much time walking around the room to show the pictures, while at the same time trying to be as descriptive as possible for our low-vision guests. After discussing with Jen, we realized with the option to use the projectors in each room, I now scan in the books to a PowerPoint slideshow, or, more recently, attempt to find appropriate books on Hoopla.

The last challenge I faced that day was trying to sing out the rhymes, when no one else could follow along. It was suggested that in the future, which I still do now, that we make copies of the rhymes and handout them out to anyone else that wants one, including attendees and caregivers.

After the first few programs, I started to receive feedback from caregivers as the attendance started to grow. What they asked for are things that have become regular elements of the programs, including a yoga stretch at the beginning as well as more animated rhymes with movement to attempt to get the attendees moving around and more engaged.

In future posts, I will discuss more current program themes that I have explored but for now wanted to reflect back on where it all started.

ArtABILITY: Accessible After-Hours Discovery at the Library

I love the month of May because that means our library is going to be filled with the wonderful artistic expressions of students in the Bloomfield Hills School District Art Show. We really wanted to make this fantastic art accessible for everyone in the community, so we held a sensory-friendly after-hours art appreciation event this past Friday. As with other sensory-friendly after-hours events we have held on Fridays, we kept the doors open upon closing at 6:30 pm exclusively for children, teens, and adults with disabilities along with their families. This gives people of all ages with disabilities the chance to explore the library and/or experience our sensory activities in a less crowded, low-stress, sensory-friendly environment, with visuals and a calming space in case of overstimulation. This is also a time when many feel more comfortable attending, as they can just be themselves. Whether it's stimming, loud tics or excited voices, this is a "no judgement (or shushing) zone." As one group of adults with intellectual disabilities was headed through the door and one of them spoke loudly in her excitement, the caregiver and others in the group looked at me with an apologetic glance. "No worries, that's what this night is for!" I said with equal excitement. 

We provided a visual guide to the evening's activities in the lobby, along with a survey and handouts to help attendees explore our two pieces of touchable library art: our sculpture "Quest" (an adult sitting on a bench peering at an excited child holding a book over head in the background of the top image in this post) and the Conant Elementary School Legacy Project tile mosaic.

We also provided an ASL interpreter, a tour of selected works in the art show with verbal description for attendees with visual impairment, sensory activities, and more tactile art activities. Tactile art included this fantastic flannel book of tactile representations of four works of art from the neighboring Cranbrook Art Museum. Our incredibly creative library intern, Lauren Aquilina, wrote to Cranbrook for permission to recreate these pieces from their collection for our ArtABILITY event and then created this tactile masterpiece using fabric, foam, glue, puffy paint, buttons, pipe cleaners and yarn.

 


Our activities in the Youth Services Room included light table play, a very cool sensory painting activity from librarian Patricia Ballard, spring time discovery bin and textured paint play from librarian Andy Lebeck, and a cool-down space for those seeking a little sensory break.

We turned our story room into a cool-down space for sensory breaks. 

The lights are dimmed and there are some tools provided to help with self-regulation, such as fidgets and weighted lap pads for people seeking sensory input and a pop-up tent (tall enough for adults) and sound-cancelling headphones for sensory avoiders. 

Our special guest Caroline Braden, Accessibility Specialist at The Henry Ford, brought tactile activities to learn about the art of "Things That Go." People could wander into our Magazine Room to touch/feel miniature versions of the famous modes of transportation housed at The Henry Ford Museum, put together automobile pieces in a small assembly line and then put together an automobile craft to take home.

People could wander into the Adult Services area to design marshmallow structures, provided by Adult Services librarian, Ed Niemchak, who I will be introducing as a blog partner on here very soon!! Ed will be blogging about adaptive programming for teens and adults, including his monthly sensory story times at the BTPL. Yeah, Ed!

At 7 pm, a group of 8 met me in the lobby to head to our Community Room for a tour of 10 selected works in the student art show. I provided detailed verbal description to be inclusive of those who are blind or have low vision. 

Here is one of my favorites from the students at the Wing Lake Developmental Center:

Image description: "Recycled Cap Flower" Medium used: cardboard with plastic bottle and jar caps. 18 x 6 inch rectangle cardboard background presented vertically and centered over vertical black board frame. The cardboard is spray painted green and blue. Over the cardboard background is a 3 dimensional flower shape. Creating the shape of a flower at the top are 23 yellow bottle caps in various 1 - 1 1/2 inch circular shapes with a large 3 inch white jar top in the center. Moving down from the flower top, there are 17 green circular bottle caps, 1 to 2 inches in diameter, trailing down to create a stem shape.

And of course, our attendees could also check out materials with our Head of Circulation, Anna Pelepchuk, at the Circulation desk! 

Thanks also goes to Head of Youth Services, Marian Rafal, for greeting our attendees at the door and Pages Heather Coffee-Borden and Jessica Doroslovac for assisting with our activities! These after-hours events may not draw in big attendance numbers, but we are so glad to see the faces we don't see on a consistent basis. This was their time to explore art, literature and more in an accessible, low-stress environment.