Library as Incubator debuts with "No, David"

How Deep is David?

We pondered this, examined this, incubated this, cracked up over this!  Does he have depth? Does he have potential?  Can he do better?  You know him...you do...

Yep!  That's him, David.   

This summer our library has joined the national project, The Library as Incubator, to support the arts, providing opportunities for creativity for our citizens.  And in this case...our young citizens.  

The logo for this project has that funky retro look that most of my library kids would not grasp.  They have never even seen a card catalog in their public library!   This does not in any way diminish their enthusiasm to be a part of something trending across the country.  These kids are smart, talented, creative and very funny.  Before I say more about them - let's take a look at the project.

I copied the following from The Library as Incubator website to help explain things, but you should go take a look for yourself.  Cool stuff.  Click here.

We believe the library is a place to connect and create.

The Library as Incubator Project was created by Erinn Batykefer, Laura Damon-Moore, and Christina Endres, and was inspired by a discussion about creative advocacy for libraries in one of their courses at the UW-Madison School of Library and Information Studies.

The Project highlights the ways that libraries and artists can work together, and works to strengthen these partnerships. At a time in which both libraries and arts organizations are often having to do more with less, it makes sense for these two parts of our culture to support each other. The Library as Incubator Project calls attention to one of the many reasons libraries are important to our communities and our culture, and provides a dynamic online forum for sharing ideas.

I have been following this project for about a year and a half and it was just time to jump in.  The planets aligned in our Summer Schedule!   Our inspiration is, as they say, "in house" .  Children's books have award winning illustrators and authors. And we have thousands of books.

We debuted the program this week.   The tremendously talented author/illustrator David Shannon created the No, David series of books which seemed to be the perfect starting point for a group of kids who like to read, write and draw.  I selected this character because I thought every child knew this book by now - I thought wrong!  

No biggie - the plan was to intro the project with some history, intro the book, read the book and start thinking, working, playing with ideas.  Everyone understood the meaning of INCUBATE...and they loved that I had not set any rules about their artwork.  FREEDOM!  Truth be told, I had ideas of where I wanted to take the project but I also knew that these kids might take it someplace else and I was more than willing to go with them.  

I provided paper, a tupperware circle (they did not have to use it), markers and crayons.  The students talked ideas for about 15-20 minutes before the drawing began.  They had ideas that made David so awful it was hysterical.  Then they traveled into what it would be like to be his parent...and what they would do as a parent...and some of them were pretty awful parents as well!  Just when I thought we had reached the point of no return of who could "out do" the others in silliness they pulled it back together.  I didn't need to say a word.  

From my perspective - they got wild and crazy misbehavin' silly ...just like David!  They tried David on, you know, they slipped into being David.  I hadn't even thought of doing that!  And then...they took it to - what will happen to David?  What will he be like when he gets older?  What will he do?  Be a waiter?  Be a church usher?  Be a lawyer in NY?  Be organized?  Will he stop picking his nose?  He'll have to wear braces for those triangle teeth!   And now, I was grinning ear to ear.  This is soooo much fun.  

Each David was different.  Everyone went with a word bubble to explain the new David.  Very cool!  

These ears are pretty orange...must make for a keen sense of hearing!  

 We hope to submit our work, if we are lucky we will be featured on the website.  We are moving in the right direction. The artwork from this group of elementary students is on display in the Library.

Our Tweens and Teens debuted The Library as Incubator project using Vincent Van Gogh as inspiration yesterday.  Can't wait to put their work together for a photo shoot.  It's all good!  We have some very happy artist in our libraries.  As for me...I am the luckiest librarian in town!  Yippee!  

If you would like to learn more about David Shannon, the author and illustrator - please click here for a video and so much more.  

P.S. (Piper Script) Thanks for visiting our blog.  We would love to hear what you have to say.  Please leave a comment ~ thanks!  

How To : Every Child Ready to Read with "No, David!"

Talking, Singing, 
       Reading, Writing, Playing

Every Child Ready to Read advises me to include all of the above in Story Time.  I agree, completely!   Here's my most recent attempt to talk, sing, read, write and play my way through Story Time.  This time with David Shannon's famous, possibly infamous, certainly biographical, truly endearing character, David, from his children's book No, David .  We love this kid.  We all know this kid.   Reading this book in story time always brings out confessions!  Kids are loud and proud, parents blush.  It's great!  Emotional responses from all ages.  How perfect!

After bringing David to life in 4 programs this week - I'm pretty cool with David.  We're best buds.  I totally get him!  Of course I totally get his mom too.  Hey, there are consequences for your actions David.  She's not saying "NO" for the heck of it.  She has her reasons.  We explored these in an earlier post  Oh! David it's Flannel Friday.  

Here's the book::

Now, let's talk:  What is happening on this cover?  Tell me, what David's doing?  uh, huh...right...and then....yes, I think you got it.  So what does his mother say?  You are 100% , up high here, kiddo! That's probably how he got the title, don't you think?  And check out the author's name.  David!  Whoa...do you think he could be .....yes, again.!  You are smart!  I bet this is about when he was little.  That's pretty cool. What would be the title of a book about when you were really little?  Do you like to write?  Do you like to draw?  David Shannon does both!  This is the background information.  It is a grand key to comprehension.

Let's sing:  you can do this one...(I can do this one)  Take a look inside the cover at David's mom's body.  Her head is not in the illustration.  Does that body look happy?  Sad?  Upset?  Bingo!  Upset!  So, stand up, get your hands on your hips...maybe you can find your pointer finger and let's sing out the word "no" to the tune of the alphabet song:  "NO, no No no no no NO....." Show some attitude!

Let's read: now that you've practiced your "NO" - I think you're ready for the book.  I will need your help with this story.  I'll turn the pages and we'll all check out the illustration and then, please tell me what's happening.  After we figure it all out...we'll do the reading part together.  I'll point to the words and help.  But let's see what the illustrations tells us first.  

Let's write:  you guys were great with the book.  Now let's move to the craft table...we need to make ourselves a David to take home.  Should we make a Naughty David?  A Good David?  How do we do that.? I'll bring the book to the table so we can see what the author/illustrator did.  Remember the page where his mom called him Davy?  I love David's face in that picture.  Moms and Dads can make a David too.  Or you can make David's mom or dad. 

This is what I provided at the craft table with crayons, markers

scissors, paint stirrers, and painter's tape

.  

Check it out, my David has dirt on his face! 

Everyone wrote their name on their paint-stirrer-stick

And then we had pipe cleaners for writing NO

Tracing and creating N and O  NO

Let's play:  We're playing with our puppets!  Without using words - will you show me how your puppet says yes?  and how does your puppet say no?  David are you allowed to run down the street naked?  David are you allowed to shove all your food in your mouth?  (I think you get the picture)  Let the kids come up with some questions too.

Let's play some more:  on the flannel board...with a flannel David (directions to follow) we can show David's feelings, his emotions.  I gave each child a flannel bandaid to bring up to the flannel board to describe something that happened to David and why he needed a bandaid.  And with this new fancy-movable-facial-features...the kids can also show me how David feels.

Here's my process for making David:  Trace a circle on paper and draw in David's face,cut it out

Tape it to black felt, stiffened felt is best, and cut out the background following the outline.  It should look like this when you are done.

Now tape the same pattern to the skin color felt and cut inside the outline.  Cut off the ears and hair in this skin color felt.

Cut the ears, cut away the outline..just like you did with David's head.

Place things where they belong

I cut out the features and use them as the pattern.  So I placed the original back over David  - this photos is now called Silence of the David!

David had his skin brightened with these markers.  

I glued David's face to the black backing.  I glued the ears too. I glued his teeth into his mouth.    

His eyes, brows, nose and mouth are all movable

Real men have emotions!  

That's it folks. My interactive flannel David!  Now, you can make him too.

We also sang the Ants go Marching in this program because of course David would like a song where ants go marching into the ground!  And we read Press Here by Herve Tullet.  Each child had his own copy to press.  I'm certain David likes Press Here.

 Look!  Here's David!!  Yikes :)      

Click here to learn about him and all of his fabulous books. Go on, click!

Thanks for visiting Piper Loves the Library.  We love comments!

Oh, David, it's Flannel Friday!

Oh! David!
     No, David!

David Shannon's wonderful No, David has been the highlight of my week.  We had more fun with this book than I ever could have planned.  And it was a learning experience for me.  So it's back to the drawing board today.  I need a David with movable eyebrows and a movable mouth.  David needs to show his emotions!!

So I can do things like this:

and this:

or this:

So now, all of David's features are movable.  His eyes, eyebrows, and mouth are made of stiffened black felt and his nose is made of the same felt as his skin.   I hope to make a few more of these to keep on the flannel board during social time because David's many faces were ultimately the most fascinating part of the program.  A small tilt of the brow, or tip the mouth and WOW!

Some time ago I made a set of bandaids for Piper.  I pulled them out this week to use with the No, David book to include the CCSStandard of consequences.  I mean really people,  why does David's mom always say "No"?   Oh yes...this was fun, and comical, and I want to do it again. 

...David fell while trying to sneak a cookie and hurt is elbow

....David accidently stabbed his hand with his fork while playing with his food

....David fell on his bottom, "his bum" in his slippery bathroom

....David's head hit the ceiling while jumping on his bed

There was no end to the number of bandaids David needed.  And now...there will be no end to his expressive face.  Next time around...the children can provide the consequence, the bandaid AND change David's expression.  Oh, and we can all imitate David's face.  I'm thinking we need a mirror in our story time room!

I am presenting a program titled : Every Child A Reader this summer.  It's for children ages 4-6 with a parent.  It brings together the skill sets from ECRR along with many of the CCSS to encourage early literacy success.  Everyone went home with their own David-on-a-paint-stirrer-stick-puppet to practice narrative skills.  They decided while coloring if their puppet was a Naughty David or a Good David.  Needless to say most everyone selected Naughty David!  I say "Bravo"!  Play out the naughty with the puppet.  Let the puppet get in trouble!

This is mine, made of felt today...but we made paper ones in the library with an assortment of wild and crazy expressions.  

Piper and I outreached to a summer camp this week where we did two programs.  Not to be outdone by David...Piper needed her story told ...the story of why she needed all the bandaids.  She loved the attention!  Indeed Piper girl, you are my very real puppet!  xo

P.S. (Piper Script) There's more to David.  Yep, yep, yep!  The library's first Library as Incubator program featured David.    

If you would like to learn how to make David - click here for a tutorial (it's at the end of the post)