Secondhand PLA

I'll have a crocodile sandwich ... and make it snappy.

My supervisor described to us in a quick meeting Thursday morning a program she would like to do aimed at autistic children ... something she saw at PLA.
[We are not a large or rich library system, so only a few are able to go to the big conferences. We have been told that if we don't share the information we get, we won't be allowed to go to another, so when I get back from classes, etc. to which only I was privy, I write it up and post it for everyone. It's up to them to read it or not. That said, the write-up is not just for the director to prove you went to the programs. Ahem.]

Anyway, one tiny idea mentioned at this quick meeting stuck in my head, and most fortuitously. My supervisor also decided that she wasn't up to doing the toddler storytime that day ... that would happen in about an hour. She asked if I would just use whatever I had done the day before with the preschoolers.
Panic ensued. But then that little idea she mentioned earlier popped back up to save me.

At these autistic child-oriented programs, they gave the children something to hold in their hands that was relevant to the storytime. I had been doing crocodile stories, so I scrabbled around in the supply cabinet for all the green foam sheets I could find. We have a small alligator/crocodile die and I could get six of them off of a sheet of foam.

As the kids came in, I handed the moms (mostly - one might be a gran') the sheet of songs and poems and each child got a die-cut green foam crocodile. I wasn't sure what they would do with it. Many of them were babies and might try to eat it. From what I could tell, most of them just held it.

Later, one of the moms said that the kids were much quieter because of holding the crocodiles. Really? That was quieter? Must be chaos normally!

I reported this success to my supervisor. She might want to try that herself.