Early Learning STEAM Programs: Art Start

In April 2017, I presented with a coworker on Low Cost/No Cost STEAM programming ideas at the Texas Library Association annual conference in San Antonio.  Today’s post will share one of the program ideas we talked about, an early learning program that combines story time and art for a STEAM-based program for little learners.

The Program

Art Start is a program offered by the Plano Public Library.  It’s described in our program brochure as:  Stories to inspire your little artist, followed by a different hands-on art activity each week.  Things may get messy!  Smocks and materials provided.

Intended Audience

This program is designed for children between the ages of a 3 and 6 years old, the same audience that we target with our preschool story times.  Parent/caregiver participation is required, and adults stay in the room and work with their children during the program.  To keep costs down and the room manageable, we limit the number of families allowed in each session.

Cost

A typical session costs $5 to $10 for simple crafts, with a greater investment for continuing supplies or more elaborate programs.  Funding for our Art Start program is provided by a grant from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC).  The activities are easily modified based on craft supplies that you already have on hand.

Supplies

This program requires basic craft supplies, easily modified based on the activities you choose.  Think craft essentials like crayons, markers, construction paper, and paper towels.  It’s easy to choose your theme for the week around supplies that you already have on hand, or pick projects that use similar supplies to make the most of what you do order.

How It Works

Staff read a book related to the day’s art project.  When I present this program, I also include a related element like a flannel story, just to incorporate a little more of the story time feel.  However, the focus is really on the art.  After the story time portion, we explain a little about process art.  The focus with every project is on the process of creating the art rather than the finished product.  One of the most important things to do as a facilitator of this program is to encourage the parents/caregivers to work with their child, instead of doing the project for their child.  The program lasts approximately 30 minutes, with about 10 minutes for the welcome and story and the remainder of the time for art.  Depending on the project, the room can be set up with tables and craft supplies, but it’s also great to allow plenty of free space to work on the floor as well.

Sample Topics

Some of the outlines that have worked in the past include:

• Balloon painting
• Chalk with buttermilk
• Feather painting
• Folded paper prints
• Fruit prints
• Glitter art
• Hole punch collage
• Ice painting
• Paper cutting
• Sand art
• Shaving cream art
• Tape resist art
• Texture rubbing

Resources

This program is very open ended, so it’s easy to customize to the type of projects that your patrons find most interesting.  Many crafts can be found and modified from Pinterest.

Flannel Friday: Ice Cream Colors

I’m running a little bit behind today, but I am determined to get this post up in time for Flannel Friday.  Last year for Halloween, I did a Halloween-themed story time.  Unfortunately, it didn’t go over well at all with the parents.  So this year, I decided to switch things up a bit.  In honor of Halloween candy, we did a Candy and Desserts story time this week instead.  After looking at our book selection, I decided on an ice cream cone flannel story to add variety to the types of desserts we talked about.

What You Need

Here are all the ice cream cones that I created.  I took the simplest clipart template that I could find and cut out the cones and tops and then glued them together.

The Story

Here’s the rhyme that I used with it:

We have ice cream, the best in town!

Let us begin with chocolate BROWN.

This ice cream is lime and GREEN.

It is the creamiest we’ve ever seen.

YELLOW ice cream is lemony and tart.

We like it from the very start.

ORANGE sherbet is next, oh so sweet.

Everyone thinks that it’s a great treat!

Scoops of BLUEberry make this a lucky day.

We just want to cheer, hip, hip, hooray!

RED ice cream is a cherry delight.

This ice cream cone is a heavenly sight.

Vanilla CREAM (or WHITE) is a popular flavor.

It tastes very good to an ice-cream craver.

PURPLE ice cream really gives us a kick.

Good and yummy till the very last lick.

Now let us scoop some bubble-gum PINK.

It is sweet and yummy, the best we think.

Ice cream, ice cream, what a cool sensation.

We love ice cream in any combination!

I slightly adapted this rhyme from Fun with Friends at Storytime to work with the colors that I had.  Kathryn’s rhyme originally had mint ice cream, but I didn’t think that my green was very minty looking, so I went with lime instead.

Tips for Use

With both my toddler and preschool groups, I handed out the ice cream cones and we waited our turn to put up the right color.  I loved that this turned out to be a great time for parent interaction, since the parents this week were great about encouraging their children to wait their turn to put up their ice cream rather than swarming the board.  With my preschool group, we also talked about what flavors we might be missing and what colors they should be in between putting up more ice cream cones.

Can’t Get Enough?

This week, our host is the wonderful Storytime Katie, one of my favorite blogs for inspiration and ideas.  For more information about Flannel Friday, visit the website here, or join the Flannel Friday Facebook group, or check out the Flannel Friday boards on Pinterest.  Happy Friday, everyone!

Flannel Friday: Dotty the Dinosaur

It’s Flannel Friday time again!  I missed last week (I was on vacation), but I’m excited to share again this week.  This week in story time, we did dinosaurs.  I actually created two different flannel stories, but I only have time to share one here today.  Today I’m sharing my version of “Dotty the Dinosaur.”  I originally got this idea here.

What You’ll Need

Here’s the rainbow horde of dinosaurs that I created:

The patterns for everything in this set are just modified clipart images that I thought were cute and tied in with the theme.  I had an idea of the colors that I wanted for the dinosaurs, and then I chose food for each to eat based on what I thought would be easy to create for the colors.  Here’s the finished food:

The Story

To summarize this story, Dotty is a green dinosaur who has always eaten green foods.  One day, she decides to try something else, and, wouldn’t you know it, it changes her color.  Each time she eats something new, it changes her color:

By the end of the story, Dotty can’t decide what color she wants to be, so she just eats everything and becomes a polka-dot dinosaur instead.

But, for anyone who wants it, here’s the rhyme that goes with it:

Dotty the Dinosaur loved to eat

Things like lettuce and string beans.

That is why her dinosaur skin

Was colored a lovely GREEN.

One day she saw some cherries

And ate them all that day.

Later, Dotty the Dinosaur

Turned bright RED they say.

Dotty just loved colors,

So the next day she ate two

Bushes filled with blueberries

And turned the color BLUE.

The next day she saw some grapes

And ate them on the spot.

Then Dotty turned quite PURPLE

From her bottom to her top.

Next she ate a banana;

It made her feel quite mellow.

And wouldn’t you know it, next thing

Dotty turned bright YELLOW.

Then she ate some juicy orange,

Just a little slice.

And when Dotty turned ORANGE she thought,

“Isn’t this quite nice?”

Then she found some cotton candy,

Quite tasty, don’t you think?

And once Dotty ate it up

She turned the color PINK.

Dotty couldn’t decide now

Which color she liked best.

So Dotty just ate everything.

Was her skin an awful mess?

No, Dotty now had dots

Of color everywhere.

Dotty now was different,

But Dotty didn’t care.

Dotty loved her new skin,

She liked it quite a lot.

Now she was the only dinosaur

With a coat of polka dots!

Credit:  Adapted from Jean Warren

Tips for Use

I originally planned on using the rhyme to go with this one, but when I told the story with my preschool group, I just made it up as I went along.  I put up the different foods that Dotty was eating, and my helpers brought up the color dinosaur that she turned.  I used this for an outreach story time this morning and adapted the same approach, with the children shouting out what Dotty was eating and what color she turned.

Can’t Get Enough?

This week, our host is Melissa at Mel’s Desk.  For more information about Flannel Friday, visit the website here, or join the Flannel Friday Facebook group, or check out the Flannel Friday boards on Pinterest.  I can’t wait to see what everyone is sharing this week!

Preschool Story Time: Superheroes

Date presented:  Thursday, June 21, 2015

Even though I love doing story times for all ages, preschool story time is my favorite group.  For the summer, our library is transitioning from two sessions per week to a single session on Thursday mornings.  When I plan each week, the preschool and the toddler groups have the same theme, but they generally have different books and different activities.  Our preschool group also does a craft at the end of story time each week instead of the parachute activities and free play that we do with the toddlers.  I’ve already written about the toddler superhero story time, so here are some notes from the preschool group.

Introduction

I don’t have much of an introduction to my preschool story time.  Since parents tend to be running late, I spend the first five minutes of story time talking to the kids and parents as they come in, and sometimes teasing what we are doing in story time this week.

Welcome Song

We use the same welcome song in preschool story times as we do in the toddler story times:

Welcome, Everyone (Tune:  Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)

Welcome, welcome, everyone.

Now we’re here, let’s have some fun.

First we’ll clap our hands just so.

Then we’ll reach and touch our toes.

Welcome, welcome, everyone.

Now we’re here, let’s have some fun!

Credit:  Adapted from Public Library Program Ideas

Letter of the Day

We do the same Letter of the Day concept in preschool story time as we use in toddler story time.  However, for my preschool groups, I will give them an introduction to the topic that we are going to do and hint about important words before asking them to guess the letter.  Some weeks the kids guess the letter on the first try, and some weeks we spend a little more time trying to figure out what the letter might be.  And, like with toddler story time, we include how to make the letter in sign language.  I am also considering adding in a simple sign language word that encompasses our letter of the day, but we haven’t tried that yet.  This week was, of course, S for Superhero.

iPad Technology

I mentioned in my toddler post that I was was hoping to incorporate technology into story time with our iPads.  I planned on using the StoryBots “Say Yes to S” video, but our group was so rambunctious that I decided to skip technology this week in favor of getting story time started.

Story Box

This summer, I decided to introduce something a little bit different for preschool story time.  Instead of having the books and activities in a particular order, which is how I normally do story time, I wanted to make it a more interactive experience.  So, I created the Ms. Jaime’s Story Box (pictures to come, I promise).  Basically, it’s a wooden box with a latch that I found at Hobby Lobby and stained.  I glued letters on the outside to label the box, and inside, I put everything that we might need for story time.  This week, I put in all three of our books and my flannel stories.  I also have three painted wooden music notes that represent songs.  The goal is for one of the children to pick something out of the box, and that is where we will start our story time.

1st Book

Our first book was Mighty Max! by Harriet Ziefert.  This is a cute story about a little boy who sits still…but not for long!  He is off to save the world on a variety of adventures.  It’s a cute story, but it didn’t really catch the attention of my group this week.  I think it was just a little too long for them.

Song/Rhyme/Activity

At this point, although my group was very enthusiastic about picking the next thing out of the story box, I wanted to give them a chance for some movement.  So, I did a little prompting to help a music note get pulled from the box.  We did our “Clap Your Hands” song, which gives everyone a chance to do some moving and get some energy out.  It’s something I inherited from the previous children’s librarian, but it’s such a hit that it’s impossible not to use it.

Clap, clap, clap your hands,

Clap your hands together.

Clap, clap, clap your hands,

Clap your hands together.

Clap a little faster now,

Clap along with me.

Clap a little slower now,

Clap along with me.

Continue with:  nod your heads, shake your heads, stomp your feet, and (sometimes), save your hands

Source:  Modified from KIDiddles:  http://www.kididdles.com/lyrics/c119.html. 

2nd Book

The second book that was selected from the box was Do Superheroes Have Teddy Bears? by Carmela LaVigna Coyle.  Originally, I had planned to use Kapow! by George O’Connor, but after using this book in toddler story time the previous day, I thought it was too adorable to pass up sharing with the preschool group.  I don’t regret doing this one at all, because the comments were hilarious!  We decided that superheroes don’t have teddy bears because they’re grown men (and that would just be silly), and they aren’t afraid of the dark because they fly at night, and obviously it’s dark at night.

Flannel Story

Even though I let them pick what we were doing next, I guided them to selecting our flannel story for this week.  In honor of our superhero theme, we did the Ready for Action rhyme from the CLSP Children’s Manual.  I made a boy and a girl set, which gave me more pieces for helpers.  While the set turned out adorable, this did not go as planned.  The kids were super excited to help dress the superheroes, but they never calmed down enough to actually hear the rhyme and dress the superhero in order.  This turned out to be more of a superhero stampede instead.

Song/Rhyme/Activity

I originally planned to do another song here, but since the group was very wired, I decided to skip it in favor of moving on to our third book.

3rd Book

Our final book was Superhero ABC by Bob McLeod.  The kids liked the different pictures of the superheroes, and ended up picking some of the featured superheroes as their identity for their craft.  In hindsight, I probably should have skipped this one since the group was antsy and ready to wrap up, but the kids who did want another book were still interested.

Goodbye Song

We ended story time, as usual, with our goodbye song.  We always sing The More We Get Together and then move to the craft table for the craft.

Craft

We hosted a community carnival event back in the fall, which ended up having much less attendance than we anticipated.  As a result, we had leftover craft supplies.  One of the activities was creating masks, so I used the leftover masks to let the kids create their own superhero masks and identities.  I used this template from Au Pair Buzz, printed on cardstock so they would be a little sturdier.

How It Went

I was really excited to be back for story times for the summer, and this group was very enthusiastic.  I had several new faces for the summer, which made it fun as well.  The story box was a hit, and I am looking forward to using it for the rest of the summer.  This was the largest group that I have done story time for (48 people!), but because of that, it was also a little crazy.  I’m definitely rethinking having a volunteer for preschool story times.  I think this summer is going to be great!

Toddler Story Time: Superheroes

Date presented:  Wednesday, June 10, 2015

I have been planning toddler story times for our librarian since about a month after I started.  But, because our toddler story time is usually on Monday mornings (I work Monday nights), I haven’t been the one presenting the story times.  However, in the summer we have field trips from a local group at the rec center.  To accommodate this group, our toddler story time gets moved to Wednesdays.  So, for the summer at least, I am taking over presenting toddler story times as well.  For our first week of summer reading, we did our story time on superheroes!

Introduction

Since the toddler families are not as familiar with me, I started off story time by introducing myself to them.  However, we don’t really have a set of rules or information that we give before our story time, so my introduction is pretty short and basically includes my name and who I am.

Welcome Song

We start every story time with the same welcome song:  This is the welcome song that has been in place at our library for several years, so it is the one that I inherited.  The parents and children are familiar with it and it is easy for newcomers to pick up, so we have decided for the foreseeable future not to change the welcome song at all.

Welcome, Everyone (Tune:  Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)

Welcome, welcome, everyone.

Now we’re here, let’s have some fun.

First we’ll clap our hands just so.

Then we’ll reach and touch our toes.

Welcome, welcome, everyone

Now we’re here, let’s have some fun!

Credit:  Adapted from Public Library Program Ideas

Letter of the Day

Each week, we have a Letter of the Day that we highlight.  We have laminated letter cards that we flip over when we show the letter, as well as a set that shows sign language letters.  For summer reading, I created a superhero alphabet set using a great graphic that I found on Pinterest to create replace our normal letter set.  I introduced our topic (and the summer reading theme) before introducing our letter for this week.  When I introduced S for Superhero, the parents helped by making the S sound.  I also show the kids how to make an S in sign language as part of our letter of the day as well.

iPad Technology

My library received a grant that gave us 7 iPads.  As a result, my director has asked me to work on incorporating more technology into story times and programming.  Since we weren’t sure how the parents would respond to iPads in story time, we decided to start with something simple.  I downloaded the StoryBots Learning Videos app (you can also find the videos online on the StoryBots website), which includes adorable videos with little robots singing about concepts.  I had originally only downloaded the ABC Videos app, but I switched to this one since it also includes colors, numbers, shapes, and more that I hope to integrate in the future.  Anyway, for this week, we showed the video “Say Yes to S” to highlight our letter of the day.  The reaction was mixed – the kids seemed to enjoy the song (and some danced along), but they were not particularly interested in viewing the iPad.  I think this is a combination of a new person AND new technology in the same week, so we agreed to give this another chance in future story times.

1st Book

Our first book today was Do Superheroes Have Teddy Bears? by Carmela LaVigna Coyle.  This is a book that we ordered especially with summer reading in mind, and it is adorable!  The rhyming text is easy to read, but this book ended up being a little bit long for the group that I had.

Song/Rhyme/Activity

After each book, we like to do some kind of rhyme or activity to get the kids up and moving and engaged in the story time.  Since this group was not particularly active yet, I decided to move songs around from my original outline and went with S-U-P-E-R, which is basically spelling super to the tune of B-I-N-G-O.  We had our superhero alphabet cards on the felt board so we could point to the letters while we sang.

There was a hero that saved the day

And Super was his name-o

S-U-P-E-R

S-U-P-E-R

S-U-P-E-R

And Super was his name-o.

Source:  Adapted by Julie Dietzel-Glair in the CSLP Early Literacy Manual.

We sang this through twice (without removing any of the letters) before we moved on to our next activity.

Flannel Story

At this point in the outline, I had planned to use the “Ready for Action” flannel board that I made (adapted from the CSLP Children’s Manual).  I created boy and girl superheroes to dress (a future Flannel Friday post, I promise!), but I only planned to use one with this group given their attention span.  However, since the group was overall fussy and having a hard time adapting to me, I decided to forgo this one for this week and move on.

Song/Rhyme/Activity

After the flannel story, I had planned on doing a second song to encourage some movement.  The original plan called for “Hero Pokey” from the CSLP Early Literacy Manual.  Since we skipped the flannel story (and also because my group was not into singing our other song, either), we skipped this one as well and went on to our next book.

2nd Book

Our second book was He Saves the Day by Marsha Hayles.  It’s a cute story about a little boy who saves the day in his imagination…until he finds that sometimes he needs a little help from mom to save the day.  I was hoping that the parents would help out more with the “He saves the day!” refrain, but this one ended up falling flat.

Goodbye Song

At this point, I decided it was best to move on to our next part of story time, which is our parachute activities and free play.  Before we move from our story time corner to the meeting room, we always sing The More We Get Together from our CD.  Then I invited all the kids and parents to come with me to play with the parachute and other toys.

Parachute Activities

Each week, we lay out the parachute and have the kids play with it before we move on to free play.  My boss, who normally does toddler story time, uses the same outline every week for playing with the parachute.  I wanted to keep the same elements that he did, but I also wanted to start introducing some new songs and rhymes for the concepts.  Since I didn’t want to overwhelm the kids with new information at once, I decided to start by just replacing one concept with a new song.  The result was this outline of parachute activities:

• ABC Song:  We walk the parachute around in a circle while we sing our ABCs.
• Counting:  We walk the parachute around in a circle (in the opposite direction) while we count to 10.
• Colors:  We lay the parachute back on the ground, and then I call out colors for the kids to touch.  We call out colors and give them a chance to run to that color until we have covered all four colors in the parachute.
• Up and Down:  We raise and lower the parachute while talking about UP and DOWN.  The kids also have the chance to run underneath the parachute while it “falls” on them.

While I was at the Texas Library Association conference this spring, I attended the Guerrilla Storytime workshop.  While I was there, someone demonstrated the Elevator Song, so this week I replaced our up and down activity with that instead.

Oh, the city is great and the city is grand

There’s a lot of tall buildings on a little piece of land

And we live way up on the 57th floor

And this is what we do when we go out the door

We take the elevator up and the elevator down

Take the elevator up and the elevator down

Take the elevator up and the elevator down

And we turn around

Source:  Kendra Jones at Read Sing Play:  https://klmpeace.wordpress.com/rhymes-for-baby-and-toddler-storytimes/#59

The parents helped out on this one to keep our up and down going.  I think it’s a fun song, so I’m hoping to keep it again in the future.

Free Play

After we play with the parachute, we have three tubs of toddler toys that we bring out and let everyone run around the room and have free play.  We close the doors to the meeting room so that no one escapes, and then we can also be noisier if we want.  This is also when I tried to spend time one-on-one with some of the toddlers and parents so that they would feel more comfortable with me, and reminded everyone to sign up for the summer reading program.

How It Went:

I have to admit, I was very intimidated to do this story time.  Since the kids were not used to me, and because I was nervous, it was not one of the best story times that I have had.  However, I think it has potential to improve with some work.  I’m hopeful that the group will start warming up to me in the next few weeks and we will have better sessions.  In general, I found the books were too long for my group’s attention span, but again, this may have been due in part to so much change in one week.  I’m looking forward to seeing how future sessions go!

1000 Books before Kindergarten

I’ve officially been a children’s librarian for almost six  months now.  I’m starting to settle into a groove, and there are so many things that I could be writing about – book selection, recommended book lists, story time planning, special programming…all of which I hope to get to eventually.  But today I want to share one of the “special” projects that I’ve been working on with my library:  1000 Books before Kindergarten.  When I started, I was given this program as one of my special projects.  The good news is, I get to design the program to run however I want.  While the program has been officially launched already, I get to make any changes that I want to it and run it however I want.  The bad news is, I also have sole responsibility for the success (or failure) of the changes that I am making.

So, how does the program even work?  It’s all about reading together with your child.  Your goal is to read 1000 books together before your child starts kindergarten.  The point is to increase early literacy skills – research shows that the more parents (or caregivers) and children read together, the more pre-reading skills are developed.  With that foundation, a child is more likely to read independently later on, and be more successful at it.  Even better, the program promotes bonding between children and adults.  I remember reading stories with my parents growing up, and this program is a fun way to build those memories with future generations.  The entire program is based on it being a “just right” goal – 1,000 is enough books to be challenging, but not so many that parents get discouraged or feel like there is no way they can complete the program.

Because they program is self-paced, it is also to some extent pretty hands off for me.  Parents and caregivers register their children, and then they choose whether or not to complete their reading logs and stay in the program.  But, I wanted my library to make more of an effort in marketing the program, to encourage children to sign up and to motivate them to keep reading.  The first thing that I did was completely re-brand all of our existing literature.  I updated the flyers that we had available from parents – what was once a four-page, half-size booklet became a half-sheet with the basic facts of the program and the library’s contact information.  That gave me something I could easily put around the library, but also something I can email to others or easily take with me to outreach programs.  As part of the process, we designed a new logo.  The previous logo involved a rainbow, so we chose to leave the rainbow as part of the new design.  But, we also included a little alligator as part of the design who now serves as the unofficial mascot of our 1000 Books program.  He is also on certificates and other flyers that are associated with the program.  Where we previously had a poster of the old logo, we replaced it with the new logo.  I also moved the poster into the children’s area near the picture books so that it was more visible to parents and children visiting the library.

To complete the program, parents must  first register their children.  Counting registrations is our primary measure for recording success in the program currently.  Previously, we had an ongoing list at the youth services desk that include the child’s name, parent’s name, and relevant contact information.  I wondered if our lack of registrations was due in part to parents not wanting to leave their personal information readily available on a public desk, especially one right by a public access phone that gets a lot of use.  So, I replaced the registration list with individual registration cards.  Parents can fill out the information and hand the card directly to library staff in exchange for a registration packet.  I still keep a master participants database with all of the information, but it is no longer accessible to the public.

The packets were put together in part to replace the previous brochure, and in part to make the presentation of information more professional.  I started by purchasing colored two-pocket folders to keep the information.  On the outside of each, I put a flyer for our weekly story times, featuring the same little alligator that appears on the 1000 Books logo.  Inside, I put one of my business cards, so that parents and caregivers can contact me (or the library) with any questions.  The left side of the folder includes a welcome letter outlining how to participate in the program, suggestions for caregivers, and information about the 1000 Books app for iPhone and iPad (I only wish it was also available for Android).  It also includes early literacy tips for our three main age groups, babies, toddlers, and preschoolers.  On the right side of the folder, I included a copy of our recommended books to read before kindergarten, their first color in book log, and a complete set (all 1000 books) of write-in title logs.

Since our families were already used to the color in book logs, I kept those as the staple of the program.  The child colors a circle for each book read, and after 100 books, the log is complete.  They then bring the log back to the library, where they get a special sticker to put on their log and we provide the log for the next 100 books.  In order to track more than just registrations in the program, I have asked library staff to keep a list of who returns a book log so that I can track their dates throughout the program.  However, I also wanted a visual way to track progress in the program.  Keeping with our rainbow theme, I created a giant (2 foot tall by 5 foot long) rainbow.  For each color tier (and also the clouds and the sun), I added a label for the book level (100 books, 200 books, etc.).  Each time a child completes a log, he or she gets to add a star to their level on the mural.  I also designed a giant bookshelf (5 foot long by two feet wide) as our reading wall of fame.  There are a few books on the shelves, but as a child completes the program, he or she will be able to write his or her name onto a book shape and add it to the shelf.

We hosted a special story time event to kick off the program in January, but attendance was fairly small.  Weather may have had an impact on the attendance, but it’s hard to say for certain.  However, in January we had a record number of sign ups – 13 – for the program.  So far February has not had nearly as many sign ups, and none of our new participants have yet brought back a book log.  The greatest challenges I foresee for the program are continuing interest and motivating children to keep reading and adding their stars to the wall.  It seems like once parents register for the program, they often fall off and don’t complete it.  In the future, I would love to apply for a grant to sponsor prizes for different levels (currently we only offer a prize at the end of the program).

If your library is hosting a 1000 Books program, what ideas have you had that worked?  How are you motivating parents to participate in the program, and how are you tracking your participation?

Happy reading!