Kite Day!

Yesterday was a very windy day and the perfect day to read about the wind and kites! Storytime began with the book The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins - about wind that snatched away an umbrella, a hanky from someone's nose, a wig from a judge, and lots of other funny items. Then we read Kite Day by Will Hillenbrand, about Bear and Mole, friends who decide one Spring day to make and fly a kite. Our third book was Stuck by Oliver Jeffers, a funny book about a boy whose kite gets stuck in a tree - and all the objects he throws at it to try to make it come down! Finally, we read Princess Hyacinth: the surprising tale of a girl who floated by Florence Parry Heide. It was a kite (and a clever prince) that saved the day in this entertaining story!

We made small kites for our craft. They were divided into quadrants and kids were encouraged to color each with markers. Also available were stickers, colored dots, and foil stars! Some of our kites got pretty fancy! Yarn was added for a string and crepe paper streamers made a long, flowing tail.

After Storytime ended, everyone went to the lawn outside to try their kites.

And they flew in the morning wind!

Name That Bunny!

There are so many books in the children's room with rabbits as characters. Can you identify the six bunnies below? Comment with the title of the book OR the name of the illustrator. First comment to correctly identify all six gets...a chocolate rabbit, of course!

Hippity Hoppity!

Just in time for Spring, our Storytime this week featured books about rabbits! We read about good and bad rabbits in Nobunny's Perfect by Anna Dewdney and about Little White Rabbit who wonders about everything in the book by Kevin Henkes. Really Rabbits by Virginia Kroll tells a good story about two rabbits who leave their cage at night and help around the house! Finally, Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems is about Trixie, a little girl who loses her toy rabbit in a very unusual and funny place!

Rabbits were hopping around the children's room after each child made a rabbit hat to wear! A simple headband with stand up (or flopped over) ears was decorated with as many pastel pompoms as necessary! Each hat was unique!

   

Here's our poem - "Robbie the Rabbit." But we never said "Robbie"; we just substituted our own names. It worked! Try it!

Robbie the rabbit is fat, fat, fat. (Pat your belly)

His soft little paws go pat, pat, pat. (Tap one hand with the other)

His soft little ears go flop, flop, flop. (Hands on head for ears and wave up & down)

And when Robbie runs he goes hop, hop, hop! 

Planet Earth

Our final StoryCrafters session had an Earth Day focus. We heard the story Ants in Your Pants, Worms in Your Plants by Diane deGroat, about Gilbert, who cannot decide on a school project for Earth Day. The book mentioned lots of ways kids can help our Earth, like recycling, conserving water and energy, composting, and planting.

We looked at some satellite images of the Earth and all the beautiful greens and blues that could be seen from space. Using tissue paper scraps and a waxed paper base, we tried to create an abstract of our planet.

We added a black border, then trimmed our collage to fit. Look, a beautiful suncatcher to remind us of our beautiful Planet Earth!

Quack! Quack!

With the children's room window open to let in the spring air, kids at this morning's Storytime heard four stories about ducks! Duck & Goose by Tad Hills tells the funny story of these two birds guarding what they think is an egg. Cold Little Duck Duck Duck by Lisa Westberg Peters is about a duck looking for spring at the end of a long winter. A tricky fox is one of the characters in Do Like A Duck Does by Judy Hindley - fortunately the Mother Duck is trickier! And Duck on a Bike by David Shannon is the story of a silly duck who borrows a bike and rides around the farmyard saying hello to his animal friends.

A half paper plate was the body for our duck craft. Children colored it yellow, then collaged all sorts of yellow materials onto it - paper, pieces of streamers, feathers, foam...  Next they added a head with a folded beak and some webbed feet. There was lots of quacking going on this morning!

Here's the Five Little Ducks song!

Five little ducks, went out to play (hold up five fingers)
over the hills, and far away, (hold hand to eyebrows)
When the mother duck went "Quack Quack Quack" (motion "quack" with your hand)
Four little Ducks came waddling back. (make wings with arms and move elbows up and down)

Continue to count down until there are no little ducks then sing:

No little ducks went out to play,
Over the hills and far away,
When the father duck went "QUACK, QUACK, QUACK",
Five little ducks came waddling back.

Big Night for Salamanders

On the first rainy night in late winter or early spring, when the ground is thawing and the temperature hovers around 45, spotted salamanders burrowed under the forest floor wake from their winter rest and begin their annual migration to vernal pools to lay their eggs. All over the country, folks help these salamanders to safety when their migratory path includes crossing a roadway.

NHCS StoryCrafters heard all about this annual event when they listened to Big Night for Salamanders by Sarah Marwil Lamstein. There were many questions as we read this work of fiction that is peppered with actual facts about spotted salamanders. We learned about vernal pools, what they are and how they're formed, and why they are safe places for developing salamander eggs. We looked at a few photographs of spotted salamanders on the web. Then we set to work making our own replica of a salamander from black paper artfully folded and cut. Can you see his segmented body?

       

As we worked, it rained outside the windows, and we wondered if Big Night might even be tonight! But we decided the ground is probably still too cold. Maybe the next warm rainy night will be the Big Night for Salamanders!

Flume Award: Time to Vote!

After promoting the nominated books for the last three months, NRHS Library Media Specialist Kerrie Zick tells me the students at Newfound Regional High School are ready to vote for the Flume Award! Here's the display that we placed in the NRHS Library Media Center. I'll go back in a week, collect the ballots, tally them, and then submit the totals to the state in the name of Newfound. I can't wait to see which books NRHS readers choose! I hope it's my favorite! Regardless, I'll post the winner here in a few weeks!

NH Family Literacy Day

This is a wonderful event - totally free, totally FUN!

Saturday, April 12, 2014 

Woodland Heights Elementary School 

9:00 AM to Noon 

Free books for children through age 9 

Free of charge! 

All are invited to join in the fun. 

Sponsored by Altrusa International of Laconia, NH 

in conjunction with The Granite State Reading Council 

Exhibits 

Snacks 

Face Painting 

Children’s Activities 

And much, much more! 

Stuck Trucks

Mud season in New Hampton is underway! Our books today were all about trucks that got stuck in mud. We read one of my favorites, Little Blue Truck by Alice Shertle, a rhyming book about a small, kind truck helping a big gruff one (that also teaches the value of friendship). We also read Red Truck by Kersten Hamilton, about a truck rescuing a school bus, and My Truck is Stuck by Kevin Lewis, where many vehicles trying to help a stuck dump truck.

At craft time we had the choice of making a little blue truck or a little red one. Pre-cut pieces were glued in place on gray paper. Googly eyes for headlights matched the trucks in the books. And several children chose to add the frog in the story as the driver of their truck! Finally, kids used a q-tip dabbed with brown to paint "mud" on their vehicles. 

After the story and craft, another vehicle appeared - a train for all the stuffed animals, made by a very clever little girl!

Holes!

Here's the book NHCS StoryCrafters enjoyed this week: The Hole by Øyvind Torseter! And look! there's a hole right through the book! On each page of this graphic book, this hole is made to look like something else - a traffic light, the moon, a man's eye, a scoop of ice cream...  It's a very clever story!

On a piece of plain paper, we decided where we wanted to place our holes, then we got to work creating a picture around it. And here they are!

How do you suppose the publisher made that hole go all the way through the book? StoryCrafters had some good ideas about that. If you think you might know, post your idea in the Comment section!

Fifth Grade Book Projects: Caldecott Winners!

For April's project, Mrs. Downing has asked each fifth grader to choose a Caldecott Award winning book, practice it, and read it to a younger class. Mrs. Downing and Mrs. Marcotte can help you find lots of the Caldecott titles in your own NHCS library. But if school is closed or you're looking for something different, come on down to the Gordon Nash Library and look through some of these beautiful picture books that Melanie has displayed for you!