Storytime Saturday: Owls

For our Saturday Storytime, young patrons listened to several stories about owls, and we looked at photos of snowy owls and discussed some facts. Then we made our own snowy owl ornament from a pine cone. We deconstructed cotton balls, then pushed the stringy cotton in between the bracts of the pine cone. When we were finished, it looked like a snowy owl's puffy body! We added some white feathers for wings, a pipe cleaner beak, and googly eyes to mimic an owl's eyes. String for the top, then home to be added to the Christmas tree! Whoo-whoo!

 

Turkey Day!

Today's was the last Storytime before Thanksgiving, so we spent our time listening to stories about food, friends, and turkeys! Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson was about a bear who shared a special meal with his animal friends. A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting was a funny story about the Moose family's search for a turkey for dinner with their friends. Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper told about three good friends who always made soup the same way, and what happened one day when they didn't!

Then, we made turkeys for Thanksgiving. A paper roll was his body, with googly eyes, a beak, a wattle, and a feather for his head. For the tail section, children used foam strips, paper, crepe paper, and/or oak leaves, all glued to a half paper plate. The two turkey parts were stapled together to make a stand-up turkey for the dinner table!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Researchers!

This week, several 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders from Sant Bani School visited the Gordon-Nash. They were researching various aspects of candy-making, and had questions about getting information. We learned a little about the Dewey Decimal System, why it's in place at most libraries, and how the broad categories are broken down into more specific subcategories. Each student located a specific nonfiction book based on the Dewey call number on the book's spine label. Together, we searched Gordon-Nash's online catalog of books, looking for ones about candy-making.

Then we checked Searchasaurus, a search engine for kids located on the State Library website. As we found pertinent magazine and newspaper articles the students wanted to save, we emailed them to their teacher, Selene. Now they can continue their research at school!

Thanks to Selene Gordon and the Sant Bani kids for visiting the Gordon-Nash Library. We hope you come back very soon.

Family Time

With the holidays coming up, I thought it might be a good time to focus on families at Storytime. We read four stories about families, starting with The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster. This is a story about a child at her grandparent's house and the traditional things they do while visiting. Next we read Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor about Nancy, who tries to change her family from plain to fancy! Before we made our craft, we listened to The Family Book by Todd Parr, which told about families of all shapes and sizes! 

The off we went to make our family drawings. Each child glued foam shapes to their papers, one for each member of their family. Crayons were used to embellish the shapes with heads, arms, and legs, and other things that the artists deemed necessary. A brown triangle was added to the top, to make the paper look like a house. A sign that read "My Family" was glued to the top of the work - or copied and written by some. 

Sadly, I did not get a photo of a finished "house". I was too busy watching in amazement! Wonderful families!

STEM Saturday: Marble Runs

What fun we had today at the library using found objects to make marble runs! We tried to make a marble travel from the top of a wall to the bottom by going through paper towel tubes, pool noodle pieces, paper cups, plastic pieces, funnels and lots more.

   

When our marble couldn't follow the path we we'd created, we watched carefully to see where the problem was, then thought about adjustments we could make to that area of the marble run. Sometimes a little tweak worked, and sometimes a whole new design was necessary. Kids talked about the activity and explained what they were doing and why things did or did not work.

Kids watched carefully as their marbles made their way down the marble runs. When the marbles reached their destinations, people cheered! Sometimes the marbles moved so fast down the marble run that they spun around inside cups! Amazing!

Here are some marble runs in action!