Happy 'Noon' Year!

What fun the last day of 2015 was at the Gordon-Nash! Children were treated to a special Storytime, where we read favorite books from this last year, then made noisemakers and hats to celebrate the 'Noon" Year!

We read If I Built a House by Chris Van Dusen, the book that won the NH Ladybug Award last year. This book models creativity as the boy in the story plans the house of his dreams. Afterward we each talked about our favorite room in his futuristic house. Next, a funny book called A Piece of Cake by LeUyen Pham, about Mouse, who bakes a cake for his friend Bird but meets with problems along the way as he goes to deliver it. I love this book because it has the most unexpected surprises on each page but it all comes to a very satisfying conclusion by the end of the story. At the end of our session, we read Brandie's favorite, Really Rabbits by Virginia Kroll, about two pet rabbits who help their family members at night while everyone's asleep. We thought it was so funny that they cooked and cleaned and folded the laundry!

 

For our crafts, we first decorated party hats, then we began to make our 'Noon" Years noisemakers! We designed covers for paper towel rolls, glued them on, then added crepe paper streamers to one end. We made funny noises as we held them up to our mouths. Quickly, some of us realized we could add our party hat to this noisemaker to make fireworks or a rocket!

We also decorated two paper bowls, then put beans in one. A grown up hot-glued the other bowl to the top so the beans wouldn't come out. When we held the bowls, we could rattle it a little for a nice quiet sound, or a lot for a LOUD sound!

Just before noon, we sat together in front of the clock, and watched the two hands creep closer and closer to the 12. Then we counted down: 15...14...13... all the way to 3...2...1 - and then we threw our streamers in the air, sounded our noisemakers, and yelled "HAPPY NOON YEAR"!

HAPPY 2016!

Before we went home, we all shared goodies brought by parents - juice boxes, animal crackers, cheese sticks, fruit snacks, Rice Krispie treats, cookies! Yum! It was a great 'Noon' Year's Eve party! Many thanks to the parents and  the kids who made it possible, and to the library patrons who came to join in the fun!