Halloween Storytime

Our books today were all about Halloween! To get in the spooky mood, we read Pumpkin Eye by Denise Fleming, a story that showed the scary side of Halloween. We read Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman, a funny story about a witch with a pumpkin so big, she couldn't get it off the vine, even with the help of spooky friends. In The Biggest Pumpkin by Stephen Kroll, two mice took care of the same pumpkin at different times. I think our favorite was Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson, about a witch who meets friends while out on a broom ride.

We made ghosts at craft time by gluing cotton balls all over a ghost form. Then we gave him eyes and a mouth that showed if he was a spooky, funny, or even sad. We added black yarn to the top so he could swoop and fly!

Happy Halloween from all of us at the Gordon-Nash!

New Hampton School Guest Readers

At Storytime yesterday, we had some very special visitors. Students from the Public Speaking class at The New Hampton School, along with their teacher Joe Sampson, came over to the library to be guest readers. Each student had previously come to choose a picture book and had practiced their presentation. In all, eight stories were read to a rapt audience.

Afterward, we decorated pumpkin shapes with fall and Halloween stickers. A thick or thin brown paper rectangle was added for a stem. 

Thanks to New Hampton School students for a unique and fun Storytime!

Funny Little Squirrels

Chook-chook-chook! This was the sound of a squirrel we read about today at Storytime! Ol’ Mama Squirrel, in the book by Ezra David Stein, made this sound to scare off predators when she thought her family was in danger. In The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri, a squirrel was too busy to visit with his friends because he was getting ready for cold weather. Nuts to You! by Lois Ehlert was about a city squirrel trying to come in a window. And Help! A story of friendship by Holly Keller was about a squirrel and his friends as they tried to help another friend, Mouse.

The base of our squirrel was a paper bag that we decorated with crayon. We gave him eyes and a nose on his face, which was the bottom of the bag. With help, we used scissors to carefully cut fringe on the side of his tail to make it look bushy, like the squirrels in our stories. It took a lot of concentration!

In their paws, our squirrels held an acorn made of corrugated cardboard, which many of us thought looked like one of those wavy potato chips! Our squirrels talked to each other in tiny little squirrel voices. Chook-chook-chook!