Happy Fathers Day!!

 

Our Storytime books!

Our Storytime craft!! Our dads!

Chickens

For today's Storytime, we read three books about chickens. One of the books just went home with a young patron, but here are the other two. 

Our craft was chicken puppets. Two paper bodies were glued around a craft stick holder, then colorful (or real-looking) feathers and a paper comb and beak were added. We used our biggest googly eyes to make our chickens look perfect.  

Spring Flowers

I'm always so surprised to find a fabulous book at the library that has been right under my nose for years and years. Huck Runs Amuck by Sean Taylor is one of those books. The copyright date is 2011 and we've had it in our collection for many years - and I only just discovered it this Spring. It's about a mountain goat named Huck who loves flowers - to eat! It's beautifully illustrated by Peter Reynolds. It was so much fun to read, and kids really liked the funny story. 

                                                           

And when we were done listening, we made colorful, sparkly cupcake liner flowers, the kind that Huck would love to eat!!

Mothers Day

 

With Mothers Day approaching, this week we read books about Moms. Then we made a crown that said MOM and decorated it to give to our mothers to wear on their special day. They could also wear it upside down if they wanted to - and it would say WOW. 

That's a very good word for our mothers!

March: In Like a Lion

With last weekend's snow and the windy conditions of the past few days, we decided that March has indeed come in like a lion. For Storytime today, we read The Lion & The Mouse by Jerry Pinkney, paying close attention to the way the artist showed the emotions of the lion in this wordless picture book. We could tell he was both a ferocious and a kind being. Our other story was Woolbur by Leslie Helakoski, about a confident, free-spirited lamb who did things his own way. 

After our stories, we looked at our calendar and all the days left in this month. Would March have more wintery "lion" days with blustery weather? Or would it have more "lamb" days that looked and felt like Spring? We designed a two sided craft showing a lion on one side and a lamb on the other. Kids can use these for the remaining days of March to show and talk about their interpretation of the weather each day. 

Here's hoping March goes out like a lamb!

 

March Events for Kids

Round and Round

This week at Storytime, we had some books about circles and other shapes, and we also read a few familiar favorites. For our craft, kids designed with lots of different round shapes - using construction paper circles, big and small colored stickers, paper reinforcements, thin slices of pool noodle, and paint - with Q-tips for a brush! Some chose to design on white paper, some on black. Each craft was so unique - and fun!

Love Stories for Little Kids

February is a month for love, so today we read two stories about the subject. The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson is a story about animals and the foods they love. Doesn't it make you wonder why the Cow loves cookies? We also read my favorite love story, Love Is My Favourite Thing by Emma Chichester Clark, written from the point of view of the author's dog, Plum. It's such a fun story! 

At craft time, we fashioned animals or people or scenes using hearts. Cut-out hearts, stick-on hearts, 

glittery hearts, plain hearts, all kinds of hearts. Pretty creative!

And look. Someone made a chair for our Pete the Cat. 💙

Storytime Snowmen

Here are two of my favorite books with snowmen. Pip and Squeak by Ian Schoenherr is about two mice trying to get a present to a friend at a snowy birthday party. Perfect Soup by Lisa Moser is about Murray (who's in a hurry) trying to get a special ingredient to make perfect soup. I love to read them aloud and I like the surprises in each of these books.

Between stories, we crafted snowmen! We used pre-cut white circles, white chalk and crayon, and scrap paper for embellishments like clothes and carrot noses. Some of us used a hole punch to make snowflakes! As you can see, just like snowflakes, no two snowmen are alike! 

Animals in Snow - and a surprise!

 Under and Over the Snow by Kate Messner is the title of the book we read and talked about today at Storytime. It tells of the adventure a child has as she skis through the woods with her father and learns about the winter habits of the animals who live there. In the book, we found squirrels and chipmunks, mice and voles, rabbits and frogs, a fox and a bear, and many more animals!

At craft time, we took blank cardstock glued to a craft stick and decorated it to look like one of the animals in the story. After the mice and owls and other animals were finished, we played with them at our brand new table-top Puppet Theater, making their sounds as they moved over and under the cotton "snow"!

Polar Bears

This little polar bear appeared in the Children's Room on the day we were going to hear stories about polar bears! Everyone thinks that I brought it in, and I did not!

We read two books about polar bears at this week's Storytime. My favorite is A Polar Bear in the Snow by Mac Barnett because the illustrator, Shawn Harris, makes the bear appear and disappear within the pages of the book! Amazing! Check it out next time you're in the library! We also read Polar Bear Night by Lauren Thompson, about a small bear who leaves his cave at night only to witness the Northern Lights. After our craft, we read Little Dog Lost, The True Story of a Brave Dog Named Baltic by Mônica Carnesi. The children were captivated by this true story of a dog in trouble on the icy sea.

Here's our craft - polar bear shapes collaged with lots of white matter. Some glued their polar bear to white paper for snow, some to black paper for night!

Re-reading the story on her own.