Poetry, and a Poet-Tree!

April is Poetry Month and April 29th is Poem In Your Pocket Day - a day to carry a favorite poem and to share it with others. Since I can't share a poem from my pocket this year, I'll share one of my favorites with you here on the blog. 

I love Jack Prelutsky (what kid doesn't?) and this is one of my favorite poems by him - perfect for Spring weather! You can read it here...or listen to it here (sung by one of my favorite musicians Natalie Merchant!)... or watch an animated version here!

It's a very silly poem, but I like it because it's cleverly written - and it's about ice cream!

And, since it's Poetry Month, this week's take home craft is a Spring (Poet) Tree! Up until a few weeks ago, many trees here looked like this one:

Now, after a few weeks of warm weather and a little rain, some trees look like this:

Lots of trees get flowers in the Spring. Sometimes they're green so you think they must be leaves - but if you look carefully, you'll see tiny or odd-shaped little flowers that appear before the leaves. Take a walk, and go look at a tree! See how it's growing. 

Then, make your own Spring tree with our take-home kit: a paper plate, a sturdy brown paper trunk, and some thin strips of brown paper to snip or tear into branches. You can color the plate first if you want, or make some grass, or a blue sky. Then make the tree and add tissue paper "flowers" or "leaves" with the tiny tissue squares in the kit. A little Springtime for your wall or your refrigerator door!

Frogs - and Toads!

Frogs! Have you seen them yet? Have you heard them at night? This week's take-home craft is a frog puppet. The folding of the paper for the puppet is a bit tricky at first, and there are simple directions in the kit for you adults to follow and to practice. But once you figure out how easy it is to fold one, you can make as many as you want - and turn them into other puppet animals, or even puppet people! I will definitely be making this versatile puppet base with kids over and over. I bet with some brown paper (or maybe a piece of a paper bag), you could even make a toad puppet at home. So call the library or email us if you want a take-home kit!

Speaking of frogs (and toads), here's one of my favorites as a quick read-aloud for this week. If you want to read more of this Frog & Toad Treasury, it's available for Curbside pickup!  And if you want a factual frog book for kids, check out Frogs by Gail Gibbons. We have the book at the library, and there's a good video of it here.

Nesting Time

Here's this week's take-home craft, just in time for Spring weather. Made of paper with real-but-fake feathers, some birds in a nest. All pieces are in the kit, and circles can be used to make two 2-part birds or four birds with one part only. The brown paper is fun to shred and can be used to add texture to the nest shape. Call or email if you'd like a kit. 

My favorite "nest" story is The Perfect Nest, by Catherine Friend. It's also one of my favorite read-alouds, because there are so many different voices to be made. It's another book where the detail in the pictures is important to the story, and I couldn't manipulate the book well enough to film it while reading it myself. So here's someone else's very good rendition of this very funny story!

March on: Rabbits!

MARCH of the Animals wraps up with a "HOP"! A Spring rabbit made of an envelope - with a hidden space and some fancy paper for a message or a drawing to surprise someone special. All the materials are enclosed in the envelope! You just need a glue stick and some imagination!

And here's the read aloud for this week - about Jasper the Rabbit, who loves carrots - until he meets a new kind of carrot!!

Maple Syrup Season

Watching maple syrup being produced is a rite of Spring for kids in our area. If you can't get to a sap house this month, check out the nonfiction and even fiction books we have that show some of the sugaring process. 

How is Maple Syrup Made? by Grace Hansen. This title will take readers through the process of bottling maple syrup, starting in Canada where there are lots of maple trees. Readers will learn how maple syrup is gathered, processed, and bottled for them to buy and enjoy on their pancakes. Nonfiction.

Maple Syrup by Lynne M. Stone. Describes one the favorite North American trees that offers one gift after another, including hardwood for building, beauty with its leaves, and a favorite taste, maple syrup. Nonfiction.

Maple Syrup from the Sugarhouse by Laurie Lazzaro Knowlton. Maple syrup season is here! Kelsey and her father begin harvesting sap from sugar maple trees. Join their family and friends in this farm-to-table process of turning sap into maple syrup. Includes maple syrup facts in the back matter to make this perfect for an educational story time. Fiction.

Sugaring by Jessie Haas. Nora wants to find a way to give the horses a special treat for helping her grandfather and her gather sap to make maple syrup. Fiction.

Sugarbush Spring by Marsha Wilson Chall. As winter melts into spring, Rosie and her grandfather collect sap, and then the whole family works through the night to make maple syrup. Fiction.

We also have books about pancakes! Yum!!

MARCH of the Animals: Elephants!

March of the Animals month continues, this week with elephants! I love this week's story, Elmer by David McKee. It's about a very different elephant who gets tired of his looks and what happens when he tries to change his appearance.  Such a cute story!

All the elephants of the jungle were gray except Elmer, who was a patchwork of brilliant colors - until the day he got tired of being different and making the other elephants laugh.

I'm always so interested to watch authors reading their own books. They know exactly how they wanted their writing to sound! And David McKee has a wonderful British accent! Check it out!

I also wanted to find some elephant facts and video, since elephants are so magnificent to watch. I wanted to be sure to link to an expert, and have decided that World Wildlife Federation is it. Here's the link to their elephant information: https://www.worldwildlife.org/media?page=2&species_id=elephant

And here is this week's craft - it's a black & white Elmer, to color as your child sees fit, and it's seen here with some of the other Elmer books we have in the Children's Room. Give us a call if you want an Elmer book and a coloring paper or click here to print out Elmer at your house!

MARCH of the Animals: Dogs!

 So I added this one animal to the list because there was story I wanted to read. It's sooo funny!! After you watch the read-aloud, make your own little dog craft with one of this week's take-home kits. Lots of coloring, some cutting, and easy to put together. Arf!

And here's the funny read-aloud story: Bark, George! I really did crack up the first time I read it!

MARCH of the Animals: Giraffes!

At the request of a young patron, this week's focus is giraffes! Check out the read-aloud below, and make your own little dancing giraffe with this week's craft kit. Call or email if you want us to put one in the Curbside Bin for your little animal lovers!

There Are No Bears.....

For "Cat Week" - There are No Bears in this Bakery! This is the book that won the 2020 New Hampshire Ladybug Award for best picture book - as voted by NH children in grades kindergarten to three. I love this book - Mittens the cat does a little detective work with some funny results!

MARCH of the Animals. Week 1: Cats!

MARCH of the Animals has begun! This week: CATS, and here's our Take-Home project. Each kit has pre-cut white card stock pieces, a black paper for cutting features (if you want), and a sheet of directions if you need them. You child will need crayons or markers, a glue stick, and maybe scissors (or someone to cut for them). Lots of options for customization with this craft! Call or email if you'd like one delivered to the Curbside Bin.