Red, White, & Blue Day

With Memorial Day coming, at Storytime we talked about our flag and the holiday. Then we read one book each that featured red, white, and blue in its title. Our craft was a windsock-type decoration to hang inside or out for the holiday weekend. 

Later in the day, the Saplings also had a story with a "red" theme. The Little Red Fort, by Brenda Maier is about Ruby, who wants to build a fort but cannot find anyone who is willing to help her. After the reading, we collaborated to identify a similar story about a little red (fill-in-the-blank!) who had the same problem when she wanted to bake bread. Do you know the story we were thinking of?  

Then Saplings used any and all the red, white & blue materials to make their own creation to fly for the holiday weekend. 

It's Spring!!

A few recent spring crafts - a paper plate wreath, circled with yarn and embellished with tiny tissue paper flowers and stickers. Also, a paper bag windsock with streamers to flutter on the Spring breezes!

and another way to style a wreath! 🖤

May Events for Kids

 

Rabbits!

Rabbits were our focus for Storytime today. We read Really Rabbits by Virginia Kroll, about two rabbits who sneak out of their cage at night to help their family with chores. In The Black Rabbit by Philippa Leathers, a rabbit didn't recognize his own shadow, and the rabbit in Little White Rabbit by Kevin Henkes had a vivid imagination!

Storytime kids colored precut shapes, then folded and glued to make the rockin' rabbit with googly eyes.  The Saplings learned a new paper folding technique and designed tiny little stand-up rabbits with cute little faces and a bit of a "spring" in their step! 

 

Decorating Eggs

Our April drop-in craft was decorating plastic eggs for Easter. Such colorful creativity using lots of different materials! I wish I had gotten more close-up photos!

April Events for Kids

March LEGO Club

Thirty-two kids joined us for this month's session. The challenge was all about wind and moving air, and building MOCs that could withstand the stiff breezes of a hair dryer set on HIGH. Some creations even moved in the wind!

Here's a very sturdy MOC!

and here's a MOC with a windmill - that really works! Wow!

This is the book that we listened to before we began our builds - a funny fictitious story about how the folks in one Icelandic village tried to control the winds. 

There's always lots of fun at LEGO Club!

It's Maple Season!

Since NH Maple Weekend is coming up, for Storytime today we read about making maple syrup. 

Then we used homemade play dough to make pancakes and waffles and added some bowl filler paper to represent the syrup. Do you see the "butter" on the pancake?

If you want to make your own play dough fun, here's the recipe. If anyone dyes theirs with food coloring, please comment to let me know if it stained little fingers?

1/2 cup salt

1 cup water

2 TBSP oil

1 TBSP cream of tartar

1 cup flour

food coloring, as desired 

Mix ingredients together in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until dough forms and pulls away from the side of the pan. Let cool, then knead until smooth. Store in an airtight container. 

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In the afternoon, the Saplings heard the story of The Leprechaun's Gold by Pamela Duncan Edwards. We noticed that it began with this beautiful illuminated letter L. 

Later, there was a 3D Rainbow challenge, with only rainbow colored paper strips to begin with. Such imagination and creativity!

March Events for Kids

 

February Events for Kids