Happy New Year!

Books we read:

A Child's Calendar by John Updike

365 Penguins by Jean Luc Fromental

This Next New Year by Janet S. Wong

We made pasta collages for the craft!

 

Materials needed:

Colored paper with the year written on it in bubble letters, glue, dry pasta (fun shapes), and crayons.  You could use a variety of objects to fill in the numbers (ie: dried beans, confetti, glitter, cotton, material, buttons, etc.)

Songs:

Cheer the Year (sung to "Row, row, row your boat")
(you can add actions to this song)
Cheer, cheer, cheer the year,
A new one's just begun.
Celebrate with all your friends,
Lets go have some fun!
Clap, clap, clap your hands,
A brand new year is here.
Learning, laughing, singing, clapping,
Through another year!

Happy New Year (sung to "Frere Jacques")
Happy New Year, happy New Year,
Let's celebrate, let's celebrate.
Good-bye to the old year,
Hello to the new year.
Hurray, hurray! Hurray, hurray!

-On this song, I made craft sticks with the old year and the new year on them.  I held up 2010 during the first part, then hid it behind my back when we said "good-bye" to it and brought out 2011 to say "hello" to the new year.



A Brand New Year (sung to "The Muffin Man")

Now we have a brand new year,

A brand new year, a brand new year.

Now we have a brand new year,

It's (name of year)

Getting Fancy :)

So I am getting kinda fancy with this blog!  I am now making it so that if you click on the title of the book, it will take you to the Washington County Library online database.  If you have a Washington County library card, you can request the book directly from your computer and pick it up at your local library!  If you are not from Washington County, you can still look if you would like to see a picture of the book or find out more information so you can know if it is one you would like to use for a story time or for personal use!  Thanks everyone for looking, and if you have any suggestions, please let me know!

P.S. I will be working on getting every book title turned into a link eventually, but it may take a little while before the older posts are updated.

You know Dasher and Dancer....

Books we read:

The Star of Christmas by Maria T. DiVecenzo

Where's Prancer? by Syd Hoff

Dewey's Christmas at the Library by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter

We started out by singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"

Then we read The Star of Cristmas, followed by Where's Prancer

After reading Where's Prancer, I told the children that we had a little reindeer named Prancer at our library, and he was missing.  Then they searched the room until they found him! (hiding in a corner behind the Christmas tree where I had hidden him earlier)

This is the "Prancer"  that was lost in the library.  The children had a lot of fun looking for it.  After story time, some of the children were playing like they were Prancer and Santa.

After reading the last story, Dewey's Christmas at the Library (which the children loved...before reading it, I explained to them that is was based on a true story about a cat that lived in a library in Iowa) we did a fun craft! 

We made reindeer puppets!

Supplies you need:  paper bags, glue, scissors, crayons, large wiggle eyes, a pattern for antlers, ears, a mouth and a nose. (I used this template (click here) for the antlers, nose and one ear...then had to reverse the ear to have it work for the other side.  I drew my own mouth.)   You can have the children color the antlers and other parts, or cut them out od colored paper. Cardstock would probably work best for the antlers...I didn't realize this until I had all of the copies made for the antlers...so I improvised.  If you don't want to use cardstock, glue craft sticks to the back of the paper antlers so they stand upright.  Another fun idea which I did, but isn't necesary, use a sheer red paper cut in a circle to put for the nose for a "shiny nose" effect.

The children loved this craft.  It took a little more time than some of the other ones we've done, but they had a lot of fun playing with their puppets  and making them talk!



Here Comes Santa Clause!

Books we read:

I'm Not Santa by Jonathan Allen

Santa's Eleven Months Off by Mike Reiss

Santa's Stuck by Rhonda Gowler Greene

Kissing Kringle by Sam Beeson

We sang Jingle Bells before we read our stories.

For the activity, we colored cute Santa coloring pages!  We also made paper chains to decorate the tree in the children's section.

                 I found this, and many other Christmas coloring pages here: click here for coloring pages

Snow!

Books we read:

The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Neitzel

No Snow For Christmas by Jill Kalz

Snowball Fight! by Jimmy Fallon

All You Need For a Snowman by Alice Schertle

    The Jacket I Wear in the Snow was fun to use to get the children involved.  They helped me read the story, because certain words are represented with pictures (jacket, mittens, boots, etc.).  Each time that word was used, they would look at the picture and tell me that to say.

    No Snow for Christmas is about a small town where they decide to create their own snow, since there is none on Christmas.  We talked about what kind of things we could make snow out of, and then read about what the characters in the story tried.

        For our craft, we made snowmen out of cotton!  All you need is: colored paper (blue and white for the sky and snow, black for the eyes and buttons, and orange for the carrot nose).  I used a hole punch to cut out the eyes and buttons.  Yarn, for a scarf (or ribbon in the hair if they make a snowgirl), glue, and cotton balls.



We used this for an outline of the snowman's body, that way the children knew where to glue their cotton balls

Songs and chants:

Once There Was s Snowman
Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman, (put arms in a circle above head to create "snowman")
Once there was a snowman, tall, tall, tall! (grow taller, stand on tippy toes)
In the sun he melted, melted, melted, (shrink smaller)
In the sun he melted, small, small, small! ("melt" as small as you can)

Chubby Snowman
A chubby litte snowman (hold arms in a circle to make a fat belly)
Had a carrot nose (point forefinger out from your nose)
Along came a bunny (make bunny with yout fingers. Make it hop)
And what do you suppose? (turn palms upward and shrug)
That hungry little bunny (rub your tummy)
Looking for his lunch (shade your eyes, as if looking in the distance)
Ate that showman's carrot nose (make bunny with one hand, carrot with the other)
Nibbe, nibble, CRUNCH! (make the bunny eat the carrot wiht 2 small bites and one final big one)

I am a Sowman
I am a snowman, made of snow
I stand quite still at ten below (stand still)
With a big carrot for a nose (point to nose)
And worn out shoes to make my toes (point to toes)
I have two apples for my eyes (point to eyes)
And a woolen coat, about this size. (measure with hands)
I have a scaf that's warm and red. (grab neck)
And a funny hat upon my head (tap head)
The sun is comming out, oh dear! (make worried face)
The sun is melting me, I fear (slowly sink to the floor)
Oh my, I was so nice and round,
Now I'm just a puddle on the ground! (sit or lay on floor)

Gobble Gobble!

Books we read:

All For Pie by David Martin

Sometimes it's Turkey, Sometimes it's Feathers by Lorna & Lecia Balian

The Littlest Pilgrim by Brandi Dougherty

Silly Tilly's Thanksgiving Dinner by Lillian Hoban

We made a cute turkey.  The template can be found here (click here).  All you need is glue, colored paper, scissors, and wiggle eyes (or crayons/markers to draw the eyes).

The children named their turkeys too!  The came up with names like Joe, Bob, Freddie, Grandpa, and Mulan.

We also did some finger plays with these little turkeys.  They were easy to make, just a craft stick, orange colored paper cut in a circle, yellow colored paper cut in a smaller circle and also in small triangles for the beak, brown colored paper for the body, red marker and black markers

                                       

Here are some songs you can sing using these turkeys:

Did You Ever See a Turkey

(sung to "Did you ever see a Lassie)

Did you ever see a turkey, a turkey, a turkey,

Did you ever see a turkey go this way and that. (move turkeyy around in all directions)

Go this way and that way, and this way and that way,

Did you ever see a turkey go this way and that?

10 Little Turkeys 

10 little turkeys sat in their pen

"Hide turkeys, hide!" said the little red hen.

One little turkey flew far away

But the other 9 decided to stay!

9 little turkeys sat in their pen

"Hide turkeys, hide!" said the little red hen.

One litte turkey flew out the gate,

and when he was gone, there were...8!

(repeat first two lines each time, counting down to 1)

One little turkey flew far away

But the other 7 decided to stay!

One little turkey hid with chicks,

When she was gone, there were 6

One little turkey flew far away

But the other 5 decided to stay!

One turkey hopped out the door,

And when he was gone, there were 4

One little turkey flew far away

But the other 3 decided to stay!

One little turkey flapped her wings and flew,

And when she was gone, there were 2

One little turkey flew far away

But the last 1 decided to stay!

The last turkey flew off toward the sun,

And when he was gone, there were none

Mr. Turkey

I have a turkey, big and fat (make fist with one hand, thumb out for turkey's head)

He spreads his tail and walks like that (attach "tail" by spreading out fingers of other hand and join together)

His daily corn he would not miss (poke with thumb at floor)

Amd when he talks, it sounds like this

Gobble, gobble , gobble!!

Thank You!

I just wanted to thank Jean Munk for doing story time last week!  The children had a lot of fun and we really appreciate it!

Pigeons

Books we read:

Don't Let the Pigeon Dive the Bus

Can I Play Too?

The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog

Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late

 -All books are written by Mo Willems

These books were great because they children were able to play along as the pigeon pleaded to drive the bus or to stay up past his bedtime.  The children were able to respond and tell him "no!"  There was even a part where the pigeon said "I bet your mom would let me" and the kids looked at their mom's for them to answer no.  You could talk about why it's important to go to bed on time, sharing, etc.  if you wanted to.

We started out with an activity!  We made an alphabet train!  Each child had a letter of the alphabet that was on a "boxcar" of the train.  We went through the alphabet and everyone brought their letter up and taped it to the train.  We sang the alphabet afterwards.

After reading a couple of books, we did some wiggle poems:

I'll touch my hair, my lips my eyes

I'll sit up straight and then I'll rise.

I'll touch my ears, my nose, my chin,

Then quietly sit down again

My hands upon my head I place,

On my shoulders, on my face,

On my knees and at my side,

Then behind me they will hide.

The I raise them uo so high,

'Till they almost reach the sky.

Swiftly count them 1,2,3,

And see how quiet they can be

 (place finger over mouth as if saying shhhh)

After reading the rest of the books, we made a pigeon door hanger and also had a coloring page.

Thanksgiving Bulletin Board - Gobble Up a Good Book!

For this months bulletin board, I made a turkey that says "Hey little turkey!  What are you thankful for?"

The kids at storytime, as well as other children who visit the library are filling out the word bubble on their own turkey (smaller version of the big one above), and then we take their picture and put their face in the place of the turkey's.

Bugs!

Books we read:

Leo the Lightning Bug by Eric Drachman

The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

Willy the Worm by Christianne Jones

Today's storytime theme was bugs.  We had a lot of fun today.  We started out with a bug hunt!  I told the children that someone left the doors open in the library last night and a whole bunch of bugs got in and we needed their help to gather them up.  I had paper bugs taped all over the room, gave each of the children a paper jar, and let them go aroung and collect the bugs.  Thay had a lot of fun doing this!

Next we read two books:

Leo the Lightning Bug by Eric Drachman

The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

Then we sang a song:

The Ladybug has Spots

(Sung to "The Farmer in the Dell")

The lady bug has spots.

The lady bug has spots.

Can you count the number of

This ladybug's spots?

I held up a ladybug with a different number of spots for each round and let the children tell me how many spots they counted.

Our final book was:

Willy the Worm by Christianne Jones

For the craft, we made caterpillars!  All you need is colored paper (cut into large circles and small circles), yarn, and colorful straws (cut at different lenghts), wiggle eyes, and crayons.  Glue the yarn between two large cirles, glue eyes on the circle and draw a mouth.  Then string different colors of straw "beads" to make the body.  Glue the end of the yarn between two small circles.  Don't forget a cute name!

Halloween

Today for storytime, the theme was Halloween!  Here is a list of books we read:

Haunted Party by Iza Trapani

The Story of the Jack O'Lantern by Kathrine Tegen

The Ugly Pumpkin by Dave Horowitz

Halloween Goodnight by Doug Cushman

The Story of Jack O'Lantern is based off of Irish folklore and was a great way to teach the children a little history behind the tradition of carving jack o'lanterns each Halloween.

Halloween Goodnight was fun because the children were able to make the noises that the ghosts and werewolfs made when they said goodnight.

Today's craft was a lot of fun.  We made paper plate ghosts!  All you need is white paper plates, black paper for the eyes and mouth, white paper for the arms, yarn, and white crate paper streamers.  I drew the arms out on a piece of paper and made copy for the children to have a pattern, but I let them choose what shape of eyes and mouth to make.  We had circle eyes, triangle eyes, and just about every other shape imaginable.  Some ghosts were frowning, some were saying OOOOO, and others were smiling.  The children loved the crate paper streamers that gave the plates their ghostly appearance.

Here are some songs/chants that we sang:

Ring Around the Pumpkins

Ring around the pumpkins,

A pocket full of spiders,

Boo! Boo!

We all fall down!

The ghosts are in the meadow,

Drinking withces brew,

Boo! Boo!

We all stand up!

Five Little Pumpkins

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate (five fingers up)

The first one said "Oh my it's getting late" (hands on cheeks)

The second one said "There's a chill in the air" (arms around self)

The third one said "But we don't care" (swing pointer finger)

The fourth one said "We're ready for some fun!" (hands in the air) 

The fifth one said "Let's run, run, run!" (running motion)

So woooo went the wind, and out went the lights,

And the five litle pumpkins rolled out of sight!

Jack O'Lantern

First two eyes (point at eyes)

And then a nose (point to nose)

Then a mouth with teeth in rows! (big grin)

Oh! Oh! Spooky sight,

Jack-o-lanterns in the night!

I also made tootsie pop ghosts to hand out at the end.  All you need is tootsie pop suckers, napkins, yarn, and a marker!

We had a great turn out today!  Thanks everyone for comming!

Fun With Food!

Today's theme was food.  Here is a list of books we read:

Crazy Day at the Critter Cafe  by Barbara Odanka

Too Many Pears by Jackie French

Crunch Munch by Jonathan London

Little Pea by Amy Kroous Rosenthal

We played a game after reading a couple of books.  I handed each child a picture of a food item. There were healthy ones, such as carrots, milk, and bananas, and not so healthy ones like cookies, french fries, and soda pop.  Then each child took a turn bringing their item up and placing either the bag labled "Eat Often" (yellow hair) or "Eat Sometimes" (brown hair).  It was a fun activity for the children, which also helped them learn how to make good eating choices.

At the end of storytime, we made a Veggie Man.  The kids had fun pasting and coloring the veggies.  Most of them got the colors right, but a few decided that pink tomatoes and purple carrots would be much cooler.

We also had a wiggle song, a chant, and a poem that I had the children do during storytime.

Shake My Sillies Out
Gotta shake, shake, shake my sillies out
Shake, shake, shake my sillies out
Shake, shake, shake my sillies out
And wiggle my waggles away.

Gotta clap, clap, clap my crazies out.....
Gotta jump, jump, jump my jiggles out.....
Gotta yawn, yawn, yawn my sleepies out.....
Gotta stretch, stretch, stretch my stretchies out......
Gotta shake, shake, shake my sillies out.....

Carrots
Three little carrots (hold up three fingers)
What can I make?
I'll use one to make carrot cake.
(bend down one finger)

Two little carrots
Just watch my carrot tricks
I'll chop one to make some carrot sticks
(bend down second finger)

One little carrot
Alone in the sink
I'll blend one to make a carrot drink
(bend down third finger)

Color Fruits
One yellow banana extra nice,
Pretty please give me a slice.
Two round oranges really sweet,
What a super-duper treat.
Three red apples very bright,
Hurry up and take a bite.
Four purple plums in a sack,
Make a really special snack.
Five ripe pears all so yellow,
Yum, yum, how rich and mellow.
Six green melons nice to eat,
A dessert that can't be beat.
Seven peaches rather pink,
A good fruit to eat, I think.
Eight blueberries firm and good,
Do have some, you really should.
Nine cherries so shiny red,
Try some now, go right ahead.
Ten green grapes so great to munch,
Here, put a few in your lunch.

Here is another one that I thought was cute:
Vegetable Song
(tune of Twinkle Twinkle)
Carrots, Peas, and Broccoli,
Vegetables are good for me.
For my snack and in my lunch,
Veggie sticks are great to munch.
Carrots, Peas, and Broccoli,
Vegetables are good for me.

Quack!

Today's storytime theme was ducks!

We started out with a wiggle song:
Five Little Ducks
Five little ducks went out to play (hold up 5 fingers)
Over the hill and far away (wiggle fingers as you make an arch with your hand to represent the hill)
Mama duck said, (make a "duck" with your other hand)
"Quack, quack, quack, quack" (make the "duck" quack)
and only four little ducks came back (put one finger down)

Repeat with four, three, two and one.  When you are on the last verse, all five come back!

The books we read were:
A Pipkin of Pepper by Helen Cooper
Do Like a Duck Does by Judy Hindley
A Dozen Ducks Lost by Harriet Ziefert

After reading Do Like a Duck Does I had the children do what the mama duck said and act like ducks to get some wiggles out.

We made a cute duck craft

You just need orange paper with a pettern for a beak (two pieces per child) and eyes.  Crease the beaks when they are cut out and paste the corners together.  Hold each corner and push them in and out to make the duck "quack"

Here is a cute poem to go with the duck craft:

I Had a Little Ducky

I had a little ducky,

He lived in a box,

He swam ion a puddle,

He climbed on the rocks.

He snapped at a mosquito,

He snapped at a flea,

He snapped at a minnow,

And he snapped at me!

He caught the mosquito,

He caught the flea,

He caught the minnow,

But he couldn't catch me!

Pumpkin Decorations

These are some cute pumpkins I made for decorations at the library.  All you need is empty boxes, orange butchers paper, brown and green construction paper (for the stems and leaves), and a marker to draw faces!



You could use bigger boxes and turn them into a book display by stacking them simmilar to this one!

Book Display

Yesterday at t meeting I told someone that I would put the websites for a blog with some cute book displays.  Here it is: 

librarystorytime.wordpress.com

You have to scroll down and look at older posts, but you can find some cute displays made out of boxes (like a turkey or a castle, etc.)

Barnyard Fun!

This week for story time we started out by singing "Old McDonald had a Farm."  The children took turns holding up pictures of the animals we were singing about.  After that, we read Miss Moo Goes to the Zoo and Barn Sneeze (authors listed below). 

The books we read today:

Miss Moo Goes to the Zoo by Kelly Graves

 Barn Seeze by Karen B. Winnik

My First Visit to the Farm by J.M. Parramon and G. Sales

After reading those two books, we did an activity where we seperated pictures of animals into two columns telling if they live on a farm or in a zoo.  I also had the children tell me their favorite animals and where they live.  You could ask them what the animals have in commom and what the differences are.  Then we read  My First Visit to the Farm

We did a cute craft.  The children made either a puppy or a kitty mask.  All you need is crayons, glue, craft sticks, and paper masks for them to color.  (You could use paper plates and have them attach ears, etc.)

Monsters!

Today's sotry time theme was monsters!  We started off with a wiggle chant:
Monster, Monster, turn around
Monster Monster, touch the ground
Monster Monster. show your shoe
Monster Monster, how old are you?
Monster Monster, reach up high
Monster Monster, blink your eyes
Monster Monster,slap your knees
Monster Monster, sit down please

These are the books we read:
My Monster Mama Loves Me So by Laura Leuck
Five Ugly Monsters by Tedd Arnold
The Hungry Monster  by Phyllis Root
How to Potty Train Your Monster by Kelly S. DiPucchio

We did a few wiggle songs between stories:
If You Ever See a Monster
If you ever see a monster,
A big ugly monster,
If you ever see a monster,
Here's what you do!
Make this face....
And this face....
And this face....
And this face....
If you ever see a monster
Make sure you shout BOO!!
(make sure to pull funny faces!  or let some of the children decide what faces to pull)

If You're a Monster and You Know It
If you're a monster and you know it, show your claws
If you're a monster and you know it, show your claws
If you're a monster and you know it
and your claws will surely show it
If you're a monster and you know it, show your claws

repeat with:
chomp your teeth
stomp your feet
growl out loud

Craft:
We made paper bag puppets.  I found a bunch of odds and ends and let the kids get creative about what their monster looked like.  Some had ten eyes and others had one.  They even gave them names like Ned, Muffin, Blueberry, Sparky and Monstee.  It was a lot of fun!

Starting a Story Time Blog!

Hi!  My name is Jessica and I am in charge of story time at the Enterprise library!  I am excited to to get started and thought that a story time blog would be a great way to share story time ideas as well as keep those who attend story time updated about what we have or will be reading as well as planned activities!  Please feel free to leave any comments ir questions you may have.  I am always on the look out for new ideas, so if you have any for me, just let me know!  Thanks!