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.)