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)