NO STORYTIME NEXT WEEK!

THERE WILL BE NO STORYTIME ON DEC. 28TH.  WE WILL BE BACK AT THE REGULAR TIME IN JANUARY.

THANK YOU!

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Trees were the main theme of storytime today.  We read the following books:

THAT'S NOT SANTA! BY LEONARD KESSLER

MERRY CHRISTMAS, BIG HUNGRY BEAR! BY AUDREY WOOD

and  KIRBY PUCKERNUT AND THE CHRISTMAS SURPRISE BY ALICIA RICHARDSON (LOVE THIS BOOK!)

Activities:  Christmas bulbs on the tree - kids had different colored bulbs, I had them come up and place whatever color I called for on the tree then we covered the shapes that where on the bulbs.

We did the "Littlest Christmas Tree" play..  I had kids be birds, bunnies, and stars and as I read the story I had them come up and act out the parts.  They were great to participate and the moms where too as I needed them to help sing the little parts in between.

Craft:  Coloring sheets of santa sleigh and the presents that they were going to receive for Christmas.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!



December 14, 2011 - Storytime

I had no specific theme for storytime today.  As it is the christmas season and we were doing a craft today to make ornaments for the Library Christmas Tree I read various christmas books.

We started the day by singing the "I'm a Little Snowman" song that we did last week.  I then read them a rhyming peom called: "Rudolph, Rudolph that I found on the internet that had a flannel pattern for a reindeer to go with it.  With each verse I would have the kids tell me what color in the verse rhymed with the word and I would place that color nose on the reindeer.  For example, one of the verses when like this:  Rudolph! Rudolph! Santa gave a wink.  But what will Santa think, if your nose is pink!  and a pink nose went on the reindeer.  Then we sang, Rudolph the red nosed reindeer.

Then I read the following books:  Christmas Kitten, Home at Last by Robin Pulver (cute book!),   The Mitten by Jim Aylesworth and If you Take A Mouse To The Movies by Laura Numeroff.

After reading those stories I did a flannel story of the Gingerbread Man by Eric Kimmel.  I condensed it slightly due to time and that led us into our craft for the day.

We made gingerbread (paper) ornaments to hang on the children's tree that they are decorating in the library.  They turned out great and look so cute on the tree.  Thank you kids for your willingness to decorate the tree.  Here are some great pictures of the kids with their crafts. 

Merry Christmas EveryOne!

What color is snow, rabbits, etc.?

Storytime today was based on a color.  WHITE.  I read books today dealing with things that were white and as it is the Christmas season we sang some Christmas songs.

Song:
Hello, Reindeer

Books Read:

Little White Duck by Walt Whippo

White Rabbit's Color Book by Alan Baker

Pete the Cat, I love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin

Sam The SnowMan by Susan Winget

Frosty's New Friends

 

Flannel story of a chubby little snowman

Song:

I'm a Little Snowman

Craft:  Kids playing in snow coloring sheet and kids made a paper chain to decorate the kids tree in the library. 

Thank you everyone!  Great job!  I look forward to next week when we will make ornaments for our Christimas Tree!!

CHOO! CHOO! TOOT! TOOT!

TRAINS was the subject of storytime this week.

Books we read:

TRAINS BY STRICKLAND

THE BOY WHO LOVED TRAINS BY KALZ

AND THE TRAIN GOES . . . BY BEE

DOWN BY THE STATION BY HILLENBRAND

I LOVE TRAINS! BY STURGES

Games we played:

We started of storytime with having everyone get on the ABC rug on one of the train cars and we pretended to be trains and did a version of follow the leader with the chug chug and toot toot effects as we went around.  Then we read some stories.  Then we played a version of Red light, Green light with the kids being the trains.

Craft project:

We made trains today for our craft.  To make this version you take a colored piece of paper and trace kids hand and arm then cut it out.  Then you cut the piece into part, the part where the hand becomes the engine and you cut the arm in pieces to make the train cars.  Glue them to another piece of paper, cut out shapes for wheels and for windows and a smoke stack.  Glue them on, then take a cotton ball, I pulled it into a few pieces, and glue it on for the smoke.  The kids trains were great.  As always they did a great job.

Have a Great Day!

FOOD! FOOD! FOOD!

As tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I want to thank all the kids (and parents) for coming and participating in storytime each week.  I look forward to each week so we can have some fun.

Today in storytime, FOOD seemed like a great topic as we will all probably stuff ourselves tomorrow.

We started play a game where I showed pictures of different food items to the kids and they decided rather it should go in our soup or not.  We had pictures of things like popsicles, and potatoes and everything in between.

Stories read today where:

BEAR WANTS MORE by Karma Wilson

THE CAKE THAT MACK ATE by Rose Robart

and  I KNOW AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLOWED A PIE by Alison Jackson

After reading the old lady book, we did a flannel story where the kids told me what order she ate the food and placed that food item in her stomach.

We also played a game with my favorite food: ICE CREAM.
I took cones numbered one to ten, and scoops of ice cream with the numbers in dots on them and had the kids match them up to the correct cone.

Craft today was to have the kids create there own Thanksgiving dinner by drawing it on their plates. 

Thanks again for all your support.   Have a safe and full Thanksgiving. 

Cya next week,

Chris

RUN! TURKEY! RUN!

We had TURKEY'S in the library today!

Stories Read:

10 FAT TURKEYS by Tony Johnston

HIDE & SEEK TURKEYS by Judith Enderle

RUN! TURKEY! RUN! by Diane Maryz

T'WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE THANKSGIVING by Dav Palkey

        We started storytime today with the "If your happy and you know it song",  then we did a flannel board of the "5 little turkeys".  The last line said the "last little turkey should run away, for soon will come Thanksgiving Day".  Asked the kids why he should run away. (so he wouldn't be dinner was the correct response.)  We also sang a song called "Turkey Dinner"  (to the tune of Are you Sleeping?)  that went like this:  Turkey Dinner, Turkey Dinner,

Gather round, gather round,

Who will get the drumstick:

Yummy, yummy drumstick,

All sit down, all sit down

We also did the fingerplay "Five Fat Turkeys Are We and the action song:  "We're Going on a Turkey Hunt".

For our craft today the kids colored a turkey to take home.

Thanks, kids for all your help and for all your participation.  Thank you for everything and have a great Thanksgiving!!!!

FALL!

FALL was the subject of storytime today.

Books read:

When Autumn Falls by Kelli Nidey

Leaves by David Exra Stein

I Know It's Autumn by Nancy Hayashi

Ten Red Apples by Virginia Miller

The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri

Activities:

Asked kids questions about fall;  Where do birds go in the fall?, What do squirrels do in the fall?  What do other animals do?  What do people wear in the fall?

Played a squirrel game where we had 2 kids be the tree and 1 be the squirrel in each group, I would call out "change tree" and the squirrel had to leave its tree and find another.

Had a big tree with Apples on it.  They were numbered 1 to 21, chose a number and had each child come up and harvest that apple off of the tree.

Craft:

We made a paper wormy apple.  The kids cut out there apple, taped the stem and the leave to the back, cut a small slit in the apple and inserted the worm which was made from a popsicle stick colored green.  They drew a face on one end and that was the top of the worm.

Thank you all for coming.  Hope to see you all next week.

Chris

I am Thankful for . . .

Today we talked about the things that we are thankful for and everyone shared the things they were thankful for with the group.
Books read today:

THE ANT AND THE ELEPHANT BY BILL PEET

I'M THANKFUL EACH DAY! BY P.K. HALLINAN

THE COOL COATS BY LARRY BRIMMER

The first book is about helping each other and saying thank you.  The second one talks about things to be thankful for and the third one was about being thankful for what you have. 

After reading the first two books we had an activity where we got all the kids in a circle and gave a ball of string to one child to start off, they would say something that they were thankful for and throw the ball while keeping a hold of the string, then the next child would do the same until everyone had a chance to say what they were thankful for.  They all did a great job and I don't even remember any repeats as they went through!  When they finished they were all hold a part of a web,  I called it the web a gratitude for saying what they were thankful for.  I am really thankful for the people that have shared ideas with me, like the one above as they help me a lot!

In closing we sang "If your Thankful and you know it"  using the clap your hands, stomp your feet and shout "I AM".  Everyone did a great job!

Craft time was an "I am Thankful for . . ." picture.  I had the kids create there own pictures and then placed them on the bulletin board in the library.  They look awesome!

Thanks to all that participated and for all the help received during storytime each week!  Cya next week!

Chris 

Happy Halloween!

We read Halloween Stories today in storytime.  The first book read was called Piggie Pie! by Margie Palatini.  We then did a finger play about witches that went like this: 

 One Little, Two Little, Three Little Witches

(fingers up, one, two, three)

Fly over Haystacks, fly over ditches

( one hand flies up and over)

Slide down moonbeams without any hitches,

(slide the flying hand down the other arm) 

 Hi, Ho! Halloween's here

(hands on hips, then hands up, palm out)

We then read the Humbug Witch by Lorna Balian and did a flannel story of the witch.  Fun story.  I think the kids really enjoyed it.  The next three books that we read where about monsters and pumpkins.  We read GO AWAY, BIG GREEN MONSTER! by Ed Emberley and Pumpkin Trouble by Jan Thomas and Ollie's Halloween by Olivier Dunrea.  I did a flannel story of the big green monster with the book also.



           Closed with a song to the tune of twinkle, twinkle little star that went like this:

Pumpkin, pumpkin orange and round.

Sittling right there on the ground

Once you were a seed so small

Now you are a great orange ball

Pumpkin, pumpkin orange and round,

Rolling, rolling on the ground.

Craft:  3D jack-o-lanterns

Supplies:  3 paper pumpkins, glue, crayons

Create a face on each pumpkin, fold in half and glue them together,  open up and you have a pumpkin.

Everyone made great jack-o-lanterns.  Everyone did a great job today.  Thank you all for your help.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

TRICK OR TREAT!

BATS!!

Todays storytime was all about bats.  We started by asking the kids what they knew about bats and we did a fingerplay about the 5 little bats hanging upside down.  We then read the story "Stellaluna" by Janell Cannon.    After we read the story we talked some more about bats and then I shared with them the non-fiction book "Amazing Bats" by Seymour Simon, which had great pictures and facts about bats.

We then did an activity about bats where I held up a sign that said night and they flew around like bats and when I showed the sign that said day they curled up as upside down as they could get and wrapped their arms around themselves and pretended they were sleeping.

Next, I shared the book by Lucille Colandro, called "There was an old lady who swallowed a bat!". 

Our next activity was to choose a child and blindfold them, he was the bat.  All the other kids where the insects (bat food).  The bat went "beep, beep" and the insects went "buzz, buzz" and if the bat caught the insects he sent them to the bat cave.  We only had time to do one child as the bat but this could be fun to do with kids at home.  To calm them down a little before we did the craft I read the story "Bat's Big Game" by Margaret Read MacDonald.

Craft time was a simple coloring page of a bat. 

The kids were great today, participating in all the activities.  I wish I would have remembered the camera to get a few pictures to add to the blog today but I forgot it!

Have a great week!!!  Thanks for your participation.

What is a SPIDER?!

SPIDERS where the topic of our storytime today. 

Books we read:

About Arachnids (Spiders) by Cathryn Sill

Little Miss Spider by David Kirk

The Eensy Weensy Spider FREAKS OUT! by Troy Cummings

Aaaarrgghh! Spider! by Lydia Monks

 Before reading Eensy Weensy Spider, we did the finger play of Itsy Bitsy Spider.  The kids knew it better than I did! 

Craft project:  We made our own SPIDERS.

Supplies needed:   Black fuzzy sticks for legs, black poms poms for the body and google eyes.

Take the Fuzzy Stick and fold in half, cut, fold in half again, cut.  You should have four fuzzy sticks the same size.  Take and twist the fuzzy sticks until bound together then take the eight ends and bend them how you want them.  This makes up the legs.  Glue the Pom pom to the legs to make the body.  Depending on the size of the pom poms you use you may want to use 2 pom poms, one for the head and the other for the body.  Glue on the eyes, let dry.

Here are pictures of the kids making their own spiders.

Great Job everyone!  Thanks for coming.  Hope to see you all next week.

DOGS!!!!!

Thank you so much to Heather for covering storytime.  I heard it went well and that everyone had a great time. 

Books that were read were:
        Big Dog, Little Dog by PD Eastman
        Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion
        Knick Knack Paddy Whack illustrated by Christine Engel

We also had some games to play about dogs,  BINGO - song with cards for kids to hold up and a pin the tail on the dog.

Craft:
       Kids created their own dogs with shapes.  This idea came from Chandra (mom) from a drawing a dog project her kids brought home from school,  we cut out the shapes and had the kids glue their own dogs together.

Again, Thank You for all your participation.  Cya next week.

OCEAN / SEA!!!!

Today in storytime we talked about the OCEAN and the SEA and the creatures that live there.  We had a lot of fun reading the following books:

Under the Sea (lift the flap) illustrated by Peter Scott

Smiley Shark by Ruth Galloway

I'm the Beggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry

The Deep Blue Sea, a book of colors by Audrey Wood

 

Shark in the park by Phil Cox
We also did a flannel board story of the the Biggest Thing in the Ocean, here is what it looked like.

Craft Time

     We created our own ocean's today.  You take a paper plate and draw ocean critters on the inside then take a piece of blue celephane wrap and wrap it around the plate, taping it tight to the back.  This is what a completed one would look like.

Here are pictures of the kids creating their oceans.

Thanks to everyone for coming.  Cya next week.

FISH ! ! !

Fish was the theme of our storytime today.  We started with reading a book called "About Fish, A guide for Children by Cathryn Sill, that talked about fish.

Then we read the book:  "Fish, Swish! Splash, Dash! by Suse MacDonald.  This is a counting round book.

 I had the kids get up and clear space and we did the "Fishy Pokey" ( to the tune of the Hokey Pokey ).  Everyone got involved and had a lot of fun.  Then we read our last book for the day called: "Ten Little Fish, by Audrey Wood.

Craft Time:  For our craft today, we made our own fishbowls.  I gave each child a copy of an empty fishbowl.  We then took small strips of colored paper and glued on to the fish bowl for the grass.  Then we used fruit loops to glue on as rocks and fish crackers to glue on as the fish in our bowl. 

The kids all created great fishbowls.  Below are some pictures of their crafts.

Thank you all for coming.  Hope to see you all again next week.