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