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!