Toddler Art: Christmas

It was time for a Toddler Art Christmas! What I usually do closer to my Preschool Picasso and Toddler Art programs is go online and gather on Pinterest (some Google ideas too) all the crafts I think would work for my theme for that month for these programs and copy and paste pictures of each craft into a Word document. 

Once I'm satisfied with my choices and have enough crafts to make it difficult to choose, I print out my word document and start narrowing it down by what would be appropriate for each age group, what they would like, what would be doable and affordable and then get to it. 

As soon as I'm done choosing the two crafts I'll be using for each program, I get started on gathering supplies and prepping, which usually involves a trip to a store and some cutting, not as much cutting as the drop-in get crafty programs. 

For this holiday Toddler Art, we read Are You Grumpy, Santa? by Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, which is such a silly and fun holiday book. Once we were done reading together, we made Santa Claus and a present.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
 

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Christmas

Christmas is almost here and it's time to get crafty! I think the Christmas drop-in is my favorite just because I get to see a bunch of familiar patron faces, play holiday music, and of course make a holiday craft. 

For this year's Christmas drop-in, we made a paper plate Santa Claus. The turnout was overwhelming because we had Santa himself visit the same time as the program, but this worked out beautifully because it paced the group perfectly from coming into our program room as opposed to past years where it would be very crowded at the beginning. 

I got my inspiration from this Santa craft, but just stuck with the cotton balls for the beard.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Preschool Picasso: Christmas

This was a nice, holiday Preschool Picasso. I picked out one of our new Christmas books to read, One Cozy Christmas by Christina Butler. The kids liked the illustrations and were very good listeners during the story. This author has another book that is always a hit with the kids, so I knew they would like this one.

There are such great ideas for kids' Christmas crafts online that it was very hard to decide. After narrowing it down by what would be best for my group, I settled on a Santa Claus chalk craft and a paper plate ornament craft.

After reading, I explained the crafts and we got straight to it. We made Santa Claus using construction paper shapes and white chalk for his beard. We also went over the different shapes on the paper, which they were all experts at. 

For our last craft, we made colorful paper plate ornaments using red, blue, and green tissue paper and ribbon. 

It was great seeing the families and most of them said they would be able to make it to the drop-in craft program on Saturday.

Here comes Santa Claus!

Family Storytime: Sharing

I really think it's important to have storytimes that explain manners and other behavior themes, so I was happy we would be having a sharing storytime. This was our last storytime before the holidays and a bit of an experiment to have a sharing theme in place of the usual holiday theme.

After playing with bean bags to the music, we read Share, Big Bear, Share! by Maureen Wright. Big Bear can't seem to get the message to share his berries. 

Because I had a feeling that the group would want at least a little something about the holidays in their storytime, we decorated a flannel tree using flannel ornaments and practiced our sharing and our colors.

Once we had our tree all decorated, it was time to read another story on sharing. It's Not Yours, It's Mine! by Susanna Moores is about how hard it can be to share your favorite toy.

To break our sharing stories up, we counted five little presents under the tree on the flannel board and then got right to the rest of our sharing stories.

That's Not Mine by Anna Kang is a hilarious take on sharing when it can't be decided who gets to sit on a very comfy chair. 

Pigs and a Blanket by James Burks explains how sometimes not willing to share sometimes causes you to feel lonely. The illustrations are so cute in this one!

For our craft, we made a construction paper cookie and cut it in half to share with someone. They liked putting their "chocolate chips" on their cookie and had good practice cutting. The group enjoyed making this and "sharing" their cookie with another.

I know sometimes it can be tricky to do library programs that are related to holidays because a patron may feel left out or offended, but I find that my community craves such programs. Our main rule here is to make sure that no religious messages are in the picture books we read because we absolutely do have patrons of different religious backgrounds and beliefs. We also have plenty of religious books to check out for those patrons who would want that material.

Experimenting with this theme around the holidays, I find that I will probably stick with Santa/holiday books next time and save these themes throughout the year. 

Happy Holidays!

 

Book of the Month: A Loud Winter's Nap

I was looking for a picture book that would get me more excited for winter and came across A Loud Winter's Nap by Katy Hudson.

Summary: Unmoved by his friends' attempts to draw him out with singing classes and snowball fights, Tortoise tries to settle down for his annual winter nap and instead stumbles into a wonderfully icy experience.

Age Range: 3-5 years

"Tortoise had just snuggled in for his long winter nap when..."

This is another great book from the bestselling author of Too Many Carrots. I like how this book can be used for kids to read about winter, animals, and sleeping. 

Tortoise is the grump in his group of friends for not wanting to enjoy and play during the winter. But he quickly realizes just what he's missing out on. 

I had to chuckle because he just can't get any sleep, and most of us grownups can relate to that. The way tortoise finds out just how fun winter can be is a funny and cute tie-in to the story. This is a wonderful picture book read for the winter!

Unwrap a Good Book

My December bulletin board would be the backdrop for our Santa visit so I had to make sure I came up with something Christmas-y for Santa pictures. I enjoyed making the presents under the tree sparkle by using gold ribbon and gathered some holiday craft books to display.

Happy Holidays!

Family Storytime: Pirates

Ahoy, mateys! We set ashore in the storytime room to read all about pirates. Everyone was energetic to hear some pirate stories and participate in some storytime activities.

After some of our sillies were bean-bagged away, we walked the plank into our first story, The Pirate Who Said Please by Timothy Knapman. This is both a pirate and politeness story that rhymes.

After our first story, it was time to help Pirate Bear get an eye patch. This is a color practice flannel. I handed out different colored eye patches and the kids had to put theirs on Pirate Bear's eye to complete his outfit. This was also good practice on direction since they needed to put his eye patch on a specific part of the body. Most of the group was able to put the eye patch on his eyes, but some of the younger ones had a little trouble. 

Once we went through all the colors with the help of Pirate Bear, we read Pirasaurs! by Josh Funk. The group loved this one the best because who wouldn't love a picture book that is about both pirates and dinosaurs?

Since a movement activity worked so well last time and because the group was extra peppy, we did a row your boat action song from Arms Up Keep Moving. We all pretended to be pirates rowing and we went from slow to fast. The song I used mostly went slow and the group was waiting for it to get faster than it was. At the end, we all rowed our boats super fast until we tipped over. 

I closed storytime with reading Pirate Treasure by Scoular Anderson.

All three books were rhyming books. I absolutely am a sucker for rhyming books, but try not to do more than two in one particular storytime just in case it makes things a little less interesting with all that rhyming. As with this storytime, I did allow it because rhyming is an excellent way to learn and also because these pirate books seemed to be the shortest and I needed some short books today. 

There are loads of good pirate picture books out there, but I think the ones that have engaging stories are usually on the long side. This is definitely a doable theme for storytime, but I could see would work even better with a slightly older crowd. 

We ended storytime with making a parrot craft using a toilet paper roll. The younger ones had a slightly harder time making this craft with the liquid glue and construction paper giving them some trouble with sticking, but they liked this craft. I decided to not use pipe cleaners for the bracelet part since they were having a little trouble with the craft. 

I remember doing a toilet paper roll snowman craft one year and that was also a little bit of a challenge, so I think I'll have these toliet paper roll crafts walk the plank! Arrrghh!

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Thanksgiving

Gobble, gobble! It was time to celebrate Thanksgiving and what better way to celebrate then with a turkey craft. 

I decided to do a combination of coloring and piecing together a turkey and took ideas from multiple turkey crafts. I got most of my inspiration from this turkey craft. 

We made the turkey legs using the strips of paper and instead colored our turkey body so the group would be able to decorate theirs any way they liked. I cut out some feet instead of shoes and we were good to get crafty!

I misplaced the craft picture because of all the holiday bustle, but you can use your imagination on how it turned out.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Family Storytime: Thanksgiving

I always enjoy putting on a Thanksgiving storytime because of the silly turkey stories and the lesson of giving thanks to all the good things we have in life. 

After we followed along to the bean bag song, we started reading There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey! by Lucille Colandro. I have fond memories of reading these books when I was younger so I enjoy reading them out loud to my groups when I can. They can be a bit long, but usually captures their attention. 

For our first activity, we added different colored turkey feathers to our flannel turkey. The group listened very well for their colors and always enjoy interacting with the flannel board. 

Next, we read Run Turkey, Run! by Diane Mayr. I like incorporating this book into storytime because every group seems to enjoy saying, "run turkey, run!" It makes for a fun time!

 

For another activity, I tried something new because I needed a movement activity to keep this energetic group focused. We did the Turkey Hokey Pokey! Boy, did we get silly with this one. Everybody was laughing when we waddled our behinds. This was easy for the group to follow with it up on the projector screen. 

And thanks to getting some antsy feelings out, we were able to read two more books together, Thanksgiving for Emily Ann by Teresa Johnston and Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes. Both of these books allowed me to get the message of being thankful in storytime. 

For our craft, we made a construction paper turkey and used old book pages for the body. This was a very cute and simple craft!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Toddler Art: Celebrating Fall...with a hedgehog

I must admit that I have been lagging a little bit this week because I caught my first cold of the season so I was trying to keep my Family Storytime and Toddler Art programs relatively easy for me this week. Funny thing is, I find myself seeming to do an even better job when I'm feeling a little under the weather because I want to continue to do my best. Anyway, this cold disappeared fast and I was able to put on another fun Toddler Art. 

I wanted to stay with the "celebrating fall" theme that I had done in Preschool Picasso. After searching my Pinterest board for inspiration, I settled on the last craft I needed to get started with prep. 

I always like to conserve for these programs and realized that when I was using the die-cut machine to cut out leaves for the Preschool Picasso program, that I could use the beautiful leaf cutout pattern scraps for another craft. 

So it was decided. Our first craft would be painting white construction paper with fall colors and glue our leftover leaf cutout patterns on top. And thanks to Pinterest, our second craft would be to make a hedgehog using leaves.

I found a book to tie hedgehogs and leaves together in Herbie's Big Adventure by Jennie Poh. This is a story about a baby hedgehog, Herbie, who leaves his mommy for the first time to explore and hibernate. This was not only a great story to match my theme, but all the parents found it adorable and we learned about being brave and the changing seasons. The illustrations are modern and beautiful.

Despite the story being on the longer side, the kids were very attentive during this story and it allowed for a few of the families who came in late to hear a little bit of it.

After explaining each craft, it was time to get started.

The painted leaf craft gave good painting practice for the younger group and helped them practice holding the paint brush. They experimented with combining colors and seen how their leaves ended up being their painted colors on their paper. 

The hedgehog craft gave them some time to color and have some sensory learning using the leaves with their smell and texture. It was a bit hard for the little ones to wait for the glue to dry to make the leaves stick, but that was good practice being patient.

A few of the families took some hedgehog books to be checked out, which are pictured below.

 It's always a pleasure to read a picture book to a group and I still smell the leaves we used for the craft. Happy Fall!
 

Family Storytime: Squirrels

We started off late fall storytime with a squirrel theme. This was a very enjoyable storytime with a fun theme and a good group turnout. There were so many good squirrel books to choose from and an animal storytime is always a hit. 

We did our bean bag song and started our first story, Ol' Mama Squirrel by David Ezra Stein. This is a story about a very protective mama squirrel who "chooks" everyone away from her babies. They loved pointing out the baby squirrels in each picture as we continued to read. After the group helped me say "chook, chook, chook," we counted five little squirrels on the flannel board.

I read Aw, Nuts! by Rob McClurkan. This story reminded me of Ice Age's Scrat character with always having to chase a nut. 

After going through all of the shenanigans a squirrel has to go through to get his nut, we followed along to "Gray Squirrel" by Learning Station. This was perfect timing because the kiddos were getting antsy by now. We swished our bushy tails, crinkled up our noses, and picked up nuts and put them on our toes. Everyone did great and it was a perfect opportunity to get their sillies out before we read our last story.

I did have another activity in mind where I would have handed out nuts and each in the group has to feed the squirrel puppet. I found a story to go along with it, but I couldn't find our squirrel puppet in time. We needed a movement activity anyway so it all worked out. 

The group loved the illustrations of the dog in That Pup! by Lindsay Barrett George. This is a sweet story about a curious puppy who keeps finding nuts only to find out they all belong to someone else. 

After awing together during our last book, I explained our craft. I had printed out some squirrel clip-art and had the group glue different colored die-cut leaves to make a tail. This was a cute craft that was perfect with minimal prep effort, but adorable and allowed for gluing practice. I also put out crayons in case they wanted to decorate and make scenery around their squirrel. All their squirrel tails were bushy and colorful. This was such a fun one!

Some more squirrel books I would have loved to have read but didn't have time were I Want That Nut! by Madeline Valentine and Bear and Squirrel are Friends by Deb Pilutti. 

Now, "chook, chook" and read a book and create some art!
 
 

 

Fall Into a Book

After using my usual bulletin board space for fall coloring contest entries, it was time to take down entries, pick our winners, and fill up the space before it's used for holiday decorating in December.

I ended up getting my inspiration from this bulletin board display. 

Fall into a book!

Preschool Picasso: Celebrating Fall

After contemplating doing a turkey theme or a fall theme, I ended up choosing fall. I'll still be doing a turkey craft for storytime and a drop-in craft program, so I decided to do something different for my Preschool Picasso and Toddler Art programs. 

This program had a great turn-out and was a lot of fun. The group was very attentive to the story, The Little Scarecrow Boy by Margaret Wise Brown and they enjoyed the storytime. I had them practice their "fierce" scarecrow faces and wave their arms in the air like a scarecrow. This story was just the right amount of story length. I like being able to read to this group because they can sit a little longer for stories than my storytime group and Toddler Art group.

After mentioning some upcoming programs, I explained each craft. For our first craft, we made a paper plate scarecrow face using ripped paper, cutout pieces, and shredded beige paper. I had the group tear their own paper to get some texture and practice in the activity.

For an additional craft, we made leaf silhouettes. Red, yellow, and orange paint were put out to paint over their leaves on construction paper. Once dry, they pealed off their leaves to see its shape. 

I enjoyed celebrating fall with my group. Happy Fall y'all! 

Book of the Month: Sam the Most Scaredy-Cat Kid In The Whole World

I had to read this because Leonardo, the Terrible Monster has always been a hit during storytimes and Leonardo makes an appearance in this book. 

Summary: One day Sam, the most scaredy-cat kid in the whole world, makes a terrifying discovery. It's not Frankenthaler the monster. It's her friend-Kerry! Kerry, the second most scaredy-cat kid in the whole world, also makes a terrifying discovery. It's not Leonardo the monster. It's his friend-Sam! "AAAAH!" yells Sam. "EEEEK!" yells Kerry. Something has to be done. Something BIG. But what?

Age Range: 5-6 years

 "Sam had no idea what he should do! Kerry had no idea what she should do! So, they had that in common."

This book has a very similar structure, but I must admit wasn’t as great as Leonardo, the Terrible Monster. Nevertheless, I still think this is a cute book to read to children because of the lessons in this book. And I would definitely recommend it to those who are absolute Mo Willems fans.

We can all be scaredy-cats and we can all be different, but still get along and collaborate to scare the monsters in each other's lives.  Everyone is afraid of something, but then we realize we are much of the same and what is different is non-threatening.

The same illustrations and characters offer a comforting familiarity to Mo Willems fans.

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Halloween

One of the best drop-in craft programs is centered around Halloween. There are so many good crafts to choose from, whether it be making ghosts, witches, Frankensteins, or jack-o-lanterns. 

For this year's Drop-In and Get Crafty: Halloween, we made an assortment of masks. Everyone could choose from making a cat, pumpkin, Frankenstein, or Day of the Dead mask. 

The masks were made using card stock and Popsicle sticks. I opted out of using elastic bands because I was trying to keep my cost low for a program that tends to have a larger turnout. We had a numerous amount of sticks so it was perfect. I used a hole puncher to make the eye cut-outs. 

Markers, colored pencils, and of course crayons were put out to decorate masks. I also put out some sequins they could glue on to their masks.  

I liked this craft idea because it gave attendees options to choose their mask and how to decorate it. I also needed a relatively easy prep craft and this was perfect. The craft also fits all ages because younger kids can decorate their masks simple and older kids can add as much detail as they want. I also liked how this craft can be their costume for Trick-or-Treating if they wanted it to be.

I had a great turn-out for this program and it was nice to see families crafting together.  

Happy Halloween!

Family Storytime: Halloween

This week's Halloween storytime was our last storytime for early fall. We'll get a two-week break and then get back to sharing stories. 

The weather was kind of gloomy, perfect for spooky stories, but was bad for my turnout. Regardless, our small group had fun celebrating Halloween together.

The positive consequence of having a smaller storytime is less opportunities for distractions from other kids. This group was very attentive and I was able to read four Halloween-themed books.

Monster Needs a Costume by Paul Czajak tackles a problem most children have with Halloween...what costume to choose. Monster can't decide if he should be a ballerina or a ninja or a...you get the picture. What a silly story paired with complimenting illustrations. What does Monster end up being for Halloween?

For a break-up activity, I used the "Cat of Many Colors" flannel story. This is a story about a white cat who wants to be a black cat for Halloween. He eats and drinks certain colored food and juice to turn into different colors and ends up eating some Halloween licorice candy to turn black. This is a Halloween story that allows the group to learn their colors. 

Our next book read was Just Say Boo! by Susan Hood. This is a must for a Halloween storytime because every single group enjoys saying "Boo!" throughout the story. 

After our second story, I used the flannel board to tell a story about a woman who was very brave. "The Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Everything" hears different pieces of clothing while walking through the woods. She's not afraid because these pieces of clothing end up making a friendly scarecrow. The group helped me put up the scarecrow's pieces and guessed what he was at the end of the story. 

Peep and Egg: I'm Not Trick-or-Treating by Laura Gehl tells the story of Egg being afraid to trick-or-treat because of all the scary costumes. Surprisingly, my group didn't seem to enjoy this story as much as I would have thought but were more into seeing the green monster's face form in Go Away Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley.  

We usually don't use paint in storytime and reserve those crafts for other programs, but it was a nice treat for those who attended to do our painted Halloween craft. We put ghost and pumpkin die-cuts and construction paper out for the group to trace with their fingers (or cotton balls) to make designs when they pulled each die-cut off their paper. 

Happy Halloween! Boo!

Family Storytime: Friends

A friends storytime always ends up being such a great theme with the array of picture books to choose from and the warmness it brings to a storytime group. I like how this theme encourages acceptance, kindness, and appreciation for others. 

After our bean bag song, we started storytime off with Bob Shea's book, Buddy and the Bunnies: In Don't Play with Your Food! Buddy wants to eat all the bunnies, but a friendship develops and puts a stop to his plans. Classic Shea with humor, a good storyline, and a nice message at the end. This was the group's favorite.

I tried a new activity with the kids centered around fictional book and tv characters. The group had to match each friend to their friend on the flannelboard. We had Scooby and Shaggy, Spongebob and Patrick, and Batman and Robin. The group enjoyed this and found some of the matches more challenging than others. A fun matching activity!

Our second book of the evening was You Will Be My Friend! by Peter Brown. Lucy the Bear desperately wants a friend, so desperately that she tries to force it upon all the animals in the forest. Another friend book with a good lesson at the end. I am familiar with Peter Brown's other books and was able to meet him at a children's literature conference so it was nice to be able to include this book into a storytime.

For another activity, I had the group guess what colored flannel house our kitty and puppy friends were hiding under. They love guessing games and it helped them practice their colors.

Since the group was getting a little distracted, I was only able to read one more short story. A Friend Like You by Tanja Askani is a perfect, short but sweet way to end a friends storytime. Real photographs of different types of animals getting along is an adorable way to get the message of friendship across to a younger audience. 

Of course we had to color some friendship bracelets to give to our friends! 

You got a friend in me!

Toddler Art: Pumpkins

It was time for more pumpkin fun! Toddler Art was also all about pumpkins. I chose to stay away from pumpkin seeds and beans since this group is younger and the pumpkin play dough didn't stay put long enough for a sensory bin.

I read a short pumpkin rhyming story, Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin by Mary Serfozo before we got to our crafts.  

For our first craft, I had the group make their own thumb print pumpkins. There were circles on the pumpkin that they had to press their painted thumbs against it to make their pumpkin orange. I also put out some green paint for the stem.  My group loves paint so I opted out of using dot stickers.

Our last craft was making a cute pumpkin pie slice using tissue paper, construction paper, and paper plates. 

The crafts went quicker than I expected, but they still got their sensory practice in with thumb printing and tissue paper placement. 

Now for some real pumpkin pie. 

Family Storytime: Numbers

I think numbers might be my favorite concept theme. There's so many activity ideas for this theme and so many books. I always try to make sure at least two stories have a story line, or else you might end up with a bunch of count how many books that might not keep the group's interest. 

After our bean bag song, we read Count Your Chickens by Jo Ellen Bogart and Lori Joy Smith. This isn't so much a counting book as an example of many and more. We did choose to count some chickens in a few of the pages, but we mostly followed along to the rhyme. I chose this book because of it's zany illustrations and flow. 

Who wants to feed the Number Monster? Our first activity was feeding our friendly monster who usually devours the alphabet but enjoys eating numbers too. We used a box to make our monster and die-cut numbers for the group to feed him. It's always fun making the nom nom noises for him and letting out a big burp noise at the end.  

After Number Monster ate his 1's and 2's, it was time to count some goats. Let's Count Goats! by Mem Fox and Jan Thomas is a favorite of mine and every group I've read it to. As one storytimer pointed out to me, the goats look like dogs with horns.

Our next activity was a Number Fun rhyme. We called out the number that matched each rhyming word. 

The group was thirsty for more reading so we read the classic Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh and One Pup's Up by Marsha Wilson Chall. Mouse Count has a good, short story and One Pup's Up had us counting puppies galore. 

For our craft, we practiced our number and tracing skills by writing out how old we were and tracing the number as we glue cotton balls to our age.  

1, 2 buckle my shoe...

Preschool Picasso: Pumpkins

It was time for October's Preschool Picasso! Instead of choosing a Halloween theme or a monster theme, I chose the more basic theme of pumpkins. It was easy to settle on this theme once I seen all the possible crafts I could present to the group on pumpkins. 

For this one, I wanted some extra sensory ideas and for some more adventuresome crafts. Overall, it was a success and I would do these two crafts again, but would make sure I had more prep time for each craft. 

I started off our pumpkin Preschool Picasso by reading Pumpkin Town! by Katie McKy. This is the one group I have who are old enough to handle a longer story. I think the group was very attentive due to the colorful and unique illustrations by Pablo Bernaconi. The silliness of an overload of pumpkins kept their attention throughout the whole book. I also liked how this book mentioned pumpkin seeds since we would be getting creative with them for our crafts. 

After we found out what happened to the town who had an overabundance of pumpkins, we started our crafts.

Our first craft was a homemade play dough pumpkin. I explained to parents that the dough was edible in case one of the kids accidentally put some in their mouths and that the craft is more of an activity and that since it is made out of pumpkin puree, it won't last forever. It seemed like the parents appreciated a more unique craft and the kids had fun exploring the textures and scents of their art. Corn starch, canned pumpkin, and pumpkin spice was used to make the play dough. I did have to add some flour we had last minute because it wasn't dry enough. The group had sticks from branches outside, green pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and black beans to make their pumpkin faces. 

I was able to keep my pumpkin for three days before I thought it best to throw it out. 

For our last craft, we made a pumpkin seed craft. The day before, I dyed and dried our pumpkin seeds and printed out some pumpkin outlines on construction paper. I opted out of using paint since the seeds wouldn't have been dried in time to do some gluing. 

The hardest part about the dough for the first craft was worrying that it wouldn't turn out just right since I made it the night before and that it might dry out or I would have to start over.

The hardest part about the pumpkin seeds craft was that it took the seeds extra long to dry and longer than anticipated to soak to get the color to be somewhat satisfying.

I think the group enjoyed their crafts and there was a lot of sensory learning with both of them, but I would say these two crafts have been the most hassle out of all the crafts I did for Preschool Picasso.  

This was definitely a learning experience for both me and the kids. 

Family Storytime: Fall

With the milder weather Illinois has been having, it seemed like it was too early to have a fall storytime. Nevertheless, it was time to read about leaves, acorns, and cooler weather.

After bean bags, we read Pick a Circle, Gather Squares by Felicia Sanzari Chernesky. This is an excellent book to learn about shapes during the fall season. What shapes do you see in a pumpkin patch? So many different shapes!

Once we were done identifying different shapes in Chernesky's book, we added some fall colored leaves onto our bare tree on the flannel board. The kids love being involved in the flannel board and was a win-win. 

Mouse's First Fall by Lauren Thompson was our next book. I think this is one of the cutest fall books in our library's collection with such colorful and cute pictures. Mouse participates in all the fun things you can do in fall. 

I read Leaves by David Ezra Stein and Acorns Everywhere! by Kevin Sherry. Leaves is an adorable story about a bear who is concerned that leaves are falling. He realizes that it's good the leaves are falling and we get a little lesson in seasons. Acorns Everywhere! is a short, silly story that got my group giggling. What can a squirrel do with so many acorns?

We each made our own fall wreath using paper plates and construction paper die-cut leaves. 

It's fall, ya'll!

Book of the Month: I'm Gonna Like Me: Letting Off a Little Self-Esteem

I was very tempted to pick another dog book to review until I noticed we had a copy of this Jamie Lee Curtis picture book that was new to our collection. I've read Where do Balloons Go?: An Uplifting Mystery, My Mommy Hung the Moon: A Love Story, and Big Words for Little People and enjoyed them all.  I'm Gonna Like Me did not disappoint. 

Summary: Celebrate liking yourself! through alternating points-of-view, a girl's and a boy's, Jamie Lee Curtis' triumphant text and Laura Cornell's lively artwork show kids that the key to feeling good is liking yourself because you are you.

Age Range: 4-8 years

"I'm gonna like me 'cause I'm loved and I know it, and liking myself is the best way to show it." 

I love the simple rhyming and wonderful message that this book has, both perfect for a feel-good storytime that will share the message that it's good to be yourself and embrace who you are, even if you make mistakes and are different.

This book is geared to young readers, using everyday kid-like examples of being in school, with other children, being with mom, and just the daily life of being a kid. 

This would be a great discussion book on asking a storytime group what they like about themselves and practicing their self-esteem. 

Family Storytime: Teddy Bears

I always get excited for a teddy bear storytime because I think it's one of the cutest themes. Surprisingly, I find that a lot of the teddy bear picture books can be a little on the long side, but there are some good short ones and if the selection in the library is picked out, there's always switching to bears instead of just teddy bears.

After following along to our welcoming bean bag song, we got started reading our first story. Principal Fred Won't Go to Bed by Carolyn Crimi is somewhat on the long side for a younger group, but because of it's clever rhyming and adventurous story line, the group stayed entertained. It's also pretty humorous to see a principal having a tantrum over his missing teddy bear.

Once Principal Fred found his teddy, we used the flannel board for "teddy bear plays ball." I handed out different colored circle "balls" and when their color was called, they brought their ball up to the board for the teddy bear to play. We had all different colors up there and practiced our color recognition and counting.

Our next book was A Beginner's Guide to Bear Spotting by Michelle Robinson. What a sarcastic book on how to find bears and most importantly, which ones to watch out for. There are both forest bears and a teddy bear in this story. 

I like how I can use a book and incorporate it for an activity. For our last teddy bear activity, we did just that. While reading Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around by Penny Dann, we stood up and followed along with the movements. I did have to make up some of my own movements at the end to make the activity a little bit longer and to avoid the prayer movement as to not offend anyone. This was good to get everyone moving and more of those sillies to be shaken out. 

Our last book was Everybody Has a Teddy by Virginia Kroll. This has got to be one of the sweetest children's books on teddy bears. It's also short and sweet to end story time.

For our craft, we made a Corduroy-inspired teddy bear craft made out of construction paper. 

It's time to cuddle with a teddy and take a nap.