I always liked butterflies and it's a perfect theme for a storytime because there are some good butterfly picture books out there and neat crafts to go with them. Butterfly books, activities, and crafts can also work for the general bug theme.
I started off this butterfly storytime by reading Four Friends in the Garden by Sue Heap. Florentina the bear is playing in the garden with her friends when she notices a fluttery butterfly. She is excited to show her friends, but the butterfly keeps flying away. I thought this was a cute and simple story that followed the butterfly theme.
Next, I shared a story using the flannelboard called "A Spotted Caterpillar." This is a story about a hungry caterpillar who eats different colored flowers that make him get the same colored spots all over his body. We had red, yellow, and blue felt flowers and the kids each got a chance to put a colored dot on the caterpillar. Of course at the end of the story, he turns into a beautiful spotted butterfly!
Our next butterfly book was Don't Worry Bear by Greg Foley. This is a story about a bear who finds a friend in a caterpillar but worries that his friend is changing and can't find him. It's a great story to use to simplify the butterfly stages.
We did a simple flannelboard counting and color rhyme with five colored butterflies and then it was on to our last book, Kitten's Big Adventure by Mie Araki. An adorably illustrated kitten finds herself on an adventure after chasing a butterfly.
For a butterfly craft, we made our own butterflies complete with a pipe cleaner antenna and a popsicle stick body. The kids enjoyed decorating their butterfly's wings anyway they liked using markers and crayons.
Spring is finally here!
I was supposed to do the bunny theme the week before, but the area had a terrible rain storm with hail so no one ended up making Family Storytime. It was such an odd feeling because I never had that happen before, but the weather was really terrible. Anyway, I had the bunny theme all ready to go so I decided to carry the theme over to this week.
How can you have a bunny storytime without mentioning their favorite food...carrots? Our first book was Too Many Carrots by Katy Hudson. This is a silly, fun book about sharing and what ends up happening if you don't.
For a flannel story, I told a tale about bunny tails. It's about a fluffy, white bunny who ends up getting his tail dirty while playing outside. It's brown from the dirt, and he wants his tail back to normal but doesn't know which color it should be. Should it be blue like the sky during the day or black like the sky at night? Should it be green like the grass? The kids like saying the colors and telling me if that's the right color for Bunny's tail.
Our next book told us what bunnies dream about in Bunny Dreams by Peter McCarty.
What an imaginative book! The kids took a real interest to this one.
We did a short "Five Little Bunnies" counting rhyme using the flannel board that got us counting as a group.
Our final book was Cat & Bunny by Mary Lundquist. I found the illustrations adorable and the message of including everyone during playtime charming. Some in the group liked pointing out who was Cat and who was Bunny.
For our craft, we made bunnies out of Styrofoam cups and added a cotton ball for a bunny cotton tail. We did a variation on this craft by using a full bunny face printout instead of the kids drawing the face on because I knew it would work out better for my group. They really liked this craft!
This year's Drop-In and Get Crafty: Easter was held on a no school day. I had a nice turnout and ended up continuing the program for an extra hour. Families came in rather sporadically, instead of the usual all rushing in when it starts, which made the room less crowded.
For the craft, the group colored an Easter egg coloring page and cut and glued them onto a paper plate to make a colorful, holiday-themed wreath. There were sequins and bows to jazz it up. This was a great craft since this group loves to color! They enjoyed sparkling it up with sequins, and pastel yarn was available to use to hang up their wreath.
It was neat to see how each child's wreath turned out different and some of the parents even took part.
I usually keep the same themes for Preschool Picasso and Toddler Art and this month was no exception. I went with an Easter theme and the group embraced the egg, bunny, and carrot crafts. What a way to celebrate the beginning of spring!
For our first craft, we each decorated our own card stock cut-out egg using q-tips and pink, purple, and yellow washable paint. For some of the kids, this was their first time using q-tips to paint with so that was nice to see. We all had our own unique decorated eggs with dots and squiggly lines.
Next, I re-used the bunny craft idea from Preschool Picasso and we had made some more cute bunnies with spring cookie cutters complete with a cotton ball tail.
For our last craft of the day, we made carrots so our bunnies could have something to eat later. I had some leftover orange tissue paper from a Halloween pumpkin craft that I used to cut squares so the kids could glue it onto their carrot. They had a green die-cut hand print to glue to the top to make the stem of the carrot. The group loved playing with the tissue paper and some in the group pretended to eat their carrots.
The sensory bin was a hit! I reused the sensory bin from Preschool Picasso, but added some plastic carrots I found at the local dollar store so the group could pretend to be bunnies looking for carrots and eggs. They enjoyed shifting through the grass and finding stickers in the eggs.
The q-tips, cookie cutters, and tissue paper all played into their fine motor skills while having fun with paint and crafting.
Now onto deciding what theme to go with for the next Preschool Picasso and Toddler Art programs.
There are so many great Easter craft ideas out there that I decided I had to do that theme for Preschool Picasso!
Originally, I was going to use the book The Night Before Easter by Natasha Wing, but I wanted to make sure I didn't offend any parents with an Easter theme so I made sure most of my focus was on bunnies and I picked the funny, action-packed picture book Warning! Do Not Touch! by Tim Warnes instead. This book does not disappoint and my group really enjoyed this one. It's also the perfect length for a program where you want to do one story that is not too long and not too short. The kids all laughed when the alligator in the story is referred to as the "Lumpy-Bumpy Thing."
For our first craft, we made Easter egg baskets. I used card stock and printed a basket template on them. The kids glued brown strips of construction paper onto the basket and dipped oval shaped brushes (potato scrubbers) in blue, purple, pink, and yellow paint and pressed them onto their paper to make eggs. This craft worked out well and was a bonus that I had the potato scrubbers from a previous craft to use instead of having to go out and buy sponges.
For our final craft, we painted bunnies. I had cutout bunnies out of tan construction paper and bought some Easter cookie cutters. The kids dipped their cookie cutters in paint and pressed them onto the bunny to make designs. They also used their fingers or paint brushes and glued a cotton ball on his bottom to make a cute, fluffy tail. All of the bunnies looked unique and the kids had a good time using paint twice.
I had a sensory bin filled with different colored Easter grass and plastic eggs at the bottom. It was a mini egg hunt and they each found an egg with a sticker inside, however; most of the group had left by then.
I had such a nice turnout that I had to scramble and make a few more crafts last minute, but everything worked out. I prepared 25 crafts even though I have 15 registered, but I knew some bring siblings and I had a few drop-ins. The more the merrier! I plan on making sure I have 30 crafts available for next time. It was such a busy, fun time that I didn't realize until afterwards that I forgot to do our bean bag song. The group didn't seem to miss it this time and the longer book made up for that anyway.
Overall, we had such a fun time and the kids did a great job listening to the story and completing their artwork. I'm thinking I'll be keeping this theme for Toddler Art and of course for my Drop-In and Get Crafty program.
Happy Easter!
For this week's Family Storytime, we read books and did activities together that revolved all around rain. This is always a manageable theme for storytime and we had a rainy day to boot!
After we got some wiggles out with our bean bag dance, we read Tap Tap Boom Boom by Elizabeth Bluemle. In this book, we see and hear all the things that come along with a rain storm. I liked being able to have the kids tap their laps to make the "tap, tap" noise, but I think this story could have flowed better while reading it out loud.
Next, I used a "Mushroom in the Rain" flannel board based on the book by Mirra Ginsburg. I tend not to use too many story flannel boards and mostly counting, colors, etc. but this is a good addition to a rain storytime. Some of the kids in my group had a hard time understanding that this time I didn't have enough flannel pieces for the group to participate, but they still enjoyed the story about a mushroom who keeps all the animals dry while it rains.
Our next picture book was Puddle Jumpers by Anne Margaret Lewis. All different animals can't resist the puddles after a rain storm. I liked the cute and kiddie illustrations that went along perfectly with this book.
Our final activity was singing along to Rain, Rain, Go Away! retold by Steven Anderson. This was the first time I used a book and cd kit and it worked out great. At this point, my group was getting a little bit antsy and the soothing music of this song put them back at ease and singing along to this classic rain song. I prefer using an audio cd versus just singing because we have the extra background music and it seems to put everyone, including me, at ease to sing. It was fun to sway along to the music together!
I squeezed in a quick, short book at the end called Puddles!!! by Kevan Atteberry.
The group enjoyed this one and then it was time to make our rain craft! We made a rain scene using a cupcake liner for an umbrella, a pipe cleaner for the umbrella's handle, and cotton balls for clouds. The group drew in their raindrops.
"Rain, rain, go away...come again another day!"
For April's Book of the Month, I chose Sled Dog Dachshund by Laura Atkins. I know this story is more for winter, but I couldn't resist a picture book that incorporates my favorite breed into the story.
Summary: Jasper the dachshund wants to compete in the world's biggest dog sled race, but he's too little and doesn't fit in with the other sled dogs. He doesn't give up and makes his dream come true!
Age Range: 5-7 years
"Jasper leaned forward, stretching his hotdog body as far as it could go...The next thing he knew, Jasper heard cheers all around."
This is a picture book that teaches the lesson of teamwork and being helpful because of who you are despite being different. The story is the right length and can be used for storytimes. This book has a great message and cute illustrations.
