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!
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!
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!
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.
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...
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.
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!
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.
