Toddler Art: Story Characters

Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley was the perfect length of book for the toddlers and I was pleased with the craft ideas that were paired along with this book. The kids enjoyed hearing this book read out loud and had the variety of two different types of crafts to choose from or to do both. Both crafts were to make the Big Green Monster. 

One craft involved paint and the other involved tissue paper. All of their crafts turned out really cute and they had fun with the paint. I also liked how this craft allowed them to work with paint differently by smooching their paint around their folded cardstock. It was a different way of working with paint for them. 

Mostly everyone chose to do both crafts, but some parents just wanted to stick with the paper plate and tissue paper monster. 

I also had an opportunity to read the story again to those who arrived late. 

Go Away, Big Green Monster!

 

Joy to the World!

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Christmas

Who wouldn't love a library day that involves meeting Santa and doing a craft? This past Saturday was our day! The kids were able to tell Santa what they want for Christmas and get a picture and then move on to make a Santa finger puppet. 

I wanted to make sure the kids could play with their craft since always appreciate that.  Even though this was a lot to prepare for, it really worked out well.

We had a pretty big turnout and it was another fun drop-in!

Happy Holidays!
 

Preschool Picasso: Story Characters

This was such a fun, sweet group and I was surprised on how many of the kids knew the story. I wanted to use a story character the kids knew, so I was happy to hear this. 

We read The Gruffalo, which was so fun to read out loud, and then I explained our two crafts. First, the group made Gruffalo using brown paint on a paper plate and adding his features after the paint was dry.

The second craft was making Mouse using different sized circle shapes. 

Both these crafts worked out great because they went along with the story, incorporated paint, and weren't too hard. The group took their time with their crafts and I promoted some holiday programs that were coming up.

 

Family Storytime: Favorites

For our last storytime, we sort of did a mix-match of best sellers and favorites. A lot of the best seller books were checked out, which is a good thing, but I ended up using some of the new picture books we had that became my favorites.

Since this would be our last storytime until after the holidays, it worked out that I could use some holiday flannel boards for some of our activities.

For our craft, we each decorated our own award to give to our favorite book.

The books I've read were Sterling, Best Dog Ever by Aidan Cassie, The Wonderful Things You Will Be by Emily Winfield Martin, and Mad, Mad Bear! by Kimberly Gee. The kids loved listening to Sterling and Mad, Mad Bear! and the parents enjoyed Martin's book.

The stories were all a hit and the flannel activities of decorating the tree and counting presents were enjoyed as well. 

This theme worked out well, but it is good to do this theme during a time where you could grab holiday or seasonal flannel boards.

Book of the Month: Rock What Ya Got

With a catchy title and good message, I chose Rock What Ya Got by Samantha Berger to be December's Book of the Month. I liked how Viva didn't want to change despite her artist's thoughts at the beginning of the book. The rhyming text also made this book extra cute.

Summary: A child reminds everyone to embrace their own special something in this joyful expression of self-love. When a drawing of a little girl comes to life, she boldly declares that she doesn't want to be erased, or put into a picture that doesn't feel like her true self. Instead, she decides to speak up in a powerful way. 

 Ages: 4-7 years

"Rock what ya got and rock it a lot. Look at what is, not what is not! Find what is yours, and carve out your spot. Take it and own it and rock it-a lot!"

Messages of acceptance are always great for picture books and I thought this was creatively throughout using the perspective of a drawing and her artist. I could see using this book for a one-on-one discussion with a child about their self-esteem and it would also be beneficial for those little artists who tend to overly judge their work.

Drop-In Get Crafty: Thanksgiving

For this year's Thanksgiving drop-in craft, we made turkey puppets. This was a perfect craft with minimal prep for such a big turnout. 

The kids loved being able to play with their puppets after they made them and enjoyed the added benefit of coloring pages and bookmarks. The older kids took their time adding more variety to their turkeys and they all turned out unique. 

I heard a lot of cute gobbling! 

 

Family Storytime: Food

For our short storytime week due to the Thanksgiving holiday, we decided to do a food/sharing/Thanksgiving theme and it worked out great. For my storytime, I focused more on food books and sharing and this turned out to be one of my favorite storytimes of the fall sessions. 

We read a total of three books together, used the flannel board two times, sang a song together, and made our craft.

I ended up reading How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jane Yolen for my first book. The group loved this book and weren't distracted the whole time. 

Our first activity was counting shape cookies on the flannel board. I handed out different cookies and they each had a chance to put theirs on the board. Then we went over each cookie's shape and color and counted each one. 

The next book I read was Who Put the Cookies in the Cookie Jar? by George Shannon. This is different from the classic everyone knows, but shows all what it takes and who it takes to make one cookie and went perfectly well with the sharing and community table theme.  

For our next activity, I thought we could add turkey feathers to our flannel turkey. It was another opportunity for them to interact with the flannel board while we counted and went over our colors. 

The final book of the night was Dim Sum for Everyone! by Grace Lin. A great, short book to incorporate a different culture into the mix. 

After we had our book fix, and boy did they do wonderful with their attention spans, we sang "If You're Happy and You Know It" and then I explained our craft.

We decorated construction paper cookies using cut out circles and black paint for chocolate chips. We also wrote what we were thankful for on the back and turned a few of our cookies into the cookie jar and kept the rest to take home.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Book of the Month: Kaya's Heart Song

What drew me to Sander's book was the beautiful illustrations by Nerina Canzi. I dare you to find a more colorful picture book! 

 Summary: Kaya is looking for her heart song--the song that happy hearts sing. Her search takes her on a journey deep into the jungle where a broken down carousel waits for a very special song to make it turn again. 

"Let me tell you a secret--if you have a heart song, anything is possible. Even magic!"

Age Range: 4-6 years

If you're looking for a picture book that rolls meditation, peacefulness, mindfulness, and yoga all into one...this is your book! Different yoga poses are illustrated beautifully and are incorporated into this book about Kaya trying to find her heart song and bringing a elephant carousel to life. 

I thought this was a really pleasant story with incredible artwork and feel-good message. These types of books are really becoming a trend. 

Toddler Art: Food

I based my whole Toddler Art: Food program around the classic book If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Joffe Numeroff. This was a simple enough book for the toddlers to listen to and the crafts were rather easy enough for them too. 

This group listened very well and had a better listening day than my older kids. 

For our first craft, we made Moose's muffin using a half of a paper plate and sponges dipped in brown paint. This was a good opportunity for them to use their fine motor skills and use paint. 

The moose craft was a little bit more complicated for them, but the parents easily helped their little ones along with using the glue sticks to make Moose.

Our next theme will be story characters. I'm thinking a cute Cookie Monster craft, but we'll see where Pinterest takes me. 
 

Family Storytime: Shapes

The theme of shapes is always a great option for storytimes because there are so much books and activity ideas to go along with it and of course it's also a great concept theme.

There are some really great picture books on shapes that have cute stories to them, but tend to be on the long side for a storytime group. I ended up choosing three short stories to read, did two shape activities, and provided a shape craft.

We read Shapes that Roll by Karen Nagel, Perfect Square by Michael Hall, and Round by Joyce Sidman. The group particularly loved the illustrations in Nagel's book and noticed Square's facial expressions in Hall's book. I was really pushing their attention spans by the third book, but they did notice the roundness of the moon in the last book we read together. 

For our activities that broke up our reading, I handed out different shapes and had each of the kids feed the "Shape Monster." They had a good time and they each had an opportunity to get in front of the group. The last activity we did was a flannel based on the book, Shape by Shape. They had fun guessing what the shapes will make at the end of the flannel story. A dinosaur of course!

Each of the kids made a rocket craft using triangles, circles, rectangles, and squares. I think this reinforced the idea that all the books had, being that shapes are all around us. Of course they each got a space sticker to complete their craft. 

Here are a list of some books and activities for a shape storytime:
 

Love, Triangle Marcie Colleen

Perhaps Guido Van Genechten

Apples and Robins Lucie Felix

Round Joyce Sidman

Bear in a Square Stella Blackstone

Shapes that Roll Karen Nagel

Perfect Square Michael Hall

Shapes are Everywhere! Charles Ghigna

Dinosaur Shapes Paul Stickland

Go, Shapes, Go! by Denise Fleming

Circle Square Moose by Kelly Bingham

Shape Shift by Joyce Hesselberth

Square by Mac Barnett

Sweet Shapes by Juana Medina

City Shapes by Diana Murray

Seaver the Weaver by Paul Czajak

Round Is a Tortilla by Roseanne Grennfield Thong

Other Activities:

Shape Monster (feed the monster shapes)

Shape Chant (movement activity)

Different colored squares

Blast Off color rockets to go with craft

Red Square, Red Square, What Do You See?

It Looked Like Spilt Milk

Funny Shape Family Cut and Tell

If You're Happy and You Know It

Matching Shape Cookies

Shape by Shape Flannel Dinosaur

 

Preschool Picasso: Food

For this month's theme for Preschool Picasso, we read a story and completed two crafts around food. This theme could have been using food as craft tools or based around a book about food. I decided to go with the latter. 

We read Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin and made a dragon and a taco craft. 

The group was so enthralled into the book that I knew this was a good pick! How can you go wrong with this silly book? 

After reading the story, we made our dragon craft and then our taco craft. For our dragon craft, we used bubble wrap and red paint to make scales on each of our dragons and for our taco craft, we had different textures of paper to make our delicious taco, along with some yellow paint using sponges to make our taco shell. 

The group really enjoyed this theme, but I think my next goal will be to try to incorporate the food theme even more by somehow using actual food as crafting tools.  

 

Fall Into Reading!

Family Storytime: Day of the Dead

This theme for storytime was definitely more tough since there aren't a lot of good Day of the Dead stories in English, but between inter-library loaning and using bilingual books we made this theme work. This subject is perfect for our Spanish storytimes, but a bit challenging for our English ones since we wanted to emphasize the culture of the celebration and not the religious aspect of it. Granted, we took upon the challenge and succeeded.

I ended up turning this storytime into a Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos/skeleton theme. Without most of the skeleton stories, the books to choose from would have been slim and I was trying to vary this as much as I could from the previous Halloween storytime.

To explain Day of the Dead, we read The Day of the Dead by Bob Barner. I went straight into my next story since I felt that book was more of an introduction. Bonaparte Falls Apart by Margery Cuyler was a cute story, but perhaps a little too long for my group. I quickly did a movement activity with a "Dem Bones" song and read Skeleton Hiccups by the same author and Skelly & Femur by Jimmy Pickering. 

The kids absolutely loved the Skeleton Hiccups book because of all the hiccuping and liked the illustrations of Femur in Pickering's book.   

For another activity mixed in, I handed out different skeleton bones and had each of the kids bring their bone up and putting it in the "magic" envelope. Once all the bones were in, we shouted "abracadabra" and the skeleton's bones were magically put together. The kids thought this was fun and they liked saying the magic word.

As a craft, we made sugar skulls out of card stock, heart stickers (upside down for their noses), and crayons and markers. They really enjoyed the craft and had a good time making it their own.

Other books:
Halloween Hustle by Charlotte Gunnufson
Day of the Dead by Amanda Doering
Disney's Coco: Miguel's Music
It's Skeleton Time! by Ana Galan
Clatter Bash! A Day of the Dead Celebration by Richard Keep

Family Storytime: Halloween

For this week's storytime, we celebrated Halloween early with a Halloween storytime. This is always a hit with any group and we always keep it friendly, fun, and not scary but more spooky-cute!

We ended up reading four books that were mostly short,  counted Five Friendly Ghosts on the flannel board, and shared the story about The Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything using the flannel board. We also sang "If You're Happy and You Know It."

Out of the four books, the first book was the longest but the most well-received. Skeleton Meets the Mummy by Steve Metzger kept the group engaged. Goose's Spooky Surprise by Laura Wall was a nice addition to our Halloween theme and we followed that with Boo! Haiku by Deanna Caswell and Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin. Caswell's book is much like a guessing game that the kids loved and Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin is one I always end up reading for the holiday.

For our craft, we used white paint to paint our hands and press it onto to our paper and then glue q-tips to it to make it look like a skeleton hand. We have been using paint a little more than usual in storytime, but the kids have really enjoyed it.

Happy Halloween! 

Other Books and Ideas:
Skeleton Meets the Mummy by Steve Metzger
Boo, Bunny! by Kathryn O. Galbraith
Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin by Mary Serfozo
I Like Pumpkins by Jerry Smath
Ollie's Halloween by Olivier Dunrea
Goose's Spooky Surprise by Laura Wall
Boo! Haiku by Deanna Caswell and Bob Shea
Monster Needs a Costume by Paul Czajak

Toddler Art: Animals

I had some more new, great additions during this morning's Toddler Art program and everyone had a nice time with our short story and two crafts.

I read Karma Wilson's Bear Sees Colors. It's about Bear and Mouse who are friends and encounter different animals and colors along the way. The group enjoyed this one and it was fun to see them get excited about each color.

For our two crafts, we made Bear and Mouse. For Bear, I put paper plates out with dollops of brown paint for them to smear and paint onto their paper plate. We had cut-out ears and noses and sticker eyes to make the rest of Bear.

For Mouse, we used construction paper and yarn for his tail and a pom pom for his nose. I used some different color die-cut leaves to glue onto the background and incorporate the color theme of the book too.

They enjoyed making their crafts and parents helped, but I think next time I'll put out some sponges for the paint so it is a little easier for them to grip than the paint brushes. They can always use their hands and finger paint, but sometimes parents don't like this messier approach.

I liked how this story worked so well with the theme and crafts and this author has such great books for concept themes, animals, and the seasons.   

 

Book of the Month: I Give You the World

The illustrations of Stacey McCleary's picture book really drew me in. 

Summary: The perfect gift of all the world itself in its natural beauty through every season. The early morning light in spring shines on a new day; summer rain brings rainbows; falling leaves in autumn signals the arrival of cold weather; and a deer cautiously stepping into a newly fallen snow highlights the beauty of winter. A celebration of our world and its many precious gifts.

"My gift is each and everything: each autumn day, and each new spring, the winter's chill, the summer's laughter, every season ever after...The wonder, the beauty, the magic unfurled...all this is for you...I give you the world."

Age Range: 5-6 years

I enjoyed the pictures by Carmen Saldana and absolutely loved this message. We are gifting our children the world. It teaches how special everyday moments are and how important the nature of the world is to us all. 

Through poetic notation, it urges us to care for our world and cherish the moments we have with its nature. I also find it endearing how a parent could read this picture book to their child and show them that they loved them so much they gave them the world. This could also have a spiritual tone to it if interpreted that way. 

This is a darling picture book!

Preschool Picasso: Animals

I originally made animals the theme for this program because I wanted to make sure I had enough ideas to choose from when it was time to plan the program. I had too many good animal craft choices that I decided to narrow it down to forest/fall animals. I found a book to match that theme and made sure I found good bear and squirrel crafts to use.

 I think the book, Bear and Squirrel are Friends by Deb Pilutti, really helped tie-in this program well. The group enjoyed the book and their crafts.

Their first craft was mixing their blue and white paint on their paper plate to make Blue Bear and adding sticker eyes and die-cut pieces to complete his face. The kids had fun mixing their paint to get light blue and their bears all turned out so cute!

The second craft was making Squirrel. We used die-cut leaves to make Squirrel's tail and I had cut out Squirrel's body to glue onto their construction paper. The parents seemed to have really liked this craft with a few of the moms commenting on how cute it is.

The group wasn't as big as it has been in the past, but I think it was very comfortable for the group because sometimes space can be limited when the group is full. 

 

Family Storytime: Cats

For our cat storytime, we were able to read four books, use the flannel board twice, and sing "If You're Happy and You Know It."

There was a lot of cat books and activities to choose from, which always makes it easier. I usually bring out a few extra books and activity ideas that I custom to how the group is for that day. 

The four books that we read were Cat Knit by Jacob Grant, I Like Cats by Patricia Hubbell, They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel, and What Will Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas. 

I told a story about The Cat of Many Colors on the flannel board and made it in season by saying that the white cat wanted to be a black cat for Halloween. Of course he gets into things in the house that makes him change colors. I had a small enough group to have each child bring up their colored cat to the board.

The other activity we did that used the flannel board was Little Mouse in a House. I had a flannel mouse behind different colored houses and the group had to guess which house the mouse was in. They always like to guess! 

I decided to add another song to storytime. We did the Bean Bag Rock song with bean bags at the beginning, but I also sang "If You're Happy and You Know It" so we could all stretch a little and get our wiggles out. 

For our craft, we made standing cats out of card stock paper. I added a dotted line for them to practice their cutting and make their cat legs. I also used a die-cut "O" and cut that in half to make the tail. We used sticker eyes from Oriental Trading and I cut out cat head templates. This craft turned out so cute and every child makes their cat their own! 

I love animal storytimes and this one was no exception! 

Other Books on Cats:

Kittens! Kittens! Kittens! by Susan Meyers

Big Cat, Little Cat by Elisha Cooper

Top Cat by Lois Ehlert

Cookie's Week by Cindy Ward

There Are Cats In This Book by Viviane Schwarz

A Kitten's Year by Nancy Raines Day

Black Cat, White Cat Silvia Borando

How Do Dinosaurs Love Their Cats? by Jane Yolen