Monday, February 25, 2019

Family Storytime: Dr. Seuss

In honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday this Saturday, we read Dr. Seuss books and did Dr. Seuss activities for storytime. This was a fun theme with the biggest group for me in the session. I made sure to mention to register for the next session and a few said they already have.

We were able to only read two books since Dr. Seuss books tend to be longer, but the kids really enjoyed Green Eggs and Ham and Hop on Pop.

After we did our bean bag song and read the first book, it was time to get moving again. We danced with our scarves to Seussical the Musical's Green Eggs and Ham song. Afterwards, we read our second book, did the Ten Apples on Top flannel, and sang If You're Happy and You Know It.

They enjoyed their Dr. Seuss hat craft and we had Dr. Seuss stickers! I think the group really enjoyed this one and I'm glad I had a lot of movement ideas since the group was a big one and were energetic. 

A nice way to end the storytime session! Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Other Books:
Dr. Seuss' ABC
My Many Colored Days

Monday, February 18, 2019

Family Storytime: Black History Month


Our idea behind a Black History Month was to focus on black authors and illustrators and there were themes within the theme based on books we pulled. I chose to focus on a movement and music theme.

I had a bigger turnout than usual and it was a good group. I started off storytime with our bean bag song and then I sang/read Happy! by Pharrell Williams. We all had a good time and I played the Kidz Bop version afterwards and we danced using our scarves. The kids really liked this and I was happy to have a bigger group so that everyone wouldn't be shy.

Our next book was I Got the Rhythm by Connie Schofield-Morrison and most of the kids followed along to the movements throughout the book. Once we read this book, we sang If You're Happy and You Know It. I had the color square movement flannel ready, but I thought the kids would lose interest and would like to sing our usual song instead.

Our last book was Rap a Tap Tap by Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon. I handed out egg shakers for them to shake when we got to the "tap tap" of the book. The kids got a little carried away with these and they became more of a distraction, so I think I will stick with the scarves in the future and save these for a less structured program or song.

For our craft, the group cut out clouds and glued on cotton balls. They colored their clouds however they liked and added what there dream was if a parent helped.

This was a harder theme to come up with activities, but with these I always try to use universal activities that would go with any theme. I liked how the theme ended up being musical based and based on the books pulled, another great theme would be a storytime on how we are all the same since many books had that message.

I played some Bob Marley lyllaby music during their craft time.

Other Books:
One Love by Bob Marley
Three Little Birds by Bob Marley
That is My Dream! Langston Hughes and Daniel Miyares
He's Got the Whole World in His Hands Kadir Nelson
Hey Black Child by Useni Eugene Perkins
Please, Baby, Please by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee
Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed (longer side)
Mixed Me! by Taye Diggs


Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Toddler Art: Feather Fun


I liked how Feathers forLunch by Lois Ehlert was just the right amount of length for toddlers and easy for them to understand. The crafts went wonderfully with the book.

For our first craft, I had the kids paint a bird, add feathers, and glue it onto a popsicle stick to make puppets. For the second craft, they glued different colored feathers onto cardstock with the cat from the story on it. I scanned a picture from the book and cropped to get the craft base. Both of these crafts looked artistic and allowed them to practice with painting and gluing.


For this group, I always use pom poms attached to clothespins for painting tools instead of paint brushes. We had a bit of playtime afterwards too.

Other Books:
Hooray for Birds! by Lucy Cousins (movement book)
A Funny Little Bird by Jennifer Yerkes (birds/nature)

Monday, February 11, 2019


Valentine's Day is always a fun theme to do with a storytime group and offers lots of options for every aspect of the program.

We were able to read just two books today since the kids were antsy, but we did our bean bag dance and If You're Happy and You Know It to give them some movement time. 

We read A Crankenstein Valentine by Samantha Berger and Love Monster by Rachel Bright. 

We also did two flannel boards that each of the kids helped participate in. For the first one, we matched hearts by their color. Our second one was counting five valentine cards. 

The kids had a little trouble cutting for their craft, but it was good scissor practice and I had some leftover Valentine's Day cards for them to color too.

Even though we only read two books, storytime ended about the same time because of the length of the activities. 

We traced our hands to make a Valentine's Day card and decorated cards that were leftover from my drop-in program. 

Other Books:
Foxy in Love by Emma Dodd
Valensteins by Ethan Long
Friends by Eric Carle
I've Loved You Since Forever by Suzie Mason
I Love You Because You're You by Liza Baker


Saturday, February 9, 2019

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Valentine's Day


This was a fun drop-in with mostly regulars, but I did have a few newbies come in after inviting them in from the stacks. 

We had music, stickers, valentines, and they enjoyed making their valentine bear paper plate and decorating their matching valentine bear cards. A lot of the kids made their cards out to Mom, which was really sweet. 





Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Preschool Picasso: Feathers


This was a fun Preschool Picasso and it was the first time we used feathers. The kids were more than eager to paint and had fun using the feathers and playing with them. They were a bit antsy during the book, but still were able to listen to most of it. We read Bamboo and Friends: The Feathers by Felicia Law. 

For our first craft, we painted a parrot on cardstock just like the parrots in the book. I put out four different colors of paint and then they glued different colored feathers onto the tail.

For our second craft, we made headdresses just like the animals wore in the story. We decorated them with crayons, markers, and stickers. I purposely avoided paint with this craft so no one would get paint in their hair.


Other Books:
Feathers for Lunch by Lois Ehlert
The Perfect Purple Feather by Hanoch Piven
Hooray for Birds! by Lucy Cousins
Chicken Chuck by Bill Martin Jr.
Cuckoo by Lois Ehlert
A Bird Is a Bird by Lizzy Rockwell
Honk, Honk! Hold Tight! by Jessica Souhami
Plume by Isabelle Simler
Silly Dilly Duckling by Claire Freedman
Finn's Feather by Rachel Noble
Hamsters to the Rescue by Ellen Stoll Walsh
The Crow's Tale by Naomi Howarth
A Funny Little Bird by Jennifer Yerkes
Feathers for Peacock by Jacqueline Jules
Borka by John Burningham


Monday, February 4, 2019

Family Storytime: Dragons


This was such a fun theme. The original theme was Chinese New Year and it inspired the dragon theme for me. I thought the group would understand and have more fun with a dragon theme since most of my group are little ones. 

The more I read to them and see what books keep them intrigued, the more I try to find similar books for upcoming themes. They absolutely loved all of these books and enjoyed the first and last book the most. These books were great for their imaginations.

The books I read were Do Not Bring Your Dragon to the Library by Julie Gassman, The Littlest Dragon by Susan Quinn, and Me and My Dragon by David Biedrzycki. 

For our activities, we did our bean bag song to open storytime and then I did the "Who Am I?" flannel to go over our shapes and play a flannel guessing game at the same time. The flannel is supposed to end up being a dinosaur, but it looked like a dragon too. They enjoyed putting their scales on our dragon.

Our next activity was following along to "If You're Happy and You Know It." I like using this one to break up the books and give them some movement time so they get their energy out. They also like the repetitiveness of the song and doing it mostly every storytime.

Our last activity was counting dragons with a rhyming flannel.

They enjoyed making their dragon crafts and a few stayed behind with me to dance along with their dragons. We used an easier dragon template and popsicle sticks instead of straws. We did some movement exercises and they kept up pretty well.

Really enjoyed this theme!

Other Books:
How to Dress a Dragon by Thelma Lynne Godin
Red Is a Dragon by Roseanne Thong
My First Chinese New Year by Karen Katz
D is For Dragon Dance by Ying Chang Compestine
This Next New Year by Janet S. Wong

Other Activities:
 Dragon, Dragon Movement Song