Family Storytime: Yoga and Mindfulness

This was a nice, calm storytime about yoga and mindfulness. It was our first storytime using this theme and I would definitely revisit it again.

I started off storytime with our familiar bean bag song and then I explained a little bit about yoga and mindfulness and asked some questions about our topic.

I started by reading Zoo Zen: A YogaStory for Kids that is a book that explains yoga using cute animal characters and showing each yoga pose they do. The kids were eager to try each pose and they were pros! This was great because they were involved, got in their exercise, and were focused.

We then read Yoga Bunny by Brian Russo. This is another cute yoga book about a bunny who wants his friends to do yoga with them, but they needed to focus and clear their minds first before Yoga Bunny got all his forest friends involved.

We did a few breathing and mindfulness exercises using Kira Willey's Mindful Moments cd and then we read our last book, Here and Now by Julia Denos. This was the perfect book to end this storytime because it was such a peaceful book to read.

For our craft, we made mandalas out of paper and paint. The kids loved painting and focused on it very well and then had fun seeing how their designs would look like after they folder their paper circles in half.

This is a perfect theme to do for a smaller storytime group.

Other Books:

Yoga Friends Mariam Gates

I Am Yoga Susan Verde

Belly Breathe Leslie Kimmelman

Family Storytime: Owls

This was a fun storytime with a good, solid theme where everyone was into the books and flannel boards. 

We were able to read three books. Hooray for Today! by Brian Won is about an owl who wants to have a party, but all of his animal friends are sleepy. This was the longest of the three books, but the group liked the story and the different animals. It also got us talking a little bit about nocturnal animals.

Our next book was Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood. This is a great book about colors that becomes interactive because the kids can help with announcing each color the sky changes to. They were excited to see the rainbow at the end of the book.

The final book we read was also a fun, interactive book. Don't Blink! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal got the kids very involved with trying not to blink and following along to the movements of the story. This was perfect for storytime because the kids can follow along to movements, but it wasn't about turning book pages-which usually doesn't work too well with a storytime group, but made more for a personal reading time with mom or dad. 

For our activities, I told a story of the Wise Old Owl using the flannel board and introducing other animals, we did our bean bag song, and we did a five little owl flannel rhyme. 

They liked making their owl craft out of construction paper. They were to color their owl and glue their pieces to construction paper. 

Of course we whooed a bit and had some owl stickers.

Family Storytime: Colors

This was the first storytime of the fall session and the first storytime without registration so I didn't know what type of turnout to expect. I ended up having to invite children by the stacks and computers for storytime, but this allowed for new attendees. 

I read three books about colors, did a flannel board, a bean bag song, and our craft.

We read Penguins Love Colors by Sarah Aspinall, Cat and Mouse Learn the Colors by Stephane Husar, and Little Green Peas by Keith Baker. Stephane Husar's book was the favorite because of the balloon colors.

For our flannel board activity, we put up different colored balloons on the flannel board and named their colors and counted them after our balloon story. 

Then we made a crayon using a popsicle stick, markers, and pipe cleaners for arms. 

I would have loved to have a little bit bigger of a group because of all what I had planned on this theme, but every storytime is beneficial to each child and therefore a success. 

Other Books:
Warthogs Paint Pamela Duncan Edwards
Chameleon Sees Colors Anita Bijsterbosch
A Color of His Own Leo Lionni
Every Color Soup Jorey Hurley
Red Are The Apples Wade Zahares

Other Activities:

Color Rhyme Movement Flannel

Dog's Colorful Day Flannel

Crayon Colors Flannel

Toddler Art: Monet

This was a smaller group for Toddler Art, but with new faces to the library. We read our short board book story, A Picnic with Monet by Julie Merberg and Suzanne Bober, that had pictures of Monet's artwork along with a sweet rhyme throughout.

Our first craft of the day was to make Monet's water lilies painting using a paper plate, blue paint, and pink and green cupcake liners. The toddlers spread and tapped their paint onto the plate by using a sponge and glued on their cupcake lily pad flowers.

The second craft for the program was making Monet's peonies painting. The group was given blue construction paper, green crayons, and red paint. They drew lines down their paper to make the flower stems and then used pom poms attached to clothespins dipped in red paint to make the flowers.

This was good practice socializing, listening, and using their fine motor skills with painting.

Afterwards, we had a little playtime with toys and music.

Teddy Bear Bash!

A teddy bear storytime is always a great choice because there are so many cute books available and everything ties in so well and it was nice to be able to do a teddy bear storytime on National Teddy Bear Day!

I read five books, did two flannel board activities with the kids, and we had craft and snack time.

The Boy and the Bear by Peter Stein was one of our newer teddy bear books in the library and it's a cute story that rhymes like Dr. Seuss about a boy who ends up losing his bear in the mix of meeting all different creatures.

I chose to read I'mAfraid Your Teddy Is In Trouble Today by Jancee Dunn because it was a perfect book about a bear and his stuffed animal friends who throw a party and get into mischief.

Loved to Bits by Teresa Heapy and Katie Cleminson is a sweet story about a bear that gets loved so much that he begins to fall apart, all the while his friend loves him more.

George in the Dark by Madeline Valentine is a story about being brave and a young boy who rescues his teddy from the dark.

Where Is Bear? by Jonathan Bentley is an interactive story that encourages listeners to try and find bear with a funny surprise at the end.

This group was very attentive, but I would have to say that they enjoyed The Boy and the Bear and Where Is Bear? the very best because it really got good reactions from them.

To break the stories up a bit, we helped flannel Teddy play ball by putting up our flannel circles on the board when teddy bear called for a color. Our other activity was telling the story of Brown Bear, Brown Bear together using flannel pieces.

Of course the group was able to make their own teddy bear faces using sponges and paint, paper plates, and heart stickers. We had teddy grahams and apple juice for a treat.

Book of the Month: Mousie, I Will Read to You

I came across Rachael Cole's book, Mousie, I Will Read to You at the perfect time. I was looking for a sweet, beautiful picture book to give at a baby shower. It tugged at my heart, is perfect for book lovers, and incorporates children growing up while being introduced to books and reading. 

Summary: Follows a mama mouse and her baby mouse on the little mouse's journey to becoming a reader--from infancy to toddlerhood to elementary school and beyond.

Ages: 3-7 years

"Long before the words make sense, Mousie, I will read to you the simplest story, about an acorn that drops to the ground." 

This book has a great message on the importance of reading to your child from birth to young adult and has modern, adorable illustrations to boot! This is definitely a great choice for a parent who wants to introduce reading and its importance to their children and to support a child's love for reading. 

Preschool Picasso: Monet

This was the first program in Youth for the Fall 2019 newsletter without any registration and it went well. I pretty much had around the same numbers as before, but I did see three new families. I didn't need to use tickets and I made extra crafts just in case.

I read the group Philippe in Monet's Garden by Lisa Jobe Carmack. This was a cute, rhyming story about a frog named Philippe and how he came to be in Monet's garden in France where he was painted instead of eaten as French cuisine. The group seemed to have enjoyed the book and were engaged throughout.

For our first craft, we made an inspired Monet craft using paint, construction paper, and coffee liners. The kids used blue paint to paint the background for the pond, added their pre-cut lily pads, and bunched up their coffee filters to make the lily pad flowers. Pink paint was added to their coffee filters to make their flowers more colorful like Monet's.

For our second craft, we made another lily craft using construction paper and coffee filters. We used a different technique of ripping paper to make the impressionist look Monet has in his works. The kids ripped their light blue and dark blue paper in strips and glued them onto card stock to make their pond. They ripped green construction paper to make their lily pads and added the coffee filter and pink circle dot to make their flowers.

The kids liked using paint and being able to rip paper.