Drop-In and Get Crafty: Christmas

This year's Drop-In and Get Crafty: Christmas was a success all thanks to Santa! Santa visited the library during the same time the program was being held so I had a lot of Santa's little visitors come to craft time. We usually pair these two programs together so it becomes a big event.

It's also a great opportunity for me to reflect on the year here at the library and see all the faces that come throughout the year.

For this year's craft, we made a Santa ornament. I used die-cut pieces, googly eyes, and cotton balls to have them create a cute, homemade ornament to put on their tree.

Holiday coloring pages, stickers, and candy canes were put out as well.

Merry Christmas!

Toddler Art: Merry Grinchmas!

I had a couple new faces for this month's Toddler Art and they made great additions to the group. We read a board book Grinch story for our theme and then we made two Grinch inspired crafts.

In I Am Max by Astrid Holm, the book explains the Grinch and his dog Max in Dr. Seuss rhyming fashion. The toddlers listened very well to the book and enjoyed the familiar illustrations.

For our first craft, we just had to make a simple Grinch face. I used light green paper plates and cut-out pieces. The kids got their motor skills practice in with the help of a parent.

Our last craft was well-appreciated by parents. The toddlers used tissue paper and a heart to make the Grinch's big heart. The toddlers were able to do this craft practically on their own and all of them turned out cute.

I try to find a balance of a cute craft and toddler ability for this program and it's always a plus when I come across a number of craft ideas that fit this criteria.

Merry Grinchmas!

Preschool Picasso: Merry Grinchmas!

I was really excited to put on my first Grinch program and am happy that it went so well and was a part of the Preschool Picasso program. There were so many cute Grinch crafts and ideas, but I knew I wanted to keep the reoccurring theme of one craft using paint and the other being somewhat unique to the other. We read a Grinch book and did our two crafts.

For our book, I read I'm the Grinch by Dennis Shealy. This is one of the newer Grinch books that are out and was a perfect length for a quick story for preschoolers. We talked a little bit about the Grinch and Dr. Seuss and of our favorite characters. This book told us about the Grinch and how he doesn't like Christmas, but of course it ends cute.

Our first Grinch craft was making a happy Grinch using a pre-cut paper plate and shapes. They enjoyed painting his face and I added some white paint to the green so they could color blend and get a lighter green color for our favorite holiday character.

Our second craft was making a grumpy Grinch mask. We colored our masks and added a Popsicle stick so we could pretend to be him. I was pleased to see parents taking pictures of the kids holding up their masks and other project.

Merry Grinchmas!

Family Storytime: New Picture Books

For this final week's storytime before winter break, we decided to use this as an opportunity to use some of the library's newer picture books. I took some time to look through our new picture book display and chose a few that I thought would be entertaining enough for storytime. I settled on a Pete the Cat book, a dinosaur story, and a cat story.

We got some wiggles out by following along to the bean bag song and then we read our first book, Pete the Kitty and the Groovy Playdate by Kimberly and James Dean. Pete the Cat is always a hit with the storytime crowd and this book was exciting for them because it was one that they haven't read yet.

Since we read a story about a cat, I pulled out our colored cats flannel and we went over colors and how many were on the board.

Our next book really captivated the group and it's no surprise because of the author. That's What Dinosaurs Do by Jory John was a silly story about a dinosaur who was told not to roar.

Since it was time for another flannel board story and the holidays are right around the corner, I thought it was perfect for us to decorate our own storytime holiday tree. I put up a bare flannel tree on the board and everyone had a couple chances to put their ornaments on the tree. We talked about colors and how many were on the tree and even did some adding since I had a few older kids.

Our final book was a rhyming book about cats and hats…no, not that Dr. Seuss book. This story was Hats are Not for Cats by Jacqueline K. Rayner. This was another book that the group thought was so funny.

I could really tell these books were a hit because all these books were equally well-received with probably Jory John's book being the favorite.

For our craft, we made our own bookmarks using die-cuts and Popsicle sticks.

Seasons Readings!

Book of the Month: Hair Love

I seen a short, animated YouTube video on Hair Love and loved it so I thought I would check-out the book.

Summary: A little girl's daddy steps in to help her arrange her curly, coiling, wild hair into styles that allow her to be her natural, beautiful self.

Ages: 4-8 years

 "Daddy tells me it is beautiful. That makes me proud. I love that my hair lets me be me!"

There's so much heart into this book that makes it incredibly touching and makes a great pairing with the video. 

It was interesting to find out that they didn't touch upon Zuri's mother having cancer and being in the hospital like in the video, but the message and modern feel of the video was there in the book. 

This is a worth-while book for teaching the lesson of acceptance, understanding, and love. I would introduce children to the book first and then the video to talk about the heavier topics presented in animation.