Playdough Party!

I had another great turnout for this playdough program.

I bought playdough from the Dollar Store and each child had some fresh playdough to create with. Playdough toys and playdough mats were put out and some extra playdough for the kids to swap colors.

We played music and the group had a fun time making things with their playdough. Our next playdough party will be in May. This has been a well-received program. 

Family Storytime: Hibernation

For this week's storytime, we did a hibernation theme. There were some great books on this theme and it was definitely a fun one.

After our bean bag song, I read Goodnight, Grizzle Grump! by Aaron Blecha. This is a story about a bear who wants to hibernate, but the other animals keep waking him up. The group enjoyed this story and followed along well.

For our first activity, we brought different colored flannel circles/balls to Polar Bear for him to play with while the kids learned their colors. Once everyone had a chance to participate, we counted the balls on the board.

Our next story was A Bed for Bear by Clive McFarland. This is another story about a bear having a hard time sleeping, but because he can't find the perfect hibernating spot. The kids had fun identifying the different animals in the story and they paid attention well.

We danced along to The Wiggles "Rock-a-Bye Your Bear" on The Best of The Wiggles cd and the group really did a great job with the movements.

Our last book was Hibernate with Me by Benjamin Scheuer. This was a cute, short story and a good way to end storytime before they got to the craft.

We made a hibernating bear using construction paper, popsicle sticks, cotton balls, and leaf die-cuts for his triangle cave. I liked how this craft incorporated a triangle shape and used cotton balls for a sensory feel. The group did a good job making their crafts.

Other Books:

A Loud Winter's Nap Katy Hudson

Wide-Awake Bear Pat Zietlow Miller

William's Winter Nap Linda Ashman

Bear Has a Story to Tell Philip C. Stead

Chaucer's First Winter Stephen Krensky

Sleepover with Beatrice and Bear Monica Carnesi

Old Bear Kevin Henkes

Bear Dreams Elisha Cooper

Bedtime for Bear Brett Helquist

Time to Sleep Denise Fleming

Sleep Tight, Little Bear Britta Teckentrup

Hibernation Station Michelle Meadows

Family Storytime: Opposites

We started off storytime with our opposites theme. I had mostly new faces to storytime and both younger and older kids with their siblings. I introduced myself and talked a little bit about storytime and our theme before we got started.

We did our bean bag song and the kids did a nice job following along. I started with our longest story, Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion. The group really enjoyed this book and they were good listeners throughout storytime.

After our story, we fed the crocodile opposites. They really enjoyed feeding the crocodile and we had practice with big and little opposites.

Next, we read Big Bear, Small Mouse by Karma Wilson. I love this book for the opposites theme and the group appreciated the cute pictures in the story.

We did a flannel board activity using different sized circles and their opposites. We went over big and small, colors, and counted each circle.

The group was still listening attentively so I read two more short books, The Greatest Opposites Book on Earth by Lee Singh and You Are (Not)Small by Anna Kang. They liked the pop up pictures in the first book and laughed about the big bears and small bears in the last story.

For our craft, we made a slinky dog using paper and pipe cleaners, showing the opposite of short and long. The kids really enjoyed playing with their crafts.

Other Books:

Swing High, Swing Low Fiona Coward

The Hueys in What's the Opposite? Oliver Jeffers

Outdoor Opposites Brenda Williams

Octopus Opposites Stella Blackstone

Stop, Go, Yes, No! Mike Twohy

Hero vs. Villain T. Nat Fuller

Opposite Things Anna Kovecses

Yummy Yucky Leslie Patricelli

Hot Dog Cold Dog Frann Preston-Gannon

Walk and See Opposites Rosalind Beardshaw

Toddler Art: Numbers

This month's Toddler Art theme was numbers. We read Race CarCount by Rebecca Kai Dotlich and then we did some painting and gluing.

For our first craft, we did some number dot painting with caterpillars and snowmen using black and green paint. The parents helped their child count while they were having fun with paint and using their fine motor skills.

Our second craft was counting cars to go along with our book. Each child had to glue on a different color car to the big number five on their paper. The kids really enjoyed this craft and I found out they are a big fan of cars, inspiring a possible car program for the future.

At the end of craft time, we had a little playtime.

Other Book:

Pop-Up Peekaboo! Numbers

Pop-Up Book Storytime

This was a unique pop-up storytime that was held on a Saturday afternoon. Despite the bad weather, I still had a nice turnout. The group was very well-behaved and listened quite well.

We read a variety of pop-up and lift-the-flap books that mostly had to do with animals and then we made a pop-up inspired craft.

The books I read were I Saw Anaconda, Where is Mama?, Believe, Hoot-Hoot Pop-Up Fun, Who's Hungry?, and Grow, Baby, Grow!

The kids were really excited to make their own pop-up after seeing all the cool books. They each made a pop-up frog with a move-able tongue to catch the flies of course! We all folded and cut our frog together, which worked as a great instruction, and everyone had their move-able frog mouths and decorated their page with lily pads and grass.

I would definitely do this type of program again!

Other Books:

Do Crocs Kiss? Salina Yoon (lift-the-flap)

Beautiful Oops! Barney Saltzberg (lift-the-flap)

Animal Opposites Petr Horacek (pop-up)

Out of Sight Pittau & Gervais. Animal book (with lift the flap and pop-up)

The Greatest Opposites Book on Earth Lee Singh (Opposites/circus both)

Cook in a Book Cookies Phaidon Press Cookies (Lift the flap)

My First Pop-Up Dinosaurs Owen Davey dinosaurs (pop-up)

Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? Susan A. Shea (lift-the-flap)

Who's There? Alain Crozon (lift-the-flap)

Preschool Picasso: Numbers

It was great to see everyone back after holiday break and a few new families. This month's theme was numbers and it turned into a numbers/ocean theme because I found two craft ideas that I thought were perfect for the program and a rhyming ocean and numbers book to go with the whole theme.

We read One Nighttime Sea by Deborah Lee Rose and counted sea animals along the way. The group enjoyed the pictures and helped count the creatures with me.

For our first craft, we did a paint-by-number fish using cardstock and six types of colored paint. Some children freestyled their painting, but the majority did try to follow the colors for each number.

Our next craft was making an adorable jellyfish with eight tentacles. The kids added eight colorful pipe cleaners onto their pre-cut and pre-hole punched jellyfish body. Then, they added beads to each tentacle depending on how many beads were needed. Some of the group even color matched their pipe cleaners to their beads.

The group loved these crafts and I had compliments on the jellyfish, as well as parents saying they would buy their kids some color-by-number books.

I liked that I was able to incorporate a painting craft using numbers and how the jellyfish craft helped them work on their fine motor skills and offered a different craft approach.

Optional Book: Swallow the Leader: A Counting Book by Danna Smith

Book of the Month: Kids Have All the Write Stuff

I picked up Kids Have All the Write Stuff  in the hopes to get some fresh ideas for upcoming writing programs for elementary-aged children for the new year. This book did not disappoint. Not only does this book validate all the reasons why writing is important for children, it offers up ideas and online tools to get you started on your teaching journey.

Summary: You can open up a world of imagination and learning for children when you encourage the expression of ideas through writing. This book shows you how to support children's development as confident writers and communicators, offering hundreds of creative ways to integrate writing into the lives of toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary students--whether at home or at school. 

Ages: For parents/teachers

"This book is a MUST for both teachers and parents or caregivers. The authors share a unique way of exploring writing that not only leans into technology but also excites and interests all students regardless of their prior experiences or skill level." 

~Leah Mermelstein, author of Self-Directed Writers

I particularly found the chapters on journaling and poetry helpful and liked the thorough information on writing boxes and how to go about introducing them and creating them. However, I would have liked to have seen lesson plans incorporated more, but there are some online links to lesson plans or step-by-step instruction guides.

This is absolutely a worth-while read for any parent or youth writing instructor.