I am always surprised when I get to this theme that I'm not so wowed by the picture books on butterflies. Either the story is interesting, but too long for little ones to sit to, or they are lacking a good story to it if they are short. I do have my favorites for this theme, but I'm really looking for some new good ones to add to my list.
The books we read were Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert, Don't Worry Bear by Greg Foley, and Kitten's Big Adventure by Mie Araki. The group enjoyed counting the butterflies in Ehlert's book and liked how their was a kitten in Araki's book.
I told the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar using flannelboard pieces and they all helped me put the food pieces onto the board.
We also counted some colorful butterflies on the flannel board and went over each of their colors.
For our craft, we made butterflies out of paper plates. They all turned out very pretty, but we needed to staple some of the wings together because the paper plates wouldn't stick too well to the the construction paper.
Let's flutter into spring!
Spring storytimes started off really well with a big turnout. I had some new faces and some regulars. Since we had some new kids and it was the beginning of a new session, it was time to go over what we do in storytime. After that, some of us got introduced to the bean bag song and then it was time for our first spring story.
When Spring Comes by Kevin Henkes is a perfect story to go along with our theme and has such beautiful pictures. I think any books by this author works well for a storytime.
After we learned a little bit about what makes the season of spring, we counted tulips using a rhyme on the flannel board and went over each of the colors.
And Then It's Spring by Julie Fogliano was our next book. I liked how this book had a different style of artwork compared to Henkes and went over the brown colors of winter turning into the green colors of spring, which is one of my favorite parts about the season.
Next, we all helped tell the story of The Spotted Caterpillar on the flannel board. I handed out red, blue, and yellow felt dots for the kids to put on our caterpillar once they heard their color in the story. This is always one of my favorite flannel board stories to use for a spring/flower/butterfly theme. It's about a caterpillar who eats red, blue, and yellow flowers and has spots appear on him after he eats them. The kids love putting their pieces up on the board.
With such a big group and diverse ages, we were getting a little antsy so it was time for a quick book that would grab their attention and then our craft. I thought Abracadabra, It's Spring! by Anne Sibley O'Brien would do the trick. Some of the group helped saying the magic words with me in the story and enjoyed seeing the pages unfold.
After some upcoming program announcements, it was time to have fun making a construction paper and tissue paper flower. Boy, were these colorful and the group enjoyed making each of their unique flowers.
Happy Spring!
We celebrated the library's caterpillars turning into Monarch butterflies by releasing them out in the courtyard and having a butterfly coloring contest.
I have been fond of butterflies since twelve-years-old and I'm in charge of the coloring contests in our library, so it made sense to put on a coloring contest. It's always a great passive programming idea.
It's always fun to see how the kids get creative in their coloring and with the help of the other library departments, we chose winners for each of the four age groups.
They each received a bag of goodies that always includes a book!
Congratulations to the winners!
I always liked butterflies and it's a perfect theme for a storytime because there are some good butterfly picture books out there and neat crafts to go with them. Butterfly books, activities, and crafts can also work for the general bug theme.
I started off this butterfly storytime by reading Four Friends in the Garden by Sue Heap. Florentina the bear is playing in the garden with her friends when she notices a fluttery butterfly. She is excited to show her friends, but the butterfly keeps flying away. I thought this was a cute and simple story that followed the butterfly theme.
Next, I shared a story using the flannelboard called "A Spotted Caterpillar." This is a story about a hungry caterpillar who eats different colored flowers that make him get the same colored spots all over his body. We had red, yellow, and blue felt flowers and the kids each got a chance to put a colored dot on the caterpillar. Of course at the end of the story, he turns into a beautiful spotted butterfly!
Our next butterfly book was Don't Worry Bear by Greg Foley. This is a story about a bear who finds a friend in a caterpillar but worries that his friend is changing and can't find him. It's a great story to use to simplify the butterfly stages.
We did a simple flannelboard counting and color rhyme with five colored butterflies and then it was on to our last book, Kitten's Big Adventure by Mie Araki. An adorably illustrated kitten finds herself on an adventure after chasing a butterfly.
For a butterfly craft, we made our own butterflies complete with a pipe cleaner antenna and a popsicle stick body. The kids enjoyed decorating their butterfly's wings anyway they liked using markers and crayons.
Spring is finally here!
