Virtual Program: Cozy Cuddles Storytime

 For another December virtual program, I enjoyed putting on a Cozy Cuddles storytime. This storytime was for everyone to snuggle up together with their stuffed animals and get warm and cozy with some theme-liked books.

The first book I read was Penguin in Love by Salina Yoon. This is an adorable book about a penguin who finds a lost mitten and is trying to find its owner. The pictures are so cute and is a book that warms your heart.

The next book I read was appropriately called So Cozy by Lerryn Korda. I like this book because it's about a dog who is trying to get cozy and take a nap when other animals come along and want to join him. Perfect for kids to practice naming the animals in the book.

In between the two books, I did a quick flannel board activity using flannel mitten cutouts and a rhyme for those to follow at home to practice their colors. 

At the end of storytime, I suggested a simple mitten craft that kids can do at home using paper, glue, cotton balls, and string. 

Another great book to read for a cozy cuddle storytime is William's Winter Nap by Linda Ashman. Perfect selection to read right before bedtime.

Keep cozy!

Family Storytime: Australian Animals

We ended winter storytime on the theme of Australian animals. We read books about koalas and kangaroos and then made a cute, koala craft.

To start off storytime, we participated in our bean bag dance song and then we read The Koala Who Could by Rachel Bright. This books rhymes perfectly and is great for this theme. It is on the bit of the longer side, but this book rhymes so well and kept the kids' attentions.

After our first book, we used the flannel board to do an alphabet activity. We fed the alligator alphabet pieces and everyone had a chance to put their pieces on the board.

Our next book was Don't Call Me Bear! by Aaron Blabey. This is such a silly, fun book about a poor koala who keeps getting called a bear. The kids laughed at how bothered he was by being called a different animal.

We ended up reading two more books since the kids were paying attention so well. Noni the Pony Rescues a Joey by Alison Lester and Bubbles by Kit Chase were perfect fits for this theme.

After our bubble story, we blew some bubbles and started making our construction paper koala craft. They each took times coloring their koala and adding leaves on to their "K" branch.

Other Books:

Eee-Moo! Annika Dunklee

The Koala Who Could Rahcel Bright

Koala and the Flower Mary Murphy

Over in Australia Amazing Animals Down Under Marianne Berkes

Two Tough Crocs David Bedford

Bubbles Kit Chase

A Hungry Lion Lucy Ruth Cummins

Oh No, Bobo! You're In Trouble Phil Gosier

Run, Run, Koala! Erica David

Platypus and the Lucky Day Chris Riddell

If I Were a Kangaroo Mylisa Larsen

Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too? Eric Carle

Who are you, Baby Kangaroo? Stella Blackstone

The Koala Who Could Rachel Bright

Other Activity: Kookaburra Song

Family Storytime: Snowmen

We started off our snowman storytime with our opening bean bag song and then got started with our first story, Snowzilla by Janet Lawler. This is a story about building the biggest snowman ever. The kids enjoyed this one and we talked a little bit about the concept big and small.

Our first activity was making our own snowman together on the flannel board. Everyone got a piece to complete our snowman and since the kids were so proud of it, we left it on the flannel board for the rest of storytime.

Our next story was All You Need for a Snowman by Barbara LaValle. This is a good read because it explains what makes a snowman and was a nice transition from the flannel board to this.

For our next activity, we each had a snowman piece to put into our magic envelope. Once we said "Abracadabra" our snowman magically was put together. This is a fun one that the kids really love because it is surprising. My magic was having two envelopes with one of the envelopes having a snowman already made.

Our final book was 100 Snowmen by Jen Arena. What a way to get the kids counting and following along. Loved all these books for our theme!

Our craft was making a snowman using paint, construction paper, and markers.

Other Snowman and Snow Books:

When the Snow Is Deeper Than My Boots Are Tall Jean Reidy

The Biggest Snowman Ever Steven Kroll

The Snowy Day Ezra Jack Keats

The Most Perfect Snowman Chris Britt

Waiting For Snow Marsha Diane Arnold

Dinos in the Snow! Karma Wilson

Pip and Posy The Snowy Day Axel Scheffler

Snowballs Lois Ehlert

Snowmen at Night Caralyn Buehner

The Biggest, Best Snowman Margery Cuyler

The Smiley Snowman M. Christina Butler

Here Comes Jack Frost Kazuno Kohara

Hello, Snow! Hope Vestergaard

Mouse's First Snow Lauren Thompson

There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow! Lucille Colandro

Big Snow Jonathan Bean

You Make Me Smile Layn Marlow

A Very Special Snowflake Don Hoffman

When the Snow Falls Linda Booth Sweeney

Into the Snow Yuki Kaneko

I See Winter Charles Ghigna

Best In Snow April Pulley Sayre

Mine, All Mine! Claire Hawcock

Sugar White Snow and Evergreens Felicia Sanzari Chernesky

Snowballs Lois Ehlert

Little Penguins Cynthia Rylant

The Reader Amy Hest

Family Storytime: Friendship

We decided to pick a friendship theme for Valentine's Day week and there were so many sweet books about friends and provided a unique storytime instead of the usual love theme.

After our bean bag song, we read Adorabull by Alison Donald. The kids really enjoyed this one about a boy and his bull friend and kept using the word "adorable" afterwards to describe the pictures in our stories.

We had a matching activity where they each had half of a heart shape and had to match it up on the flannel board with the same color half. The group always enjoys getting interactive with the flannel board and they each did a great job with matching!

Our next book was The Friendship Book by Mary Lyn Ray. A nice, sweet book describing what makes a friend and friendship.

Afterwards, we did some more matching using laminated book characters. They really enjoyed the matching activities and liked talking about some of the characters that were matched to their friends.

Our last story was My Big Bear, My Little Bear, andMe by Margarita Del Mazo. The surprise twist at the end is what made the book for the kids.

For our craft, we made friendship cards using cloud and sun die-cuts, construction paper and crayons. This craft was easy practice for the kids and they liked coloring their cards and added hearts.

Other Books:

Bear's New Friend Karma Wilson

Will You Be My Friend? Nancy Tafuri

Cyril and Pat Emily Gravett

Mr. Scruff Simon James

A Splendid Friend, Indeed Suzanne Bloom

Other Activities:

Laurie Berkner I Have a Friend (last track on Buzz, Buzz)

If You're Happy and You Know It

Family Storytime: Hats, Mittens, Scarves

We started off our hats, mittens, and scarves storytime with our bean bag song to get some of the kids' sillies out and then we dove right into our first book, Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonathan London. This is a perfect book for a warm clothes storytime and gets the kids laughing everytime.

Once we were done with our story, we used the flannel board and matched colored mittens. They loved being able to put a mitten on the board and we each counted them all at the end.

Our next book was another adorable book, Little Owl's Orange Scarf by Tatyana Feeney. This book always seems to keep the kids engaged and has simple illustrations.

We used the flannel board to count winter hats using a fun rhyme. We talked about their colors and everyone followed along well.

Our last story was A Hat for Minerva Louise by Janet Morgan Stoeke. This is another silly story that kept the group's interest.

For our craft, we made snowmen with ear muffs and scarves using styrofoam cups, pom poms, construction paper, and pipe cleaners.

Other Books:

A Mountain of Mittens Lynn Plourde

Do You Have a Hat? Eileen Spinelli (about all hats, not just winter)

Where's Mary's Hat? Barroux (about all hats, not just winter)

Knitty Kitty David Elliott

Whose Hat? Margaret Miller (about all hats, guessing, older pictures)

One Mitten Kristine O'Connell George

Smitten David Gordon

Song Activities:

Johnette Downing Scarf Activity Songs Track 3 "Shake Your Scarves" longer song

H.U.M. All Year Long Track 2 "The Mitten Song" short song with a few movements

Night Train 57 Track 10 "Hats" Short random dancing song

Optional Craft: Decorating cut-out mittens

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

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.

Family Storytime: Be Thankful

Because of Thanksgiving week, we definitely had a small turnout for storytime but we still had some fun. We were able to fit two books and a flannel board into storytime, as well as our bean bag song.

For our first book, we read Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson. I love books by Wilson and this is one of my favorites to read around this time of year.

We took a break from reading and went over our colors and numbers using a turkey flannel board activity. We each took turns putting up some feathers on the bare turkey. They really enjoyed this.

Our last book was The Thank You Book by Mo Willems. This was cut off a little short because the kids were more interested in getting to the craft.

We made a thankful tree using diecut leaves and writing what we are thankful for on each leaf.

Happy Thanksgiving!   

Other Books:

The Thank You Book Mary Lyn Ray

The Thankful Book Todd Parr

Thanks from The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Thank You Letter Jane Cabrera

Last Stop on Market Street Matt De La Pena

Thank You, Omu! Oge Mora

Those Shoes Maribeth Boelts

There, There Tim Beiser

Splat Says Thank You! Rob Scotton

Being Grateful Bullfrog Books

Grateful: A Song of Giving Thanks John Bucchino

The Thank You Dish Trace Balla

All The World Liz Gartn Scanlon

Thankful Archie Preston

10 Turkeys In the Road Brenda Reeves Sturgis

Other Activities:

Five Fat Turkey Flannel

H.U.M. All Year Long Track 23 The Turkey Hop

Family Storytime: Birthdays

Having a birthday themed storytime was such a great idea! It made everyone excited and was a very fun topic!

The first book I read was Hide and Seek BirthdayTreat by Linda Jennings. This book featured jungle animals who through a surprise birthday party for one of their friends. The pictures were cute and the animals introduced was also a good learning opportunity.

Our first activity was counting candles on our flannel board cake. We went over numbers, counting, and the colors.

The next book I read was Let's Have a Dog Party! by Mikela Prevost. This is a very energetic and chaotic book to read and kept everyone's attention. A little girl wants to have a party for her dog, but her dog just wants quiet. A very adorable picture book.

For our next activity, I handed out color balloons and we each had a turn to put our color on the flannel board. We counted the balloons and then they floated away.

The last book I read was Cupcake by Charise Mericle Harper. The kids loved this book about a cupcake who didn't feel special. The candle's suggestions on what to put on top of cupcake make this book so funny!

We did one more activity and used The Freeze Song off of The Birthday Party CD we have here at the library. We hopped, danced, and tip-toed to the song and froze when their was no music. The kids had a ball!

For our craft, we each made our own cakes and added our age number and the number of candles we need.

This is one of my favorite themes!

Other Books:

Happy Birthday, Moon Frank Asch

A Birthday for Cow! Jan Thomas

Baby Day Jane Godwin & Davina Bell

Happy Birthday, Biscuit!

Messy Besey and the Birthday Overnight Patricia and Fredrick McKissack

Birthday Monsters! Sandra Boynton

Surprise! Sally Noll

Monster's Birthday Hiccups Virginia Mueller

Family Storytime: Animals at Night

We started off storytime by doing our bean bag dance and then we talked a little bit about night animals and nocturnal animals.

The first book I read was Secret Pizza Party by Daniel Salmieri. This book was fun and really kept their attention.

Next, we did a flannel board activity using animals and making their sounds. The group was a little shy, but the older boys in the group helped us out.

I read The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle and they really enjoyed seeing the surprise ending with the book lighting up.

For our next activity, I used the book Moonlight Animals by Elizabeth Golding. This book used a really fun effect of using a flashlight piece and lighting up the animals in the pictures. We talked about each animal and the kids thought it was really fun how the book worked.

Our last story was titled Night Animals by Gianna Marino. It was perfect for this theme and had a funny ending.

Our craft was coloring an animal forest wheel and then adding a brad and a flashlight piece on top so that the kids could rotate which animal their flashlight shined on.

I thought this was a good theme, but would have liked to see more flannel boards in our collection that could have been used for it.

Other Books:

Whooo's There? Mary Serfozo

I'm Not Scared! Jonathan Allen

Night Creepers Linda Stanek

The Night World Mordicai Gerstein

Daylight Starlight Wildlife Wendell Minor

Sweet Dreams, Wild Animals! A Story of Sleep Eileen R. Meyer

Family Storytime: Fall

This was a nice fall storytime with a great theme that provided a lot of book and activity options.

We started with our bean bag song and then talked a little bit about fall-the leaves, animals, and weather.

Our first book was, We're Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger. I always enjoy reading this one for the fall theme because it goes over the colors and the concepts of directions.

This was a perfect opportunity to pull out the tree flannel and add some different color leaves to our tree. We counted each of the colored leaves on the tree and separated them by color.

Next, I read The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri. It's a very cute book about a squirrel who has no time to play because he's getting ready for winter.

Because our book was about a squirrel, I used our five little squirrel flannels and the kids helped counted and liked the rhyme that went with it.

Our next book was Mouse's First Fall by Lauren Thompson. The illustrations are so vibrant in this picture book and it's a cute story that sparks fall conversations with the kids.

We sang "If You're Happy and You Know It" and then read our last book, called Leaves by David Ezra Stein. I love this book's concept about a bear who is confused and concerned that leaves are falling off the trees and shows how bears hibernate for the winter.

For our craft, we used die-cut leaves and traced them with fall colored paint using our fingertips and q-tips, leaving colorful leaf designs on our paper.

Other Books:

When a Tree Grows Cathy Ballou Mealey

Clifford's Puppy Days: Apple-Picking Day Samantha Brooke

Every Autumn Comes the Bear Jim Arnosky

It's Fall Celeste Bishop

The Apple Pie Tree Zoe Hall

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf Lois Ehlert

Watching the Seasons: Fall Emily C. Dawson

Orange as a Pumpkin Molly Dingles

Let It Fall Maryann Cocca-Leffler

Full of Fall April Pulley Sayre

Family Storytime: Hedgehogs

Hedgehogs is a cute storytime theme for the fall that has plenty of books to pick from that focuses both on hedgehogs and the season. It's also a great theme for teaching about nocturnal animals.

We started off storytime with our bean bag song and then talked about what we knew about hedgehogs. Of course we talked about their spiky quills and how they are awake at night.

Soon enough, we dived into our first book, HedgehogNeeds a Hug by Jen Betton. This is a cute book that focuses on hedgehog's quills and how the other animals are afraid to hug him, except for the trickster wolf who ends up getting hurt from trying.

We each had a turn to put up flannel hedgehogs on the flannel board and count how many there were using a cute rhyme and then we got to our second book, Hedgehugs: Autumn Hide-and-Squeak by Steve Wilson and Lucy Tapper. I think everyone enjoyed this book because it was cute and we all had opportunities to squeak!

We sang "If You're Happy and You Know It" together and then got to our final hedgehog book…a short one called Hedgehog'sMagic Tricks by Ruth Paul. The group loved saying "Abracadabra!" throughout the book.

For our hedgehog craft, we made hedgehogs using pine cones. Even though it took some patience to get the pine cone to stick to our hedgehog face, each hedgehog looks so cute and unique.

Books:

Herbie's Big Adventure Jennie Poh

Hedgehugs Steve Wilson & Lucy Tapper

Help! A Story of Friendship Holly Keller

One Rainy Day M. Christina Butler

Little Hedgehog's Big Day Daniel & Heidi Howarth

Hedgehog Needs a Hug Jen Betton

Harriet Dancing Ruth Symes

Other activity:

Hedgehog, Hedgehog (tune: Teddybear, Teddybear, Turn Around")

Hedgehog, hedgehog, turn around.

Hedgehog, hedgehog, touch the ground.

Hedgehog, hedgehog stretch up high.

Hedgehog, hedgehog, search the sky.

Hedgehog, hedgehog, search down low.

Hedgehog, hedgehog, touch your toes.

Hedgehog, hedgehog, sit on the ground.

Hedgehog, hedgehog, curl up small and round.

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.