Make a Hat Day

 I find it helpful to look up quirky dates to get program ideas and I came across Make a Hat Day on September 15, so I thought this would be a cute and unique storytime. 

Believe it or not, there's a lot of good books for this theme. I decided for my first book, to read Do You Have a Hat? by Eileen Spinelli. Of course I like this book because it rhymes beautifully, but also because it talks about different people throughout history and their individual hats. 

We are trying to keep our storytimes a little shorter virtually to see how that goes so I only read two stories for this one despite all these great hat books. The other story I chose was Hooray for Hat! by Brian Won. It seems to be every animal is having a grumpy day until hats are shared. What a fun hat story that promotes sharing, friendship, and emotions. This is also perfect to read out loud. 

For our craft, we made our own hats! I included a supply bag that had a cardboard cutout hat from Oriental Trading and all sorts of supplies they could use to decorate their own ideal hat. I put pom poms, tissue paper, googly eyes, feathers, and stickers in their bags to decorate and have fun with. 

Grab your favorite hat and read a story!

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: 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: 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.