Virtual Program: Let's Be Kind Storytime

For my February virtual program, I put on a kindness storytime. I wanted to do a different spin on Valentine's Day and I thought this theme fit very well.

The first book that was read was Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller. This really is a sweet book that shows all the ways you can make a person feel better just by being kind and showing empathy. This book really fit my theme and was a perfect introduction to kindness.

After we read our first book, it was time for a flannel board activity. Since we are so close to Valentine's Day, I decided to do a Valentine's Day flannel board using a rhyme and some different Valentines in the shape of hearts. 

Our following book was Finding Kindness by Deborah Underwood. I liked how this was another book that really explained being kind well. Both of these picture books allow children to understand all the different ways you can be kind to others.

For our sample craft to make at home, I used construction paper hearts and made a Valentine Bee that they could give to someone else for Valentine's Day to be kind. "Be kind and be my Valentine!"

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Valentine's Day

This was a fun drop-in with mostly regulars, but I did have a few newbies come in after inviting them in from the stacks. 

We had music, stickers, valentines, and they enjoyed making their valentine bear paper plate and decorating their matching valentine bear cards. A lot of the kids made their cards out to Mom, which was really sweet. 

Toddler Art: Hearts

It was easy to keep this hearts theme for Toddler Art since I was able to save some supplies from Preschool Picasso and use them for this class. 

I try to read a shorter story in Toddler Art than Preschool Picasso since this group is younger, and after perusing through some options, I thought My Heart Is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall was pretty perfect, especially with the animal illustrations made out of hearts. A few of my families arrived after the story so I offered to read the story again afterwards. Some parents seem to prefer to miss the story part of the program, but I'm just glad they are enjoying the crafts and time together as a family.

Once I read through the story and pointed out the heart shapes, I explained our crafts. 

We made a ladybug out of heart shapes and used black paint and q-tips to make her dots. The ladybug's red pipe cleaner antennas were a bit stubborn to glue on, but we used tape to keep it in place while it was drying in the glue.

For our second craft, we made a heart shape using cotton balls and pink, purple, and red washable paint. Different colored paint was dabbed on with a cotton ball around a die-cut heart that was attached with a piece of tape. Once the kids were done painting, making sure to paint around the heart outline, the heart was removed to reveal a pretty heart shape outlined in their artwork. I also handed eye stickers to the group instead of the pink dot eyes since I thought it would be more appropriate for toddler-aged children.

Both crafts helped the kiddos work on their fine motor skills with the q-tips and cotton balls. I think this was the most important factor that made both crafts a success, just getting that practice in. I think the group also liked having the choice of different paint colors and heart colors for their crafts.

I was a tad disappointed that I only had a few families on time for the story, but it was still a good program turnout and a fun time and way to celebrate Valentine's Day. 

Family Storytime: Valentine's Day

We celebrated all things hearts, hugs, and kisses in our Valentine's Day storytime. There are so many sweet books for this theme that after our bean bag song, we dove into our first story.

The Day It Rained Hearts is a classic by Felicia Bond. I originally was going to use this story for another program, but ended up saving it for our storytime. This is a story about a girl who collects different hearts that are falling from the sky. (A great story and art tie-in is using this book with puffy paint and construction paper hearts). 

As tempted as I was to continue reading, I introduced our flannel board activity. This was a matching hearts color activity. I had different colored "broken" hearts that each child could put their matching color on the flannel board. This was good matching and color practice.

Our next book was You Know What I Love? by Lorena Siminovich. This is a story about a girl who has a doll and all the things she loves doing with her throughout her day. 

Next, we read Valentine's Are For Saying I Love You by Margaret Sutherland. I pretty much read this one every year because it explains the holiday and isn't too long. 

 

We took a break from picture books and I told a story using the flannel board. Thousands of Valentines for Hundreds of Friends is a flannel story about a class who is handing out different valentines. One student insists he has thousands of valentines for hundreds of friends. As his classmates and us as a group are trying to figure out how he can have thousands of valentines, we find out that his friends are birds and his valentines are bird seeds. The older kids in the group liked guessing throughout the story. I gave hints like asking what flies in the air and lands on tree branches and tweets. 

I read a few short poems from Bear Hugs by Karma Wilson and Suzanne Watts before we read our last Valentine's Day story, How Do You Hug a Porcupine? by Laurie Isop. The kids absolutely loved this one and I did too because it captivated their attention and you find out exactly how to hug a porcupine and other animals.

For our craft, we made a heart that hugs out of construction paper. The craft went a little fast, but the group enjoyed making their heart their own. 

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Preschool Picasso: A Hedgehog Valentine's Day

For February's Preschool Picasso and Toddler Art programs, I knew I wanted to have a hearts theme for Valentine's Day. I didn't want it to be the usual Valentine's Day program so I decided to vary it a little bit. That led me to a hedgehog Valentine's Day theme. 

After narrowing down to two crafts and finding a book that was just right for my theme, it was time to prep and put on the program. The prep for this wasn't that bad. I did have to trace hedgehogs and cut out a bunch of hearts, but it could have been done easier if I had a smaller heart die-cut and trimmed my construction paper so it fit into the copier to make my hedgehog templates. 

Today's Preschool Picasso made up for last night's storytime turnout. No snow today and everyone came out for a Preschool Picasso kind of day!

We talked about Valentine's Day and read the perfect book for a hedgehog and hearts kind of theme. Happy Valentine's Day, Gus! by Jacklyn Williams is an easy reader about a hedgehog named Gus who desperately wants to make his mom a Valentine's Day gift, but just can't seem to get it right. Despite this story being a little wordy (I knew I had an older group who could handle it) and it being a smaller book with little illustrations, I still think this was a very fun story that tied-in beautifully with the crafts, especially when you read the ending!

Once we were done reading about Gus, it was time to make our own Gus...a Valentine's Day hedgehog made out of painted hearts. Each child had some cutout hearts that could be painted red or pink and could be glued to their hedgehog to make "spikes." Once the hearts dry, they do spike out for a nice effect. The kids liked painting their hearts, we used thinner paint brushes, and completed their hedgehog with a red pom pom nose and a pink craft eye. These turned out so unique and cute!

Our other craft was making a Valentine just like Gus did for his mom. I cut card stock in half and used a heart die-cut to make a heart shape in the middle of the paper. Different colored ribbon was glued onto the solid card stock and then the heart shaped cut-out was glued on top to make a ribbon heart. 

Both crafts were a hit and the kids enjoyed picking out different colored ribbon to make their own special hearts. 

Other books that could have complimented this theme were Hedgehog: A Sharp Lesson in Love by Benn Sutton, Panda's Valentine's Day by Tara Morrow, and My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall. Panda's Valentine's Day mentions using ribbon for a Valentine's Day craft and My Heart is Like a Zoo uses heart shapes as illustrations for the animals in the story.