Preschool Picasso: Curious George

I had an extra big group for Preschool Picasso: Curious George since we had a mom's group attend, as well as my regulars. It was so nice to see everybody and they got to see me as "The Man in the Yellow Hat."

We started off with the story, Curious George: Librarian for a Day by Julie Tibbott. This was a shorter Curious George story to read that was just the right length, was about the library, and taught about how we arrange the books in the library.

After talking a little bit about the book and how we put books back in the library, it was time to introduce our Curious George crafts.

Our first craft was a painting craft using their handprints to make Curious George's body, green paint for the vines he was hanging off of, and to glue on Curious George's face to their handprint. They used brown and green paint, watercolor paint brushes for their leaves and vines, and had practice gluing.

Our next craft was to make a Man in the Yellow Hat tie. They had a fun time using stickers and markers to decorate their tie and wear it around the library.

The kids really do love Curious George!

Preschool Picasso: Andy Warhol

This was a great Preschool Picasso turnout for the unique theme of Andy Warhol. I'm finding that the parents are excited for the specific artist themes I've been incorporating into this program. As long as I can find age-appropriate crafts and books for both preschoolers and toddlers, the artist-related theme is something I would like to stick to in the future.

We started off Preschool Picasso with our story, Uncle Andy's Cats by James Warhola that explained a little bit about Andy Warhol's life and included a fun story on his cats that inspired his artwork.

Once we finished our story, I explained the two crafts we would have for the day. Our first craft involved paint and green bell peppers. A unique artist requires a unique craft. The kids used cut green pepper and black paint to stamp on a flower-like outline that was inspired by Warhol's flower artwork. Once the outlines were stamped on their colorful neon card stock, they could paint inside with different color paint.

Their next craft was making a Warhol inspired block pop art using different colorful squares and colorful cat die-cuts, inspired by the story. The kids glued on their squares to their paper and added their cats on top to give it that pop art look.

Other Books:

ABC Pop! Rachel Isadora

Uncle Andy's James Warhola

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

Toddler Art: Building Blocks

Most of the Toddler Art group came in a little late, but what started off as a very small crowd became big.

I read the board book story, Blocks by Dr. John Hutton and then explained the two crafts for the day.

For our first craft, we used Duplo Lego blocks to do some paint stamping on paper. Some of the kids did some designs and rainbows with the help of their parents and the group had practice holding the Legos and stamping them. They enjoyed this one because they always like using paint.

For our second craft, we made homemade animal blocks. I pre-made the blocks and the toddlers had to glue on their animal faces, bodies, and legs to their blocks. I think they enjoyed playing with them and it was nice to see them do some matching with the help of their parents.

We had some playtime during the end of the program and most of the group ended up going up for our summer free lunch program.

Preschool Picasso: Building Blocks

For Preschool Picasso: Building Blocks, I started by reading Rex Wrecks It! by Ben Clanton. The group was enthralled and absolutely loved the book about a dinosaur who keeps wrecking and knocking down others' blocks. The group was very responsive and liked making the roar sound throughout the book that Rex makes. We talked about how he shouldn't be knocking down his friends' blocks and why the characters were all happy in the end.

For our first craft, I had 3D squares, triangles, and cylinders made out of paper and using die-cuts for the kids to dip into primary color paint and create their art. They could make designs, patterns, or any other ideas onto their paper. The younger kids practiced stamping and the older kids had fun coming up with their own creative ideas.

For our second craft, we made block robots out of printouts and card stock. The kids loved this craft and were excited to show me how they colored their robots. I think they liked having the options of painting and the options of coloring with markers and crayons for both crafts and it was a good mix. Both crafts went perfectly with the story since one of Rex's friends is a robot and because some of the kids built castles out of their block stamping.

Family Storytime: Dancing

This was a smaller group that attended the last storytime of the session, but we had fun with dancing books and dancing along to songs.

They really enjoyed Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andrede and it kept their attention throughout the whole story.

We followed along and danced to the song "Hands are for Clapping" by Jim Gill. At first we practiced all the movements and then we tried to follow along. The group was a little shy, but they tried their best.

After our song, we read Everybunny Dance! by Ellie Sandall and Horse & Buggy Dance, Dance, Dance! by Ethan Long. I could tell the group really enjoyed the first book over these, but they were still great listeners.

For our second activity, we danced using scarves to "Let's Dance Now!" by Jim Gill. This was a freestyle dance and I encouraged the kids to wave their scarves high, low, to the side, etc.

Our final book was Wiggle by Doreen Cronin. The group enjoyed this one and thought it was funny when the dog had a pancake on his head.

For our craft, we each made our own Hollywood Walk of Fame Star using our handprints, star diecuts, and star stickers.

Other Books:

Zombelina Kristyn Crow

Groovy Joe Dance Party Countdown Eric Litwin

I Got the Rhythm Connie Schofield-Morrison

Duck Sock Hop Jane Kohuth

Brontorina James Howe

Wiggle Doreen Cronin

Dancing Feet! Lindsey Craig

Hilda Must Be Dancing Karma Wilson