Around the Pond Storytime

 I enjoyed putting together an Around the Pond storytime for spring using picture books about pond animals. 

Our first story is about a growing frog in Tad by Benji Davies. I loved the colorful illustrations, how it explains the growth of a frog, and the powerful message of strength. 

After Davies' story, we counted frogs on the flannel board and then went to reading our next book, I'm a Duck by Eve Bunting. This story is about a cute duck who is conquering his swimming fears in his pond. 

For our craft, we made our own duck using construction paper, cupcake liners, and googly eyes. 

This storytime shows how kids can learn from nature around them.

Catch the Reading Bug!

 

Family Storytime: Spring

Seasonal themes are always fun and a great hit with the storytime crowd and it also gives the kids a chance to learn more about the changes in seasons and their differences.

We did our bean bag song and then read Mouse's First Spring by Lauren Thompson. The group enjoyed this one and it kept their attention.

Next, we did a flannel board based on the book, Fran'sFlower. The group was able to try and feed our plant all sorts of things, such as hamburgers and dog bones, but found out that sunlight and rain is what made our plant grow into a beautiful tulip.

We jumped right into our next book, When Spring Comes by Kevin Henkes. I love the simple, but pretty illustrations in this book and the kids seemed to notice the pictures as well, talking about the cats and flowers.

We needed to get rid of some of our sillies, so we sang "If You're Happy and You Know It" and then we went into our last book, Hurray for Spring! by Patricia Hubbell. This went well with the last lyric of our song and it was short enough just to get one more book in before our craft.

The kids are always eager for their craft, and this time we had them plant a green bean seed in a cup using potting soil. They also had a spring coloring page to color.

Other books:

And Then It's Spring Julie Fogliano

Splish, Splash, Spring Jan Carr

Let It Rain Maryann Cocca-Leffler

Other Activities:

Five Tulips

Mushroom in the Rain

Bunny Tales

5 Little Ducks

The Spotted Caterpillar

Colorful Butterflies

5 Little Bunnies

Walter the Waltzing Worm

Toddler Art: Watercolors

This group is always well-behaved, but today was exceptional! They were so attentive and quiet during storytime, I was able to read two board books and I was proud of them for their sharing skills too.

We read One Rainy Day by Tammi Salzano and Listen to the Rain, a Rookie Toddler Scholastic board book. 

Our theme was watercolors, so I read books on rain and got to our crafts. For our first craft, we discovered resistant art. I used white crayon and drew raindrops onto their sheets of white watercolor paper. Then they used thick paint brushes to paint their paper blue with liquid watercolor. This made the raindrops appear. The toddlers got a surprise to see the raindrops and they also had practice holding a paint brush.

Their second craft was experimenting with the watercolor palette. I put out clothespins with pom poms and they got them wet and then dipped them into their watercolors. They could paint however they wanted, but all of these turned out beautiful and with a sunset feel. This gave them a chance to just play with watercolors. They also could glue on a tulip die-cut to their paper if they would like.

Afterwards, we had some playtime and the group was so good with sharing the toys!

This was another fun one!

Toddler Art: Spring

It has been such a busy week already that it feels like this Toddler Art class was done last week. We welcomed spring by reading and crafting all things rain. 

We talked about rain for a little bit and then I read Red Rubber Boot Day by Mary Lyn Ray. This was just the right amount of length before the group got antsy. 

I explained the two crafts and we got to painting some raindrops and rain puddles. It was good that the kids got to experience at least two types of ways to paint, with their hands/paint brushes and with pom poms attached to clothespins. 

Our first craft was a rain boot puddle craft using blue paint and our fingers or paint brushes. Mostly everyone chose to use a combination of their hands and the brushes. The kids made a rain puddle with paint and then glued their rain boots on top.

Our second craft was an umbrella raindrop craft. We used the pom pom clothespins for dipping into blue paint and pressing them onto our paper to make raindrops. We tried not to have raindrops under our umbrella. 

One of my regular, sweet families gave me some Easter candy and that made my day. I really enjoy seeing every family at the library enjoying their time together and growing together.

Preschool Picasso: Spring

Preschool Picasso was all about celebrating spring. To celebrate spring, we read rain books and did some rain crafts. It was a plus that it happened to be a rainy day. 

We started off by discussing our rain theme a bit and then I read Mushroom in the Rain by Mirra Ginsburg. The group did a wonderful job listening and they were definitely in a storytime mood. 

I made a few program announcements and then explained our two crafts for the day. Our first craft was making our own thunderstorm scene and it was a great opportunity for the group to experiment with foil painting, blending colors (we went over how black and white makes gray) and making their own decision on how their stormy sky should look. They also practiced their cutting by making their own grass out of light green strips of paper. 

I think what makes this craft fun and unique is being able to paint on shiny foil.

The second craft gave them different textures to play with using pipe cleaners and cupcake liners. They used the clothespin/pom pom combination to dab blue pain to make their rain and the other supplies were used to make umbrellas.

A handful of kids asked if we could read another story and then more asked so I was able to read a total of four stories! I think reading the stories is the most important part of a youth library program, so I was happy to hear this request. I pulled the display books I had on rain and we read them. Rain on the Roof by Janine Scott and The Rain Came Down by David Shannon. We also read The Three Little Pigs, a book one of the kids brought from home.

I got a lot of nice comments from parents today on my reading style and craft choices. That made my day! Maybe rainy days aren't so bad after all!

Drop-In and Get Crafty: Spring

In celebration of spring, I usually have a drop-in craft. We made bunnies. The drop-ins seem to always have a good turnout and I usually hold them on days when the kids are off of school or weekends. 

I had some leftover bunny crafts from storytime and offered those and some coloring pages to anyone who would like to stay and do some more crafting. 

I used cloud die-cuts cut in half for bunny paws and an egg template and bunny face template for the rest of bunny's body.

Everyone's bunny turned out cute and one-of-a-kind.

Happy Spring!

 

Family Storytime: 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!

Books are Egg-citing!

Here's the latest bulletin board display I put together. We have a lot of other work going on, so it isn't as elaborate or homemade as my last bulletin board, but I like how it turned out and I can keep it up for a while since things are busy. 

Spring will soon be here!