Marvelous M Storytime (x2)

Last week I was asked last minute to do an all ages (preschool and toddler) storytime, so I grabbed the storytime stack I was working on.

Books

Five Little Monkeys Bake a Birthday Cake

by Eileen Christelow

Kitten's First Full Moon

by Kevin Henkes

The Magic Hat

by Mem Fox; illustrated by Tricia Tusa

When I read this book I like to tell them that I am going to read it the way Mem Fox, the author, read it when I meet her at a conference.  (In fact, I don't think I could read it any other way!)

Songs/Rhymes/Flannel

Hands Are Clapping

M-O-U-S-E
There is a little ball of fur
Nibbling on my cheese
M-O-U-S-E
M-O-U-S-E
M-O-U-S-E
And Mouse is his name-o

Because we were doing the letter M we took the letters away backwards; leaving the M until last

There is a little ball of fur
Nibbling on my cheese
M-O-U-S-(clap)
M-O-U-S-(clap)
M-O-U-S-(clap)
And Mouse is his name-o

Continue taking letters away from the back each verse.

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

My Hands

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Hop, Hop, Stop!

Play and Learn

• Playdough!  (we finally got a child's height table, so we had to try it out with some playdough!)
• Felt Button Chain
• Sewing Cards
• Blocks
• Mouse ABC Dot-to-Dot

This week I did my usual Preschool storytime and I had a little more time to prep, plus I had older kids.

Books

Too Many Moose

by Lisa M. Bakos; illustrated by Mark Chambers

Five Little Monkeys Bake a Birthday Cake

by Eileen Christelow

Graph Question
If I got to eat a treat that starts with the letter M I would choose...
marshmallows (5), milkshake (2), muffin (2), M&Ms (7)

Songs/Rhymes/Flannel

ABC Welcome

My Kitten's Mitten
Flannel made by a creative co-worker!

My poor little kitten lost her mitten
And started to cry, boo-hoo.
So I helped my kitten to look for her mitten.
Her beautiful mitten of BLUE.

I found a mitten just right for a kitten
Under my mother's bed.
But, alas, the mitten was not the right mitten,
For it was colored RED.

I found a mitten just right for a kitten
Under my father's pillow.
But, alas, the mitten was not the right mitten,
For it was colored YELLOW.

I found a mitten just right for a kitten
Stuck on my princess crown
But, alas, the mitten was not the right mitten,
For it was colored BROWN.

I found a mitten just right for a kitten
Under my new magazine.
But, alas, the mitten was not the right mitten,
For it was colored GREEN.

I found a mitten just right for a kitten
Inside a grocery sack.
But, alas, the mitten was not the right mitten,
For it was colored BLACK.

I found a mitten just right for a kitten
Under the kitchen sink.
But, alas, the mitten was not the right mitten,
For it was colored PINK.

I found a mitten just right for a kitten
Inside my favorite shoe.
And this time the mitten was just the right mitten,
For it was colored BLUE.

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

My Hands

Play and Learn

• Magnets
• Musical Instruments
• Stamping letters
• Making Pizza Felt Sets
• Mouse ABC Dot-to-Dot

Winter Baby Storytime (x2)

So excited to be with my babies after having a day off last Friday!

Rhymes/Songs/Bounces

Hands are Clapping
Hello Song
Little Bear
When Cows Get Up in the Morning
Roly-Poly
Tiny Little Babies
Jingle Bells
The Wheels on the Bus
Pease Porridge Hot
Toast

Read Aloud Book

No Two Alike

by Keith Baker

Play and Learn

Parachute (recording of Jingle Bells)

Coloring--I covered a table with white butcher paper and collapsed the legs so it was laying on the floor.  Several children wandered back there to color, a few even walked or laid on it!  It was a fun new activity to try.  We will definitely do it again sometime!

Another winter-themed baby storytime the next week...

Read Aloud

Snow Babies

by Laura Ellen Anderson

Shared Reading

A variety of board books featuring winter or cold weather animals including:

Who Can Swim?

by Sebastien Braun

Snowman Shuffle

by Christianne Jones

Home Sweet Home Storytime

Another storytime I developed after reading a new picture book (Good Night Bat) that I really liked.  I actually found quite a few other "home" books.

Books

Good Night Bat Good Morning Squirrel

by Paul Meisel 

Whose House?

by Barbara Seuling; illustrated by Kay Chorao

Graph Question
If people didn't live in houses, where would you like to live?
Pond, Nest, Burrow, Cave
Cave was the winner with 6

Songs

ABC Welcome Song

The Ants Go Marching

Hop, Hop, Stop!

Play and Learn

• Color and cut matching game (animals and their homes) from KidzClub
• Puppets
• Blocks
• Felt Button Chain
• Tangrams
• Pool Noodle Blocks
• Sort plastic animals by where they live

Marble Mazes

I've started a new weekly program at my smaller library for families and elementary-aged kids.  I call it Thursday Things--meaning every Thursday we will have something going on at the library!  However, the "higher ups" made me assign a topic to each week AND they changed the name of it to "Thumbs-Up Thursdays" (which I really don't like!)  The goal is to have programs that will be very simple--meaning low prep and low cost.   Here's the weekly themes:

1st--STEM
2nd--Art
3rd--Legos
4th--Games
and the 5th in March--Building

So we started off with a super fun STEM activity--Marble Mazes.

Supplies
Cardboard (boxes, tubes...)
Craft sticks (regular & Jumbo)
Paper plates
Straws
Colored paper
3 oz Dixie cups
Masking tape
Hot glue
Scissors
And of course, Marbles.

(We could have probably used a box cutter, but the wanted the kids to the as much as possible on their own).

For our purposes I explained that we wanted the marble to get from one spot to another in an fun and interesting way.  I used the pictures of the completed project from these websites to help get them thinking. (FrugalFun4Boys, another one from FrugalFun4Boys, and BuggyAndBuddy).  I did NOT give them any "instructions".

We had five families (14 people) which is a good size for our small library.  The kids were super creative and very engaged.  They came up with some really fun designs.  One dad really get into the process too!

 Three girls played with this marble maze for about an hour--adding to it, decorating it, racing marbles...It was so fun to watch!

I'm so excited our first program in the series went so well!  I'm excited for the other activities we will be doing through April!

Baby Storytime--Winter

We're celebrating more winter in Baby Storytime!  We had a nice group today, now that the holidays are over.

Songs/Rhymes/Bounces
I forgot my notebook at my desk; so we just winged it.  I know we've been doing the same songs for a while because I remembered most of them! :)

Hands are Clapping
Hello Song
Little Bear
When Cows Get Up in the Morning
Roly-Poly
Where is Thumpkin? *new*
Jingle Bells
One Bright Scarf

Read Aloud Book

Into the Snow

by Sharon Phillips Denslow; illustrated by Nancy Tafuri

Shared Reading

A variety of board books featuring winter and/or snow including...

Snow

by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

Baby Loves Winter

by Karen Katz

Play and Learn
It's been a while since I pulled out the tunnel.  Several were "brave enough" to go through!

One of my babies that has been coming since he was 3 or 4 months old is now WALKING!!  That is always so exciting; but sad too because it won't be long until he moves up to toddlers!

Snow Storytime

It has been very cold and snowy here...so SNOW was a perfect theme for today!

Books

The Snowy Day

by Ezra Jack Keats

Winter is for Snow

by Robert Neubecker

Flannel/Songs

Five Little Snowmen (flannel)

5 little snowmen standing in a row

Each with a hat and a big red bow!

Out came the sun and shone one day

And 1 little snowman melted away.

Continue counting down to zero

Jingle Bells

Five Little Snowmen

5 little snowmen playing on the sled

One fell off and bumped his head

Frosty called the doctor and the doctor said, 

"No more snowmen playing on the sled!"

Continue counting down to zero

Play and Learn

Open Ended Snow Art

white paper circles in a variety of sizes, white paper squares in a variety of sizes, blue & black full sheets of paper, white chalk, white construction paper crayons, scissors, glue

The children cut out snowflakes, made a snowman, made a blizzard (cutting lots of paper into tiny pieces!), and enjoyed using white chalk on dark paper.  I was very pleased with how this worked out; children were very creative and engaged!

Alphabet Magnets

Wooden Beads

Train

Gears

Gingerbread Houses

We were so excited to host another school-age program before Christmas...A Gingerbread House Build!  We had 60 people attend!  Kids of all ages (3-adult) had fun creating gingerbread houses out of graham crackers, icing, and goodies (pretzels, mini-marshmallows, gumdrops, Fruit Loops and mini candy canes).  If I were doing the program myself I would have made up cups that were a "variety" because kids would only take two cups.

Check out these awesome creations!

Art at the Library

I have connected with the STEAM magnet school in the district to have art work displayed every 6 weeks or so.  Here are the first two displays for November-January.

2nd Grade Water Colors
Spider Webs

4th Grade Mixed Media
Picasso Instruments