The Great Stuffed Animal Sleepover Party!

A sleepover party for stuffed animals---doesn't that sound like fun?  It was our kick-off event on June 14 for the Summer Library Program, or the Summer Reading Club, or whatever you like to call it.  I started this post right after the party, and then forgot about it while I was waiting to get the pictures together.

Anyway . . . .

We welcomed the animals to the party by making tags for them that said:  "Hi! My name is _____ and I belong to ______." Each critter got a tag so we would know what belonged to whom for the overnight stay.

The kids sat on a couple big picnic quilts for storytime.

Once everyone was assembled, I taught them the Library Cheer. The cheer was written by Garrison Keillor and you can see librarian Margaret Miles demonstrating it on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jis3P6HFZ-M

Then we sang Alice the Camel, and read two great bedtime books:  Llama Llama Red Pajama, by Anna  Dewdney and Where’s my Teddy? by Jez Alborough. 

Here's a good little bedtime fingerplay:

This little child is going to bed  (hold up one finger)

Down on the pillow she lays her head  (lay the finger down on the palm of your other hand)

She wraps herself in a blanket tight  (wrap fingers around the one finger child)

And this is the way she sleeps all night. (hold out your two hands)

  

I told the story of The Tailor and the Hudgin, or, The Bed Just So.  There is an old book by Jeanne Hardendorff called The Bed Just So,where I got this story, but the book is out of print. It is my favorite "slightly-scary" story for the younger crowd. I often use it at Halloween, but it isn't really a Halloween story.  It's about a tailor trying to get some sleep and the mysterious hudgin who keeps him awake all night long, until he finds the solution right before his eyes.

After all the stories and songs we made glittery stars to hang from the ceiling, and then tucked the animals under the quilts.  Goodnight, critters!

The critters had a great time overnight in the library.

This was such a fun activity and really easy to do. We'll probably do it again!

Ladybug, Ladybug

Today was ladybug day at the library.  We Read Ladybug, Ladybug by Ruth Brown and Little Red Riding Hood from Lucy Cousins collection Yummy!  Then we had a ladybug song with ladybugs for the flannelboard. Sing this to the tune of Hush Little Baby.

Ladybug one, let's have some fun
Ladybug two, I like you
Ladybug three, Do you like me?
Ladybug four, do you have anymore?
Ladybug five, do the ladybug jive,
Ladybug six, you can walk on sticks,
Ladybug seven, fly up to heaven,
Ladybug eight, now don't be late,
Ladybug nine, I think you're fine,
Ladybug ten, Let's do it again!

You might be able to come up with better rhymes than I did. Feel free to change the words anyway that works for you.

I handed out the ten ladybugs and each child brought up the corresponding ladybug when I sang that line of the song. Of course, as the numbers got higher they needed some help figuring out how many spots the ladybug had. Since I had more than 20 kids today, we did the song twice so that everyone could get a chance to put a ladybug on the board.

The bugs are made of black and red felt. The red wings are glued on to the black base. The spots were made with a permanent black marker.

For a craft we made---you guessed it---ladybugs. The kids glued red wings and a black head on a white card, and then stuck on black spots. The black spots were actually white dots that are left over from circular labels that are printed to put on CDs and DVDs in the library. I've been saving these sheets of white dots (about 1 inch in diameter) for a long time,and I finally found a use for them! I had a teen volunteer color the dots black with a permanent marker.

I gave the children and parents the option of making more than one ladybug card if they wanted to make counting cards with a one-spot ladybug, a two-spot ladybug and so on. A few made two bugs with multiple spots, but no one took me up on the idea of a set of counting cards.

Caterpillars and Butterflies

Continuing with the wonders of spring today, our theme was caterpillars and butterflies. I had a brand-new book to share: Ten Little Caterpillars, by Bill Martin and Lois Ehlert, with her usual big bold colorful illustrations.It was a great alternate to The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which all the kids already know. The second book was Butterfly, Butterfly by Petr Horacek. That one has a nice big pop-up butterfly at the end.

We sang:

Little Arabella Miller
Found a fuzzy caterpillar.
First it crawled up on her mother,
Then up on her baby brother.
They said, "Arabella Miller,
Put away that caterpillar."

And:

Butterfly, butterfly happy all day, butterfly, butterfly fly, fly away. 

(Hook your thumbs together and make your hands into a butterfly that flutters as you sing.)

5 little butterflies sitting on the door

1 flew away and then there were four.

4 little butterflies sitting in a tree

1 flew away and then there were three.

3 little butterflies flying in the blue

1 flew away and then there were two.

2 little butterflies sitting in the sun

1 flew away and then there was one.

1 little butterfly left all alone

he flew away and then there was none.

Butterfly, butterfly happy all day, butterfly, butterfly fly, fly away.

I didn't know that this is a Barney song. I like it anyway. 

For our craft we made caterpillar pencils.  

You will need:

Foam strips

Hole punches

Small foam bits---circles, squares, triangles--for spots

Pompoms for the heads

Small wiggly eyes

Pipe cleaners 3 or 4 inches long for antennae

Pencils

White glue turned out to be too weak and runny for attaching the heads, so we switched to Tacky glue.

Celebrating Dr. Seuss

Here we are in March, and I am still stuck in February. But it's not my fault! February is too short!

Last week's preschool storytime fell on February 29th--- a day for celebrating Leap Year Day (impossible to explain to preschoolers) and Dr. Seuss's upcoming birthday (an occasion of fun for everyone.) For me it was a chance to try out some new activities.

As much as I love the good doctor, many of his books are too long to read to younger preschoolers. So I selected one of his shorter pieces. I've always been very fond of Too Many Daves and What Was I Scared Of? in The Sneetches, but this time I went for Gertrude McFuzz, in Yertle the Turtle.  Gertrude is Dr. Seuss's very own Fancy Nancy wannabe. She just wants to have more than one short little tail feather. She wants a beautiful tail like Miss Lolla Lee Lou. So she finds a way to get what she wants, but of course she gets greedy, goes overboard, and ends up with a tail she can't lift off the ground.

Our other story was Green Eggs and Ham, nice because most of the kids already know and love this one. I used it because of the great flannelboard idea I got from Mel's Desk. Melissa Depper is a librarian after my own heart, and she has great ideas for flannelboard activities. I copied her idea and cut out enough colored eggs so that each child could have one. After I handed out the eggs, we chanted:

Sam-I-am, Sam-I-am,
I do so like RED eggs and ham!

When their color was announced, they got to bring up the egg and put it on the board. I love this because the kids always want to help with the flannelboard figures, and most of the time I don't let them, because there are not enough to go around. This time they all got to participate, and they loved it.

We had two crafts. I started with a "green eggs and ham" craft, and then decided to add a Gertrude McFuzz picture too. The eggs were simply uncolored eggs photocopied onto white cardstock and cut out. The kids colored them any color they liked and glued them on a colored paper plate.

Here's Gertrude:

I traced her from the book and photocopied her, leaving plenty of room to add some tail feathers.

First the kids colored Gertrude, then they glued on as many tail feathers as they liked.

 Doesn't Gertrude look happy and proud with her multi-colored feathers flying behind her?

It's a colorful world!

There's so much you can do with colors! It's easy to do a storytime about color---so many books, so much to talk about. 

We started out talking about what colors the children were wearing---red, blue, green, brown, gray, yellow, and of course, the ever-popular pink. Then instead of singing "If You're Happy and You Know It" we sang:

If you're wearing red today, clap your hands!
If you're wearing red today, clap your hands!
If you're wearing red today, clap your hands and shout hurray!
If you're wearing red today, clap your hands!

---and on through blue and all the rest.

Our books were Dog's Colorful Day, by Emma Dodd, Lemons Are Not Red, by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, and an old-time favorite of mine, The Adventures of Three Colors, by Annette Tison and Talus Taylor.

The Adventures of Three Colors was first published in 1971 and reissued in 1980. I wish someone would reprint it---it's a delightful introduction to color theory. In the story Herbie and his dog Angelo see a rainbow and are inspired to go home and do some painting. But Herbie finds that he only has three colors in his paintbox: pink, blue, and yellow. What can he do with only three colors?

It turns out that he can do everything. The clever element in the book is the use of clear plastic pages. For instance, on one there is a blue elephant and on the facing regular page there is a yellow dog. When the plastic page is laid over the regular page a green fish appears where the elephant and the dog intersect. Several of these kind of pages follow, culminating in an undersea picture with an octopus, crab, and seahorse. Amazing!

This book isn't seen in libraries much anymore. I used my own copy of the book, one that my children enjoyed for many years.

Here's a color chant or game that the kids enjoyed doing---

If you see red, put your hand on your head,
If you see blue, touch your shoe,
If you see green, wash your face clean,
If you see yellow, wave at the fellow,
If orange is found, put your hand on the ground,
If you see pink, then think, think think!

We added more lines to the ones I already knew. I asked the kids to suggest colors, and we made up the following:

If purple you see, put your hand on your knee,
If you see white, hold your hands up to the light,
If you see black, put your hands on your back,
If you see brown, put your hand on the ground.

What could you do with turquoise, azure, or chartreuse?

We did an extremely simple craft, one that I felt a little guilty about. We strung colorful Fruit Loops on pipe cleaners to make edible bracelets. Easy and fun, but all that sugar! Sugar is the first ingredient listed on the box, so you know that Fruit Loops are really just candy, even if they are sprayed with "15 vitamins and minerals." I hope none of the mothers minded my giving their children a sugary snack.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, Where Are You?

Today at storytime it was all about polar bears and other Arctic animals. Even though it is unseasonably warm and sunny outside, in the library (and at Head Start) we visited the Land of Snow and Ice.

We read ---

Say Hello to Snowy Animals , by Ian Whybrow
(Grr-grr, hoot-hoot,swish-swash,and so on), 

Little Mo by Martin Waddell  
(lots of slipping, sliding, and gliding on the ice)


and  

The Polar Bear and the Snow Cloud,
by Jane Cabrera




Here is a song we sang. Sing it to the tune of My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean. The kids can join in on the "warm, warm" chorus.)


The polar bear lives in the Arctic,
He never gets cold in a storm.
He swims in the cold icy water,
His heavy coat keeps him so warm.

Warm, warm, warm, warm,
His heavy coat keeps him so warm, so warm.
Warm, warm, warm, warm,
His heavy coat keeps him so warm!

(If you type "warm" that many times, it starts to look really weird.)

For our craft we made Polar Bear pictures. 

Materials:

Construction paper
White bear cutouts
wax paper
cotton balls
glue sticks

The fun part about making this picture is crumpling and tearing the wax paper to make ice. Tear off a piece of wax paper, then let your child crumple it up and smooth it out. They can tear it any way they like to make ice mountains, or ice floes, or ice islands.

Glue the wax paper on the construction paper, then add the bears. Draw features on the bears. Pull apart one or two cotton balls and glue the pieces on to make clouds and snow.

Blueberry Bears

Storytime was a repeat of last year's bear storytime, so I don't have a lot new to write about. We read Blueberries for Sal, the classic by Robert McCloskey.  I love that book. Some of the kids enjoyed it, but it was too long for the younger ones.

Luckily, I got them back with Dinosaur vs. the Library, by Bob Shea. This new book was a hoot to share. Dinosaur roars at everything, everywhere he goes, and pretty soon he has all his friends (the cow, the chicks, the owl), and all the kids, roaring along with him. Dinosaur wins!

But then he goes to the library. Can he use his "library roar"?  Can he not roar at all during storytime? He can!  Library wins (and so does Dinosaur.)

We went on a "Bear Hunt," which was another good story activity for holding the attention of the younger set.

Our craft was a paper bag bear puppet with blueberries.

A paper bag puppet is nothing new, but I thought it was fun to give him some blueberries.

The library has lots of unsharpened pencils, and they make good small stamps. Use the eraser end to do your stamping. I had a couple different shades of washable blue ink stamp pads.

Most of the bears ended up with blueberries everywhere! Messy bears!