Wednesday, November 30, 2011

I'm Hungry! Let's Eat! Story Time

I had grander plans for this story time when I originally planned it in August. However, time got away from me and while I'm not completely satisfied with the end results, I think it turned out okay.

We started off with the story, Little Pea by Alison Krouse Rosenthal. This book is absolutely adorable! IT's about a little pea and his family who eat candy. Little Pea HATES candy and can't wait to get to dessert, a big bowl of spinach!

Next we read Chew, Chew, Gulp! by Lauren Thompson. This one is very short and sweet and so I tried to stop occassionally and point out different things within the illustrations as well as to chime in that burping without saying excuse me isn't very polite.

Five Little Cookies
 

We finished up with a Five Little Cookies magnetic story.

Fix A Plate Craft


Our craft involved them picking and choosing which pieces of food and/or drink they wanted to put on their lunchtray/plate. I printed the items from here for the food (as seen on the last two pages of the pdf) and here for the place mat and adjusted them to my needs.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Be a 'deer and check out my Christmas bulletin window!

It's Christmas time at the library and I've once again been inspired by Pinterest. More specifically this pin. Here is my version with a description of what I did below.


I cut out the reindeers using a template of my own. I made the signs in publisher using a wood grain pattern for the background to give it that wooden plaque look. We don't have butcher paper here but we do have a ton of cardstock and poster boards. I put two white poster boards together and then glued red card stock on top to give a barn door effect. The green paper is wrapping paper I got on clearance fgrom Target a couple years back. I love it because it just has squiggly designs on it and I can use it year round! I printed out pictures of different reindeer themed books we have available and posted those randomly on the board. I am quite pleased with how it turned out and am so glad I found a great inspiration piece!

Halloween Bulletin Window

My sanctioned area to decorate in the library as the newbie is the children's workroom window. I had a lot of fun putting up my first display and was definitely ready for more creativity.


I had previously purchased the monsters peeking through the window from target with other halloween items that were on clearance. They were too big for my windows at home but perfect for the library! With a little bit of scary green garland and some cut out letters stating "Scare up a good BOOK!" I wasin business. I cut out some pumpkins for the bottom to display different halloween books we had available and added some bats from a discarded bulletin border to add a little something extra. I bet the monsters peeking could be replicated using butcher paper and poster board if you aren't able to find something close to these.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Old MacDonald had a farm...

E-I-E-I-O!

Today we are talking about farm animals!

We started off with our bigger book Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown. This is wonderful story about the animals on the farm when the children are away.

Next up was our flannel board story, Old MacDonald Had a Farm. I've seen alot of incarnations of the cardboard barn to hide the animals in before you bust them out but this is my version!
We ended our storytime with the short, Barnyard Banter by Denise Fleming. This involves lots of animal noises and a missing duck!

Create A Farm Story Time Craft

Our craft today is Create a Farm. I printed out clipart barns, cows, ducks, pigs, etc and cut them out. I glued a half a sheet of blue paper to green cardstock to give the effect of the sky and a hilly farm scene. The kids can glue them on. This allows the parents the chance to discusss each animal, what sound they make, and why they put them where they did.

My favorite part of the whole story time was when the mom asked the little girl "What do pigs give us?" and she replied, "BACON!" I gigglesnorted for a good while on that one!

Old MacDonald Flannel

For my recent Farm Animals unit I really wanted to do Old MacDonald Had a Farm. It's a classic and easy for the parents to assist me with. Plus, the kiddos really love making animal noises!

For my version I made it into a flannel board using clipart from the web. You can pick any animal you want to include for this which makes it very versatile. I added a little something interesting though. I painted a cardboard magazine holder (which we have TONS of) red and white like a barn. I housed the animals in there and before each new verse I made a big show of pulling out a new mystery animal.

The Barn (And the Sneaky Giraffe!)

The Animals