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.

Halloween Combined Story Time

For our holiday story times we combine all three of our groups together to make things a little easier. This included our Lapsit (Birth - 18 months), Toddler (18 - 36 months), and Preschool (3-6 yr. old) groups. We had an amazing turnout with some super awesome costumes.

Mrs. Alicia started off the festivities by introducing special guest Mrs. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus ( Pssst... It was ME!) to read the story for the day, Pumpkin Trouble by Jan Thomas.

Next Mrs. Alicia did Five Little Pumpkins sitting on a gate with the assistance of her mitten and five pumpkins.

Finally, Fancy Nancy (Mrs. Jillian) joined the story time to help us sing some pumpkin tunes.

This was followed by snacks, sparkle juice, and crafts. Mrs. Alicia had bags they could make to pick up their loot when they went on the parade later. Mrs. Jillian had black paper plate wreaths that they glued ghosts and pumpkins on and I had Paper Plate Ghost crafts.

For the finale we took a parade up and down both floors and stopped by each desk to get a special treat and see all the other staffers all dressed up. Everyone was wonderful and did a great job helping out!

And for a special treat here is a picture of the Garden Variety Mrs. Frizzle and Fancy Nancy:

Five Little Pumpkins

For my pumpkin story time this week I made this version of Five Little Pumpkins.  I like it because it's different from others I have heard  and I could really animate the pumpkins as they moved around the flannel board.

Here is the Rhyme:
Five little pumpkins bouncing by the door, (Place each pumpkin by the door)
One rolled away (remove one), and now there are four.
Four little pumpkins sitting in the tree, ( Place each one on the tree)
One jumped down, and now there are three. (Remove one.)
Three little pumpkins playing 'Peek-a-boo', (Place each on board between door and tree)
One ran away, and now there are two. (Remove one.)
Two little pumpkins sitting in the sun, (Place the sun up above the pumpkins)
One went home, and now there is one. (Remove one.)
One little pumpkin, feeling kind of shy, blows you a kiss, and waves, 'good-bye'. (Remove last pumpkin.)

When it says rolled, jumped, etc. I made the pumpkin do the action. When the pumpkin played peek a boo so did I. We did it a couple times and that resulted in the kiddos collapsing into fits of giggles.

The tree is the same template I borrowed when I made the Autumn - Blue is the Sky flannel story.

It's a Cat in the Hat Pumpkin!

My library is holding their second annual staff pumpkin decorating contest. All the patrons get to see them on display and vote for their favorites. The winner is announced during our big combined Halloween story time.

Since this is my first year I have my fingers crossed that i'll knock out the competition. For my entry I made the Cat in the Hat with Thing 1 and Thing 2. The cat is a real pumpkin and the things are fake ones just because they were the right size. I used felt, acrylic paint, and a boa from the dollar store. The whole thing was free handed.

Enough yapping, here are the pictures!

Ignore the mess and the almost empty bottle of Dr. Pepper. A girl gets thirsty when she is crafting it up!

Before the hat.

I hope you enjoy my pumpkin! If anyone has any questions about how I did any part of this just let me know!


On Display:

P is for Pumpkin!

Yesterday was quite hectic so I'm posting a little late. Better late than never!

Our theme this week was Pumpkins! I set up plastic pumpkin trick or treat buckets around the room and put some pumpkin window clings on the window. The kids had fun pointing them out!

The first story of the day was The Pumpkin Fair by Eve Bunting. This book has a great flow to it!

Our song for the day was Ten Little Pumpkins to the tune of Ten Little Indians. Parents love it because they know the tune and they can follow along. Kids love to count on their fingers and can easily learn the tune if they haven't heard it before. Plus it can be adapted to almost ANY theme! Love it!

The second story was Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell. This one is short and sweet. The kids liked pointing out the apples in pumpkins in all the pictures.

                                     

The flannel board for the day was called Five Little Pumpkins. I'll be posting the rhyme I did since it is different than a lot of the versions I have previously heard. The kids really seemed to enjoy this one but once again I'll explain more in the flannel board story post.

Our craft was easy but turned out so cute. I printed an outline of a pumpkin I found online  Here is a picture of the finished product. I cut different sizes of tissue paper instead of using pumpkin seeds( for the kids I made some that were a lot bigger than mine. This allowed for easier application for the little ones and the caregivers could talk to the child about the difference between the sizes.) and they applied them where they had put  a little bit of glue from the glue stick.