CREEPY CRAWLIES... YUCK!

After signing in with a bug sticker for themselves and one for their folder, I found out some of the children were about as enthused over spiders as myself. But when we sat down and looked at the big, hairy tarantula [a stuffed one, of course!] everyone found spiders to be quite interesting. We counted legs and talked about the difference between spiders [8 legs] and insects [6 legs]. We also talked about their eyes and "C" noticed a "funny thing on the spider's butt" and we talked about them spinning webs and producing a sticky silken thread.

"Someone" jumped back very quickly when the spider made a sudden move, and it gave the adults quite a chuckle. But he came right back up to thoroughly check out the spider.

Our first book of the morning was Diary of a Spider by Doreen Cronin. I needed to tell the kids that although they would learn a few facts about spiders, the book was going to be mostly silly stuff.

As we read the children moved in closer and closer to find things in the pictures and laugh at some of the silly things the spider did. The adults even found there was some higher level humor as this book is very well written.

The minute I finished the book one of the children asked if we were going to make a craft today. My answer was, "Yes, we're going to spin a spider web!".  That brought out a couple of funny looks and giggles. At the craft table the adults helped the children thread a bobby pin 'needle' with yarn and also punched heart-shaped holes around the edge of a paper plate. Then the children were able to randomly "sew" a web onto the plate. They found that creating a web was hard work that took lots of concentration. When the plates were finished we used sticky dots to put baby spiders into our new webs. All the children did such a good job, and as you can see they are very proud of their webs.

Now it was time for our second book: The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle.

I gave each of the children a packet of pictures of the animals in the story and a picture of a ladybug. After counting the legs on a ladybug  and discovering she was an insect, we talked about being grouchy at times, and although the children wanted to say they were never grouchy the adults didn't bear that out as truth.

I then began the story with the ladybugs meeting on a leaf  where they could have a breakfast of aphids and the Grouchy one not wanting to stay and eat. 

When he flew off and met the wasp I brought out ladybug finger puppets for each of the kids and had them find the wasp on their sheets. They children soon learned to say, in unison, "Do you want to fight!?", as their finger puppets approached the same creature on their sheets as my Grouchy Ladybug met in the story. Then we also did, "Oh, no, you're not big enough!", in unison and had the ladybugs fly on.

We had a great time reading this book together, and I'm sure Susan heard us in the Senior Nutrition Site down the hall! [Even the adults joined in as the story went along.]

We were really at the end of our time, but no one was in a hurry to leave so we played a game called Bugs in a Jar.  The children were very gracious about taking turns rolling the die, counting the spots, then selecting that many "bugs" of the color determined by the crayon I drew out of a black bag. When they filled their jar they got to select a full sheet of stickers as a prize. In the end, everyone won a sheet of stickers.

It was then time to get our take-home sheets, a little morning snack of Goldfish or Mini Nilla Wafers, and a surprise from Mitzi. After rolling the die,to determine the order of choice, each child was allowed to select a Beanie Baby to keep. To relate to the theme of the morning I had a curly snake, a scorpion, a snail and a spider... all "creepy/crawly things". "D" played the game in the evening too, and beat her mom, but we forgot to take a picture. She also took home a scorpion that kept 'stinging' everyone!

Next week is our final session until next Fall and it is going to be about Mothers. Hope you'll join us.

Childrens' Librarian,
Mitzi

No Story Hour

Remember there is no story hour April 23rd!  We will be back for "Creepy Crawlies" on April 30th!

A MEOWY GOOD DAY!

Today was all about the habits of cats that live with us, and how they relate to the big cats [especially lions and tigers]. It began with getting a paw print stamped on our hands. Then we talked about cats that live with the children and myself. From there we jumped right into learning facts about cats. My base book was an Usborne book titled Cats by Patrizia Donaera.

I would present a topic using this book and then had pages marked that linked to it in the following books that are all books from a series titled All Nature's Children: Cats by Maggie Da Silva, Lions by Elizabeth MacLeod, and Tigers by Bill Ivy [sorry, images not available for two of the books]. 

As we were talking/reading about cats our guest arrived. He was brought in by my husband in a carrier. His name is Jax.  He's my "sweet boy" and he was exactly that throughout Story Hour, as he allowed me to show his retractable claws, his eyes changing in darkness and reflecting light, and his teeth. 

He also showed us how cats check everything out through smell and he allowed everyone to touch him at times. He even "talked" to me a couple times and that reinforced more cat communication. He showed us he was very comfortable with us by rubbing on us and rolling around on our rug. He also liked the curtain in the play corner.

"M" noticed that Jax wasn't eating his food. We decided he was too excited by all the new things to explore.

At the craft table the children selected brown, grey or orange paper to create a stand-up cat with toothpick whiskers. As you can see, they turned out to be just as cute as real kittens.

As Jax created so much interest, and the children had a lot to add to our topic today, we ran out of time to read our fiction book. The children were given cat-themed take-home sheets which

included the letter "C", pictures of cat eyes, a little rhyme and a cute story about cats with some words linked to pictures to help the children with word identification. And the final item of the morning was to allow the children to select a Beanie Baby cat [from my daughter's former collection] as their very own. It was so wonderful to see them hug and cherish that animal!

There is no Story Hour next week, April 23, but the following week, April 30, the theme is "Creepy Crawlies".  I hope you will join us.

Children's Librarian,

Mitzi

It's for the Birds... and Kids!

"D", her dad and I [her sister joined us some of the time] had a great Story Hour together . After signing her in and giving her a sparkly cardinal sticker and getting her folder set up we started with a picture of a robin. We talked about it being our state bird, common in our yards as the warmer seasons begin, how it hops along the ground looking/listening for worms, and looked at its color markings.

Then we read Birds by Kevin Henkes. It was a great book to allow us to talk about birds of different colors and some of the habits of birds.

At the craft table we made a paper robin, again looking at the picture and noting the proper coloring and adding some white crayon between his orange belly and tail and a white ring around his eye. Dad traced "D's" hand to make her robin's tail and wing and then cut the fingers apart a bit so they looked like feathers.

Back by the story rug we looked at the book Cardinals and Other Songbirds by Meish Goldish, a World Book Series book. We talked through the selections I had marked about birds that are commonly seen in our backyards. We discussed their coloring, where we might see them, what they eat and for some of them, the calls they make. "D" had a lot to add to our discussion.

When we returned to the craft table I had a box with a real bird nest in it for us to talk about. We looked at all the different things the bird had put into the nest: paper, pieces of plastic bags, grass, feathers, small twigs, string, etc. We also noticed how soft the inside felt. I then brought out my box of items I had collected so "D" could 'be a bird' and build her nest on a blue paper plate. I had placed strips of very sticky tape on the plate for her to attach items, and as she struggled with some items we talked about how birds have only a beak and feet with which to build their nests.

As you can see she selected some very appropriate items and built a rather nice nest.  She then used her sheet of common birds to select one to cut out and put on the nest.

When that was done I gave "D" some sheets related to our bird study to put in her take home folder. Then her mom and sister joined us and I gave them all a Rice Krispie bird nest with 3 malted eggs inside. Everyone seemed to enjoy the treats and then it was time to go home.

Next week's lesson will be about cats. Hope to see you then.

Children's Librarian,
Mitzi

It's a Jungle, Sometimes!

"M" was here this morning and we had  "C" with us as a visiting guest. Both girls and adults joined in with the opening song and when I asked if they were ready to have some fun I received a very enthusiastic, "YES!". So we got started right away with our first book, We're Going on a Lion Hunt by David Axtell.

Before reading we talked about lions and what the girls knew about them [fierce, with big, sharp teeth; not friendly; have a mane- which lead to talking about that as only on a male lion. We all agreed that we wouldn't want to go on a hunt for a lion. So we also talk about how kids pretend to do things or even dream they have done things. As this book is based on repetition it allowed the girls to join in much of the time.

We added actions to show going "over, under, around and through" all the different places in the story.

I think we were very relieved to know the girls got home safe with that big, male lion following... but then they were in bed so maybe they dreamed the whole adventure.

I then informed the girls that we were going to "paint with forks" [which caused some giggles and crazy looks]. The girls also thought it was interesting that I mixed some yellow paint with the brown and we talked about how that made the brown a lighter color. They were very ready to then pick up a fork and paint the lion's mane.

We created his face on a separate circle so we could glue it over the one with the painted mane. They really turned out as cute lions, not fierce ones.

While that project continued to dry we returned to the Story Hour rug for our second book, If You're Happy and You Know It by James Warhola.

This book is written to a tune familiar to so many. It is about being happy and clapping your hands, so again everyone joined in. We would look at the page, determine what sound or action to make, and then do the song. The girls really enjoyed some of the actions, especially jumping, crawling, scratching out fur, and roaring. 

As we read the book the girls noticed some of the animals were on our Story Hour rug, so when we finished reading we looked at all the animals on the last two pages and searched to see how many were part of the alphabet rug. Surprisingly, there were quite a few, and that also gave us a chance to talk about letters that went with the animals.

At the craft table the children watched me mix black and white paint and they soon recognized the color grey. I asked them what big animal was grey, and after the response of "rhinoceros",  I got "elephant". [The book featured an elephant all the way through, that is why I chose an elephant for our project.] I started by painting my palm and fingers, then pressing them to a white sheet of paper. Next we did an adult and the girl who came with her.

While our handprint elephants dried I had the girls work on an animal sheet with patterns where they had to select the animal that would next appear in the pattern. Then I gave them a sheet of animal "front halves" and they had cut out pictures of the "back halves" and they had to put them together. Both girls did and excellent job of getting these two sheets correctly completed.

We also named all the animals on the front-to-back sheet. Then the girls could take them home to play with them some more.

We ended the morning by using a Sharpie to draw an eye, tail hairs, and toenails on our elephants and then I gave them each a bag of animal crackers to go with our theme.

Happy Easter, everyone!  Join us next week when our theme will be "feathered friends".

Children's Librarian,
Mitzi