Pardeeville Library Story Hour!: OH, CHRISTMAS TREE!

Although we waited to get started, only one of my children came, but she had her mom and dad with her and the morning turned out to be a fun family one.

We began with our usual trip outside to check the weather. Mirabella immediately noticed it was cloudy and very, very cold. Then we noticed tiny snowflakes appearing on Dad's dark sweater and that was quite exciting [even if they didn't last].

Once inside, where it was warm, we put up our weather symbols and then letter "T" for "tree" as in the book The Snow Tree by Caroline Repchuk. It is such a beautiful story about the animals of the forest bringing things together to decorate a tree that reminded them of the days before the snow was on the ground. Along with the familiar animals of a bear, squirrel, bluejay, raccoon and reindeer, there were some unfamiliar ones, a bunting, mink, moose, lynx and an Arctic fox. Be sure to check this wonderful book out of the library and read it with your children.

At the craft table we made our own Christmas tree out of strips of paper and decorated it with flowers and bright colored things to make it just as pretty as the one the animals created. In the process of making the tree we talked about long to short as we glued on the green strips. To complete the tree we added a bright, sparkly star to the top.