Book Bites: The Storytime with No Theme

My "Infant/Toddler" Storytime has really morphed into more of a "Toddler/Whoever shows up" Storytime. I am not complaining; there have been days when it is me and an empty room or one or two children who wanted anything but me reading a book so a diverse age group is welcome. With my diverse age group, however, I find that I do need to think about mixing up what books we will share. The shorter books are best for a younger attention span while some of the older listeners are able to appreciate longer books. It's a struggle sometimes to find that magical combination of engaging story, fun for the audience (the listeners and their parents) and just right book.

Instead of stressing about a theme we shared some of my favorite books to read and among them was "Press Here" by Herve Tullet. This book was such a great way to allow the group to settle in, be a part of the action and quite frankly, I love this book!

Overview of "Press Here"

Press the yellow dot on the cover of this book, follow the instructions within, and embark upon a magical journey! Each page of this surprising book instructs the reader to press the dots, shake the pages, tilt the book, and who knows what will happen next! Children and adults alike will giggle with delight as the dots multiply, change direction, and grow in size! Especially remarkable because the adventure occurs on the flat surface of the simple, printed page, this unique picture book about the power of imagination and interactivity will provide read-aloud fun for all ages!

Today's group are my "regulars" and before sharing the book I informed them that I would need their help as we read. I did let everyone know that there would be opportunities for everyone to help. The book worked great with the four to six revolving helpers who volunteered. Those a little more reluctant to help and shied away from being near the book would act out some of the moves (lean to the left or blow away the darkness).

The reaction of the children was great! They were amazed that by following directions that their actions created something new throughout the book.






We also read
Naked! by Michael Ian Black.
For this book we passed out scarves and pretended they were our capes.

Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin and James Dean.
For this book we learned the signs for colors and sang Pete's song each time his shoes changed colors.

Hello, Day! by Anita Lobel.
We learned animal signs and had a chorus of quacks and moos and other animal sounds as we read.

The Snowy Day by Ezra jack Keats
We pretended the scarves were snow and played along with Peter as we celebrated a very UN-snowy day in Lansdowne.

Bibs-n-Books will be on hiatus until January 6th! You are invited to join us when we return and help us welcome Theresa Dykes!

Please Touch ABCs

Earlier this week one of our library families stated that her children were having trouble with the alphabet, particularly recognizing the letters uppercase and lower case. We spoke a bit more and I thought for the please touch discovery station we would focus on alphabets.

This station has a total of four activities:
Alphabet Bottle Cap match
An Alphabet I-Spy Bottle
Alphabet books to read
Worksheets to practice writing the alphabet.

Alphabet Bottle Cap Match:

This idea was featured on the blog Learning 4 Kids.
For our version we found letters from the dollar store, used the bottle caps we have been collecting and construction paper.
To make the circles we used the bottle caps to trace them and wrote in lowercase letters.
We hot glued the uppercase letters to the bottle caps and used the rules from Learning 4 Kids for our game.
Below is a copy of the instructions we used.

Alphabet Bottle Top Match

Alphabet match

A young library patron matches letters

A group plays together

Alphabet I-Spy Bottle

For this bottle we used alphabet blocks and glitter to create a homemade Find it Tube Game.
There are two sets of letters in the bottle and some other surprises, different colored shaped buttons.
The top was hot glued on to eliminate any glitter being spilled everywhere.

In the video we have a young library user giving the bottle a shake.

Worksheets and books

We shared alphabet books that are crowd favorites and worksheets that we found on the First School website and the Learning Page.

Books included:

C is for Cake: a A Birthday Alphabet by Laura Purdie Salas

Crazy ABC by Judy Hindley, illustrated by Nick Sharratt

LMNOPeas by Keith Baker

N Is for Navidad by Susan Middleton Elya and Merry Banks, illustrated by Joe Cepeda

Old Black Fly by Jim Aylesworth, illustrated by Stephen Gammell

The station will be up through the rest of the month.

Stop by and enjoy!

-r

Back to School with the Family Room Friends

Hi Library Friends!
Summer is creeping towards an end and school is looming.
The first day doesn't have to be a drag! Prepare with the help of the Family Room Friends. Stop by the library and browse or display of books to help get prepared for the first day of school!

The Family Room Friends STILL need your help.
We got so many name suggestions and we need your help choosing a name.
Join us in September when you can VOTE on your favorite name!
Stay tuned for more details!
-r

December 13th...

Today is National Cocoa Day!
While you're sipping a warm cup of chocolate we invite you to take a moment to realize that today also marks that there are TWELVE DAYS left until Christmas*!

Wow!
We found a great article on the background of the song on the suite 101 website.
Can you name each present gifted in the song The Twelve Days of Christmas?
We'll start you off:  A Partridge in a pear tree!

Today we are reading:
My Christmas safari by Fran Manushkin ; pictures by R.W. Alley.
In this fun adaption of the holiday classic, a young girl dreams up a special holiday gift: a safari trip with her father!

We also like:
Twelve gifts for Santa Claus / Mauri Kunnas with Tarja Kunnas ; translated from the Finnish by Tim Steffa.

A young elf decides to give Santa one present for each of the twelve days preceding Christmas.

*If this is the holiday you celebrate this month!

December 9th...

Happy Birthday Jean deBrunhoff!

Jean deBrunhoff is the author of Babar the Elephant. Babar is based on a tale that Brunhoff's wife, Cecile, had invented for their children. It tells of a young elephant named Babar who leaves the jungle, visits a big city, and returns to bring the benefits of civilization to his fellow elephants. Then he comes back and becomes king of the elephant kingdom. He then has children and teaches them valuable lessons.

While all of the Babar series is dear and darling, we really like Babar's yoga for elephants. During this holiday season don't forget to take a moment to relax and keep fit.
Om!

December 6th...

Today is St. Nicholas Day!

In some countries, St. Nicholas is the fairy tale character who bestows presents on well-behaved children. His special holiday is December 6, and there are customs associated with St. Nicholas Day. Find out more about the celebration of St. Nicholas Day and other European customs at  Pastry Wiz which offers a brief outline of Christmas in several countries in Europe as well as recipes for holiday goodies. The Many Faces of Santa tells students about the various Santa Claus personas and how they developed.

Today is also Mitten Day!
Stop by and enjoy our display of decorated mittens in the Family Room! You can even decorate and add one of your own!
We also invite you to share our favorite Mitten Books:

One mitten by Kristine O'Connell George, illustrated by Maggie Smith.

One mitten can do many things, but when the second mitten is found, it is time to go outside and have fun.

Runaway mittens by Jean Roger, pictures by Rie Muñoz.

Pica's mittens are always turning up in strange places, but when he finds them keeping the newborn puppies warm in their box, he decides to leave them where they are until spring.

Smitten  by David Gordon.

Lost and alone, a sock and a mitten team up to help each other find their other half.

The mitten : a Ukrainian folktale, adapted and illustrated by Jan Brett.

This is a very funny version of a Ukrainian folktale about a boy's lost mitten. That small knitted object takes on gigantic proportions as more animals crowd into its warm comfort-and the ending always brings laughter.

December 3rd...

This post is from Youth Services Coordinator, Miss Rachee:

A few weeks ago Lansdowne celebrated it's annual tree lighting. Despite a biting wind and cold that seemed to steal into your clothes and tickle your skin it was a positive, energetic night. My mom, daughter and I attended; we sipped hot chocolate and warmed cider as we greeted friends, listened to the Penn Wood High School Band and watched the dancers from Don's Dance World. A huge cheer went up when Mayor Jayne pulled the lights and each time I drive down Lansdowne Ave and see the beautiful sparkling tree I think of baking cookies, singing songs and hugs with my mom and daughter.

Today I wanted to share books about trees. Here are some web links if you'd like to know more about the history of Christmas Trees.

I especially liked Christmas-Tree.com and the information from ReligiousTolerance.org.  Growing up I never gave much thought about trees aside from them making the house smell great and the fun in decorating them. Now I'm a bit more interested in the why of a tree and not just how to decorate and when I'll get it.

These books are great reads available for checkout:

One Splendid Tree by Marliyn Helmer, illustrated by Dianne Eastman

It's World War II and Hattie and Junior's dad is off at war. Their mom is working at a factory and they've moved to an apartment.  Money is tight and a Christmas tree is a luxury they cannot afford. But when Junior finds an abandoned plant he comes up with a plan to possibly have a Christmas tree after all.

This book also includes decorations for how to make your own snowman.

Tree of Cranes by Allen Say

A Japanese boy learns of Christmas when his mother decorates a pine tree with paper cranes.

Learn how to make cranes for decorating your own tree.

The Finest Christmas Tree by John and Ann Hassett

After Farmer Tuttle is unable to give his wife a Christmas hat because he can not sell his Christmas trees, he receives a mysterious letter requesting his very finest tree.

And my absolute favorite:

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond.

Taking a mouse to the movies can lead to letting him do other things, such as making a snowman, listening to Christmas carols, and decorating the Christmas tree.

My daughter and I would read this book over and over and each time would find new ornaments to share, rediscover a new love for popcorn and new of course fondly remember favorite movies.

Family Fun has a great website with easy ornaments to try.

Here is a counting activity to complete with your children from First School.

Enjoy your tree and share some of your pictures with us.

Enjoy!

-r

December 2nd...

Today we continue to wish our friends a very Happy Hanukkah wand we'd like to share Grandma's Latke's by Malka Drucker, illustrated by Eve Chwast!

Grandma explains the meaning of Hanukkah while showing Molly how to cook latkes for the holiday.

But...what is a latke?
Latkes, or potato pancakes, are a traditional Jewish dish, often served during Hanukkah. Latkes have gained popularity as a Hanukkah dish because they are fried in oil, commemorating the oil that miraculously provided light for eight days. Luckily, Jewish restaurants and delis frequently serve latkes year round, so the dish can be enjoyed at any season. Latkes are also celebrated as the means by which Judith of Holofernes was able to put the Assyrian leader into a deep sleep, and thus was able to behead him. The Assyrians ended their siege because of the death of their leader.

We invite you to visit Wisegeek to get more information about latkes. This is the site where we found wonderful information about latkes!

If you would like to make your own, check out one of our favorite sites for recipes: All Recipes.
We want to know what you like! Share with us your pictures, stories or latke tales!

Have a happy Hanukkah!

1 + 1 = 5?

Today was our first Math Explorers for Wee Read and we were all about patterns, addition and other fun ways to promote math and literacy! The group was introduced to patterns, addition, measuring and counting through a variety of activities.

Stations were created for

Patterns

For patterns we used What's the Big Idea's? Pattern and Relationship Everywhere kit.

Children could create a variety of patterns using the shapes. Patterns could be dictated by the shape, color, size or whatever the children wanted!

There was also examples of patterns with missing pieces that children could guess as well as a sound pattern chart in which children had to create a pattern using a sound.

The book included in this kit is Pattern Fish by Trudy Harris

Addition

For addition we used a two books which encourage readers to think outside of the box to solve addition problems. We used What the Big Idea's Number Patterns kit which includes the book One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab by April Pulley Sayre and a book sent for review by Sterling Publisher, David Larochelle's 1 + 1 = 5.

At this station children and their parents could use the plastic animals to create their own addition problems or make 'traditional' math questions. We also provided dice to make an addition game. Working with a partner, children will roll the dice and count the total. The first one to get to 2o (twenty) wins!

Counting

Donald Crews Ten Black Dots Special Reads Kit.

We are lucky that our county office offers kits on a variety of subjects that can be checked out for up to ten days. The Ten Black Dots kit comes with a copy of the book, a bag of 'dots' (black pom poms) numbers and 10 number boards. Copies of the lady bug from the activity guide were provided for children to color and count their own dots.

Measuring

There is also a Special Reads Kit for Leo Lionni's Inch by Inch. At this station children and their parents could measure stuffed characters from the story using the interlocking blocks. There were some other measurements noted: how tall children were, how long their arms were and how closely they could stand next to each other.

Foreign Language

We are privileged to have a wealth of resources right here at the library! Staff and one parent counted to ten in German, French, Polish, Italian and Sinhalese. We also learned to count using sign language.

The book used for this station was Can You Count Ten Toes by Lezlie Evans

Vocabulary Power

Using a resource from David LaRochelle we created and drew monsters with a number prefix. The monsters ranged from rainbow septa stripes to pentaeyed monster.

Other resources:

As mentioned earlier, David LaRochelle's wonderful activity guide provided a wealth of handouts and activities. The foreign language and word power were directly from his sight.

Following are pictures from our storytime.

Set up for the pattern table

Creating patterns

Coloring ladybugs

A Pentanosed monster (couldn't get the angle right!)

A parent reading to his child

Books available for checkout!

Join us Thursdays for Wee Read beginning at 10:30 AM!

The Book Bunch is Just Ducky!

We're here for the books!

While the Book Bunch is aimed at children ages 4-7, during summer and school vacations we may relax the rules as attendance mandates. For our meeting this past Thursday, our members of the Book Bunch enjoyed duck themed activities as we read Phyllis Root's One Duck Stuck.

Copies are available at this and other libraries!

After reading the book we learned sign for some of the animals (courtesy of ASLpro):

duck

frog

fish

moose

possum

snake

skunk

snail

Then it was off to the races! Through funding by our generous Friends of the Library Group, we had a rubber duck race. Attendees raced ducks across a water pond (aka a plastic container!) and each participant was awarded a rubber ducks purchased with funds from the donation.

The contenders in the 'pen'

The ducks dry out between heats

We also drew and colored our own ducks!

A rainbow duck!

The Book Bunch meets Thursdays at 4PM during the summer! Join us for books, new friends and crafts!

-r

Going Batty with The Book Bunch!

Today the Book Bunch was all about Bats!
We read 'Bats at the Beach' by Bryan Lies, learned the sign (courtesy of ASLpro.com) and created our own paper bats to take home with us!
Miss Rachee shared a story from when she was younger about a bat sighting.
If you are interested in bats, here are more books for your pleasure:
Bats at the Library also by Bryan Lies
Bats on Parade by Kath Appelt
Homework Hassles by Abby Klein
For non-fiction titles check out the juvenile non-fiction collection under 599.4.

The Book Bunch meets Thursdays at 4PM during the summer.

-r

What a Treasure!

For the fifth consecutive year, Pennsylvania's One Book, Every Young Child program will lead the way and highlight the importance of early literacy development in preschoolers ages 3 to 6. This year's book is What a Treasure! by Jane and Will Hillenbrand.

To celebrate the Lansdowne Public Library held a special What a Treasure! themed storyhour.

Books Read:

These youngsters are waiting for the stories to begin!

What a Treasure by Jane and Will Hillenbrand

Treasure by Suzanne Bloom

One Dark Night by Lisa Wheeler (only read Wednesday night)

During our Thursday event Miss Margaret translated the books into Polish and Miss Heidi signed the books with us!

Activities:

We discussed moles and their low vision with a demonstration by Miss Rachee and how she sees without her glasses.

Pirate hates to look for treasure!

Here is Miss Rachee offereing a pirate hat to a young reader.

We mined for chocolate chips using Chewy Chips Ahoy.

We held a Scavenger Hunt in our Family Room. Participants were charged with finding objects from the books (mole, his parents, the animals the found treasures for) as well as other items that could be found while looking for treasures.

It's Mole's Mom and Dad!One less object to look for!

Completed boards were exchanged for coupons for local food stores on Wednesday evening or Jelly Beans on Thursday, as the 22nd was Jelly Bean Day.

Signs learned (courtesy of ASLpro.com)

Mole

Bear

Goose

Treasure

Bird

Copies of the books will be distributed to all participants of the storyhours.

Join us for storytime every Wednesday at 6:30pm or Thursday at 10:30 AM.

Sleepytime Tales...With the Doctor!

Dr. Seuss that is!

We read books by Dr. Seuss during a special Seussical Celebration. Guest readers were Miss. Amanda and Mr. Anthony.

-r