1000 Books Before Kindergarten: Monkeying Around

The Library is participating in the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten Program and we want to help you succeed!

Check back each week as share the titles of the books we read during our storytimes. We will also share some books that we love.


This week during Wee Read we read books about monkeys and apes!
Be Quiet, Mike! by Leslie Patricelli

Betty Goes Bananas by Steve Antony
(Watch our Storytube!)

Block Party at the Library!

The Library was selected for an exciting new program called the Block Party Project!

When children play with blocks they are learning math, engineering, social skills and so much more! Through play, your child is discovering shapes, learning how blocks can be balanced, observing how they fall and discovering what fits together. Hard to believe, but these playful explorations are the foundation of later mathematical and scientific thinking - plus it's fun!

The Block Party is a workshop format to engage parents in block play with their children. Children are born learners, but they need experiences to be stimulating, fun, and interactive. Parents can guide children’s early learning experiences and use blocks as the tools to support their development. Playing with blocks can provide experiences where children learn math and science, new words and pre-reading skills, social skills, creativity, physical skills, and problem-solving skills. Block play is fun for both children and adults.

Learn more about the benefits of block play in this article from the National Association for the Education of Young Children or call Miss Rachee at 610-623-0239 ext 304.

Drop by the library during the week of December 8th to learn more about the Block Party.
Monday, December 8th beginning at 10:00 AM
Tuesday, December 9th beginning at 10:45 AM (following Bibs-n-Books)
Thursday, December 11th beginning at 10:30 AM
Saturday, December 13th beginning at 12:30 PM

Large groups, please call to make arrangements for a date to schedule a Block Party.

Wee Reads: Welcome to the Jungle!

Today Wee Reads took a trip to the jungle as we shared a jungle themed storytime with books and rhymes.


Books shared
We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
Where the Wild Things Are Story and Pictures by Maurice Sendak
The Animal Boogie by Debbie Harter

Rhymes:
Back in the Jungle
Five Little Monkeys (with monkey paw)
Five Cheeky Monkeys (with monkey paw and crocodile puppet)

Activity cube
We have added plastic page protectors to change the activities to fit whatever theme we are

Craft
Hidden jungle animals.

The Great Debate: Dinosaur vs Sheep

Today began the first of many exciting debates for President of the Family Room! Our storytime rally turned into a fun debate contest between Mr. Dino and Woolette Sheep.

VS

Mr. Dino went first in the debate, sharing the books Dinosaur vs the Potty written and illustrated by Bob Shea and Dinosaur Pet by Marc Sedaka, illustrated by Tim Bowers. 

He also lead a rally chant with 

Five Enormous Dinosaurs

Five enormous dinosaurs, letting out a roar,

One went away and then there were four.

Four enormous dinosaurs, munching on a tree,

One went away and then there were three.

Three enormous dinosaurs didn't know what to do,

One went away and then there were two.

Two enormous dinosaurs having lots of fun,

One went away and then there was one.

One enormous dinosaur afraid to be a hero,

He (she) went away and then there were zero.

Woolette presented her case with No Sleep for the Sheep by Karen Beaumont, iluustrated by Jackie Urbanovic and Story time for Lamb by Michael Dahl, illustrated by Oriol Vidal.

Woolette led a rally chant with Counting Sheep:

(sung to “This Old Man”)

Counting sheep,   (point and pretend to count)

Counting sheep

Helps my mommy

Go to sleep.   (stretch and yawn)

One sheep, two sheep,   (hold up appropriate number of fingers)

Three sheep, four

Soon my mommy

Starts to snore.  (snore)

Repeat with "daddy."

~from Sing a Song of Storytime

The overwhelming opinion was that Mr. Dino was the winner of this debate!
Stay tuned for future rallies and debates during our regularly scheduled storytimes!

PA One Book: Stop Snoring, Bernard!

From the Pennsylvania One Book, Every Young Child website:


Stop Snoring, Bernard!, a delightful book written and illustrated by Zachariah OHora for children ages 3 to 6, is Pennsylvania's One Book, Every Young Child 2012 selection. This year's program officially kicks off on March 27, 2012.

Published in 2011, this engaging book follows the loveable sea otter Bernard as he tries to find a place in the zoo where his loud snoring won't disturb the other animals.Stop Snoring, Bernard! encourages young readers to appreciate what makes each of us different. Stop Snoring, Bernard! is OHora's first book for children and it is the recipient of the 2011 Society of Illustrator's Founders Award.


This year the Lansdowne Public Library celebrated the One Book with two special storytimes. We used items from the Traveling Trunk (available in May for anyone to book) and created a space for children and their families to learn about otters and other animals. We set up the community room; below are pictures of the stations we created.


If you'd like to read Stop Snoring, Bernard! Stop by your local library. If you are in Lansdowne, we have a two copies of the book available to check out.

Pizza! Pizza!

For storytime today we used an idea from Abby the Librarian and read books about pizza! 

After our normal storytime greetings and welcome song we brought out the books.

Signs learned: 

Pizza

Books read:

Margaret and H.A. Rey's Curious George and The Pizza. 

"Hi, Pizza Man!" by Virginia Walter

Pete's a Pizza by William Steig

The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza retold by Philemon Sturges

Songs/Other activities

Recently the library acquired scarves and they were passed out when we used Abby's song suggestion

Baking Pizza. I passed out colorful scarves and as we sang this song together, we pretended the scarves were pizza dough. I did it once slowly to teach the kids the motions and then we did it again a little faster and they loved it!

(To the tune of Shortnin' Bread.) 

I can make a pizza! You can, too!
Listen and you'll know just what to do. 

Every little baker loves mixing, mixing

Every little baker loves mixing dough!

Every little baker loves kneading, kneading

Every little baked loves kneading dough!

Every little baker loves tossing, tossing

Every little baker loves tossing dough!

Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. 

This was our stretch before reading Pete's a Pizza and "making pizzas" with stuffed animals. I also used Abby's explanation that since we'd been eating and talking so much about pizza this storytime, we needed to do a little exercise and work some of it off. In addition to singing the song regular, fast, and super fast, we used The Wiggles version and each round would only point but not say the body part (head, shoulder, knees and toes).

Who Stole the Pizza?
Who stole the pizza from the pizza pan?
Lion stole the pizza from the pizza pan!
Who me? Yes, you!
Couldn't be! Then who?
Repeat with other puppets.

Children could then select a puppet to use as we read Pete's a Pizza.

For a craft we colored and made pizza using the template from Free Kid's Crafts.

Join us for Wee Read Thursdays at 10:30 AM.

-r

Please! More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!

Last night for Sleepytime Tales we shared books designed to get us up and moving!

After our normal welcome and warm up it was time for the books.

We read 'I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!' by Karen Beaumont and our library friends helped us name the parts that were painted.

We then learned the signs for the colors white, red, blue and brown along with shoes and wet and read 'Pete the Cat' by Eric Litwin. A new friend joined us to introduce our next book.



Banana, the Monkey went, well bananas, as he welcomed each of our library friends to storytime.

Banana waking himself up this morning

One of the Sleepytime Tales readers helped share our next book 'No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed' by Eileen Christelow. We learned the signs for jump and helped mama call the doctor for our injured monkey friends!  Last but certainly not least was 'Dancing Feet' by Lindsey Criag. Our library friends were encouraged to get up and move as we read about slappity, stompity and creepity feet.




Since we were up we used the activity cube rectangle. This cube rectangle is six sides cube of easy and fun activities to help keep us moving.
The activity cube rectangle idea was found on the website Little Family Fun.. While ours was more of a rectangle, we were still able to have a great time! We decorated the box with colorful paper and put instructions on each side:
The sides of the cube are:
Spin in a circle.
Hop on one foot.
Jump up and down 5 times.
Flap your arms like a bird.
Run in place.
Dance!
There were only eight children in attendance so each were able to toss the box several times.

We ended with our closing routine and the children could then play with the toys in the library or read more books.

Sleepytime Tales meets Wednesday evenings beginning at 6:30 PM and is for the whole family to enjoy.
-r

Preschool Storytime...Teasing Mr. Crocodile

For Sleepytime Tales and Preschool Storytime we explored books about crocodiles, bats and the beach! Continuing our "Make a Splash! at your library" theme we also included an underwater adventure with sharks!
Signs learned (courtesy of ASLpro.com)
beach
bats
tiger
elephant
rhinoceros
shark
Books read:
Counting Crocodiles by Judy Sierra
Splash!
Bats at the Beach

Rhymes:

The Lady with the Alligator purse

Five Cheeky Monkeys (complete with Monkey paw!)

For a craft we made grinning crocodiles (found on Enchanted Learning)

Sleepytime Tales meets Wednesdays at 6:30 PM and Preschool Stories meets Thursdays at 10:30 AM.

-r

V is for Violin

The Lansdowne community is rich with talent and we were lucky enough to have some of that talent share storytime with us! For Tuesday's Bibs-n-Books, we had special guest reader Noele, lead vocalist for the band Reilly. She brought her violin, introduced the group to the orchestra, shared her wonderful playing and even gave the children an opportunity to try the instrument themselves!

Noele warming up

Introducing herself

Reading Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin! by Lloyd Moss

Accompanying us while we sang Old MacDonald,

Itsy Bitsy Spider and other familiar tunes

Everybody gets a turn!

Even some of the parents played!

Afterwards she shared pictures of violins for the group to color!

We were very excited about her visit and wish her luck with her upcoming tour.

We have many resources available for your own musical exploration. Available at the library, the Grandkit for music which includes instruments, cds and books.

Books about music:

Boom bah! / [Phil Cummings, Nina Rycroft].
I like the music / Leah Komaiko ; pictures by Barbara Westman.

Mole music / by David McPhail

Bibs-n-Books meets every Tuesday beginning at 10:30 with a play time following.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

It's the Year of the Tiger and we celebrated by reading books with a Chinese theme!

During Sleepytime Tales and Preschool Storytime we read:
Two of Everything by Lily Toy Hong
Tikki Tikki Tembo retold by Arlene Mosel
The Pet Dragon by Christoph Niemann
Someone Says by Carole Lexa Schaefer

Since we are learning signs we signed Happy New Year, China and the song The More We Get Together (this courtesy of Amy Burns)

For our craft we created Chinese laterns

-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.

Konnichiwa!

The Lansdowne Public Library was a proud participant in the of the Suburu Cherry Blossom Festival. During Sleepytime Tales and Preschool Storytime we shared Japanese themed stories.

Books shared:

The Mouse's Wedding a Kamishibai play from Japan

The beckoning cat : based on a Japanese folktale by Koko Nishizuka ; illustrated by Rosanne Litzinger.

The Paper Crane by Molly Bang

Signs: (from words read in The Mouse's Wedding)

Mouse

Wedding

Sun

Wind

Cloud

We have been using Aslpro for assistance with the signs.

Craft:

A lucky origami Crane. Miss Amanda was available last night to show us a traditional fold. We also had access to the 'easy' version.

Miss Amanda showing how to make the crane

The Easy Crane

Join us Wednesdays at 6:30 or Thursdays at 10:30 for storytime!

Sayonara!

-r

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

Whole lotta shakin' going on!

What do you get when you mix books, music, bean bags and sign language?
A whole lotta shaking!

Today was our first Bibs -n- Books of the new year and we had a rockin', roarin' time! We explored a new format for the new year.

Books shared:

The Glerp written and illustrated by David McPhail

The Z was Zapped written and illustrated by David Catrow

I Ain't Gonna Paint No More written by Karen Baeumont, illustrated by David Catrow

Music shared:

Shrug Your Shoulders

Hands Go Up and Down

Make Your Eyes

These three songs are from the Kimbo album It's Fun to Clap

Mr. Knickerbocker from the Barney Album Barney's Colorful World (Live)

Buffalo Girls and Boys from The Backyardigans

This A Way That A-Way by Ella Jenkins from her album Songs Children Love to Sing

A-You're Adorable from John Lithgow's Album Singin' in the Bathtub

Baby 1,2,3 by Peter & Ellen Allard from their album Sing It, Say It, Stamp It, Sway It Volume 3

Whole Lotta Shakin from Georgiana Stewart's album Bean Bag Rock & Roll

The Hammer Song by Greg and Steve from the album Fun and Games

A Sailor Went to Sea by Peter & Ellen Allard from their album Sing It, Say It, Stamp It, Sway It Volume 3

Program:

Welcome-Introduction (for new and old storytime friends)

Housekeeping

1: Where the B-A-T-H-R-O-O-M is. Bathroom is always spelled out as little bladders seem to get full upon mention of a toilet!*

2. What to expect. If a child doesn't want to sit still for storytime it's OK, I just ask that they keep the story area clear.

We moved with our first few songs to stretch and get moving after all of the holiday treats we have shared for the past few months.

*Reach for the ceiling

Reach for the Ceiling

Reach for the floor

Stand up again

Let's do some more!

Hands on your head

Hands on your knees

Hands on your belly

Like this, you see? (I always exaggerate and rub my belly)

Reach for the Ceiling

Reach for the floor
Stand up again

There is no more

We followed the motion with our first few songs

Shrug Your Shoulders
Hands Go Up and Down
Make Your Eyes

Jungle bells were then passed out and we listened, played our instruments and danced to the next set of songs:

Mr. Knickerbocker

Buffalo Girls and Boys
This A Way That A-Way

The bells were collected and we read The Glerp with audience participation (GLERP!).

This was followed by an alphabet book: The Z Was Zapped. After reading this book we practiced using American Sign Language to form the letters of the alphabet and then we signed the letters while we listened to A-You're Adorable.

Bean bags were then passed out for Baby 1,2,3, Whole Lotta Shakin.

They were collected and our final story was read I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!

We stretched with two songs:

The Hammer Song

A Sailor Went to Sea

We closed with two rhymes:

A Counting Stretch

Number 1: Touch your tongue

Number 2: Touch Your Shoe

Number 3: Touch Your Knee

Number 4: Touch the Floor

Number 5: Do a Jive

Number 6: Pick up Sticks

Number 7: Point towards heaven

Number 8: Close the gate

Number 9: Touch Your Spine

Number 10: That's the end!

Two Little Hands

Two little hands go clap, clap, clap

Two little arms lie in my lap

Two little feet go bump, bump, bump

Two little legs give one big jump

Two little hands reach oh so high

Two little hands wave bye, bye, bye

Afterward the instruments and bean bags were made available for the children to play with.

Like what you've read?

Join us Tuesdays beginning at 10:30 for Bibs-n-Books!

-r

Witajcie: Introducing Ms. Margaret!

Visitors to the Lansdowne Public Library are usually greeted at the Circulation Desk by Ms. Margaret. This week she was our special guest storyteller!

Originally we were going to do an international themed program but changed our programming to dual language stories. Miss Rachee read books in English and Ms. Margaret translated them into Polish. We learned a few words of Polish and some traditions.

This was such a great even that we have decided to make this a regular part of storytime!

Join us soon as we present more bilingual storytimes.

Do zobaczenia wkrótce,

-r

NNNNNNNNNothing but N!

It's Novemberrrr and our first storytime for the month was all about the letter N.
The letter themed storytime is so much fun! Using this a starting point one can find books, subjects, authors and more all about each letter of the alphabet!


Books read:
Mommy Doesn't Know my Name by Suzanne Williams, Illustrated by Andrew Shachat
The Nightmare in My Closet bwritten and illustrated by Mercer Mayer
The Napping House by Audrey Wood, Illustrated by Don Wood
The Noisemakers by Judith Casely


Fingerplays:
Shaking Your Shaker: to make Noise. And we made lots of it using maracas, a tambourine and other homemade instruments!


Craft:
Newspaper Hats

Welcome
-Introduction (for new and old storytime friends)
-Housekeeping
1: Where the B-A-T-H-R-O-O-M is. Bathroom is always spelled out as little bladders seem to get full upon mention of a toilet!
2. What to expect. If a child doesn't want to sit still for storytime it's OK, I just ask that they keep my story area clear.

Warm-up:
I encourage every one to participate with the warm up, parents and children alike.


*Reach for the ceiling
Reach for the Ceiling"

Reach for the ceiling,
Touch the floor,
Stand up again,
Let's do some more.

Touch your head,
Touch your knee,
Up to your shoulders,
Like this, you see?

Reach for the ceiling,
Touch the floor,
That's all for now,
There is no more.



*I Clap My Hands
I Clap My Hands

I clap my hands clap hands
I touch my feet touch feet
I jump up from the ground. jump up


I clap my hands clap hands
I touch my feet touch feet
I turn myself around. turn around


I clap my hands clap hands
I touch my feet touch feet
I sit myself right down. sit down


I clap my hands clap hands
I touch my feet touch feet
I do not make a sound. sit quietly
Shhh!

The stories then begin!

Today I shared stories about my multiple names with the kids before we read Mommy Doesn't Know my Name.

Instruments were passed out to Shake our Shakers. After they were collected, we read The Napping House and acted out parts of the book. Lots of enthusiastic snoring for the grandmother, meows for the cat and barks for the dog!

To calm the crowd, we did our wiggler:

*Touch your Nose
Touch your nose, touch your chin,
That’s the way this game begins.
Touch your eyes, touch your knees,
Now pretend you're going to sneeze (Achoo!)

Touch your hair, touch one hips,
Touch your two little lips (Swak!)
Touch your elbows where they bend,
That’s the way this touch game ends.

After this, bean bags were passed out and we read The Nightmare in My Closet.

Full disclosure; I did a bit of censoring and substituted "get" for shot (the little boy in the book shoots the nightmare in an effort to get rid of him once and for all). Because, 1) I don't have 20 guns and 2) I think that the library should be a safe place, bean bags were passed out to shake at the monster to get rid of it.

We closed with our final rhyme:

Two little hands go clap, clap, clap
Two little arms lie in my lap
Two little feet go bump, bump, bump
Two little legs give one big jump
Two little hands reach oh so high
Two little hands wave bye, bye, bye

Afterwards we made paper hats (so wonderful in its simplicity that I cannot believe I have not made them before!?!?)

A Newspaper Hat Brigade!



Miss Rachée and a library friend modeling our hats

Like what you see?
Join us Thursdays beginning at 10:30 for Preschool Storytime

-Miss Rachée