Story Time Review

Story Time is Egg-citing!

This week we talked about eggs. It was a fun topic to bring in a little Easter without actually doing an Easter theme. We read Oliver by Christopher Franceschelli, Egg Drop by Mini Grey, Ten Eggs in a Nest by Marilyn Sadler, Roly-Poly Egg by Kali Stileman, Egg in the Hole by Richard Scarry, and The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown.

We played with our shaker eggs and we had a game of follow the leader with eggs. I filled plastic Easter eggs with small notes and had each child draw an egg one at a time. I would read the note and then we would do whatever activity it listed. Hopping like a bunny, singing like a frog and spin around 5 times fast were some that we did that were fun.

For our craft I just gave each child a paper with a white oval printed on it. Then I set out sequins, stickers paper shapes and other items that the children could decorate their egg with.

Our take home page was a dice rolling game. It had two rows of eggs each with numbers from one to six. To play the players get six markers like beans or buttons or pennies. They roll the dice and then place a marker over the number they roll. The first one to cover all the eggs wins.

Next week: Bugs
Michele Schumann
Children's Librarians

Hippity Hop to Story Time!

This week we read about rabbits at Story Time. Our books were Big Bunny by Betsy Gail Rand, The Black Rabbit by Philippa Leathers, Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Rosenthal, Home for a Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown, Little White Rabbit by Kevin Henkes, The Terrible Plop by Ursula Dubosarsky, and Oh So, Tiny Bunny by David Kirk. I used the song  Here is a Bunny by Carole Peterson from her CD Season Sings and Hop like a Bunny from the CD Toddlers on Parade. 

We did a fun activity with the flannel board. I drew some unusual carrots on 2x2 cards. Carrots that were squares or ovals or hexagons. Some that were green and yellow and purple too! Then I taped the carrots to the flannel board and taped some brown construction paper strips over the top to make dirt. Just the tops were sticking out. I had each child come up one at a time and pick a carrot, they showed what kind of carrot they got and then fed the carrot to a hungry bunny. The bunny I made with an empty #10 can. I taped a photo copy on the top of a rabbit face, with a whole cut out for the mouth. The children just slid the carrots through the hole into the can. They loved this activity. It was fun to tell them about real purple carrots, one mom said that they had even grown purple carrots in their garden last summer. 


For our craft we took a plain white paper plate and glued on some white rabbit ears. We used a pink pom pom for his nose and some cotton balls for his puffy cheeks. We glued on some googly eyes and drew a mouth and little tongue. Some children drew on whiskers as well. We could have also used pipe cleaners for whiskers but our Walmart was out of them the day I went shopping for supplies and I didn't have time to drive anywhere else to get them. 

Our take home pages included some bunny finger puppets to color and cut out and the finger rhyme 5 Little Bunnies.

Next week: Eggs, both the regular kind and the Easter kind
Michele Schumann, Children's Librarian

Story Time Review

Which came first? 

The Chicken or the Egg?

Week two of our Story Time session we devoted to chickens & eggs. This worked out so we could also tie-in Easter eggs and chicks. I read Bumpety Bump by Pat Hutchins, Tillie Lays an Egg by Terry Golson, Stuck in the Mud by Jane Clarke, An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Hutts Aston, Mama Hen's Big Day! by Jill Latter, and Cluck Cluck Who's There? by Caroline Jayne Church.

I used the flannel board and the rhyme Time for Bed Chicks to introduce our topic. We used the egg shakers to create some noise and active play. Then we did a little activity where the children each took a plastic Easter egg from my basket and tried to guess what was inside. We opened them up one by one to see what each contained. There were things like buttons, coins, rocks, and even a miniature shoe.

Finally, we created our own Easter egg to take home. I had precut egg shapes out of construction paper. Each child chose the color that they wanted and decorated the egg with Easter stickers and sequins. We then cut the eggs in half and glued a paper chick inside. Using a brass brad we attached one corner of the egg halves together. When the egg was closed the chick hid inside then when the egg was opened the chick peeped out. This was the first time in a long time that I let the kids loose with the scissors. The results were

mixed. Some of the kids got the idea that we were trying to cut the egg in half like it had cracked open. Other children cut up their chick instead or just cut random chunks of their egg off. Well they had fun and practiced with the scissors anyway so I guess it's all good.

Next week: Horses
Michele Schumann
Children's Librarian

Story Time Review

Happy Easter

from the Library!

In celebration of Easter on Sunday we read some Easter themed stories in Story time this week including, Minerva Louise & the Colorful Eggs by Janet Stoeke, Bunny's Easter Egg by Anne Mortimer, Where Can Bunny Paint? by Michael Rex, Peter Rabbit's Happy Easter by Grace Maccarone, Max's Chocolate Chicken and Max Counts his Eggs both by Rosemary Wells.

We had a good time rolling plastic eggs with sticks and doing the Shaker Hop by Carole Peterson's Dancing Feet CD using our egg shakers. We finished off our Easter celebration by making Easter Bunny headbands. Simple bunny ears, google eyes and some crayons to make the nose and whiskers. Of course, we couldn't forget a little cotton for the tail!

Cutest thing this week was watching all the kids wearing their bunny headbands and singing the Goodbye song and "waving goodbye" with their tails.

Next week: Birds and feathers
Michele, Children's Librarian

Storytime Review

Attack of the Easter Bunnies!

Just kidding. We had fun this week at Story Time talking about bunnies and Easter. We read Bunny Days by Tao Nyeu, I Need an Easter Egg by Harriet Ziefert, Bunny Bunny by Kirsten Hall, The Bunnies Picnic by Lezlie Evans, What's the Matter Bunny Blue by Nicola Smee and my personal favorite, The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown. I am sometimes amazed by the classics by Brown, they are so timeless in their style and stories that even decades after they were first published children still respond well to them. The children and I discussed what other things we could runaway and become like the bunny in the story. Some good ones were a sheep, and mother could be a shepard, an astronaut and mother could become a rocketship, a monster and mother could become a superhero. The best suggestion came from 5 year old Trey, he said a germ and mother could become soap.

We talked about what rabbits eat and showed pictures of some foods they would eat like carrots, celery and radishes. Some pictures of things they would not eat like cookies, soda pop and fish. Some of the pictures were hard to decide, most of the children didn't connect pumpkins with food/vegetables only with Jack-o-lanterns. Only a few knew what the picture of a mango was and only one knew what the whole pineapple was. The picture of the coconut was surprising since some of the children knew what it was but we decided that a rabbit wouldn't be able to eat it unless someone broke it open for them. Interesting insights from 4 year olds.

We pulled out the parachute and played "Make the bunny hop" with a stuffed toy rabbit and then we made some bunny masks from my new die-cut mask making set. This was our final Story Time for the session.

Next session will be the summer program for 3-6 year olds. This year the theme will be One World, Many Stories. Registeration begins June 7th.

Michele, Children's Librarian