Beach Day

It wouldn't be summer without the beach! Here is what happened in storytime last week:

Great for bilingual storytime as well!

We also used the flannel boards "Five Little Seashells" and "Five Little Sandcastles."
The flannel board pieces for There Was an Old Lady came from here: http://makinglearningfun.com/themepages/OldLadyShell-FeltBoard.htm.

We made a beach book using a template from The Mailbox as our craft. I created two sand and seashell sensory boxes for kids to play with at the end. They enjoyed seeing the different kinds of shells and would hold them up to their ears to hear the ocean.

Summer Reading Club Bulletin Board

Make a Splash: Read!

Ocean Friends

First summer storytime! Always an interesting mix of regular patrons and lots of people there for the very first time. Our library's summer reading program theme is "Make a Splash: READ!" So, all of this summer's storytimes will be based on this theme. First up: Ocean Friends. I'm trying very hard to incorporate sensory and play items after learning all about it at ALA this spring. Here is what we read:

The flannel board story "The Hat" and flannel board rhyme "Five Little Ocean Friends" were used.

We also made a moved along with egg shakers, made a jellyfish craft and played with an ocean sensory item. The sensory idea came from this blog: http://homeschoolhighplains.blogspot.com/2012/11/o-is-for-ocean-and-octopus.html

August Displays

I chose sports as my theme for August displays. Here is what they looked like:

September Displays

Each month brings new displays, and this month I focused on Library Card Sign-Up Month for kids. Our theme this year is "Put Your Paws on a Library Card", and each library in my city is having a special story time featuring service dogs. Books made into movies is my theme for teens. Here is what they look like:

Community Helpers

I love talking about community helpers, because it really gets the kids thinking about all the people that help them in their neighborhood. Here is what we did tonight in storytime:

Books:
Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathman
Clifford to the Rescue by Norman Bridwell
Here Comes Firefighter Hippo by Jonathan London
Millie Waits for the Mail by Alexander Steffensmeier (my favorite!)

Flannel boards:
Community helper dress up, where there are flannel people in plain clothes, and you dress them in the community helper outfits.

Mailman Colors

Craft: 
I let them pick out which helper they would like to thank. Most wrote thank you cards to their teachers, or to their mail carrier.

Back to School

Ah, the first storytime of the Fall season! It came and went and now we can get going on the next 3 months of programming. Since school started a few days ago, I thought it fitting to have a Back to School themed storytime. Here we go!

Books:
Minerva Louise at School by Janet Morgan Stoeke
How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? by Jane Yolen
Foxy by Emma Dodd
The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School by Laura Murray

Flannelboards:

Template for this Kite Word Family Activity can be found here: http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/KiteWordFamilyActivity.htm






Craft:
We made pencil toppers just like the ones seen here: http://www.sturdyforcommonthings.com/2012/08/back-to-school-storytime/