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/

Ducks and Geese

This week we read funny books about ducks and geese. Books read included:

Duck on a Bike by David Shannon
Do Like a Duck Does by Judy Hindley
Petunia by Roger Duvoisin
Duck in the Truck by Jez Alborough

I used the flannel board "Six Little Ducks" and played the song by Raffi from More Singable Songs. We "quacked" along with the song. I also used "Little Duckling Lost His Voice" and the script for this can be found on page 16 here: http://www.nwcentral.org/files/Beyond%20Books%20handouts%2009.pdf

We finished with a goose made out of hearts. The template and idea came from here: http://www.dltk-holidays.com/valentines/mheartgoose.htm. I used a large heart die cut for the main body and had the kids draw everything else.

Outer Space

Last week brought out of this world books: books about outer space! We read about the moon, stars, and space aliens. We talked about what astronauts do and how they get into space. Everyone seemed to have fun, even though I was pretty ill and sounded like an off-key frog when trying to sing! Here is what this story time entailed:

Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! I’m Off to the Moon! by Dan Yaccarino
Hare and Tortoise Race to the Moon by Oliver J. Corwin
Another Day in the Milky Way by David Milgrim
Green Wilma, Frog in Space by Tedd Arnold

Our first flannel board was called "Five Little Astronauts" and is based on the one found here: https://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/projects/trc/2007/manual/pres_space.html. Our second flannel board was one I made based on another blogger's idea titled "If You’re Going to the Moon, Wear Your Boots." I used clip art to create the gloves, boots, and helmet.

The words to this rhyme are:
If you’re going to the moon, wear your boots (stomp, stomp)
If you’re going to the moon, wear your boots (stomp, stomp)
If you’re going to the moon, this is what you have to do
If you’re going to the moon, wear your boots (stomp, stomp)

…wear your gloves (clap, clap)
…wear your helmet (pat, pat)

Our craft came from http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/space/morbit.htm. I used the space shuttle template and attached it to a paper plate. The kids colored the plate to look like Earth.

African Folk Tales

There are several ways you can make an African American Month themed story time: African folk tales, famous African Americans, African animal tales, etc. This year I chose African folk tales and here is what we read:

Who's in Rabbit's House? by Verdi Aardema
The Talking Vegetables by Won-Ldy Paye
Konte Chameleon, Fine Fine Fine! A West African Folktale by Cristina Kessler
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale by Verna Aardema

We used the "Head, Body, Legs" flannel board based on the book Head, Body, Legs: A Story from Liberia by Won-Ldy Paye. We also used the "Uwungelema Tree" flannel board. This blog entry has both the story and clip art. We finished up storytime with a dangling spider craft.