Perfect Books for Easter Baskets!

Novel Places has these adorable book/toys by Peter Lippman on display right now and they are perfect for Easter baskets! The kids love them and immediately flock to them after storytime.

Best of all, they are all less than $10!

How adorable are these?
The kids call this one "the scary house" book and this one might be my favorite.

This school bus book is adorable!

This one is perfect for girls obsessed with princesses!

The boys all love the ones with wheels, like this fire truck book.

The ice cream truck book plays music (this is definitely a favorite of the kids at storytime).

You can find more on the Novel Places website. Just search "Peter Lippman."

Interesting Washington Post Article

The Washington Post had an interesting article this weekend regarding the importance of early literacy and the unconventional methods local libraries are using to encourage parents to read to their young children.

Read the article here.

Storytime - The Lorax/Tree Hugging

I wanted to do something to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday, but I was out of town the first weekend in March.  I decided to plan a belated tribute to Dr. Seuss and also celebrate the opening of The Lorax movie. And, of course, I love to incorporate a lesson into my storytimes when possible, and The Lorax is a great way to discuss the environment.

For introductions, I had the kids tell me their names and their favorite things about trees (most mentioned birds and flowers).  I try to be as adaptable as possible during my storytimes, and I always stop to ask the kids questions about the books (I think reading comprehension is the most valuable skill to teach!) and let them make comments or ask questions about the book.  However, this made The Lorax, which is already a fairly lengthy book, very long.  The kids enjoyed the story and were pretty animated about it, but they were ready to do the craft by the end of the story.  Though I planned to read 1-2 more books, I gave that idea up and introduced the craft.

The craft this week was similar to the trash themed craft.  I gave the kids tree coloring pages. I had cut out pictures of many of the wonderful things that trees contain:  birds, nests, monkeys, flowers, fruit, hammocks, etc.  The kids enjoyed the craft and were very proud of their trees.

Here's how my boy's picture turned out...he wasn't particularly motivated. 

 My little buddy Landyn made this one and gave it to me. So sweet!

The kids hard at work...

Storytime - Trash and Recycling

This storytime was a lot of fun, and it gave the kids a chance to get up and moving after the stories. They all really enjoyed the craft, too.

I like to start out storytime with introductions. For this storytime, I asked them to tell me their name and tell me something that stinks.

The first book I read was I Stink! by Kate McMullen. My son and I love this book and in fact, we have all the other Kate McMullen books, too. This is also a really fun book to read aloud! The kids loved it and thought it was hysterical.

 

The second book I read was Smash! Mash! Crash! There Goes the Trash! by Barbara Odanaka.
The kids enjoyed this one, too. The rhyming is a lot of fun and the book ends with kids playing with their own garbage trucks, so the kids can relate to it.

The final book I read was The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle: A Story About Recycling by Alison Inches.
Full disclosure here, this book was a bit over the kid's heads (parts of it were over my own head!). The kids who come to storytime have an average age of 3.5 and this book went into the complex process of recycling. It was also long and I ended up needing to skip parts of the book. However, its a cute book (I would just recommend it for kids 6 or older).

 

After the stories, we had a brief discussion about what recycling is, what kinds of trash can be recycled and what kinds of trash need to be put in the regular trash. Then I asked the kids to hunt for "trash" in the bookstore. The "trash" consisted of things like (unused) napkins and tissues, plastic pretend food, plastic bottles, etc.  I had the kids collect the "trash" and then decide whether to place it in the trash can or the recycling container.

For a craft, I had coloring pages of trash trucks or recycling bins for the kids to choose from. I had spent this night before cutting out pictures of different items that are recycled and thrown away - bottles, newspapers, diapers, moldy food, etc.  I had the kids paste the cut out trash items with the correct picture (trash or recycling). They came out very cute and the kid's were happy with them.

Here's my boy's picture below.