Earth Day

Earth Day was last week and to celebrate in the library we have held all sorts of programs for different ages on this theme. So, I had the good fortune to plan an Earth Day themed storytime.

At first I thought this would be an easy task since there are lots of Earth Day books. I was wrong. While most of these books are awesome resources, they just don’t work in storytime with the age group I had in attendance (3-5 year olds.) Many of them are too just too long and too wordy. Two great titles I think would work with an older group are Earth Day Hooray by Stuart Murphy and We Are Extremely Good Recyclers by Bridget Hurst.

After looking at lots of Earth Day specific books, I decided to take this storytime in a totally different direction. Instead, I chose books about plant life and the world. I started storytime by talking about Earth Day with the kids. I was very impressed about how much all of these kids knew!

First we read Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni.

I really like this book about a little inchworm who measures his way through the story and out of trouble. It’s a very simple story and the illustrations are lots of fun. One each page you have to look for the inchworm because he is always in a different place, that was a lot of fun.

Next I read Little Green by Keith Baker.

This book has great illustrations. It is about a boy who watches a hummingbird flit around the garden and he paints.

I only read two books today so we could spend mor time on our craft. I had a difficult time coming up with something for this program. I thought of lots of great ideas, but a lot of them either involved paint (something I decided to stay away from because of the drying time) or were a bit too complex for the group.

So, I actually ended up re-creating something I did a while ago in storytime. That time, I actually didn’t get any pictures- luckily this time was different. We made shakers with paper plates and beans. I gave the children markers and streamers to glue on to decorate and they had a great time.

This is a super easy craft. It’s not as green as I wanted, I did want to do something with recycled supplies but that just didn’t work out this time. But, everyone enjoyed themselves and I think that’s what is important!

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Music time!

This week for storytime we channeled our inner musicians for a music themed storytime! This theme was great because there are so many ways to interpret music and of course it meant lots of singing!

We began with a book called Punk Farm On Tour by Jarrett J. Krozoczka.
This books is really great, the farm animals are in a band and go on tour while the farmer is away. The entire time they are looking for their great song and end up singing about the Wheels On The Bus- a very familiar tune for this bunch. The kids really like this because they could sing a long with me and the book.

The second book we read was How Can You Dance by Rick Walton and Anna Lopez-Escriva.
A music storytime can’t be complete without a book about dancing. This book is a great addition to my storytime book list. I love it because the kids can get up and dance like the animals and situations described in the book.

Finally, we closed with This Jazz Man by Karen Ehrhardt illustrated by R.G. Roth.

This book is written to the tune of “This Old Man” which makes it really fun to read. It is a very clever book which incorporates counting, music and jazz. Definitely a great addition to this storytime!

We didn’t read as many books this week as previous weeks because I did a few flannel boards and we sang a lot of songs. I introduced an “I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly” flannel board which was a huge hit with the kids.

For craft this week, we made our own musical instruments. We made shakers with paper plates and beans. My example craft was taken accidently by one of the kids, so I didn’t get to take a picture of it.

Basically, we stapled a paper plate together on one side, threw in some beans (I am sure rice would work too), closed it up, decorated it and added some streamers on the end. They were very awesome and kid friendly to make.