Groundhog Day Storytime

We celebrated Groundhog Day here at the library.  I do a Groundhog Day theme every year, and every year I question it.  Most kids really don't understand what I'm talking about.  And really, why would they?!  It's such a weird holiday.  But, I end up doing it every year and I'm sure next year will be no exception.  This year we read Gregory's Shadow by Don Freeman and Ten Grouchy Groundhogs by Kathryn Heling.

Our groundhog craft was really simple this year.  I cut slits in some cheap paper plates and printed out a sheet of these little guys  and let the kids color the ground (paper plates) and their little groundhogs.  Once they slid the groundhog cut-out through the slit in the plate, they could make him pop up and look for his shadow.  Most of the time I don't know if the kids understand the Groundhog Day crafts we do, but they always like to color with the Mr. Sketch Scented Markers so I feel like it's a win.

Robot Storytime

Today's storytime theme was Robots.  We have two really awesome robot books that I love to read whenever I get a chance.  We read, Clink by Kelly DiPucchio and Boy+Bot by Ame Dyckman.

For today's craft, we made balancing robots, courtesy of the Buggy and Buddy blog.  The kids were really impressed with the balancing robots.  I was too!

Turtle Storytime

This week's storytime theme was Turtles.  We read, Turtle Splash! Countdown at the Pond by Cathryn Falwell and Baby Turtle's Tale by Elle J. McGuinness.

Today's paper plate turtle craft came from http://www.seaturtleinc.org/education/lesson-plans/build-your-own-sea-turtle/ 

I stapled the turtle parts to the plates, rather than gluing them.  It was easier for me to do this ahead of time since most of my storytime kids are pretty little.  They turned out really cute!

Dinosaur Storytime

Today we ready Little Grunt and the Big Egg by Tomie de Paola.  This book is a little longer than most of the books I normally read for storytime, so we only read the one book today.  The kids seemed to really like it and the story went along perfectly with today's craft.

Today's craft was a hatching baby dinosaur egg craft.  This craft came from
 http://www.busybeekidscrafts.com/Hatching-Baby-Dinosaur.html

Gingerbread Storytime

Christmas is quickly approaching and this week we read A Cookie for Santa by Stephanie Shaw which is about a gingerbread man.  To go along with our gingerbread book, we made no cook cinnamon ornaments.  The dough was really easy to make and smelled amazing.

I got the recipe here and it was really easy to make.  We altered the recipe a little bit to get a more gingerbread smell and it worked perfectly.
You'll need:

• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2 cup of salt
• 1/2 cup of cinnamon 
• 3/4 cup of very warm water 

(Note:  we 1/4 cup of cinnamon and 1/4 cup of clove to make the dough smell like gingerbread)

Throw all the ingredients in a bowl and start smooshing it around.  Before you know it, you have the most amazing smelling dough.
Roll the dough out and and cut with cookie cutters.  I gave the kids jewels to push into the dough to add a little sparkle.  Use a straw to make a hole at the top of the ornament for a ribbon.  It takes about 24 hours for the dough to fully harden.  I also did this craft with some older kids and we painted our ornaments with acrylic paint.  You can paint your ornaments before they're dry, which is nice because waiting is hard!

Snowman Storytime

This week we talked about snowmen.  We don't actually have any snow right now but I can't miss an opportunity to do a snowman themed storytime!  There are so many great books and cute crafts about snowmen.  We read, Snowmen All Year by Caralyn Buehner and Sneezy the Snowman by Maureen Wright.

                                                                                     
                                                     









We did a really fun snowman craft that I've dubbed "The Melting Snowman."  They turned out so cute and the kids really got a kick out of making their snowman "melt."

Our snowmen consisted of three circles (small, medium, and large) that are connected with brads.  When you fold the snowman in on himself, he looks like he's melted.  So cute!

                       

Snow Storytime

Today's storytime was themed around snow.  December is such a fun month for storytime because there are lots of great winter books and craft ideas.  Today we read, Clifford's First Snow Day by Norman Bridwell and Snow by Roy Mckie.

For today's craft made snow globe pictures.  I brought in a snow globe for the kids to see because I wasn't sure all of them would know what a snow globe is.

I cut out circles for the globe part and freehand drew a base for the globe.  Then I cut out little pine trees to go inside the snow globe pictures.

Once everyone had assembled their snow globes, I gave them some puffy paint to make the "snow."
I like to use the puffy paint whenever possible because it's really fun.  It is just a mixture of equal parts white glue and shaving cream.  If you want to color it, you can add food coloring or paint.  I left today's puffy paint white so it would resemble snow and added a little glitter.
Here are the finished results.

Here is the one I made

Here are a few made by the kids

Here is a view of the puffy paint from the side so you can see how puffy it dries.