Preschool Pretend & Play- Bad Hair Day!

Wow! Miss Debbie is having a very BAD HAIR DAY!  And bad picture day!

Brush in my hair, now what will I do?
Brush in my hair, now what will I do?
Brush in my hair, now what will I do?
Guess I'll have to wear it!
So we danced to Bad Hair Day by Dream Jam Band. We read Ella Kazoo Will Not Brush Her Hair by Lee Fox, The Unexpectedly Bad Hair of Barcelona Smith by Keith Graves, Big Bouffant by Kate Hosford and Crazy Hair Day by Barney Saltzberg. We then went bananas like Barcelona Smith's hair with The Learning Station.
The Knots in My Hair Song was silly! Hope everyone went home to brush their hair!

Math Idea

I purchased these white work gloves at Dollar Tree to make these fun math manipulatives! You can learn so many things- colors, words, spelling, counting- forward & backward and more! Try it out!

You could purchase little gloves for your little one, too. You could do matching, upper and lower case letters, spelling of their names and more!

Preschool Pretend and Play

I Can Do It Myself! My LLFs are becoming big boys and girls and are learning do so many things by themselves! We counted, we sang our ABCs, we jumped and talked about getting dressed and more! They sure are special!

We read I Can Do It Too! by Karen Baicker, I Can Do It Myself by Diane Adams and How Do I Put It On by Shigeo Watanbe. We jumped and counted with Jim Gill and put togetther body puzzles with our grown-ups.

Preschool Pretend & Play- Noses & Toes

We started off dancing our toesies off to Gimme Back My Toes by Mr. Richard.

We read these books....
Who Needs that Nose? by Karen Clemens
Whose Toes are Those? by Joyce Elias
Long-Nosed Pig
Whose Nose and Toes? by John Butler
Hello Toes, Hello Feet by Ann Whitford Paul
We also touched our toes to our nose with this little ditty:
Hap Palmer- Touch your toes to your nose
Instead of our real toes this time, we used toes on a stick!
But everyone should go home, take off their socks and shoes and try the song with their real toes!

Tales for Twos (Age 2 with an adult)

This week was Babies on the Go!

We started off with our 5 Little Ducks/Ducks Like Rain Songs, then did our This is Big rhyme.

We read Can you Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas, Babies on the Go by Linda Ashman, We've All Got Bellybuttons! by David Martin, Toddlerobics by Zita Newcome.

We made slippery fish with the Octopus Song by Charlotte Diamond.

And we had a special time playing with all the new toys!

Our last Tales for Twos for the year is in two weeks. I will have ducks for you to take home to practice our song, sheets with the lyrics/cd titles of our songs and more so you can keep having fun at home during the holiday break!

This is How We Roll at the Library! Watch Out!

All Dressed Up and GNOME Where to Go!

Absolutely love, love, love this costume!

Every time we have an event at the library, there are always so many people that help out in some way. People you may never see or know. I am grateful for all of their help!

I would like to thank the businesses that supported the Trunk or Treat Event:


Franklin's Cousins on Hwy 100 & Drexel
Franklin's Ferch's
Pyramax Bank
Johnson Bank- extra thank you for the treat bags!
Foresthill Highlands
Tri City National Bank
Forward Dental
Connect Cell
David Insurance Agency
Ebenezer Childcare
Cruise Planners
Staybridge Suites
And a big thank you to the Friends of the Franklin Public Library and all the staff that participated! Everyone braved the cold and did a fantastic job of decorating their trunks. I heard a lot of positive feedback from patrons and participants!

Just Play...Pretty Soon They Will Be All Grown Up

If you have visited the library or attended any of the preschool programs, you will know that I believe in the benefits of play.

There is a great shift in our educational system stressing academics at an earlier and earlier age in an attempt to get higher test scores. There are three-year-old kindergarten classes, all-day four-year-old kindergarten and preschool and daycares that run like a regular school. Recess time is being shortened or even eliminated to make time for more and more academics.

The funny thing is that children now may be at more of a disadvantage than past generations. They may actually be learning less. Play is the natural context in which children learn and develop all sorts of skills - physical, cognitive and social skills.

It's like the idea that "baby talk" or what they call "parentese", that sing-songy way most people naturally talk to babies, was "dumbing down" babies. People started to talk to their babies with the vocabulary that most college students wouldn't recognize! But now they know that this natural way of speaking to babies has a purpose! It helps the baby learn language! Babies prefer it to a normal adult conversation. A baby will turn his head toward a voice using a high-pitched voice like this.

So, my point is let's allow the children to play! Have a tea party! Play hide-and-seek in the house! Let them dress-up in your clothes! Get messy, get dirty, jump in puddles, roll around leaves, make snow angels! My biggest regret in life is that I didn't take more time to enjoy these things with my daughter because the time is now gone and there is no going back...

Let the Whole Earth Sing Praise by Tomie DePaola

Beautifully simple book.

Pig Kahuna by Jennifer Sattler

Another new hilarious book for you!
I get teased about not going into lakes, ponds, etc. because of the threat of "lurking, murky ickiness". I am more of a chlorinated-pool-kind-of-gal. So, when I read this, I laughed.

This is a very cute, fun book! Check it out! Kowabunga!

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

I am doing some cataloging of new books and I love this one! Funny, funny, funny. If you want a glimpse into Miss Debbie's sense of humor- here it is! I was laughing out loud!

We Are a Team!

You and Me, Me and You! We are a team and I am happy to be part of that team! As much as I love getting to know my LLFs, you are the center of their world! So, I need you to be just as much a participant in all that happens in our preschool programming as your child. You can sit together, enjoy the stories together, sing and dance together, and be a great model for your child.

I could not do what I do without your help and participation. More importantly, YOU are the mirror for your child. They look to you to see how to react or how to respond. They learn the appropriate responses or feelings in different situations from you. Furthermore, they value your participation. It tells them that what they are doing is important and that they are important to you. It makes it meaningful to them and making it meaningful allows them to learn more.

The best part of each day for me is spending time with your children. I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this winning team.

Preschool Pretend and Play

Socks and Shoes! Woohoo! The letter of the week, of course, was S for Socks and Shoes! Mr. Letter Muncher ate a lot of the letter S! Yum, yum!

We went walkin' in our walkin' shoes, stompin' in our stompin' shoes, running in our running shoes, tiptoeing in our tiptoe shoes and backwards in our backwards shoes! Oops, we bumped into each other!

Miss Debbie was sooo sad and cried because she lost her socks! But my LLFs helped me find my socks! We went BANANAS with our theme song!

We read Whose Shoes? A Shoe for Every Job by Stephen Swinburne, Shoes for Me by Sue Fleiss, Socksquatch by Frank Dormer, New Socks by Bob Shea and A Flock of Shoes by Sarah Tsiang.

Flannel Boards:

Five Pairs of Dirty Socks

5 pairs of dirty socks on my bedroom floor
Mom washed the blue pair and then there were 4

4 pairs of dirty socks that belong to me
Mom washed the red pair and then there were 3

3 pairs of dirty socks, What’s a kid to do?
Mom washed the green pair and then there were2

2 pairs of dirty socks, I wear them when I run.
Mom washed the purple pair and then there was 1.

1 pair of dirty socks, one and only one,
Mom washed the last pair, my favorite pair of all!.

No more dirty socks, Mom washed them all today,
But wait until tomorrow, cause there’s more on the way!

Music & Motion

Miss Debbie went a little BANANAS at our Music & Motion! We danced to The Wiggles-Do the Monkey! What a fun song! We danced to Jum Gill's Jump Up, Turn Around! Bob McGrath's One Finger, One Thumb- that one was a tough one to do!

If you have an older one, try The Wiggles' version of One Finger, One Thumb- it's so much fun!

Then we rested and sang I'm Bring Home a Baby Bumblebee and Aiken Drum- love the rhythm of that song!

We got back up and boogied out to Go Bananas! and Shimmie Shake by The Wiggles.

It's so much fun to dance and sing and be silly! Remember BLFs, what happens in the library, stays in the library!  :)

Rhyming to Read

We practiced our Rub A Dub Dub and Little Miss Muffet rhymes!

We had a great turnout! Hope you are practicing your rhymes at home!

Tales for Twos (TT) Age 2 with an adult

Last week, we read books about Kitties and Cupcakes!

We started off with our 5 Little Ducks/Ducks Like Rain, as usual followed by our rhyme- This is Big, Big, Big!
We read Little Mouse and the Big Cupcake by Thomas Taylor and If You Give a Cat a Cupcake by Laura Numeroff.  We swam under the water with the Octopus Song!



Rhymes:

FIVE LITTLE CUPCAKES

Down around the corner

At the bakery shop, (Hold up 5 fingers and wiggle.)

Five little cupcakes

With sprinkles on top.

Along came (child’s name)

With a penny one day.

She bought a cupcake and

She took it away. (Put down 1 finger.)

Four…three…two…one

We practiced our colors with:
When the cat that is red
Is finally fed,
He raises his head
And says- "Mee-ow"
When the cat that is blue
Has nothing to do,
He comes up, too,
And whispers- "Mee-ow"
When the cat that is yellow
Is feeling mellow,
He tends to stretch
And bellow-"Mee-ow!"
When the cat that is brown
Starts stalking the town,
You'll hear his sound
When he cries-"Mee-ow"
When the cat that is green
Is finally seen,
You'll know what I mean
When I say he can really "Mee-ow!"
When the cat that is black
Arches his back,
He has an uncanny knack
Of screeching-"Mee-ow!"
When the cat that is white
Comes into sight,
You very well might
Hear his famous-"Mee-ow!"
Okay, little cats,
Let's hear some "Mee-ows!"
And now it's time
For curtsies and bows.

Found a New Great Site

I found this fun new site when I was looking for materials for Rhyming to Read. It is the BBC Learning School Radio.

They have a lot of neat early learning videos, resources and podcasts. Check it out!

Early Literacy Extras!

• When your child starts school, he will be more successful if he is already proficient at holding a pencil, writing his name, and manipulating small objects. You can practice at home by writing the letters of the alphabet in chalk, in the sand, with crayons, etc. You can practice sorting small objects like buttons or beads.  
• Get some exercise and learn at the same time! Take a walk together outside and point out all the words, letters and numbers you can find- on mailboxes, street signs, cars, billboards, etc. 
• Practice fine motor skills by putting together puzzles!  
• Play hopscotch and practice counting! 
• Bounce a ball to each other and each time say a new word and have your child say a word that rhymes! 
• Touch body parts and have your child say a word that rhymes- like NOSE, rose, hose, toes.

Possible Contenders for the Caldecott Medal

The librarians in the area gather together and pick a book that think deserves the Caldecott Medal- the top award for the best illustrator from the US of that year. These are the books that we are considering. I wanted to share them with you. You might want to take a look at these beautiful books!

Say Hello to Zorro!

Illustrated Carter Goodrich

For the Love of Music: The Remarkable Story of Maria Anna Mozart

illustrated by Steve Johnson & L. Fanchar

The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred

illustrated by Rafael Lopez

The Secret River

illustrated by Leo & Diane DillonLadder to the Moon illustrated by Yuyi Morales
The Red Wagon illustrated by Renata Liwska
The Great Migration: Journey to the North illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist
Blackout illustrated by John Rocco
If I Never Forever Endeavor illustrated by Holly Meade
Perfect Square illustrated by Michael Hall
Where’s Walrus illustrated by Stephen Savage
Me...Jane illustrated by Patrick McDonnell
Peaceful Pieces: Poems and Quilts about Peace illustrated by Anna Grossnickle Hines
Mine! illustrated by Patrice Barton
Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature illustrated by Beth Krommes
Blue Chicken illustrated by Deborah Freedman
A Ball for Daisy illustrated by Chris Raschka
The Secret Box illustrated by Barbara Lehman
All the Water in the World illustrated by Katherine Tillotson
Night Flight: Amelia Earhart Crosses the Atlantic illustrated by Wendell Minor
Queen of the Falls illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg
All the Way to America illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
This Plus That: Life’s Little Equations illustrated by Jen Corace
Kitty Cat, Kitty Cat, Are You Going to Sleep? illustrated by Laura J. Bryant
A Nation’s Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Little White Rabbit illustrated by Kevin Henkes
To Market, To Market illustrated by Nikki McClure
Cars Galore illustrated by Bob Staake
Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Pig Kahuna illustrated by Jennifer Sattler

Need to Get Fit?

Have fun with the WHOLE family and get your heart working by gathering the family around the stereo and playing some fun dance music! Dance, dance, dance! Any kind of music with a beat will work. Everyone could choose their favorite songs!

20 minutes a day of dancing will work wonders for your heart and waistline! It will build your stamina and you won't feel so tired!

Jumping is great! If you feel like you don't have any rhythm and can't dance, then JUMP!!! Jump, jump, jump. It's great for your bones. On top of all these great benefits, you will feel wonderful because of the endorphins! It helps with stress, depression and more!

Bedtime & Books- I Can't Sleep!

They came in their pjs, with their stuffed friends and blankies. They came to the library for Bedtime & Books!

We read:
Bed Hogs by Kelly DiPucchio- funny book about a family of pigs all snuggled together in bed!
Can't Sleep Without Sheep by Susanna Leonard Hill- the sheep are exhausted from jumping over the fence so Ava can count them and go to sleep, so they try to find replacements!
"I'm Not Sleepy!" by Jonathan Allen- little owl is back and doesn't want to go to bed!
Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up! Late by Mo Willems
Cornelius P. Mud, Are You Ready for Bed? by Barney Saltzberg
We had a Wee Willie Winkie Rhyme-Off- yes, the girls won!
We went bananas, of course, with our Go Bananas! song and then we ended with some bedtime crafts!

I had fun with my Little Library Friends and my Big Library Friends!

Family Literacy Play Date

Play Literacy supports the idea that children learn best through play. Young

children can learn the fun, as well as the importance, of reading and writing

in everyday life through imaginative play.This new program is based on the work of early childhood educator Gretchen Owocki, author of

Literacy Through Play (Heinemann, 1999).

At each Family Literacy Play Date, there will be manipulatives and literacy materials related to a theme, such as Restaurant, Doctor's Office, or Ice Cream Stand. We will read a story related to the theme and then model the activities that go along with the theme.

Pretend reading and writing are incorporated into the program through group-based and individual literacy activities. For example, parents might write a grocery list or a letter and read a menu or a fishing map, and then help the children to do the same. Children and adults then have the opportunity to play with the toys ("go shopping," "take pizza orders," "play post office.")

We stress purposeful play which incorporates literacy.

Our first event was Bank Night which was generously sponsored by Franklin's Bank Mutual.

We read about what bank tellers do and a short story by Mercer Mayer, Just a Piggy Bank. We looked at different coins with this fun little rhyme...

Penny, penny,
Easily spent.
Copper brown
and worth one cent.

Nickel, nickel,
Thick and fat.
You're worth five cents,
I know that.

Dime, dime,
Little and thin.
I remember,
you're worth ten.

Quarter, quarter,
big and bold.
You're worth twenty-five
I am told.

Then we played! Fun and learning go together!

Free Educational Ideas

Another great freebie off Kiz Club!

Word family worms! Simply to make- just print off the templates and fold them according to directions. Then practice word family words with your child.

Love this site! Check it out!

Free Educational Ideas

I've mentioned earlier that I love the website- Kiz Club
So many fun things are available for free!

Love this phonics foot fun because it gets the kids up and moving. Now, if you go to their site, they will give you wonderful ideas about how to use these feet. But I just like the idea of taping them on the floor and giving the kids access to letters. So, if they pick a B, they can go to as many feet that will make a word with the letter B.

Print these feet for free and have some Footy Phonics Fun!

Free Educational Ideas

Lakeshores also has a cookie jar toy to learn the numbers 1-10. Each chocolate chip cookie has a number on one side and that same number of chips on the other side. Another easy idea- paper and an empty container- that's it.

Sing the song "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar", read the book of the same title.

Use Cookie Monster's voice to have fun eating the cookie with 5 chocolate chips- yum, yum, yum. Me love cookies!!!!!

Free Educational Ideas

I saw something in the Lakeshores catalog with a bunch of small items of the same color in a colored container as a manipulative for children to learn their colors. But the cost was crazy! So, I decided to make one!

Pringles can, found objects around the library and voila!

You can do it, too! It's simple and easy and cheap! Plus, BONUS, you clean out your junk drawer.

Now learning colors is obvious, but you can do so much more! Counting, language and descriptions, I Spy, size, etc...
Also, make it a treasure hunt! Have your little one help you find the objects! Fun, fun , fun!

Franklin School District Three-Year-Old Screening

In early October each year, the Franklin School District, in collaboration with the Franklin Health Dept., holds a screening for all 3 yr.old in the district. Known as Child Development Days, the program combines a play-based observational screening of children with a "Child Fair" for parents to learn more about child and family related services in the area.

This free event takes place at the Franklin Public Library the first week of October.


Please take advantage of this by making an appointment-
call 414-525-7626 now!

Preschool Pretend & Play (3-5)

The Letter of the Week is DDDDD as in Dinner! Who's Coming to Dinner? Pig, Chicken, Egg?

We have read stories about crazy dinners that don't go exactly as planned!

The Wolf's Chicken Stew by Keiko Kasza
My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza
Foxy and Edd by Alex Smith
20 Hungry Piggies by Trudy Harris

We went bananas with our Go Bananas song and we danced to the Fun Thing by Eric Litwin!

We took home origami foxes and fox tails, too!

Music & Motion

Here is the list of songs we danced to in our 1st Music & Motion!

Go Bananas! from The Learning Station
Egg Shaker Songs- I Know a Chicken by Laurie Berkner, Shake the Rattles by Kindermusik, Shaker Hop by Carole Peterson
Peanut Butter & Jelly on the Silly Favorites CD
Wiggle & Freeze by Cathy Bollinger

Waddlers & Walkers (WW) Ages 23 months and younger

Thurs. at 9:00am (Enter library on Loomis side by flags)

Choo, Choo Train
Here is My Book
Open and Shut Them
1 Potato, 2 Potato
Do You Know the Muffin Man?
Followed by some new rhymes.

Extended activities handout will be available.

Tales for Twos (TT) Age 2 with an adult

Mice are Nice
Mon.-Wed. at 10:30 am

We will practice counting with 5 Little Ducks. Did you take your ducks home last time so you can sing and play at home, too?

We will read Mouse Mess by Linnea Riley and Eeney Meeny Mouse Big Book.

Besides our Letter Song and our activity song, Slippery Fish, we will also pretend to be mice with Carole Peterson's song, The Little Mouse Goes Creeping.

We will practice our colors with our flannel board, Little Mouse, Little Mouse.

Again, there will be a take-home craft and an extended activities handout. Hope to see you there!

Out Sick

Well, our first week of Preschool Pretend & Play was off to a sickly start! Monday was a holiday. Tuesday, I was sick. For those of you that came today, I hope you had fun.

I hope you enjoyed the smores...and liked our new Go Bananas! song.

Hopefully, next time we meet, things will be back to normal!

Miss Debbie (sniff, sniff)



Very Cute Book!

As I was cataloging new books today, I came across this gem! Roly-Poly Egg by Kali Stileman. Very cute!

Geared toward younger readers, Splotch the bird gets so excited when she sees her spotted egg that she jumps up and down on the tree branch. This sends the egg off on a rolling adventure with different animals.

After reading it with your little one, follow it with some creative fun by making a Splotch Birdie on your own! They will love it! Check it out at the library soon!

Next week- Music and Motion Ages 2-5 with an adult

Music and Motion - Thursday 10:30

Let's get our bodies moving to the music! Whohoo!

We will dance and sing and have fun!

Next week- Rhyming to Read Ages 2-5 with an adult

 Rhyming to Read - Thursday at 9:30

We will learn Jack and Jill and Hickory Dickory Dock during this program. We will engage in fun activities for you and your child to practice these rhymes.

There will be take-home activities, too!

Next week- Preschool Pretend and Play Ages 3-5

We are going to camp out in the library! Next week- Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 10:30 am. We are going to read camp stories in our tent, make smores, sing camp songs and watch out for bears! Oh, my!

Bring your bug spray and a sunblock!

New Preschool Programming Begins Next Week!

This is what is happening next week:


Waddlers & Walkers Ages 23 months and younger Thurs. 1st at 9:00am

These will be the same at each session this fall:

Choo Choo Train (Hand rhyme)
Here is My Book (Hand rhyme)

Open and Shut Them (Hand rhyme)

1 Potato 2 Potato (Song/activity)

Do You Know the Muffin Man? (Song/activity)

These will change:

Hickory Dickory Dock

Handy Spandy

A Walking We Will Go

I Bounce You Here

Bumping Up and Down

Baby Shark

Extended activities to take-home.

New Session of Preschool Program Begins!

This is what is happening next week:

 

Tales for Twos Ages 2 with adult M-T-W at 10:30

 

Black & White

• Opening song will be 5 Little Ducks. We will sing this song each week and practice our counting! You will get 5 little ducks to take home so you can sing the song with your little one.
• We will practice our vocabulary and our understanding of opposites as we use our whole body to say our "This is Big" rhyme.
• We will read Black Meets White by Justine Fontes and play a game of What Can This Be? with black and white die-cuts.
• We will practice letter recognition with our song Do You See the Letter?
• Each week we will have fun with the silly Slippery Fish song. This will get our bodies in motion!
• We will end with two nursery rhymes- Baa Baa Black Sheep and Two Little Blackbirds.
• Yummy Oreos for a treat! Take-home extended activities for families!

Videos of Rhymes, Fingerplays, Chants and Songs

Well, in the library world, we use a lot of rhymes, fingerplays and songs to help develop literacy skills. Thanks to the Internet, videos abound that show you motions to go along with the song or rhymes. I use them all the time! Check them out below!

http://www.storyblocks.org/
http://wiki.kcls.org/tellmeastory/index.php/Category:Rhymes_&_Songs
http://www.jocolibrary.org/templates/JCL_InfoPage.aspx?id=14515
http://www.hclib.org/Birthto6/EarlyLit_Fingerplays.cfm

And, of course, YouTube has tons of videos. You can search by fingerplay or song title, but to get you started check out some of these- Cullens ABC, Pamela Sunshine, King County Library (Tell Me A Story) and Musser Library.

Lots of New Books!

Lots of new books are in the library! I just want to highlight these new easy readers:

I really like the Tadpoles from Crabtree. The print is large and easy to read. The vocabulary and sentence sturcture is appropriate for beginner readers. A bunch of new Tadpoles came in recently!

I also like the Stone Arch Readers by Capstone. There is a new set that recently came in all about tools.

For non-fiction easy readers, I really like the DK Readers and the National Geographic Kids titles.



New Song for Fall Storytime! Go Bananas!

Each session of storytime, I search for a silly, activity song- one which gets my LLFs up and moving and being silly! We've done Tooty Ta, Singing in the Rain, My Aunt Came Back, etc. I like using camp songs. I was a Girl Scout and a Girl Scout Leader and I always thought camp songs were so much fun!
Well, I found a great new one! Go Bananas! Check-out The Learning Station video and get ready to Go Bananas at storytime very soon!

6 Early Literacy Skills become 5 Best Practices

These 6 Early Literacy Skills were defined in the early literacy project, Every Child Ready to Read @ Your Library. I have earlier posts describing the 6 skills and suggestions on how to develop the skills in you child.
Vocabulary
Knowing the names of things.

Print Motivation
A child's interest in and enjoyment of books.

Print Awareness
Noticing print everywhere; knowing how to handle a book; knowing how we follow the words on a page.

Narrative Skills
The ability to describe things and events and tell stories.

Letter Knowledge
Knowing that letters have names and are different from each other, and that specific sounds go with specific letters.

Phonological Awareness
The ability to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words.

Now, the 2nd edition of Every Child Ready to Read @ Your Library has been released and these 6 skills have incorporated into these 5 best practices to get your child ready to read:

Talking, singing, reading, writing and playing.

It's that simple. All of our preschool programming will revolve around these best practices!

Letter Muncher

Now that summer is over, I am working on preparing for fall programs. As I do, I am going to post some very inexpensive ideas for my BLFs to do at home with their little ones.

These small garbage cans were purchased at the Dollar Tree and decorated by one of our wonderful college workers, Christina. She did an amazing job!

Now, these can be letter munchers, shape munchers, sound munchers, number munchers, rhyming word munchers, color munchers, etc...

You make cards or use 3-D objects and have your little one choose from a pile and feed the Muncher- yum, yum, yum. For example, I would have letters- foam, magnetic, printed on cards, etc. available and I would say this rhyme:

Letter Muncher, Letter Muncher
Munch, munch, munch!

Would you like to munch

The letter _____ for lunch?

Letter Muncher, Letter Muncher
Munch, munch, munch

The letter _____ is yummy
To munch for lunch!

Last Storytime of Summer

Well, I had a lot of fun today with Eric Litwin's books and songs today. We read Pete the Cat. We danced to his songs- The Fun Thing, Mr. Eric's Jumping Song and Super Silly Tango.

We went outside and had a freezy treat and played with bubbles and chalk! Hope all my LLFs and BLFs enjoyed storytime this summer!

Lapsitters- Friends

Friends- library friends, new friends, old friends, family friends...we can never have too many friends!

We read stories about friends- Forever Friends by Carin Berger and Little Quack's New Friend By Lauren Thompson.

We sang songs- The More We Get Together and Make New Friends.

We danced to "If You're Happy and You Know It!

I hope all my library friends had fun!

Storytime- Folktales

Hola, Amigos! Bailar conmigo! Come and dance with your library friends!

We had fun trip-trapping across the bridge while the mean troll growled, "Who's crossing my bridge?".

Our volunteers did and AWESOME job pulling out the ENORMOUS turnip.

We learned to be careful when we are granted 3 wishes and never to cry wolf, wolf, wolf!

It was HOT, HOT, HOT today in storytime!! Hope you had fun!

School Collection

You have a WONDERFUL resource available to you at the Franklin Public Library- the School Collection!

This is a unique collection of parenting, child development, curriculum supportive, educational and parenting materials. It's for the parents that would like to have additional educational resources to utilize at home. It's for the homeschool family, the teachers, the student and new parents that are navigating all the ins and outs of parenting!


The collection is located in the first aisle of the ADULT NON-FICTION section. A lot of our families spend most of the time at the library in the Children's Area and don't know about this collection. We don't have space to house in the Children's Area, unfortunately. There are books, workbooks, DVDs, software, magazines, kits and more!

So, please take a look over there on your next visit!

Books from My Childhood

I often have moms come in and look for picture books that they remember from their childhood. They want to share them with their children. Today, I saw two books from my childhood that many people aren't familiar with but are very familiar with the authors.

Pretzel by the creators of Curious George, Margret and H.A. Rey!

The Witch Next Door or The Witch's Christmas by Norman Bridwell, the Clifford the Big Red Dog creator!



Stop, Drop and Roll!

To practice fire safety at home, make this simple prop. Tape red, orange and yellow crepe paper to a gift wrap tube. Have your children roll on the floor as you repeat this little ditty...

 

Sung to: "Hot Cross Buns"

Stop, drop, and roll,
Stop, drop, and roll,
If your clothes ever catch on fire,
Stop, drop, and roll.

We did this in a Safety Storytime and had a lot of fun!

Happy 4th of July!

Today, we celebrate our independence! Stop in the library this week to get a book about the Declaration of Independence and what it means! Or a book about the 4th of July!


The library is always your source for information!


Wishing all my BLFs and LLFs enjoy the day!

Fantastic Friday (Gr. 3 and younger) - July 8th

We will be doing different art activities than what we did the last Fantastic Friday, so I hope you can join us!

Kids love to get messy, generally. I have seen a lot more kids lately that don't and it worries me! Open-ended messy art allows children the freedom to create, the control to make their own choices and the ability to explore possibilities without the threat of mistakes. Children that are allowed to create on their own develop self-esteem, problem-solving skills, confidence and perseverance. I have often seen a child breakdown and cry because they made a "mistake" with their art project or because their project didn't look like the sample or another person's project. I have seen many parents "take over" the art project or direct the child in what the project should look like. It is very, very tempting for parents to do this because as parents we want our children to be the best they can be and we want to help them. Sometimes the best thing for them is difficult for us!

I absolutely loved our first Fantastic Friday! It was the best program ever! There were so many wonderful parents there that allowed their children to get messy and the kids had fun! Next Friday, we will do some Fizzle and Sizzle Sidewalk Painting, Flyswatter Painting, Potion Making, Koosh Ball Painting and more! 

Make sure to dress so you can be a mess from your head to your toes!

You're a Grand Ole Flag!

We made a special red, white and blue treat today to celebrate America! With our theme, 'One World, Many Stories' we definitely had to include our wonderful country!

We waved our flags and marched around and even had a few 'fireworks'- ooh, aah, ooh, ahh!

Hope you had fun! It's always great to see my LLFs!

Especially with your blue, red and purple tongues!

Fantastic Friday was FANTASTIC!

We made mud pies and mud sculptures and squished our toesies in the mud! We threw paint ball sponges and rolled cars and trucks through paint. We used our fingers to paint and our feet to paint. We used ice cubes to paint and colored water to paint! We even had bubbles!

It was the best program ever for me because I saw so many children just be totally free to be messy and creative! Loved it!

Checkout the pictures on the Children's Department Facebook Page by clicking the Facebook Badge on the right side of this blog. The pictures will tell you the whole story! Love them!

Fantastic Friday will be back Friday, July 8th at 10:30 (Gr. 3 and younger)- weather permitting. Remember- messy from head to toes and everywhere in between- so come dressed appropriately!

Storytime Week 3 - America! Red, White and Blue!

Flag of America, red, white and blue

Flag of America, I love you!

We will start out with a get on your feet and get moving song! Then we will read Scrambled States of America and Tulip Sees America. Using our scarves, we will march around to You're a Grand Ole Flag. We will read I Am America. We will finish with a special American treat and working together to create a beautiful American mural! Hope you can join us!