We started the party with a conversation about who Dr. Seuss really is. I love it that kids almost ALWAYS believe that the Cat in the Hat is Dr Seuss.
I had four stations set up for parents and their children. I knew this was going to be interesting because not many parents stay in the room for storytime, so this was new to them. After a little bit, some parents noticed that other parents were participating with their children, and they all ended up joining in!
The four stations I had set up were: reading Seuss books books with their kids, painting a fish bowl with blue corn syrup and adding goldfish crackers, making a green egg with vanilla pudding, and a Cat in the Hat photo booth. I've done corn syrup painting in the past and found a reference on pinterest to a Dr Seuss craft, but didn't feel like cutting out a ton of fish, so I just bought some Goldfish crackers- yummy, yummy.
I had to leave to get a knife for the cake, and while I was gone
The Cat in the Hat (read me) visited the library and read the families his story!
Then we got to have the CAKE- everyone's favorite part of the party! I had a lot of satisfied little kiddos, and it was especially exciting to see so many of the parents, aunts and grandparents reading with their littles.
I ended up with 13 kids and 7 adults attending and the program cost me about $15.
Yay! I love it when librarians say how many people came and how much the program cost!
ReplyDeleteThanks, I probably should have mentioned that those are pretty good numbers for our little library :)
DeleteYeah, it's all relative! I aim to have at least 10 kids at a storytime, but sometimes...it just doesn't happen. Then I freak out and have to sing Elizabeth Mitchell songs to myself and average statistics to calm down. I had about 75 people at my Dr. Seuss program, but I marketing the heck out of it and this is the second year we've done it - last year Dr. Seuss coincided with a blizzard and over $100 of green eggs and ham were wasted...this year we just made cupcakes. Plus, in addition to my small town, I draw in attendance from several neighboring small towns who prefer our library and programs.
DeleteI had to reschedule mine for Thursday due to the big snowstorm on Tuesday. Darn snow.
DeleteSaw this mentioned in the https://amyeileenk.wordpress.com/2014/09/21/thinking-outside-the-storytime-box-building-your-preschool-programming-repertoire/ program and followed up the link.
ReplyDeleteNice program -- I always enjoy seeing other ideas! Here are the plans for one that I have developed and done a number of times over the years. (We are a bigger library and I generally have 40-50 kids and some teen volunteers helping.) http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2014/03/seussapalooza-read-across-america.html