What Does the Fox Read?

Holiday Crafternoon

Every Wednesday is Schools Out Boredom Busters (SOBB)! The first Wednesday is an early release day for the district, so I show a movie with snacks to tide the kids over until their parents come to get them.

The second Wednesday of each month is Crafternoon! I set up 4-5 stations of activities for the kids to do at their own pace. Usually there is one uber-popular station and three other whip through them stations (kids choice not mine). This month was dedicated to the holidays and our stations were:

1. Gingerbread sugar cone trees. We did this last year, they LOVED it, so I brought it back and they LOVED it again this year.

2. Dangly spiral silver ornaments. Silver pipe-cleaners and beads wrapped around a toddler paint brush. The girls liked this one (not so much the boys).

3. Tree shape outlines out of construction paper + contact paper + small pieces of tissue paper = stained glass holiday trees! This did not go as planned, kids just took handfuls of tissue paper and dropped it onto their contact paper. My plan was to have them placed nicely one at a time. . . we had an entire hour to kill!

4. Paper chains with old book pages. A few adults were upset by the destruction of the books, but we used donations that we found to be worth less tha $5 on Amazon- no rare books were destroyed in the creation of these chains. Paper chains are always hit or miss with the kids. I've offered them at several other programs and NOT ONE CHILD has participated. Today, who knows. . .they wanted to break the world record (54 miles in 24 hours!) In one hour they managed to chain more than halfway around the library! 

They asked if they could chain again next week. The third Wednesday of the month is four player Wii gaming day. I always have extra games & coloring sheets set out for them to work on while they are not participating in the Wii play so I think I might just have to cut some more paper.

The Holidays Threw Up in Our Library

I got the idea for this display on pinterest.

I put up a fleece tree in the children's area for my Early Literacy activity of the month (along with paper ornaments to color and take home).

The kids have the opportunity to add to the tree on our calendar, it is slowly getting more full each day.

I'm pretty sure I saw two or three different pins with this slogan, so I just added my own twist with the wrapped book cart.

What will be under your tree?

Goodreads just finished their reader poll for the Best Books of 2013 so I wrapped our circulation desk in gift wrap and printed out the top two covers for each category. 

The gingerbread house roof is back on the loft and it had a visitor! 

Under the miSTEEL toe with Danielle Steel books.

I helped out with a display in the adult area as well this month.

Elf on the >BOOK< Shelf

I read on a listserve about Utica Library's Elf on a Book Shelf and HAD to do it at our library! Oh what fun for me the kiddos! We used some donation money to buy our own elf, and an elf & DVD to give away. We've already had people come in JUST to find Dobby (our BookShelf Elf).

We have a small display on the circulation desk.

 We are having the kids (under 13) come and tell us where they find Dobby, and they get a raffle ticket to write where they found her, and their names and phone numbers. Our contest is running December 2nd through the 21st, so we will be able to give the lucky winner their elf and book before the holidays are over.

Grand appearance on top of a book shelf.

Climbing on top of the gingerbread house.

Reading some Potter quietly in the corner.

Gobble, Gobble

For Thanksgiving, I like to focus on Turkeys and Thankfulness. I did three different Turkey storytimes the past two weeks. One was a preschool outreach visit, one a library preschool storytime and the third was at a school age storytime that I am trying to get going (sLOW numbers).

The book set list was different for each group (at least 3 of the 4). At the outreach storytime I read four books (these kids are GREAT listeners and have really long attention spans): Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano, I'm a Turkey by Jim Arnosky, 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey (my fave) and Run, Turkey, Run! by Diane Mayr. At the preschool storytime I took out 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving, and at the school age storytime I took out Run, Turkey Run.

We sang songs at both preschool storytime sessions. I found a great song on Perpetual Preschool and made up a quick flannel board.
Turkey's wearing his red feather, red feather, red feather.
Turkey's wearing his red feather on Thanksgiving Day.
I just added a new feather for each verse, ending with Turkey's wearing his rainbow feathers. . .

How could I have forgotten about Mama Turkey Bird? I was in the middle of reading a book at the outreach program when this song I sang years ago with my two-year-olds at daycare popped into my head. I have NO IDEA where I got it from (sounds suspiciously like Dr. Jean's Mama Goonie Bird). . .

Mama turkey bird had many chicks, many chicks had mama turkey bird.
They couldn't walk, and they couldn't talk, but they could go like this. Right wing (make a wing and flap your left arm, the kids will flap their right arms).
Then at each verse add left wing, right foot (stomp foot), left foot, up & down (bend knees), turn around. End with sit down.

We also talked about how turkeys are birds like chickens and lay eggs, so we could use shaker eggs to Laurie Berkner Band's I Know a Chicken.

The craft was a simple: glue a turkey shape, feather, and googily eyes to a paper then use markers to add the other details kids wanted.

The school age kids made snack turkeys out of a few different ideas I saw on Pinterest. I wanted to combine the junk food turkeys with the candy turkeys and came up with: an Anjou pear body, pretzels coated in chocolate frosting and M&Ms for the feathers, cheese for beak and feet, and Cheerios for eyes. They turned out pretty good and the kids, although nervous about the reddish pears really enjoyed their entire turkeys!