Winter Wonderland Party

I hosted this event in January, but you could also do it in December or February. 

We read a few wintry books: Fox Versus Winter by Corey R. Tabor, Out Cold by Ryan T. Higgins, and Cold Turkey by Corey Rosen Schwartz and Kirsti Call. 

We had a snowball fight with fake snowballs. I got them from Amazon. 

We built snowmen with Play-Doh and accessories from Amazon. 

We went ice skating indoors using wax paper as skates on the carpet. 

We went on a Winter Animals Scavenger Hunt. I used a free clipart set from Teachers Pay Teachers. Find it here. 

I sent the kids home with plenty of activities: 

• I Spy Snowmen (Paper Trail Design)
• Coloring Page from Out Cold (Publisher's Website)
• Spiral Snowman Craft (krokotak)
• Winter Bear Coloring Page (krokotak)
• Recipes for snow dough, white play dough, and salt dough. The first two are from Imagination Tree (my favorite source for play dough recipes) and the last is from Unsophisticook. 

Soup's On Around the World by Denyse Waissbluth

Taste the World Book 2

Do you like soup? Let's travel the world and learn more about this delicious and versatile food!

Thoughts: I'm so glad the author and illustrator collaborated again to bring readers an around the world look at soup. Everyone has a soup and I was delighted to learn about some I'd never heard of before. I like that if you're reading this to younger kids in a storytime setting you can just use the large text and abbreviate the description to suit their attention spans. The illustrations are colorful and inviting. I like how detailed the soup ingredients are in the illustrations. I love that the author and illustrator shared their favorite soup recipes at the end of the book. Pair with 10 Hungry Rabbits by Anita Lobel, Is That Wise, Pig? by Jan Thomas, 10 Hungry Pigs by Derek Anderson, House Mouse by Michael Hall, Duck Soup by Jackie Urbanovic, Carrot Soup by John Segal, or Every Color Soup by Jorey Hurley for a soup-er storytime. Pair with Teatime Around the World and Delicious! Poems Celebrating Street Food from Around the World by Julie Larios to tour the world in food and drink. 

Get a curriculum guide from the publisher here. Don't miss the  first Taste the World book: Teatime Around the World. 

Themes: Soup, Food

(Review copy provided by publisher. Illustrated by Chelsea O'Byrne. Greystone Kids, 2025.)

Monthly Scavenger Hunts

Right before the world changed in 2020, I had started having a scavenger hunt as one of the activities at my library programs. I think the firsts were my 2018 Dr. Seuss Party and my 2018 Pete the Cat Party. During my 2021 Summer Program (held outside), so many children told me they remembered the scavenger hunts from the parties and missed doing them. 

I decided to create monthly scavenger hunts in the kids section. I've used book characters, book covers (Dr. Seuss and poetry books), but my favorite is using free clipart sets from Teachers Pay Teachers. I try to be intentional when planning the hunts and focus on these concepts: colors, shapes, emotions, numbers, and alphabet. 

A few of my favorite creators on Teachers Pay Teachers are Rainbow Sprinkle Studio - Sasha Mitten, P4 Clips Trioriginals, and Krista Wallden - Creative Clips Clipart. 

To create the scavenger hunt: I select the theme, print and laminate the hunt pieces, create a hunt sheet and a sign for display in the branches. I also curate an activity packet. krokotak, Paper Trail Design, and Monday Mandala are some of my favorite sources of activities. If needed I label the hunt pieces. This usually needs to happen with colors as there are never 12 unique colors. One of our branch assistants is colorblind so this also helps her and I've seen parents working with kids on letter recognition during the hunts. 

I'm just now started to recycle my hunts. November's hunt is from 2023 and December's is from 2022. 

I've been doing the monthly scavenger hunts since September 2021. Average monthly participation across four library branches has went from 70 in 2021 to 213 in 2025. 

Weekly Lego Challenges

Prior to 2020, I was hosting a Lego Club at my library branches as least three times per year. The pandemic changed that and weekly Lego challenges were my way of still engaging children with STEM learning even if we couldn't meet in person. 

I've continued with the Lego challenges even though I'm hosting in-person events again. There are some children who will likely never attend a library program for various reasons: scheduling, transportation, etc. These Lego challenges help conquer those barriers to access. 

The challenges post to our library Facebook pages and groups on Friday mornings at 10:00am. They are also posted in the library branches. I get a few emails from parents, but mostly I hear stories about how the kids always know to ask what the challenge is on Fridays. 

I use Canva to create the images and a variety of sources to create the challenges. Brownielocks, Holiday Insights, and even Wikipedia (search the date) are my favorites. I will also use my storytime themes. Challenges usually fall into a few broad categories: animal, food, color, number of pieces. 

I don't see myself stopping these anytime soon. The ability to schedule posts makes the challenges easy to maintain. 

Flora and Friends ABC by Molly Idle

An alphabet of birds. Old friends and new. A few surprises. 

Thoughts: Such a delightful and sursprising alphabet book. I love the unexpected foldout pages and the use of letters together. Flora and Friends ABC will be a lovely addition to a bird themed storytime. I might even try an ABC bird activity with the kids and see what birds they come up with. Pair with Bring on the Birds by Susan Stockdale, Plume by Isabelle Simler, Today at the Bluebird Cafe: A Branchful of Birds by Deborah Ruddell, Beautiful Birds by Jean Roussen, or Bird Show by Susan Stockdale. 

Don't miss the other Flora books! 

• Flora and the Flamingo 
• Flora and the Penguin 
• Flora and the Peacocks
• Flora and the Ostrich 
• Flora and the Chicks 
• Flora and Friends Colors

Themes: Alphabet, Birds 

(Chronicle Books, 2023.)

Mini Ren Faire for Teens

One of my former library teens now a library employee talked me into hosting this event. In the end, it turned out well, but the decorating took a lot of time and we had too many activities for the two hours. 

The decorations were simple: I borrowed castle wall curtains from a friend and we used these to cover most of a history mural in the library's meeting room. Black table cloths, parchment paper signs, battery operated candles, a few candle holders, and some burlap. 

The Snacks (The Tavern): Pickles, Olives, Cheese, Crackers, Assorted Dried Fruit, Chessman Cookies, Apple Cider (Apple Juice), Root Beer, Ginger Ale

Arrival Activities

• Shakespearean or Medieval Insults
• Shakespeare Insult Generator by brendan kelso on Teachers Pay Teachers 
• Make Your Own Medieval Insult by Sense of Wonder on Teachers Pay Teachers 
• Trivia: Ed Sheeran or Shakespeare: The Tempest Quotes Game by Matthew Jenkins on Teachers Pay Teachers 
• Name Generators (found on Pinterest: Dragon Name x4, Enchanted Forest Name, Heroic Name, Tournament Name, Royal Name x2, Fairy Name, Fantasy Name, Woodland Fairy)

Gaming:

• Dice Games: Raffle, Zara, Hazard, Passage
• Other Games: Queek, Nine Men’s Morris, Fox and Geese, The Game of the Goose

Here There Be Dragons Crafts

• Dragon Eggs (Styrofoam eggs and thumbtacks)
• Dragon Eyes (instructions from Craft Your Happiness)

Armory Crafts

• Make Your Own Sword (dowels, pool noodles)
• Make Your Own Shield (flat cardboard, markers; see Coat of Arms Printable from Happy Strong Home) 

Coloring

• Medieval Designs & Stained Glass from Dover Publications free samples
• Medieval designs from Color Our Collections 

We also had a scavenger hunt devised by the library teen turned employee. 

The Princess and the (Greedy) Pea by Leigh Hodgkinson

Have you every wondered why one pea would make the princess's mattresses so lumpy? Well, here's an explanation. 

Thoughts: How fun! I've loved Leigh Hodgkinson's books ever since I read Goldilocks and Just One Bear back in 2013. This story was so unexpected. I love that it's form is like This Is the House that Jack Built. The Princess and the (Greedy) Pea will be such a fun addition to either a fairy tale or food themed storytime. The illustrations are colorful and I love the addition of onomatopoeias when the pea is eating. During storytime, I think I will have the kids repeat them after me. Pair with Federico and the Wolf  by Rebecca J. Gomez, A Cooked-Up Fairy Tale by Penny Parker Klosterman, Little Red Hot by Eric A Kimmel, and The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza written by Philemon Sturges for a fun foodie fairy tale storytime. Also try this poem:  “Recipe for Fairy Tales” from Follow the Recipe: Poems about Imagination, Celebration & Cake by Marilyn Singer. 

Themes: Fairy Tales, Food 

(Candlewick Press, 2023.)