Leaf Play

This program was a lot of fun. I really enjoy doing a short storytime and pairing it with sensory bin activities and play dough play.

I read If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff, Counting Crows by Kathi Appelt, and Sneeze, Big Bear, Sneeze! by Maureen Wright. On the flannel board, the kids helped the squirrel find his acorns.

Activities
Pumpkin Scented Cloud Dough
Apple Scented Play Dough 
Fall Sensory Bins (black beans, popcorn, artificial leaves and sunflowers, plastic bugs, jumbo kid friendly tweezers)


Here's a link to my Fall Sensory Bin Pinterest board.

Lois Ehlert Art Program

I was inspired by Laura's Discover Picture Book Art program and Jennifer's We Explore Art: Lois Ehlert program.

I've always admired Lois Ehlert's illustration style and thought it would be fun for kids to explore.

(Sadly, this was a no show event for me this summer. I'd like to try it again at a different library in a different season.)

Here's my plan.

Read The Scraps Book by Lois Ehlert. Share a few pages from Lots of Spots and Oodles of Animals to show off her illustration style.

Let the kids explore her illustration style by 1) looking at books she's illustrated [display of all the books we have that were illustrated by Lois Ehlert] and 2) creating their own collage style illustrations.

I had the following supplies out: pipe cleaners, pompoms, buttons, tissue paper, construction paper, scrapbook paper, index cards, foam shapes, ribbon, glue, and scissors.

Last Laughs: Prehistoric Epitaphs by J. Patrick Lewis & Jane Yolen

This hilarious collection has tons of kid appeal. Dinosaurs and death--what could be better? The dinosaur/creature names are fun. Some of the poems have a modern hip hop/rap vibe. The organization by time period oldest to newest appeals to my type a personality and it just makes sense. These poems will make you laugh.

I love the note at the end (A Little about Layers) and the invitation to readers to write their own epitaphs.

My favorite poems by J. Patrick Lewis are Pterrible Pterosaur Pterminated and Iguadon, Alas Long Gone.

My favorite poems by Jane Yolen are Terror Bird Kicks the Bucket, Scat Old Saber Toothed Cat, Crying (Dire) Wolf, and Holy Moly Woolly Mammoth.

Illustrated by Jeffrey Stewart Timmins. Charlesbridge, 2017

Bravo! Poems about Amazing Hispanics by Margarita Engle

The title does a fabulous job of telling you what this poetry collection is about.

I learned so much from these poems and was glad to discover more information at the end. I had never heard of most of the people in the book. Bravo! would make a great jumping off point for a biography project.

This book flowed extremely well. I liked that Engle organized the poems by the birth year of the subject.

My favorite poems are First Friend, Let the Birds Live, Pura Belpre, Helping Wild Animals, and Brave Music.

The illustrations are gorgeous. Bright, colorful, and the portraits of the people are amazingly life like.

Illustrated by Rafael Lopez. Godwin, 2017

Titanic Program

I was inspired and borrowed from programs hosted by several awesome librarians.

My inspirations:
Jenni's Science Club: Titanic 
Abby's What Sank the Titanic? and Titanic at Your Library
Amy's Sink or Float: Titanic Edition
Pamela's I Survived Program

I really like the flow of Abby's What Sank the Titanic/ program. Like her, I read passages from Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkins and did activities from Titanic Science The Teacher's Guide.

Here's the basic outline of how the program went.
Read p. 16 (about the cat)
Buoyancy Activity (p. 5 of teacher's guide) [This failed miserably!]

Sink or Float Activity (p. 4 of teacher's guide)

Read pp.73-74 (impact)
Iceberg statistic & Making an Iceberg (pp. 10-11 of teacher's guide)
Read pp. 84-85 (damage)
Titanic Compartments demonstration with ice cube tray (Abby & Amy)

Build a Boat that Floats (p. 7 of teacher's guide, Jenni, Abby, Amy, & Pamela)

Book Display & Book List: Books About the Titanic

I think the kids most enjoyed building and testing their boats. Some of the kids knew more about the Titanic than I did. I would definitely do this program again.

Spring Sensory Play

Once again I was inspired by pins on Pinterest to develop this special preschool program/event. 

I began with a short storytime. I read Bear Wants More by Karma Wilson, Hooray for Hoppy! by Tim Hopgood, and When Spring Comes by Kevin Henkes. We did the fingerplay "Watch it Bloom," counting rhymes with crocheted flowers on the magnet board, and found hiding gnomes on the flannel board. 

After the story time, I released the kids and parents to several stations around the room. 

Sensory Bins: 

Flowers & Bugs (black beans, popcorn, plastic bugs, artificial flowers puller of the stems, jumbo kid friendly tweezers)

Carrot Patch (split peas, carrot eggs, white rabbit eggs)

Eggs (plastic eggs, plastic chick eggs, plastic rabbit eggs)

Planting Flowers (black beans, popcorn, artificial flowers with stems, flower pots)

 Play Dough Acvtivities

Planting Flowers (mud colored play dough, flower pots, artificial flowers with stems)

Spring Play Dough (play dough in pastel colors and eucalyptus scented, rolling pins, spring cookie cutters, other play dough utensils)

I use this play dough recipe. 

Here's my Pinterest board for spring sensory bins. 

I really enjoyed this event and look forward to trying it out at all my libraries. 

Miguel's Brave Knight: Young Cervantes & His Dream of Don Quixote by Margarita Engle

I really liked this book. I found Cervantes life as presented in these poems fascinating. History and the power of imagination are well represented. Engle puts together simple words to tell an amazing story.

My favorite poems are School, Smoke, Daydreams, Imagination (end), and Imagination (front).

I enjoyed the Author's Note, Illustrator's Note, Historical Note, and Biographical Note. They added to the poems and made me want to know more.

When I finished the book I wanted to read it again and also read Don Quixote.

I love this quote from Engle: "I wrote Miguel's Brave Knight to show how the power of imagination can be a great source of comfort and hope in times of struggle and suffering."

Illustrated by Raul Colon. Peachtree, 2017