All posts by Children's Staff
Books for Preschoolers on Wednesday, April 29
The theme for today’s preschool storytime was going to be rain, but it just didn’t seem appropriate for such a sunny morning! Instead, we read books about a fun pair of opposites: Quiet and Loud. Click on each book cover below to find it in the library’s catalog.
Read Aloud 15 Minutes
Every child.
Every parent.
Every day.
The Children’s Staff is preparing for our summer reading program. The theme changes each year, but the decision to count time spent reading is constant.
The schools encourage all children to read for 15 minutes a day, every day in the summer. It is only a small amount of time, but many studies have shown that it is necessary in order to keep a child’s reading skills from slipping.
The website www.ReadAloud.org encourages families to make this commitment every day of the year. There are a number of cute posters and inspirational slogans to remind you of how important this time is to your child and to you.
~Maureen
Friday Storytime, April 17, 12-24 months
Singing, dancing, reading, bubbles and scarves! A busy morning with the little ones but lots of fun and movement. We read two different stories today.
Baby Storytime, Friday, April 17, 0-12 ,months
It may be raining outside but it was bright and sunny in storytime as we gathered together for lots of singing, reading and fun. We all enjoyed reading the singsong words in the book Jamberry. A fun time was had by all!
The Value of Rhyme
During the preschool storytimes this Wednesday and Friday, we played a game in which we tried to guess the different objects that were hidden in a box. The game included this song:
Someone’s at the door. Hear the knocks!
I open up the door and see a box.
I open up the box, but the box is full of rocks.
I really didn’t want a box of rocks!
We sang the song several times. The box contained rocks the first time, but subsequent verses included clocks, locks, blocks, socks, and smocks. Before each verse, the group tried to think of a new object that rhymed with “box.”
This activity combined two things children love: guessing games and wordplay. But playing with language isn’t just for fun; it plays an important role in early literacy. Rhyming encourages children to recognize patterns in sound and language, which increases their phonological sensitivity, or awareness of the idea that words are made up of smaller sounds. Phonological awareness is essential to learning to read and spell, and rhyming games are an easy and fun thing you can do at home to help your child develop this important pre-literacy skill.
Books for 4-6 year olds on Thursday, April 16
Today we read the classic story of a poor peddler and some naughty monkeys:
We also read about some ketchup-loving piglets, and what might happen to you if you put ketchup on everything you eat:
Books for Preschoolers on Wednesday, April 15
The theme of this Wednesday’s storytime was boxes. Everyone knows that boxes are useful for storing things and moving them from place to place, but a box can also be a secret fort, a snazzy hat, or a rocket that zooms an imaginative young astronaut to the moon.Or you can fill a box with books, of course! These are the books we read during storytime:
Books for Preschool on Monday, April 13
The May session of Dads and Donuts will be a special occassion, so I want everyone to be aware of the festivities. (see last Saturday’s post) The highlight of the festivities will be a race of rubber duckies, so we read Duck at the Door.
“It’s the middle of the night,” said Irene. “Who could be knocking on our door?” Several children guessed the answer – it was a duck. I think it helped that they listened to the title when I began.
We had previously read How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?, so the children were familiar with dinosaurs acting badly – or not. Spoiler alert: the dinosaurs are actually very polite at the end.
I read this book since repetition is very important, and for the fact that a child told me he was wearing a dinosaur shirt before storytime began. 😉
From many countries, spanning 1000 years, these are short poems from some of history’s most famous poets.
Today I shared one from Lord Byron. I wrote it on a white board and we solved “A Riddle, On the Letter E” Here is the poem. Can you solve the riddle?
The beginning of eternity, the end of time and space,
The beginning of every end, and the end of every place.
I never explained to the children that Yeti is also known as the Abominable Snowman. The illustrations make him look a bit like a shaggy dog. This is a story of friendship that transforms the forest.
Opening lines: “This hat is not mine. I just stole it.” Can we, as adults, console ourselves with the fact that this minnow is not a liar – just a thief?
Some misperceptions follow the theft; it looks as though the little fish got away with the theft, but then…. There is a lot to see and to like in these spare illustrations.
~Maureen
Singing may help adults as well
In previous posts, we’ve stressed the magic of singing. Children can hear the individual syllables in the words more easily in songs.
Today I want to mention that singing may help parents as well. Many of us have experienced frustrating moments dealing with young children.
Repeating ourselves in a louder voice almost never works. Singing, however, often works.
Barney’s clean up song seems to be universally popular these days. Learn that one, a similar one, or make up your very own for your family. Tension is often reduced and children cooperate so much better. After all, it was Mary Poppins who taught us that “A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down in a most delightful way.”
~Maureen
Books for Dads and Donuts on April 11, 2015
There is a Book Sale going on this weekend at the Town Gym, behind the Town Offices building. It is very unusual for the Friends of the Library to offer a book sale at this time of year, so I hope many families discover it. A portion of the proceeds from the book sale fund the programs that the library offers – including the refreshments for Dads and Donuts every month.
I started today’s storytime with the book If I Were Your Father by Margaret Park Bridges. The story is a dialogue between a young boy and his father. After finding out that there isn’t a school to teach you how to be a father, the son decides to teach his Dad by pretending to change places. Mostly we get a glimpse of what life is like for a young child, but sometimes the perspective makes the dads laugh in recognition. “If I were your father, I wouldn’t yell if you stood in front of the TV while I was watching a game.” “Even if you missed a home run in the World Series?” “Even if I missed a whole game.”
We’ll have a special storytime next month with a duck theme that coincides with a duck race in town. I used this book to remind me to mention it. By the time I got to the last page, I was looking at the children and not at the book and I said, “Welcome back” instead of “Welcome home.” One of the children corrected me and then another said he knew that in his brain. So I took advantage of the great readers I had in the room and asked them to help me read the next book.
Mo Willems is becoming one of our most beloved authors for young children. There is not another book like this – unlike his Elephant and Piggie and Pigeon books. But children love to read it over and over again. I taught everyone in the room to read the word NOT so they could help read this book. Some of the older children also read along with other words as well. This is a delightful tale that everyone in the room enjoyed.
By this time in the storytime I knew that everyone in the room was very nice, so we all read this book together. The cats in the book need lots of help, and by the end of the book one of the says, “I KNEW you were nice.” The last page of the book says, “Did you like the cats? I think they really liked you.”
I know I really liked everyone who came to the Dads and Donuts storytime today. Thank you all for helping.
~Maureen