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This post was written by the staff of the Children's Room. Contact Nicole Giroux, Head of Children's for more information. View all posts by Children's Staff →
Books for Toddlers on Wednesday, March 4
Books for Preschoolers on Wednesday, March 4
Read Across America on March 2nd
March 2nd is Dr. Seuss’ Birthday!
The National Education Association suggests reading a book today in honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday. We don’t have to read a book by Dr. Seuss himself. In fact, it is better to read a book by a different author than to watch a film by Dr. Seuss today.
At storytime, after reading books, we had a piece of birthday cake to celebrate the day.
We read one Dr. Seuss book in both the toddler and preschool storytimes: The Foot Book. Children helped stamp with their left and right feet. This book has simple vocabulary and is shelved in our Easy Reader section.
Sometimes a picture of The Cat in the Hat appears on the spine of a book, and on the back, but the book was not written by Dr. Seuss. I read one of those books to the preschool group. It is Go, Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman.
I love the goofy pictures and the simple text as well as the emphasis on colors, numbers, opposites and dogs!
Continuing our celebration of the Lunar New Year, we read Let’s Count Goats! by Mem Fox, illustrated by Jan Thomas. Those goats did a lot of crazy things, but we were able to count them all.
Everyone was tricked by the twist in the story The Doghouse by Jan Thomas. It was a pleasant surprise that ended with cake, so we ended our storytime with birthday cake.
~Maureen
Storytime, Friday, February 27, for children 12 months – 24 months
A great group gathered together today as we sang and read and danced. Everyone (grown ups and children) did a really fabulous job today joining in and reading and singing.
The children and grownups listened to a book in front of the whole group called
Then after some singing and dancing, everyone read the same board book together with lap sitting. We read
Baby Storytime – 0-12months, Friday, February 27
Today at baby storytime we read and sang and talked a lot. We talked about how learning sign language can help with communication before a baby typically develops language. The library and the internet have lots of resources to help you incorporate sign language into your life.
Today we read a favorite-
Books for 4-6 year olds Thursday, February 26
Books for Toddlers on Wednesday, February 25
Books for Preschoolers on Wednesday, February 25
Preschool books on Monday, February 23
Chinese New Year, the Spring Festival, began last week. It lasts for 15 days, so we read 2 books to celebrate and then had a parade.
Many children’s books that are written in English use Cantonese words to wish people Happiness and Prosperity during New Year celebrations. People from Canton were the first immigrants to this country. They settled in neighborhoods that came to be called Chinatowns in large cities. They published books in English, and used the greeting Gung Hay Fat Chow in these books. Those are the words used in My First Chinese New Year.
People who come to storytimes these days are much more familiar with the Mandarin greeting: Gong Xi Fa Cai, which sounds very similar. When I ask people in storytime how to say Happy New Year, however, the response I get most often is Xin Nien Kuai Le. Whichever greeting you use – we are all looking forward to spring and are wishing each other health, happiness and prosperity.
This is the year of the Goat/Sheep on the Chinese zodiac. During the Dads and Donuts Storytime, and the PJ Storytime last week, I concentrated on Goats. Today I read Sheep in a Jeep, because it is silly, and I love it.
Before we had our New Year parade today, I fit in the book Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! We will be concentrating on Mo Willems’ books at PlaySpace for the next 2 weeks.
~Maureen