All posts by Children's Staff
Books for 4-6 year olds on Tuesday, April 5
Yesterday we had snow! Though not unheard of, it’s a bit of a surprise in April….which made me think of this story. The author uses lovely metaphors to describe the different ways we might think of snow, and beautiful paintings remind us of the wonder of a snow-covered landscape. But we will still be glad when spring finally arrives!
From winter’s snow we moved on to spring’s rain. This poetic story gave us many descriptive words for a spring thunderstorm! Rain is “….streaming, gushing, racing, rushing…..dripping, dropping. Never stopping.” Large-format woodcut illustrations complemented the expressive text and drew us into the scene, completely engaging the group. We could almost hear the rain on the roof!
Our next story was a silly one, though some kids were a little scared when they saw that the book was about monsters. They quickly realized, though, that this story is about being in charge of the monsters and telling them what to do! That made it much more fun, and colorful, engaging illustrations showed us the amusing side of monsters.
Finally, by popular demand, we once again read the silliest book EVER! If you want to hear howls of laughter from your audience, I highly recommend this title. Any story that involves adults saying silly things and making silly sounds is guaranteed to be a hit. No pictures, no deep message….just plain fun!
Toddler Storytime on Monday, April 4
I arrived at work this morning at 8 am, and there was no power in the building. We found out at 8:15 that National Grid expected power would return in an hour – just in time for our 9:30 opening.
We updated the facebook page and the phone system to alert the public that we may be delayed in opening. One patron asked if storytime would be held even if we didn’t have power. That warmed my heart. ♥
The power came on at 9:20, so we had storytime. I was amazed that 50 people came.
I didn’t read any stories about snow. I wore my snowflake sweater, but I had read stories about snow 2 weeks ago in storytime, and I didn’t want to read any more.
We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar instead. That will be the story at our PlaySpace this Thursday.
~Maureen
Toddler Storytime, Friday, April 1
For several weeks now, we have been doing “Row Row Row Your Boat” during Friday’s toddler storytime. It is fun to sit with your child, facing each other and holding hands. You then rock your bodies back and forth like you are in a boat. It is a fun way to do some singing and movement with your toddler. You can look up the song and find so many fun and silly verses to the song, or you can make up some of your own to the familiar tune. Today we tried a few new verses.
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream,
Merrily merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream.
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the brook,
If you catch a little fish
Please let it off the hook.
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream,
Ha ha fooled you
I’m a submarine.
In addition, we read a version of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” that also have lots of fun and different verses.
Baby Storytime, 0 – 12 months, Friday, April 1
During Baby Storytime today, as I always do, I talked a bit about reading daily to your baby. This can sometimes prove harder than it sounds when your baby seems to show no interest in sitting still to hear even a short story. Don’t give up! Continue to try to read at sometime during the day, everyday. Hearing your voice, interacting with books and being exposed to the joy of reading will all serve your baby well in the future. Singing and talking are also other ways for your baby to hear language, which is a good thing!
One of my own children was a baby who could not sit still to listen to a story. (As a teenager now, he is an avid reader, never traveling anywhere without a book!) When he was a baby, one of our favorite books was Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell. On one of his first trips to the zoo, we put the book in our bag and while looking at a giraffe at the zoo, his father took out the book and turned to the giraffe page and made a text to life connection, pointing to the giraffe in the book and the real giraffe at the zoo. The book remains a favorite and we all got to read it at storytime today!
Sing With Your Child!
Pick up a new CD…
from the library from an artist you are not familiar with and listen to it together or go to family friendly sites such as the Chelmsford Public Library site or www.speakaboos.com/song.
Books for Preschoolers on Wednesday, March 30
The mild spring weather makes this a lovely time of year to visit the zoo. Today’s storytime was all about zoos and the animals who live there. Click on the book covers below to find each book in the library catalog.
If you’d like to plan a zoo trip of your own, you should know that the library’s museum pass program includes discounted passes to several local zoos, including Franklin Park Zoo, Stone Zoo, and the Roger Williams Zoo. To learn about animals in a non-zoo environment, discounted passes are also available for Davis Farmland and the New England Aquarium. Reserve yours today!
Books for 4-6 year olds on Tuesday, March 29
The sun came out today, but it was chilly and windy. Even so, we know that spring is (almost!) here. So we read a story about some little caterpillars who had some adventures before they turned into butterflies. We learned the names of several types of caterpillars– some of them sounded pretty funny to us! We also learned a new word: chrysalis. Ask your child what that means!
Everyone was amazed by this story, because it’s true! Elephants in Thailand, India, and other Southeast Asian countries have been taught by artists to paint. Photographs help to tell the story of this unique art project, and the reasons behind it. You can read the story, or go to elephantart.com to learn more.
Books for preschoolers on Monday, March 28
Last week it snowed during storytime; this week it rained.
We started storytime with an Indian myth about perseverance and positive thinking. There was very little water in the village, but Monkey remembered a tale about how peacocks make it rain by dancing. Monkey tried to bring a bucket of water to the peacock, but the bucket had a leak. It worked out fine in the end. The leaky bucket “was a blessing to us all!”
Sometimes rain brings out the best in people.
Sometimes a family needs to cheer up a disappointed child when it rains.
Sometimes a rainy day brings special opportunities for outside fun.
And sometimes it’s nice to take a nap while it rains.
~Maureen
Toddler Storytime, Friday, March 25
With a big crowd today, there was lots of happiness and joy as everyone seemed to enjoy singing songs, doing fingerplays and moving around to the different songs. Today we read Donald Crews’ book Freight Train. It is a lovely book with vibrant pictures that usually catch everyone’s attention. As we turned the pages, everyone in the room was joining in with “chugga chugga chugga chugga, choo choo!”
Baby Storytime, Friday, March 25, 0-12 month olds
Today we continued discussing the importance and benefits of reading to your babies everyday! Some great questions came up such as “My baby prefers to ‘eat’ the book and not really read it with me. What should I do? and “My baby always tries to turn back to the beginning when we are in the middle of the story. Is that okay?” At this young age, it is important for your babies to become familiar and comfortable with books. Handling the books, turning the pages and knowing that the books are something that is okay for the babies to explore is wonderful. It is suggested that you have some board books available around your home for your baby to interact with, both with you and alone. As the baby grows and develops, he or she should be able to attend to the actual story. At this time, for younger babies, it is important for them to be exposed to the sound of words, songs and rhymes. Some people do this through stories and others sing or do finger plays. The important thing is for you baby to hear words, sounds, rhymes, repetitions and language.
We read another lovely book today about a boy and a bear who rhymes while having adventures with different kinds of berries.