Fuzzy Friends Storytime

I hemmed and hawwed over what to do for storytime this week, but I was reading Hopper and Wilson by Maria Van Lieshout the other night which prompted me to create a storytime theme around stuffed animals and it only seemed natural to make stuffed animals as our after-storytime craft. I think everyone really enjoyed this one!

Fuzzy Friends Storytime Line-up:

Where's My Teddy by Jez Alborough

Had a large storytime book format for this story, which is so much fun because it makes the "gigantic bear" seem so much bigger!

I Must Have Bobo! by Eileen Rosenthal, illustrated by Marc Rosenthal

Willy the boy and Earl the cat duke it out over stuffed animal Bobo's affections. This book makes me want to get another cat, because I too want a cat named Earl. Needless to say, my husband was really excited to revisit this topic.

Corduroy by Don Freeman

The classic, Corduroy. I read this one when I was little and it remains to be entertaining to kids of all ages.

The Stuffed Animals Get Ready for Bed by Alison Inches, illustrated by Bryan Langdo

A rhyming tale of one little girl's evening getting her stuffed animals ready for bed.

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems

Have you ever met a kid that didn't like Mo Willems? He brings in the laughs every time. Another reason I like reading Knuffle Bunny is because the pictures were taken in Park Slope (a neighborhood in Brooklyn), the area I lived in throughout my time in New York City.

Sock Creatures Craft:

Socktopus!!! This craft is extremely easy to do. If your house is like ours- where socks disappear every time we do a load of wash- this is a good way to give a lonely sock mate a new life.

Materials needed: Sock, poly-fil which can be found at a craft store in the quilting/fabric area, rubberbands or hairbands, scissors, and decorations (I used felt, fabric scraps, yarn, and ribbon).

Take one or two large handfuls of poly-fil and stuff them into the toe of the sock.

Make sure it's all rounded out and pushed to the top sock toe.

Wrap a rubber band or a hairband around the base of what will be the octopus head. Make sure it is tight enough so none of the poly-fil will come out.

Using scissors, cut thin strips from the sock opening all the way up to the rubber band.

There might be a leg or two that are bigger than the others because of the sock heel, so I just trimmed that part off.

Glue whatever decorations you have on hand to make a face. Fabric glue or school glue both worked with the kids yesterday.

A completed socktopus. Cute, right?

I also showed them how to make bunny rabbits out of socks. It only takes a few more handfuls of poly-fil and one more rubber band. I trimmed the sock to the heal beforehand so the ears would be short. A few kids used this idea and made people instead. Wish I would have taken pictures. They were hilarious.

This craft is also cat approved.

image sources: where's my teddy, must have bobo, corduroy, stuffed animals get ready for bed, knuffle bunny

Reading Together

Today's Reading Together is a long one! There were too many good ones I didn't want to leave any in the dark.

And before I start the list... thought I'd share this article from the Washington Post on how to choose books for kids and teens.

What resources do you use to pick out books for kids and/or teens? Whether they be your own, for family, a classroom, or library patrons?

I'd like to know!

On to the list:

Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? by Susan A. Shea, illustrations by Tom Slaughter

A duckling grows and becomes a duck, so can a car grow into a truck? This is such a clever fold-out book about things that grow up and things that do not.

There Are Cats in This Book by Viviane Schwarz

We love this book. We read it multiple times in one sitting. A co-worker brought it to my attention a couple weeks ago and I had never seen it before then. Another fun flap book I'm hoping to introduce to my storytimers this spring.

My Name is Elizabeth by Annika Dunklee, illustrated by Matthew Forsythe

A book about nicknames and a desire for a lack thereof.  Refrain from "Beth" or "Lizzie", Elizabeth likes her name just the way it is.

If Your Hoppy by April Pulley Sayre, illustrations by Jackie Urbanovic

Read to the tune, "If you're happy and you know it", this books is a silly story about animal actions. A good pick for toddlers and pre-schoolers.

Melvin and the Boy by Lauren Castillo

I'm a fan of Lauren Castillo. Her illustration style is both beautiful and visually appealing to kids. This is her first book as both author and illustrator (and hopefully not her last!).

A Cat Like That by Wendy Wahman

Bright colors. About cats. Automatic seal of approval by L.

Mine! by Shutta Crum, illustrations by Patrice Barton

Parents and caretakers are very familiar with the word, "mine" once kids reach a certain age. You can view the trailer for this book here.

Say What? by Angela DiTerlizzi, illustrated by Joey Chou

A book about animal noises is also always a clear win in our house. And this one especially. When we read it, L says what an animal says at animal volume.

Train Trip by Deanna Caswell, illustrated by Dan Andreasen

I looked back to see if I've done this one yet. Have I? We've checked it out multiple times. Oh, well...

Follow Me by Tricia Tusa

Love Tricia Tusa. This is a sweet story about daydreaming.

Good Boy, Fergus! by David Shannon

Fergus is very cute and very lovable but far from the most well behaved dog.

My mom owns a westie. His name is Renfro.

Refro and Fergus are a lot a like.

Mitchell's License by Hallie Durand, illustrated by Tony Fucile

I'll be reading this one for Father's Day storytime. It's about a father's struggle to put his son, Mitchell, to bed until he comes up with Mitchell's "Remote-Control Dad Driver's License".

Chew, Chew, Gulp by Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Jarrett J. Kroscoczka

L really likes reading this book and she especially likes to point out the different foods.

And yell their names.

"Juuuu!"

(Juice)

"GreeBee!"

(Green Beans)

Petunia by Roger Duvoisin

Petunia is an old girl! Her birthday dates back to 1950. The story is a little long for L to sit through, but we like to look through the pictures. A good age to start reading this book would be around 4 or 5.

Cornelius P. Mud Are You Ready For Bed? by Barney Saltzberg

Such a cute book to read before bedtime. Especially, for those that like to procrastinate going to bed... so I guess that would mean all kids. And me...

All in a Day by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Nikki McClure

Cynthia Rylant is a household name in children's books producing Newbery medal book Missing May and popular books like the Henry and Mudge series for early readers. Cut-paper illustrator Nikki McClure's To Market, To Market, published last year is also a great book to put on your check out list.

Doodleday by Ross Collins

My sister-in-law is a kindergarten teacher and the mother of three kids aged three and under, so I always love to hear about what books she's been reading and Doodleday was one of them. Thanks Sarah!

***'Reading Together is a sampling of picture books I'm currently reading aloud to LBD (also known as L or Little L), my toddler daughter. As a children's librarian, I'm always bringing home stacks and stacks of books to share together. Old and new. These are our favorites. Some of which have been read over and over and over again…. Times thirty. To the tenth power.***

image sources: which ones will grow, cats in this book, my name is elizabeth, if your hoppy, melvin and the boy, cat like that,  mine, say what, train trip, follow me, good boy fergus, mitchell's license, chew chew gulp, petunia, cornelius p. mudd, all in a day, doodleday

Chinese New Year Storytime

新年快乐!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today marks the Lunar New Year, so for yesterday's storytime we celebrated the event with some special books and a dragon craft. It was by far the biggest crowd I've ever read to (about 60+). A great way to ring in the new year!

Chinese New Year Storytime Line Up:

Bringing In the New Year by Grace Lin

Grace Lin is the author of the critically acclaimed Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and her new 2012 novel, Dumpling Days. This picture book was a wonderful introduction to the festivities of the Chinese New Year. If you haven't read any of her books yet, please do. She writes books for all ages.

A New Year's Reunion by Yu Li Qiong, illustrated by Zhu Cheng Liang

I wasn't going to read this book at first be cause I thought it too serious, but my husband persuaded me to add it back into the lineup and I'm glad he did. A heartfelt book about a father who is a migrant worker traveling home only once every year for the Chinese New Year.

Ten Mice for Tet! by Pegi Deitz Shea and Cynthia Weill, illustrated by Ngoc Trang To, embroidery by Pham Veit-Dinh

A simple introduction to the celebration of Tet, the Vietnamese New Year also celebrated on the Lunar New Year.

Tikki Tikki Tembo retold by Arlene Mosel, illustrated by Blair Lent

The classic folktale. I was read this book by my school librarian when I was a a wee young girl and the majority of the kids yesterday recognized this widely read book as well.

Fortune Cookies by Albert Bitterman, illustrated by Chris Raschka

A fun finish to a more serious storytime, Fortune Cookies illustrates one girl's week of adventures day by day, fortune cookie by fortune cookie.

Chinese New Year Craft:

It's the year of the Dragon! Way cooler than the pig (what I am), or the rat, or the goat. And much more fun to find a craft for. Attached to the handouts I give at storytime was a Chinese Zodiac Calendar, which the kids really enjoyed looking at and finding out which animal they were.

Once I saw this dragon puppet craft circulating pintrest via JellyFish Jelly a few months back, I have been saving and saving toilet paper and paper towel rolls. It had to be done. And the kids LOVED it.

Materials needed: solo cups, paper towel/toilet paper tubes, sting or yarn, paint stirrer or a ruler or a stick, cut-out paper dragon faces, and cray paper.

There was quite a crowd and I wasn't prepared to have so many people in attendance and unfortunately ran out of dragons to make. Thankfully, I had swedish fish to hand out as a backup along with a few dragon mask printouts.

The dozens of toilet paper tubes were cut in half  and paper towel tubes were cut into sixths.

Poked holes in all the cup bottoms with an old seam ripper. You can also use scissors or a tack.

Cut a piece of yarn about 12-14 inches and double knot the end. Start threading first a cup, then a tube, cup, then tub, etc. until you've threaded all 6 or 7 cups. The last cup does not need a tube. Double knot the end.

When I first started making them, I used 7 cups (and 6 tubes) per dragon, but quickly switched to 6 cups (and 5 tubes) so I could make more dragons.

After strung together I hole-punched the first cup near the rim, and the third to last cup.

Then I cut two strings in equal length in the desired length you'd like your puppet to hang.

Tie a tight double knot to of one of the strings to the first hole-punched hole of the first cup. This is going to be the head of the dragon.

Tie the other end of the string to a stick. I used free paint stirrers from Home Depot. They were very nice about giving me a large quantity.

Do the same with the second string except tie one end to the third to last cup and the other end to the stick/paint stirrer.

Now it's time to decorate. I printed out dragon faces on colored paper to be glued or taped to the head.

I also taped strips of cray paper to the bottom of the cups.

About 4-5 strips per cup.

And that's it.

A Mighty Dragon Puppet!

If my instructions seemed a bit too abbreviated, printable instructions can be found at JellyFish Jelly.

Happy New Year!

image sources: bringing in the new year, new year reunion, ten mice for tet, tikki tikki tembo, fortune cookies, dragon paper cut,