Bring a Friend Storytime

Yesterday's storytime was all about FRIENDSHIP. They were encouraged to bring a friend with them to storytime, which also included stuffed animals and imaginary friends. We don't discriminate.

For storytime, we enjoyed four fantastic books about being and becoming friends. Additionally, Ame Dykeman, author of Boy + Bot, sent goodies galore especially for our library's storytime kiddos! After a few entertaining reads, the kids made a robot friend of their very own.

Was it fun? Affirmative.

Bring a Friend Storytime Line-up:

Boy + Bot by Ame Dykeman, illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

Had to literally sneak this book out of our house for storytime we've been reading it so much at home. A story of how a boy and robot meet one day and become fast friends.

Z is for Moose by Kelly Bingham, Paul O. Zelinsky

The whole room was cracking up while reading this picture book about an eager moose, an alphabet production, and a zebra trying to keep everything in line. Easily my new favorite alphabet book.

Toot and Puddle by Holly Hobbie

The classic story of two best friends and their friendship together and afar.

You Will You Be My Friend! by Peter Brown

Sometimes it takes a few trial and errors before finding the perfect friend. Peter Brown never fails to entertain us!

Robot Buddy Craft:

Since Boy + Bot is such a fun read and you can't go wrong with robots, I thought it might be fun to make Robot Buddies for the post-storytime craft.

When searching for ideas, I came across this Robot Craft on No Time For Flash Cards. I liked the idea of using glitter or shiny materials and having the kids piece together a robot, but instead of making magnet pieces I altered the craft into making movable robot characters.

Here's how we made our Robot Buddies...

Materials Used: variety of glitter cardstock (can be found in the scrap booking section of a craft store), a few sheets of adhesive foam sheets, googly eyes, fasteners, hole punch, scissors, and glue.

Pre-storytime prep: I cut out the robot bodies and the limbs out of the glitter cardstock. The robot bodies were about 8x4 inches, the legs were about 4 1/2 inches long, and the arms 3 inches long. In case you were wondering.

Hole-punch the body where you'd like the arms and legs to go. Hole-punch the ends of the arms and legs as well.

Use the fasteners to connect the limbs to the body.

Decorate!

I cut circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles from adhesive foam sheets and the kids used those shapes as stickers. We also used googly eyes, some of which did not have adhesive backs so white school glue was used to connect them.

I don't know about you, but these Robot Buddies make me want to sing...

That's going to be stuck in my head the rest of the day.

After making their Robot Buddies (check these kid-made examples out!), the kids took home Boy + Bot bracelets, stickers, and bookmarks compliments of the author.

Thank you Ame Dykeman for being a friend of the library. The kids loved the goodies!

image sources: boy + bot, z is for moose, toot and puddle, you will be my friend