Art Explorers - Picasso Portraits

This was a really fun program. I'm in love with my portrait, even though I think the eye for the blue part of the face could down a little (I just didn't want to freak the children out too much!). I love so much, in fact, that when I was taking pictures of the blog I could not find it anywhere! Panic! I eventually found it out in another pile safe and sound. Whew!


PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Picasso Portraits

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

INTRODUCTION 
As I typically do, I give a brief overview of the artist's life and works of art. I had printed out a bunch of portraits (non-nude ones) to show the progression of Picasso's portrait styles.

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Multi Medium Paper 
• Acrylic Paint  
• Pencil
• Black Crayon 

I started out using a pencil to draw my portrait. It helped a lot having an example of how to make it. For example, I saw these online over at Deep Space Sparkle and Studio Sprout. Once I got the basic outline of my portrait done I went over the pencil with a black crayon. Then it was onto painting! I did my best to mix up the colors and make it appear to have two faces in one head. I gotta say that it was pretty cool! The key here is to make sure to go with the flow an it does accept that it does not have to be perfect looking! Why? Because it's so funky cool and Picasso-y!

HOW DID IT GO?
Attendance: 16 children, 4 adults
This was one of my more popular programs. Pretty much I find when a project can potentially be very messy, it means that it's going to popular! The children did a really great job creating their portraits and painting! Love!

Art Explorers - Matisse Collages

 The goal of this program was to not only promote the famous artist who made awesome collages in his older years, but also to help me with the all the construction paper scraps from my old storytimes.

PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Matisse Collages

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

Do you see any animals in the lower green collage?
I made the purple deer by pure luck.
So I decided to add in more.

INTRODUCTION 
What's awesome is there is a LOT of books about Henri Matisse that range from artist biographies to educational picture books: Matisse's Garden by Samantha Friedman, Blue & Other Colors with Henri Matisse, Matisse: The King of Color by Laurence Anholt, and Colorful Dreamer: The Story of Artist Henri Matisse by Marjorie Blain Parker. I shared info with the children about he was a great painter, but after he had fallen ill he started to cut out painted paper to make large collages.

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Construction paper - both new sheets and scraps 
• Scissors 
• Glue sticks 

 It's very basic. Pick out a base, which is a new sheet of construction paper. Then use the paper scraps to cut out random shapes. A lot of Matisse's shapes were not completely representational so I tried my best to make everything not represent anything exactly, but it just so happened I cut out a shape that that looked like a perfect deer head. So I added in other animals to help give an example to the children that they can add in some things. Matisse did make an apple shape, which always looked like a radish to me.

HOW DID IT GO?
Attendance: 8 children, 5 adults
This was a good program. It was small in attendance, but not my worst. Some children did have difficulty listening to me about using the paper scraps instead of new paper. Also, these children did had some trouble understanding that we were making collages and not giant paper crafts that look like Spongebob or a flag. The lesson here is to just go with it and try to encourage them, but if they don't do it right then just leave them to their work (especially if their parent is in the room). All the other children in the group did a great job working on their work of art, and were proud of their results. Initially I was worried I didn't have enough scraps, but because of the group size I had the perfect amount.

Construction, Construction - A Storytime Outline

Another new theme for me! The children really liked it. I had a lot of fun.

This storytime season the children have loads of energy. So, now, before I do "Open, Shut Them" I have the children get their wiggles out by wiggling, jumping, turn around and doing jumping jacks. In fact, I also did a quick thing of that after we did the "Construction Worker Song."

BOOKS
Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site written by Sherri Duskey Rinker and illus. by Tom Lichtenheld 
This is such a cute little book. The children wanted to read this one first (we typically vote for at least one book). The children started acting like the construction vehicles and would fall asleep. They'd wake up and act like the next vehicle. 

Who Made This Cake written by Chihiro Nakagawa and illus. by Junji Koyose 
The children love anything with birthday cakes. At first they thought the little workers were normal human size and were just baking a giant cake. But some of them realized they were itty bitty workers who baked the cake.

SONGS & RHYMES
Open, Shut Them
follow actions
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap
Creep them, creep them up to your chin
Open your mouth wide, but don't put your fingers in!
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a big clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap.

Construction Worker Song 
(Make actions to each tool used) 
This is the way we pound the nails,
Pound the nails, pound the nails
This is the way we pound the nails
So early in the morning

Other lyrics 
Saw the woo
Turn the screwdriver
Drill a hole,
Stack the brick,
Stir the pant
Paint the walls
Source: Storytime Katie

 Touch Your Nose
follow actions

Touch your nose

Touch your chin

That's the way this game begins

Touch your eyes

Touch your knees

Now pretend you're going to sneeze!

Aaachooooo!

Touch your hair

Touch one ear

Touch your two red lips right here

Touch your elbow where it bends

And that's the way this touch game ends.

FLANNEL BOARD
N/A

ACTIVITIES
Memory Block 
I had a tape measure in the box and picture of tools.


Name Box 
This time around I put the name tag shape in their craft box so that they could put it in the box after their craft. This worked out better than me handing them out.


Hard Hats 
I have two hard hats from my grandpa. I let the children try on the hats after their craft. They looked so cute with their little tool belt craft.

STEAM ACTIVITIES
How Many Books Read/ Stories Told 
The children are getting better at their math skills.


Today's Weather 
We've been hit with crazy hot weather again in the middle of September. When asked the children were excited to tell me that it was Sunny and Super Hot!


Building Blocks 
I have a bin of wooden blocks that were donated to my library. I brought them out and let everyone help build a fort for Abner the Owl. Pretty much it was only two girls who ended up playing with the blocks, which was awesome!


CRAFT
Tool Belts 
I saw this craft idea over at Project I.Am.Amy (link here for a picture!) that included a downloaded printable for tools, which were so cute! I printed the tools on white card stock for the children to color. Then for the tool belt I used craft foam rectangles that had slits for the tools to be slipped into. I also hole punched the top corners so that we could tie some strings to it.


Images of the book covers were found on www.goodreads.com here and here.

Pandas! - A Storytime Outline

A lot of children, especially the girls, were excited about this program! "Pandas! I love pandas!" many would tell me before we started the program. This was a lot of fun, and a completely new theme for me!

The children had loads of energy at the beginning of the program. So! I had everyone jump up an down and turning around and jumping jack and all sorts of things. It worked for at least one story. We did the "Panda Bear, Panda Bear" rhyme between the first two books, which helped. We ended up not singing "If You're a Panda and You Know It" song cause we wanted another book instead. Always ok with me!

BOOKS
Please, Mr. Panda written and illus. by Steve Antony 
I saw this book quite a while ago and knew I had to do at least a panda storytime and/or a donut storyime. The children finally got, after a little encouragement, that all the animals were not being polite, which is why Mr. Panda never gave them any yummies!

Chengdu Could Not, Would Not Fall Asleep written and illus. by Barney Saltzberg 
This is such a fun story. After a couple of pages all of the children started to act like Chengdu. They tossed and turned. They rolled their legs over their heads (I certainly got a view that even the parents laughed at!) and they climbed.

Xander's Panda Party written by Linda Sue Park and illus. by Matt Phelan 
This was such a cute book about including everyone to party. They really liked it when another panda was brought to the zoo so that Xander had a friend. 

SONGS & RHYMES
Open, Shut Them
follow actions
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap
Creep them, creep them up to your chin
Open your mouth wide, but don't put your fingers in!
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a big clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap.

Panda Bear, Panda Bear 
Panda bear, panda bear turn around.
Panda bear, panda bear touch the ground.
Panda bear, panda bear show your shoe.
Panda bear, panda bear say "How do you do?"
Panda bear, panda bear turn off the light.
Panda bear, panda bear say "Good-night"
Panda bear, panda bear wake up now.
Panda bear, panda bear take a bow.
Source: Jen in the Library 

If You're a Panda and You Know It 
If you're a panda bear and you know it, clap your paws (clap, clap)
If you're a panda bear and you know it, clap your paws (clap, clap)
If you're a panda bear and you know it, then your face will surely show it (hands in circles around eyes)
If you're a panda and you know it clap your paws (clap, clap)
Other lyrics 
If you're a panda and you know it it, stomp your feet... (stomp, stomp)
... shout hooray... (hooray!)
Source: Starry-Eyed Storytimes  

Touch Your Nose
follow actions

Touch your nose

Touch your chin

That's the way this game begins

Touch your eyes

Touch your knees

Now pretend you're going to sneeze!

Aaachooooo!

Touch your hair

Touch one ear

Touch your two red lips right here

Touch your elbow where it bends

And that's the way this touch game ends.

FLANNEL BOARD 
N/A

ACTIVITIES
Memory Box 
I had printed out various pictures to share with the children. First was a page of different panda pictures. They loved the one with a baby panda in it! The second page showed different pictures of bamboo that the pandas eat (I did ask the question, "What do they eat?" before showing them the pictures). Then I had various pictures of animals who are also black and white, which I had the children guess before I shared them. 

STEAM ACTIVITIES
Watch Me Grow in Storytime 
This is one of my new STEAM elements for storytime. I made a growth chart from a free printable I found through Pinterest (link to blog post here). The children love it! I used my die cutter to make little blue birds for the children to wright their name on. Then we measured everyone to see how tall we are at the beginning of the storytime season.

Name Box Color Sort
I got this idea from a coworker who provides toddler and preschool storytime at her branch location.  She has been working on my Early Literacy elements for her program, and one of her ideas was having the children work on their writing skills. They would do this by writing their name on a shape and dropping into a name box. I added more to this idea by making different colored slots on my box and the children were given different colored shapes. They have not only write their name but they have slip their shape into the corresponding colored. 

How Many Stories Read/Told
I've been doing this for the past year. I have the children work on their math skills by counting the number of books we have read and the number of stories that were told without a book and add it to last week's total.

CRAFT
Panda Headbands
These are so cute! To make this I took a piece of white construction paper and gave approximate three inches band that when in about two inches before arching up to make the head. Then on the other end of the paper I cut out a strip to band the connecting band for the back. I drew the face and glued on googly eyes. The children LOVED it! Some added color other than black to make rainbow panda bears, which was so cute!

This is the shapes that I cut out from one sheet of construction paper.

Final product! So cute!

Book images were found on www.goodreads.com here, here, and here.

The Three Little Pigs - A Storytime Outline

This was a fun storytime! I basically found various versions of the tale "The Three Little Pigs" to introduce the children the idea that there are different ways to the tell the same story. I started out with our memory box then telling the classic tale with puppets before we went to our first book.


The children really liked this program. In fact they wanted to not do any in-between activity songs or rhymes. We pretty read through all the books before the craft. The last book The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs did take some time, and the children were losing interest, we didn't end up doing the the STEAM activity - building blocks. Oh well.

ORAL STORY
The Three Little Pigs 
I told this story with puppets. Three adorable pig puppets, which all the children cooed over and an awesome wolf puppet. The children were given props, which were pictures of a wolf (laminated) an glued to a craft stick to help them act the "And I'll huff, and I'll puff and I'll blooow your house down" parts of the story.

BOOKS
The Three Little Pigs: An Architectural Tale written and illus. by Steven Guarnaccia 
Surprisingly, the children wanted to read this one first! Which was great because I wanted to as well.

The Three Horrid Little Pigs written and illus. by Liz Pichon 
As I mentioned before the children wanted to skip our in-between-books song and go straight onto another story. So we read this one next. The children understood that the pigs did not have very nice manners at first.

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs written by Jon Scieszka and illus. by Lane Smith
The majority of the children wanted another story before our craft. So we read this one, which was a bit too long for the end. I sped through the book because the story was long and I wasn't sure if the children were understanding it.

SONGS & RHYMES
Open, Shut Them
follow actions
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap
Creep them, creep them up to your chin
Open your mouth wide, but don't put your fingers in!
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a big clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap.

Touch Your Nose
follow actions

Touch your nose

Touch your chin

That's the way this game begins

Touch your eyes

Touch your knees

Now pretend you're going to sneeze!

Aaachooooo!

Touch your hair

Touch one ear

Touch your two red lips right here

Touch your elbow where it bends

And that's the way this touch game ends.

FLANNEL BOARD 
N/A

ACTIVITIES
Memory Box 
The item that was inside the box was one of my cute pig puppets. 

STEAM ACTIVITIES
Watch Me Grow in Storytime 
This is one of my new STEAM elements for storytime. I made a growth chart from a free printable I found through Pinterest (link to blog post here). The children love it! I used my die cutter to make little blue birds for the children to wright their name on. Then we measured everyone to see how tall we are at the beginning of the storytime season.

Name Box Color Sort
I got this idea from a coworker who provides toddler and preschool storytime at her branch location.  She has been working on my Early Literacy elements for her program, and one of her ideas was having the children work on their writing skills. They would do this by writing their name on a shape and dropping into a name box. I added more to this idea by making different colored slots on my box and the children were given different colored shapes. They have not only write their name but they have slip their shape into the corresponding colored. 

How Many Stories Read/Told
I've been doing this for the past year. I have the children work on their math skills by counting the number of books we have read and the number of stories that were told without a book and add it to last week's total.

Building Blocks 
I didn't do this because we ran out of time. But! The plan was to have the children work on building a house for all our piggy puppets. I know that some child would probably take the wolf puppet and plow down the house after it was built, but that may be to be expected.

CRAFT
"The Three Little Pig" story sequence pictures
I found this via Pinterest - a link to Kindergarten Nana (link here) who shared a scan of a printable page that had six panels that told the story of the three little pigs.The children liked this craft a lot. Some needed a little help, my looking at my example, to get their sequence right. However, that being said, everyone got it right without help!

Book images were found on www.goodreads.com here, here, and here.

Art Explorers - Compass Art

I found this idea during my daily Pinterest scrolling, and it was perfect for something different! Plus, I was able to add in a STEAM element, which made me and my PSA happy! Yay!

PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Compass Art


PROJECT EXAMPLE 

I love this. The colors and everything.
Even though this messy baby circle in the middle.

INTRODUCTION 
I struggled a little with what I should talk about when it came to what a compass is because I knew some children wouldn't know what a compass is cause they're too young. Thankfully my Library Assistant, Nicole, helped with that. Basically, a compass is used to make a perfect circle of different sizes. Who uses a compass? Mathematicians. Architects. The children seemed to have gotten it. Additionally, I explained to them how a compass worked.

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Watercolor paper
• Watercolor paint
• Watercolor paint brushes 
• Compass - little pencil removed 
• Cup of water

Your little watercolor paint brushes are, more than likely, too skinny for the thingamigig that holds the compass pencils. So! You will need to tape it to the that arm. Have the children dip the brush tip into the water and a paint. Then let them go to town on making different size circles all over the paper.

HOW DID IT GO?
Attendance: 6 children, 2 adults
It was pretty well. Everyone did a great job using the compass to make their circles. Some children thought it was nifty that there were numbers on the compass, which helped tell you how large of a circle you would make. All the artists were able to make a work of art that was all circles. They then had the option to do another on the back side of their paper or to paint whatever they wanted. Some did two circle paintings while some opted for an actual pictures.

Bulletin Board - Cozy Up with a Book

This was such a fun idea. I prepped this board at the very end of December to be ready for January, which was when I was gone most of the time while I served as Interim Manager at another branch location.

MONTH & THEME

• January (or any other cold weather month) 
• Cozy Up with a Good Book! 

CUT OUT 

• Sweater  

I had found a sweater coloring page while searching Google (see link here for the page I found) for a storytime program a while before this board. To make this cut out I just took a coloring page and shrunk it down to a more manageable size for the board. 

PICTURE 

HOW DID IT GO? 
Amazing! A staff member that covered my Children's Desk shifts while I was gone asked me to share the file with her because the sweaters were so popular! There are so many cute little sweater designs too. Everyone did such a great job. I've had the idea of maybe making an Ugly Sweater type display for the holiday season too.

Bulletin Board - Bloom with Books

This was such a cute idea. I left this display up for two months and it got pretty full, especially when Spring finally hit.

MONTH & THEME

• March and April
• Bloom with Reading (Spring!) 

CUT OUT 

• Tulip flower
• Daisy flower

I found both clip arts for the shapes on The Mailbox.

PICTURE 

I apologize for the gloomy dimmed photo quality!

HOW DID IT GO? 
Pretty well. It created the board prior to the first day of spring, but once we got into the season it totally became popular with the children. Everyone like both flowers, but I believe the daisy was more popular because it's a more recognizable flower shape.

Bulletin Board - We Love Reading!

We love books and reading and everyone in the Library!

MONTH & THEME

• February (Valentine's Day!)
• We Love Reading! 

CUT OUT 

• Heart with text "I Love the Book ________"

To tie into the love of other things, not just people, during the Valentine's Day season I printed out hearts that said "I Love the Book ________ " for the children to fill out with the name of their favorite book.

PICTURE 

HOW DID IT GO? 
The children had some difficulties with coming up with a book title let alone spell the title. So, pretty much everyone started writing their names on the hearts instead. I was perfectly fine with this because they were still practicing their writing skills which all that I really wanted. I'm probably going to do this next time, but leave out the book title option. Granted, I think adults and teens could help us with a display elsewhere in the library with these type hearts!

Bulletin Board - Warm Up with a Book

What's nothing better than a cup of hot chocolate with yummy marshmallows? How about when you're reading? Even better!

MONTH & THEME

• January (or any cold weather month) 
• Warm Up with a Book!

CUT OUT 

• Marshmallow

I couldn't find a good shape for a marshmallow at the time. So I simply made a shape on Microsoft Publisher (Word can work as well) and printed out bunches of marshmallows.


PICTURE 

HOW DID IT GO? 
It took some convincing for the children to color a marshmallow, so I had to provide them with a couple of examples at my desk. They finally caught on and there are some very delectably colorful marshmallows on the board. I wonder if they have different fruit flavors to match the colors!

Bulletin Board - Slip and Slide into Reading

This was my first interactive bulletin board. I was completely amazed at how popular it would be for the children to color a shape and place it on the board.

MONTH & THEME

• December (or any other winter month) 
• Slip and Slide into Reading 

CUT OUT 

• Penguin

I believe I found this cute fellow on The Mailbox.

PICTURE 

HOW DID IT GO? 
Amazing! Look at the flock of penguins! The children had so much fun coloring in their tummies. It's adorable!

Bulletin Board - Knights of the Reading Table

This is from my 2015 file. My library system came up with their own Summer Reading Program theme, which was Join Our Fantasy Quest - Read!, which was all things fantasy.

MONTH & THEME

• June and July 
• Knights of the Reading Table 

CUT OUT 

• Shield 

I had a hard time finding a shield that looked good. If memory served me correctly, I found one on free clip art site called Clker.com.


PICTURE 

HOW DID IT GO? 
The children had fun with this one. I made two examples for this board. One that was taped to the board already while one was on my desk as my example display. This helped the children be inspired to make different designs to create their own "coat of arms" design.

Bulletin Board - Make Tracks for the Library!

For our 2016 Summer Reading Program my library system used the theme from the Collaborative Summer Library Program. I'm a runner and so I just had to have a running theme display! Looking back, I which I had added in some grass or mile signs in the brown areas.

MONTH & THEME

• June and July 
• Make Tracks for the Library! 

CUT OUT 

• Running Shoe 

I used a shoe clip art that came with the CSLP offered in their package. You can probably find a shoe clip art on The Mailbox or Education.com.

PICTURE 

HOW DID IT GO? 
This was great! The children started putting their shoes right at the end, and literally, on to of the finish sign. Eventually shoes started to fill up the rest of the track.

Bulletin Board - Hop into Reading

This was such a cute idea for Easter. I particularly like the red bunny rabbit that one child colored.

MONTH & THEME

• March (also good for whenever Easter is)
• HOP into Reading! 

CUT OUT 

• Bunny rabbit 
• Egg 

 I found both of these clip arts on the The Mailbox website for free. I made examples that I kept at my desk, which also served as an advertisement.

I made an Easter basket out of construction paper and added a couple of book covers that I printed on copy paper to the center of the display.

PICTURE 

HOW DID IT GO? 
The children really liked this board. The bunny rabbit is so cute, and who doesn't like coloring eggs? I took the picture about half way through the period the display was up. It was definitely popular! Everyone was very ingenious with some of their egg designs too!

Art Explorers - Chihuly Chandeliers

I saw this idea a loooooong time ago and was just waiting for the time to implement it in the Art Explorers program. It was such a fun an cool project! 

PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Chihuly Chandeliers

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

INTRODUCTION 
Since Dale Chihuly is a modern artist I did not really have very many books to share with the children. We did have a wonderful color photo oversize from our adult collection at the Central Library. Some children were fortunate enough to have a field trip to the Dallas Arboretum when it had a Chihuly exhibit in their gardens.

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Laminate scraps  
• Permanent marker
• Scissors 
• Hole punch
• Yarn  

 The children were given four or five pieces of laminate scraps (my library system as a laminating machine and after someone uses it I had them send me their scraps). They drew a spiral design with a sharpie then they colored it in any fashion they wanted with the markers. When they were done they had to cut out their spirals. I helped them hole punch the center of each spiral. The children then thread the spirals onto a length of year that had a big knot at one end. It is perfectly OK and encouraged for the spirals be of different sizes and to get tangled among each other. That is how it creates the cool curly-cue "glass" design.

HOW DID IT GO?
Attendance: 18 children, 4 adults
Everyone thought it was the coolest project! There were so many cool chandeliers to be seen. I did prop up my emergency door and had a fan going in the room because having 18 children using smelly permanent makers in a very small room had the potential to have some very giggly kids and adults or to have headaches.

Art Explorers - Greek Vases

Went back to the ancient times to look for art inspiration!

PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Greek Vases

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

INTRODUCTION 
I shared some information about the progression of the style and design of vases over the centuries, and that even though we now consider them works of art, they were simply used as everyday items with decorations.

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Scratch board, cut in the shape of a Greek vase 
• Greek vase shape printed on scrap paper (for practice)
•  Pencils - tips dull 
• Latex or latex-free gloves

HOW DID IT GO?
Attendance: 10 children, 4 adults
Everyone loved used the scratch board. Who doesn't? One boy explained that they were "Pretty awesome!", which totally made the program. Some children did a great job working with making abstract or geometric designs on their vases. Some came up with a story, such as Star Wars or a literal representation of something, such as a galaxy.

I had latex-free clothes available for the children to wear because I discovered that during the process of making the example that grease from your hands stops you from scratching off the black layer. Boo!

Art Explorers - Kandinsky Circles

Circles, circles, circles everywhere! This coincided with International Dot Day to boot!

PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Kandinsky Circles

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

The colors are little faded, especially the purple. Invest in some nice
acid free and fade-resistant papers for art programs.

INTRODUCTION 
I highlighted Wassily Kandinsky's "Color Study. Squares with concentric circles" for this program. As usual I introduced the artist and a bit about his life and career along with the painting we're taking inspiration from. 

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Construction paper 
• Butcher paper (optional) 
• Pre-cut squares 
• Scissors
• Glue sticks 

 I used brown butcher paper as our base. Mine comes on a large roll. If you don't have that then you can use just a piece of construction paper of any size as your base. I precut twelve squares to fit on the butcher paper to help speed up the process. The children would paste the squares to the base before working on their circles. I had scrap construction paper and new constriction paper for the children to cut out there circles of varying sizes to create their layers of circles.

HOW DID IT GO?
Attendance: 18 children, 3 adults
The children really liked it. Some had difficulty using my small safety scissors, but that is all I had to work with. The children felt really proud of their works of art. Some needed a little help getting all of their circles done, which I knew would happen. Thankfully I had prepped various size circles before hand. Some children ventured out of the circle realm and added in other designs in the circles too.

Art Explorers - Alphabet Art

I consider this program a great introduction to a "wax resist" method of painting!

PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Alphabet Art

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

INTRODUCTION 
I've known of Jasper Johns since my college days. I came across some ideas on Pinterest for using some of his paintings as inspiration, especially his Alphabet (one inspiration source: ARTASTIC! Ms.Oetken's Artists). I shared with the children his life and career.

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Watercolor paper 
• crayons
• watercolor paint 

 Using waterolor paper as their base I had the children draw a grid (some opted not too) before they wrote out the alphabet. I suggested using more than one color to help thicken the line and to create more contrasted. The same went with the letters. If there was space at the bottom of their paper the children added shapes, like hearts and stars, or numbers or their name. Once they drew everything they wanted with crayons the painting began!

HOW DID IT GO?
Attendance: 19 children, 3 adults

I think everyone really liked it. During the painting process I was able to show some children how they could make the nifty "tied-died" effect that you can do with watercolor paint, which garnered a lot of "That's cool!" responses.

Art Explorers - Comic Book Art

This was my first Art Explorers idea that I created. My example is pretty much was totally awesome and one of my favorites because of the humor!


PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Comic Book Art (aka graphic novels!)

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

INTRODUCTION 
I began with the program a quick explanation of what comic books/graphic novels are. Obviously, you have to ask the question, "Does anyone read graphic novels or comic books or comics in the newspaper?" and generally all hands will jump up in excitement. Who doesn't like comics? I focused more on graphic novels that did not involve a superhero. Books that I highlighted included, "Calvin & Hobbes," "The Graveyard Book," and so on. I also explained that certain style like Pokemon or other manga books you actually read from back to front instead of the typical front to back. I also explained to the parents who sat in the back that reading graphic novels is actually good reading because the readers have to decode what is happening in the story by looking at the pictures and reading through the limited dialog text or no text at all if it's a wordless graphic novel.

HOW TO MAKE IT 
Supplies: 

• Comic panel templates - printed on copy paper and/or card stock 
• Pencils
• Black pens 
• Stapler

I found a link via Pinterest that took me to the blog Inner Child Fun - Free Printable Comic Pages to make my templates. I printed out all of the inside panels on regular copy paper (double sided) and the cover on card stock. The children could use as many panels as they needed for their book, but they started out with two pages (that's 8 book pages of panels) to tell their story. The children could draw their story before folding the papers and stapling them together to make the book or they could do that first. I preferred having them make the book first so that they don't get their panels mixed up when the book is made.

As for the drawing potion of their creations I had them start out with pencils. If they wanted to, they could then go over the pencil lines with a black pen.

HOW DID IT GO?
 The kids LOVED it! There were so many cool story ideas going on. One girl made a story about a superhero helping the librarian fix a stapler, which was influenced by the fact that two of staplers broke at the beginning of the program (AH!). There were a couple of children who struggled with coming up with an idea, so I offered them prompts like. Pick and animal you like. Have them do something that they typically wouldn't do. That generally did the trick.

This was a pretty cool program, and I would definitely do this theme again.

Art Explorers - Mondrian Art

I didn't know much about Mondrian, but he's pretty awesome when you come to think of it. I still have the examples cause they're so much fun to look at!


PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Mondrain Art

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

INTRODUCTION 
Piet Mondrain  was our artist of the month. I gave a brief overview of his history, such as he started out painting similar to the Impressionists and Noe-Impressionsists before he started to venture into a complete form of abstract art. Plus, I added how he even stopped using the color green all together! For this project I focused on the painting "Composition with Re, Yellow and Blue," but I displayed pictures of his various paintings, especially his abstract ones.

HOW TO MAKE IT  
Supplies 

• White construction paper 
• crayons - black, yellow, red, blue 
• Rulers 

 I gave all the children two sheets of white construction paper, a ruler four crayons - black, yellow, red and blue. First they had to create their abstract grid with a black crayon and the ruler. Then they can color in the spaces with the colored crayons. They had the opportunity to make two complete Mondrian inspired works of art or they can draw an animal as their second picture and add a grid inside the animal (see my totally awesome sloth for example!).

HOW DID IT GO?
This went very well. Some of the children kept to the program and made the two pictures (one strict Mondrian style and one animal). Others decided to work on their color theory and create the color green and brown by mixing their crayon colors.

This was a very successful program. 

Art Explorers - Block Printing

I've been wanting to do a project like this for a while, and now was the perfect time. 

PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Block Printing

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

Top is the foam plate and the bottom is a print

INTRODUCTION 
I looked to children's book authors and illustrators like Eric Rohmann and Erin Stead for connection to literacy. Eric Rohmann's My Friend Rabbit has always stuck with me since the first time I read it in library school, and such a great example of block printing. But for Erin Stead fans, so is A Sick Day for Amos McGee. I explained to the young artists what block printing is and how it can be done with various tools and materials, such as wood block, linoleum blocks and ink. To create a work of art artists use the blocks to create layers of different lines and colors. One girl knew quite a bit about block printing because she had the opportunity to try it in school. They were actually allowed to use a real carving tool. I wasn't. Instead we used foam print plates and acrylic paint instead of ink.

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Scratch-Foam Board Printing Plates - NASCO (link) or styrofoam plates from the grocery store
• Pencils - tips dull or a thin paint brush (use the handle tip) 
• Multi-Media art paper 
• Acrylic Paint  
• 1 - 2 box lid (like copy paper box lid) lined with aluminum foil 
• Brayer 
• Paper towels

HOW DID IT GO?
Another great success!!! Since it was December I made my prints look like evergreen trees and a snowman. Many of the children did something similar, such as a winter scene or snowflakes. They used a dull tipped pencil or a the end of a watercolor paint brush to create their design because they wouldn't puncture the foam. Once they had a design they came up my paint table, where I was. They were allowed to pick three colors of paint that we would layer onto the their plate by using a brayer. I would pour one color into the box lid and use the brayer, then add another color, then another color. I would show the children how the brayer work then would have them help me. Then we would lay the plate on the paper and apply pressure. We could get up to one or two prints from the paint. The children thought this was the coolest thing. The paint worked out well instead of ink because it was washable and less expensive.

I can't wait to do this one again!

Happy Birthday Mo Willems! - A Storytime Outline

Whoo hoo! Mo Willems' birthday (belated by the time this is posted!) is just on excuse to have a Mo Willem themed program! I love his books, and so do the children!

BOOKS
Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late written and illus. by Mo Willems 
For this story, I made sure the children had the little no signs to raise up as they shout out "No!" whenever the Pigeon tried to find a way to stay up late. 

There Is a Bird On Your Head written and illus. by Mo Willems 
I LOVE Elephant and Piggie books! Even though it's awesome read with another librarian, I've gotten experience enough to easily make different voices and mannerisms to represent both Elephant and Piggie. This book was awesome to read with the families, because, as usual, it was funny!

The Duckling Gets a Cookie?! written and illus. by Mo Willems
Such a silly book!

 


SONGS & RHYMES
Open, Shut Them
follow actions
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap
Creep them, creep them up to your chin
Open your mouth wide, but don't put your fingers in!
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a big clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap.

Bananas Unite! 
Bananas Unite! 
Peel bananas, peel, peel bananas
Chop bananas, chop, chop bananas
Mash bananas, mash, mash bananas
Eat bananas, eat, eat bananas
Go bananas, go, go bananas 
Source: JLibrary
*Please watch the video below for the actions! My storytime families LOVE this! We do this song three times, and mix up the speeds.

Touch Your Nose
follow actions

Touch your nose

Touch your chin

That's the way this game begins

Touch your eyes

Touch your knees

Now pretend you're going to sneeze!

Aaachooooo!

Touch your hair

Touch one ear

Touch your two red lips right here

Touch your elbow where it bends

And that's the way this touch game ends.

FLANNEL BOARD
Naked Mole Rat 
It's been soooo long since I did an awesome flannel board like this! It was a lot of fun to make. I basically enlarged a picture of the mole rat then I made clothes for. The children had the opportunity to take turns dressing him up!


ACTIVITIES
Memory Box 
The item of the day was a rubber duck, which was in connection to the duckling in The Duckling Gets a Cookie?!. The children did a good job of making the connection, which was pretty easy.

Counting the Number of Books 
I'm continuing the activity of having the children help keep track of the number books that were read and the number of stories that were told (orally - no books).

CRAFT
Decorate Your Own Cookie 
Cookies for everyone! Everyone got a brown construction paper circle as their cookie. Then they had little black circles for chocolate chips, different colored foam rectangles for sprinkles, and tan foam squiggles that were nuts (walnuts). The children could pick their "toppings" and glue to their cookie. I really wanted a real cookie after seeing their creations! 


* Images of book covers were found via www.goodreads.com - here, here, and here.

Jazz! - A Storytime Outline

It was that time of year again. I always try to include cultural storytimes every so often (plus, my Administration loves it when we do!), even though they can be the hardest program in the world (in my opinion!). For African American Heritage Month I decided to focus on music, especially Jazz music. It actually was a good program! Yay!

BOOKS
Ben's Trumpet written and illus. by Rachel Isadora 
We talked about the illustrations in this book because it's mostly black and white, with a hint of color, which from an artist stand point is great for the story. The children loved talking about the art as well, which means I can put this book on the "read again" list! 

Rap A Tap Tap: Here Is Bojangles - Think of That! written and illus. by Leo and Diane Dillan 
This was a good book, and the children responded well to it.

This Jazz Man written by Karen Ehrhardt and illus. by R.G. Roth
I actually bought this book because I knew it'd be perfect for the program, especially if I had younger children attending. This was a good book, and I totally recommend it! 

A-tisket A-tasket by Ella Fitzgerald and illus. by Ora Eitan
The children enjoyed this book, and they came up with good theories about the basket going missing and who took the basket. I wasn't expecting that, and it was fun to listen to them talk about it.

SONGS & RHYMES
Open, Shut Them
follow actions
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap
Creep them, creep them up to your chin
Open your mouth wide, but don't put your fingers in!
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a big clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap.

Old McDonald Had a Farm 
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O
And on his farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O
With a "moo-moo" here and a "moo-moo" there
Here a "moo" there a "moo"
Everywhere a "moo-moo"
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O
Continue with other farm animals:
Sheep, Chicken, Pig

Touch Your Nose
follow actions

Touch your nose

Touch your chin

That's the way this game begins

Touch your eyes

Touch your knees

Now pretend you're going to sneeze!

Aaachooooo!

Touch your hair

Touch one ear

Touch your two red lips right here

Touch your elbow where it bends

And that's the way this touch game ends.

ACTIVITIES
Listened to Ella Fitzgerald's "Old MacDonald"
To talk about Jazz in the way chilren could understand is hard. So! We sang the song "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" like typically do. Then I played Ella Fitzgerald's version to introduce the way Jazz sounds. This was a great idea!

Freeze Dance 
Another activity was  having the children do the popular Freeze Dance to a more modern type jazzy song by children's Jim Gill.


CRAFT 
I wasn't quite sure what to make for this program. I decided to have a simple coloring page of a trumpet, but to make it exciting for the children we had to use gold glitter! Who doesn't LOVE glitter (other than the cleaning crew?)!?!?


*Images of book covers were found via www.goodreads.com - here, here, here, and here.

We're Going to the Zoo! - A Storytime Outline

"Wake up cousin! We're going to the zoo!". Whenever I think about the zoo I also think about the quote from Dudley in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Well, I didn't recite lines from Harry Potter during storytime. The children liked the program a lot. I noticed that some families haven't been to the zoo yet, which is either because of how far away it is from the community, or the family is new to the area, or the fact that the tickets to the zoo can be pricy. I hope they get to go soon though!

BOOKS
A Sick Day for Amos McGee written by Philip C. Stead and illus. by Erin E. Stead
This was a sweet book, and the children enjoyed it, which I was glad about. 

What's New At the Zoo? written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and illus. Travis Foster
Everyone thought this was a silly book. 

From Head to Toe written and illus. by Eric Carle
The children liked mimicking the animal movements.

SONGS & RHYMES
Open, Shut Them
follow actions
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap
Creep them, creep them up to your chin
Open your mouth wide, but don't put your fingers in!
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a big clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap.

Bananas Unite! 
Bananas Unite! 
Peel bananas, peel, peel bananas
Chop bananas, chop, chop bananas
Mash bananas, mash, mash bananas
Eat bananas, eat, eat bananas
Go bananas, go, go bananas 
Source: JLibrary
*Please watch the video below for the actions! My storytime families LOVE this! We do this song three times, and mix up the speeds.

Head and Shoulders
follow actions
Head and shoulders, knees and toes
Knees and toes
Head and shoulders, knees and toes
knees and toes
Eyes and ears and mouth and knows
Head and shoulders, knees and toes
Knees and toes.
*Note: We do this song three times and very the speed each time. 

Touch Your Nose
follow actions

Touch your nose

Touch your chin

That's the way this game begins

Touch your eyes

Touch your knees

Now pretend you're going to sneeze!

Aaachooooo!

Touch your hair

Touch one ear

Touch your two red lips right here

Touch your elbow where it bends

And that's the way this touch game ends.

ACTIVITIES
Animal Noise ID 
I downloaded the app "Zoo Sounds" onto my storytime iPod, and I had the children use their listening skills to guess which animal was making the noise. One child did a great job, but the other children needed to work on their animal identification skills.

CRAFT
Alligator Weaving 
 Everyone worked on their little finger motor skills by weaving different colored strips of paper through the body of an alligator to create his colorful scales along his back. Some of the younger children needed their guardian's assistance in completing the craft.

MORE BOOKS
A Night at the Zoo written and illus. by Kathy Caple
Penguins written and illus. by Liz Pichon
Two at the Zoo written by Danna Smith and illus. by Valeria Petrone

*Images of book covers found via www.goodreads.com: here, here, and here.

I Spy - A Storytime Outline

This Family Storytime theme was the perfect time for me to introduce a new activity... The Memory Box! I was looking for new ideas freshen up my Family Storytime, and I came across Abby the Librarian's blog post about her Memory Box. I thought it was a nifty idea, and I really wanted to give it a try. Hope it works out!

BOOKS
I Spy on the Farm written and illus. by Edward Gibbs
This was a good boo cause the children had to guess what type of animal that is being introduced a bit at a time on each page.

Flashlight written and illus. by Lizi Boyd
This is really the first time I that used a wordless book in storytime, but this worked out well! It was a good thing that I only about 8 children in the program so that way I could take some time and walk around the room and have the children see the different animals that were being discovered by the flashlight. 

Duck! Rabbit! written by Amy Krause Rosenthal and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld 
The children loved debating what animal it was. Is it a duck? Is it a rabbit? 
 

SONGS & RHYMES 
Open, Shut Them
follow actions
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap
Creep them, creep them up to your chin
Open your mouth wide, but don't put your fingers in!
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a big clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap.

Touch Your Nose
follow actions

Touch your nose

Touch your chin

That's the way this game begins

Touch your eyes

Touch your knees

Now pretend you're going to sneeze!

Aaachooooo!

Touch your hair

Touch one ear

Touch your two red lips right here

Touch your elbow where it bends

And that's the way this touch game ends.

ACTIVITIES 
Memory Box 
The item in the box today was an Owl. I told the children if they saw an owl anywhere in any of the books that we were going to share they had to let me know. Excitingly, one boy actually did just that while we were going through Flashlight! Yay!

Scavenger Hunt 
After the children finished their craft they could participate in a scavenger hunt in which they had to find book characters around the room. I tried to make this good for all ages, but there were some little ones visiting on their first to the library. Their guardians thought it was kind of hard to do in such a small space, which is true. My storytime room is very small.



CRAFT 
I Spy Bags 
While scrolling through Pinterest I saw a lot of I Spy Bags/Bottles. I thought they were really nifty so used a lot blue colored rice and little object I had in my craft supplies. Every child had the opportunity to pick a couple of objects to put in their ziploc bags then I poured in a cup of rice. They children thought it was pretty nifty! 



*Images of book covers found via www.goodreads.com - here and here.

Let's Tell A Story Together - A Storytime Outline

I've done an interactive storytime before, but they are so much fun. Plus, there are more and more books coming out that require involvement from the readers, which means I have more opportunities to do storytimes like this! 

BOOKS
Don't Push the Button! written and illus. by Bill Cotter
Since I want to make sure that every child has a chance to push the button I decided to create a copy of the red button to push to have in front of them. They LOVED it! Our photocopier, which has a scanning mode, was out of order so I had to make black and white copies of the button and use a red crayon to color the button, but it worked out. Next time I plan on scanning the page and print in color... and maybe even laminating them so I can keep them on hand.

It's a Tiger! written by David LaRochelle and illus. by Jeremy Tankard 
Every time I read this book I start to lose my voice! It's true! It's such a fun book. For the school-age children in my family storytime caught onto the game quickly, but I made sure to keep the story interesting and interactive by having the run in place, swing from a pretend vine and so on. They certainly got a workout!

Can You Make a Scary Face? written and illus. by Jan Thomas
I heart Jan Thomas! Her books are so much fun. I had a frog puppet to help with this story. We all pretended to be ladybugs and made silly and scary faces. At the end I had the children make the scariest face they could in front of my frog, which I would make it get really scared and hop onto the next child. 

SONGS & RHYMES 
Open, Shut Them
follow actions
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap
Creep them, creep them up to your chin
Open your mouth wide, but don't put your fingers in!
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a big clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap.

Touch Your Nose
follow actions

Touch your nose

Touch your chin

That's the way this game begins

Touch your eyes

Touch your knees

Now pretend you're going to sneeze!

Aaachooooo!

Touch your hair

Touch one ear

Touch your two red lips right here

Touch your elbow where it bends

And that's the way this touch game ends.

ACTIVITIES
Pull and Tell A Story
I placed a number of objects (such as a cat, a car, a dinosaur, and a soldier) from a bag to help us create our own story. The story got very silly, and complicated. But the children loved it!

CRAFT
Story Scroll 
I found this craft on Imagination Soup's website, and thought it was perfect. I followed the rocket ship theme and wrote the story lines, but the children had to draw their own pictures to help tell the story. Everyone did a great job, and were quite imaginative.


MORE BOOKS
Tap to Play! written and illus. by Salina Yoon
Tap the Magic Tree written and illus. by Christie Matheson
Tickle the Duck! written and illus. by Ethan Long

*Images of book covers were found on www.goodreads.com - here, here, and here.