Story Time - Being Thankful - and a Giveaway!

For our Thanksgiving story times, we steer away from historical depictions (traditional or more accurate) of the 'first' Thanksgiving, and focus on being thankful and sharing. There is so much goodness and fun to have with this topic, it could easily take the whole month!

Stories



My kids at home have read this so many times that, whenever we see wild turkeys cross the road in front of us, even the two-year-old says, "Gobble-gobble wibble-wobble!" Such a fun rhythm and rhyme, the words just roll off your tongue.



Cumulative lines, great for predicting, follow the family as everything is prepared just right, and then - oh, no! The turkey meets with disaster. All is well, however, because the family still has each others' company and plenty left to eat.


9781416958567
$17.99

Another one with predictable lines that let kids chime in, and again focusing on sharing and enjoying each others' company.



Not about the holiday at all, this is a fun way to talk about sharing, with call and response and predicting. And dinosaurs!

Songs


This site has some fun and easy turkey songs. Since we ended up skipping the Monster Pokey last month, we went with the Turkey Pokey this time around. In the middle of "put your tail feathers in", I did think to call out, "no Facebook videos!" Nobody needs to see Miss Ami shaking her tail feathers all about.

Craft

Omg, why in 2016 am I still seeing paper headdresses and buckled Pilgrim hats on Pinterest? Just...don't, people. Please. Don't.

We did a few thankfulness-related crafts during field trips, but this week took an entirely different tack and spun off of Groovy Joe. What could a library possibly need more than 30-40 preschoolers with their own drums?!

We put out a plea for tubs, and actually came up with more coffee than ice cream, but those worked even better. City employees drink a LOT of coffee, so we got bunches from City Hall, as well as a literal truckload from a friend who hadn't made it down to the recycling place in a while.

And then I got stuck at home with sick kids, and had to cancel the second story time. That's okay, our craft table had finally run out of leftover Halloween crafts, so EVERYBODY can have a drum!

We didn't get too fancy, just put out paper, foam shaped, and various shinies. The important part is the fun, and tapping out rhythms - a great skill to form now which helps with hearing syllables later!

Prereading Skills

So, we had rhythm, rhyme, repetition, predicting, vocabulary, and print motivation. Quite a bit packed into those four short stories!

Giveaway

The kids can't have all the fun, can they? Today we would like to offer up this pretty adult coloring book from Harper Collins:

9780062481917

Just tell us in the comments something you are thankful for, and you are automatically entered! I will draw a winner at random on Wednesday, November 16, and try to get it in the mail before Thanksgiving - so you have a way to tune out any family...discussions going on around you, should the need arise. Make sure your comment includes a way for me to get hold of you, and US addresses only, please!

Family Coloring Day

Today one of the Adult Reference Librarians, Lisa, and I co-hosted our first annual Family Coloring Day, and we'll have to call it a success!

Our opening rush filled every seat for a couple hours, then people started trickling back out for lunch and other engagements. The rest of the afternoon was quiet but steady, with more than 70 people making their way through.

Of course, we had coloring pages, for both adults and kids:

from dailycoloringpages.com - these are really fun!

As well as zentangle supplies and inspirations, for anyone who preferred drawing: 

We had several small tables set up with a variety of coloring materials - colored pencils, gel pens, thin markers. These were our biggest expense, but they can all be used again.

We also had this table, with some dry erase markers:

One of my coworkers (thanks, Amanda!) printed out this gigantic mandala and taped it together for me. I traced it with black permanent marker on plastic sheeting, which you can buy by the yard at Walmart. We look forward to getting much more use out of this - a nice passive program for either kids or adults!

There were plenty of adults coloring, but they weren't as keen on having their pictures taken!

I also bought a plain white vinyl table topper, and put it out with some sharpies:

I have a plethora of tablecloths for Halloween, but I am always scrambling at Christmas. I thought the kids might get a kick out of seeing their artwork displayed come December, so I sketched out a few things to get them started, and put it near the mandala table.

This white board happened to be left out, and it was easier to make use of it than it was to put it away! Librarians can be lazy like that.

Near our sink, we also had an area for playing with watercolor paints.

Emphasis on water.

I had SO much fun surfing Pinterest and coming up with sample projects!

Something about the black Sharpie on top of the paint makes it look so polished!

Even examples of mistakes can be helpful.

This idea (and the text/photos on the top) came from Nurture Store, which has a huge variety of activity ideas:

I also found some great tips and techniques at Adventures in Making, a community blog that I think is going to take up a lot of my time in the near future!

As a little added incentive, we raffled off two door prizes - contributed by HarperCollins. 

And, of course, there were snacks!

Decorations courtesy of my children, who have to add their own flair to everything.

Can't imagine where that came from.

More Adult Coloring Fun!

Perfect for Spring, Harper Collins just sent us two adult coloring books by Eleri Fowler:

9780062479389

9780062443809

I don't think anyone needs me to explain that adult coloring books in general are very popular right now. What I like about Fowler's two selections here is the variety - while you get a general sense of her style, you do not feel like you are seeing the same pictures over and over again. From flowers to mandalas, a quote inside a pear shape or a teacup to garden gates and butterflies - and the sweetest little birds! 

The drawings are intricate enough to take a little time, but not so tiny you go cross-eyed trying to fill them in. The paper itself is nice and heavy, suitable for framing and presenting as a gift - are you ever too old to give your mother a picture you made for Mother's Day?

BOTH of these titles will be given away as door prizes at our library's Family Coloring Day this Saturday, so if you are in the area, stop by for some relaxing fun and your chance to win!

Review: Christmas to Color by Mary Tanada (Adult Coloring Book)

I have often said that adults should have some sort of craft time built into the day. A time where we can do something simple but constructive, so we can point to SOMETHING we accomplished. "Okay, so I totally botched that heart surgery, but look how nicely I colored in the lines!"

I suppose the adult coloring fad should have come as no surprise. I felt no need to join in - possibly because I get my 'fix' preparing crafts for the kids every week - until this gem arrived from HarperCollins:

9780062443793

At first I thought, "meh", and planned to toss it in the prize box. Then I flipped through it.

Ooh, pretty!

Must...find...turquoise...markers...

(I have saved that photo in every way possible, and Blogger still insists on turning it sideways. I give up.)

My pictures of the pictures really don't do them justice - and, while Christmasy and intricate, neither does the picture chosen for the cover. Tanana notes that she is drawn to the folk art of Ukraine, Russia, Hungary and Poland, and that is abundantly evident in these beautiful illustrations (yes, there is a matryoshka doll in there!). I cannot begin to imagine how much time each one took her. This book is worth owning for the artwork alone, but much better would be to tuck it in a gift basket - can you just see it nestled in red and green tissue? - with some high quality, fine tipped markers. Then leave your giftee alone for a bit, so they can enjoy themselves!