This Week at the Library

First - There will be no Toddler Time or Baby Time on Thursday, February 10. I'm sorry I wasn't able to announce it last Thursday. If anyone reading this post knows someone who attends on Thursdays, please let them know.

Baby Time

Wow! Our group is growing! 20 babies, plus some siblings and grandparents along for the ride. We had such a good time singing and bouncing our babies. After the guided portion, everyone had a great time visiting and letting the little ones explore the toys and each other.

Toddler Time

We sang "I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee" this week, and for some reason, more than any other time, the kids thought it was hysterically funny when we said "Ew, it's yucky!" and then noticed the squished up bumblebee on our clothes. A few of them just laughed and laughed. (Sorry, PETA) Check the labels for "Baby Bumblebee" on the right to see all the verses we sing.

We read:

Two Bear Cubs, by Ann Jonas. Besides the actual story, the children enjoy trying to find Mother Bear on each page, and knowing that she's always watching her cubs, even if they don't see her.

No Biting!, by Karen Katz. Biting, hitting, kicking, pushing, all are powerful things for a toddler. This book channels that desire in a positive direction. Feel like hitting? Hit a drum! Feel like kicking? Kick a ball!

Preschool Storytime

"Colors" is one of my favorite themes. I have a fantastic book by Ruth Heller called Color that I love to bring in. I don't read the text, but I show them the transparent layered pages that show how only four colors, yellow, cyan blue, magenta and black, make up all the color they see in the illustrations. It never fails to elicit "Show me that again!"

I also love the "science experiment" we do for this theme. I bring in four clear plastic cups of water and mix food coloring into three of them - red, yellow and blue. Then we do some pouring back and forth to create orange, green, purple and brown. I recommended they do the same in their bath water. It really is fun, and I promise if you use regular food coloring, it won't dye their skin!

We also read:

The Blue Balloon, by Mick Inkpen. Fold out pages make this book extra fun. We even learned to say "indestructible."

White is for Blueberry, by George Shannon. Once they "got" this book, they had fun trying to figure it out before I turned the page. They loved it.

Lemons are Not Red, by Laura Vaccaro Seeger. Cut-out pages and the silliness of blue grass hold the attention in this one.

Winnie the Witch, by Valerie Thomas. Winnie can't see her black cat in her black house, but hates making her cat unhappy when she turns him multi-colored. So she leaves her cat black and changes her house! One insightful child noticed that this showed how much Winnie loves her cat.

We also sang the "Colors" song off the Wee Sing Games CD.