Each of us is a member of many different kinds of communities. A community is a group of people who share something in common. Your community can be your neighborhood, your classroom, your place of worship, your town, your city, your state, your country or your world. The more you can find in common with others, especially those who are different from you in some way, the easier it is to establish peace and harmony. To introduce your child to the idea of communities, check out these resources.
Books
“Daniel’s Good Day “by Micha Archer
As Daniel takes a walk, he asks the people he sees the question, “What makes a good day for you?” He gets a variety of answers from a diverse group of people, all who live or work in his neighborhood. Continue reading “Virtual Activity Bundle: Community”
Some books are a joy for reader and listener alike! This is certainly the case with Missouri Building Block nominees, “Duck!” by Meg McKinlay and “I Can Only Draw Worms” by Will Mabbitt.
“Duck!” begins, “It was a quiet afternoon on the farm. The horse was swishing his tail, and the cow chewing her cud. The pig was wallowing in the mud, and the sheep was sheeping on the grass.” Suddenly, this tranquil setting is interrupted as Duck runs through the barnyard yelling at the top of his lungs! When the farmyard animals misunderstand him, and even make fun of him, Duck tries harder to get his message across. He finally does, but is it too late? This book will quickly become a favorite of your little ones!
In “I Can Only Draw Worms,” author Mabbitt takes a silly and fun approach to counting to ten. The opening page starting with, “This book is about worms. (I can only draw worms.)” appears to tell it all. But does it really? Be prepared to giggle along with your children as the author introduces them to 10 of the “most creative” worms ever drawn! Filled with bright colors, funny words and a few surprises, “I Can Only Draw Worms” encourages children to do their best, even if they think they can’t. Continue reading “Awesome Read-Alouds: “I Can Only Draw Worms” & “Duck!””
I’ve been keeping busy, ordering all kinds of delightful books for the library! Once I order them, our Technical Services team processes the books and gets them ready to go on the shelves. We usually process books in the order we receive them but…can I tell you a secret? If you place a hold on a book, we’ll move it to the front of the line! So if any of these books catch your eye, put it on hold and you’ll get it that much sooner. Ready to read about some awesome books?
Picture Books
“The Bear and the Moon” written by Matthew Burgess and illustrated by Catia Chien
A young bear finds a friend and loses it in this gorgeously illustrated book. Bear wakes up from a nap to see a beautiful red balloon floating towards him and is filled with delight. Bear and the balloon are soon doing everything together dancing, climbing trees and rolling down hills. Yet Bear discovers that not all squishable things should be hugged and is overcome with sorrow at the loss of his friend. “Bad bear, he thought. Bad, bad bear.” Though it seems the bear is all alone now, the moon reaches down to him that night, gently stroking his fur and telling him, “Good bear. Kind bear. Don’t worry, bear.” I love that this book starts with joyful exuberance, transitions into grief and loss, and ends with self-love and forgiveness. This is a great choice to share with a little one as a bedtime story or an opportunity to talk through hard emotions. Continue reading “Brianna’s Books: November Favorites 2020”
For the next five weeks (skipping Thanksgiving), we will be reviewing all ten Missouri Building Block Picture Book Award nominees for 2020! These award nominees encourage reading aloud to children and are selected annually by a group of children’s librarians from Missouri. The books nominated for this award make for exciting and engaging story times for any group of kids. Continue reading “Awesome Read-Alouds: Piranhas Don’t Eat Bananas & Octopants”
Little felt birds are fun to sew and decorate. For this project, you’ll learn how to sew a simple bird out of plain and patterned felt. Birds can be decorated with buttons, beads, feathers and simple embroidery stitches. Add a ribbon to make a hanging or wire it to a grapevine wreath for a fun winter decoration. I recommend this for kids (and kids at heart) ages 7 and up. Younger children may need help from a grownup.
You will need:
- Felt
- Pins or tailor’s chalk
- Scissors
- Embroidery floss
- Embroidery needle
- 2 Buttons or beads (for eyes)
- Natural or synthetic fiber (for stuffing)
- Print and cut out the “sew a songbird pattern.” Place it on your felt. I used a plain color for the body and patterned scraps for the wings.
- Pin or trace around each pattern piece, then turn the pattern pieces over and pin or trace each one again. You should now have two of each pattern piece in felt, and they should mirror each other.
Continue reading “Sew a Songbird!”
November is National Novel Writing Month, during which people are challenged to write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. NaNoWriMo (as it’s abbreviated) is mostly done by adults, but kids can also take the challenge by writing their own stories. (They don’t have to be 50,000 words — just a few pages is enough to tell a great story). But what kind of story do you want to tell? Something personal, fantastic, mysterious, romantic, funny, scary or all of the above? And what’s the best way to tell your story? In prose or poetry? With illustrations? Maybe as a graphic novel? And how do you even know where to start? The books below will hopefully provide some helpful and inspiring tips for writing unique and captivating stories.
Every story is made of words, and Jerome, from “The Word Collector,”by Peter H. Reynolds, and Rocket, the dog in Tad Hills‘ “Rocket Writes A Story,” love to collect them. Jerome uses the words he collects to write poems and songs to share with his friends, and Rocket, who loves to read books, uses his to write a story about an owl he sees in a tree, who soon becomes his friend. Continue reading “NaNoWriMo for Kids: Telling Your Own Story”
Here’s my current list of pandemic problems:
- Having too much screen time
- Not getting enough personal space
- Eating all of the junk food
- Struggling to connect with people who are far away
- Trying to maintain my role as a responsible adult
Books seem to be the only thing keeping me together. That, and also that my adult responsibilities never seem to go away. To help you and your kids cope at home, here are some of my favorite picture books that have great lessons to be learned in the pandemic.
Need to talk about personal space, taking breaks and too much time together?
Goat may have some guidance for you!
Goat is done with the zoo. There are too many children with too many hands in a small space. He decides to leave forever. When he gets lonely, however, he realizes he just needed some space and to take a break. Doesn’t goat sound like parents and zoo sound like home? I know I’m sick of the people I live with, but I still love them. Continue reading “Picture Book Lessons From the Pandemic”
Jumpstart’s “Read for the Record” brings together millions of adults and children around the world each year to read the same book on the same day in order to raise awareness of the critical importance of early literacy and access to high-quality books. This year’s “Read for the Record” will take place on October 29, 2020.
The book that everyone gets to read together is “Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away” written by Meg Medina and illustrated by Sonia Sánchez.
Evelyn Del Rey is Daniela’s best friend. They do everything together and even live in twin apartments across the street from each other: Daniela with her mami and hamster, and Evelyn with her mami, papi and cat. But not after today—not after Evelyn moves away. Until then, the girls play amid the moving boxes until it’s time to say goodbye, making promises to keep in touch, because they know that their friendship will always be special. The tenderness of Meg Medina’s beautifully written story about friendship and change is balanced by Sonia Sánchez’s colorful and vibrant depictions of the girls’ urban neighborhood.
Can’t get a copy of the library book? No problem! Jumpstart has provided English and Spanish versions of the eBook free online here!
Click here to view and print the family activity guide to extend your learning.
While we are doing lots of virtual story times, which are pretty awesome, I do miss in person story times! One of my favorite things to do during story time is to sing “Zoom Zoom Zoom” with our babies and toddlers. They absolutely love it! Usually we blast off to the moon in our rocket ships after this rhyme, but my awesome coworker has created new lyrics for our patrons who celebrate spooky season.
Zoom, Zoom, Zoom—Boo!
Zoom, zoom, zoom,
Climb onto my broom.
Zoom, zoom, zoom,
Climb onto my broom.
If you want to ride around,
to spook the people in the town.
Zoom, zoom, zoom,
Climb onto my broom.
In 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,
BOO!
~By Erin (and inspired by Jbrary!)
Want to read some not-so-spooky books with your kids? Try out these eBooks on Hoopla! Continue reading “Not-So-Spooky Songs and Stories”
Since it’s that spooky time of year, I’ve decided to show you how to make some kawaii (cute!) monsters. I think I could doodle monsters all day long, but I’ve just included some of my favorites.
All you need to get started is a pen and some paper. I did my doodles in black and white, but feel free to color your little critters.
Floating ghost:
Start with the cute little face, and then add a half circle shape on top. Add two little arms and a scalloped bottom like a cloud, and he’s ready to take flight.
Continue reading “Megan Doodles: Kawaii Monsters”
