Story Time - If You Take A Mouse To School by Laura Numeroff

This morning I kicked off another year of Story Time at our local library.  This is one of my favorite things to do and I am so glad I have the time to do it and the kids to offer it to.  Today we had four kids from ages 1 1/2 - 4 years old and it worked out great.  Today's story was:

We talked about the fact the most of them had big brothers or sisters that get to go to school each day and that this story would give them an idea of what going to school was like.

After I read the story, I talked about how at school you have to line up a lot to go to lunch, to the bathroom, or to get a drink.  So, we got out the instruments, lined up, and marched along to the song The Ants Go Marching In.  We marched, kicked our legs, followed the leader, and played our instruments.

After music time is craft time.  I got the idea for this story time craft from this blog:
Mom To 2 Posh Lil Divas

We talked about the letter "M" and that it is the first letter in the word mouse.  I used painters tape on heavy card stock to make the "M".  Then I adapted this to fit our time frame.  The blogs suggests water color paints, but we wouldn't have had time for it to dry so I just had the kids use crayons.  For the younger ones, it was a lot to color so I encouraged the moms to help.  You could also just have them outline the tape if they get tired of coloring.  Then, once it is all colored in, slowly peel off the tape.  It will likely pull up paper too, but since it is card stock it still worked fine.  Then add triangles for the ears (out of construction paper) and googly eyes, pom pom and pipe cleaners.  This is also a good opportunity to talk about shapes...triangles and circles for the ears, eyes and nose.  We used Elmer's glue and after sitting for a bit, it held just fine.

We closed Story Time with Chips A'Hoy cookies...everyone's favorite after school snack!  I sent home printables with the kids to continue the story.  They included a maze, a find the mouse page, and a coloring page printed from this site:  Harper Collins Childrens

Stay tuned for more Story Time posts in the future.  I may even try to catch up and post about previous years activities.

Scenes from our Week - Week 4

We had another busy week at our house, starting with Pat's birthday.  Unfortunately I have no pictures of that.  We had friends over since it was such a gorgeous day and spent the evening on the porch!  Fun times!

The rest of the week flew by and suddenly it was time for trick or treating!  Our town did its trick or treating last night, which I like.  The boys have basketball practice tonight and that way, we got our trial run through with the costumes before they take them to school!  We celebrated Pat's birthday again with his sister and family and everyone but me went trick or treating.  I LOVE to stay home and pass out the treats.  It is so fun to see all the kids in costumes and chatting with them.  I always get a variety of treats to hand out.  I love to pass out play doh for the little ones who don't need all that candy, but I have realized play doh is a favorite among all ages and I always run out.  I also get the mini oreos as well as some favorite candy.....Hershey's, Twix, Reeses Pumpkins, and the Halloween and White Chocolate Kit Kats.  It was a very busy evening and I easily handed out over 200 items.  It was wonderful to see all the kids and families in town.

Reagan wanted to be Smurfette and rather than buying a costume, we used a white skirt and tank top we already had.  I bought the white gloves and white hat and the blue Under Armour.  I couldn't find blue tights so we had to stick with white.  We opted not to paint her whole face blue.  Knowing my child, I figured she would come home with all of her white clothes stained blue as well.  She was excited to be able to have her cousin, Ali put on her makeup, including glitter.  I even got her fake eyelashes, but those lasted about 30 seconds.  She said they itched, so we opted for mascara.  I thought she was a pretty cute Smurfette anyway!

 Bennett really struggled with his costume, making a list of possible ideas including a lawyer, and a construction worker.  From the construction worker idea, we formed the Lumberjack.  All we had to get was a flannel shirt!  I already had the makeup to do his beard.  Pat got an axe handle and fashioned an ax from some grey foam we had in the garage.  This is one of our favorite costumes from all our Halloween years!  I think he looks very authentic!

Patrick, being a 6th grader, wasn't sure if it was cool or not to still go trick or treating.  We didn't push him and let him decide for himself.  Once he decided to be a 70's Basketball player, we were on the hunt for costume items.  They found the shorts at Goodwill and the sweat band and socks at Dick's Sporting Goods.  He put his costume on so I could take photos last night, but chose not to trick or treat and just walked along with the family.  He did take his costume to school today to dress up for the party there. 

We usually take great pride in our pumpkin carving, but this year we kind of petered out and ran out of time.  Reagan knew she really wanted a Hello Kitty pumpkin, so Pat took care of that one for her.  I wanted to try drilling a polka dot pumpkin...seeing lots of neat ideas on Pinterest....and since the boys didn't care, we went with easy jack-o-lanterns.  So this is what we came up with this year.  I still think they are fun and decorated our entry way to welcome our trick or treaters!

On Friday, I, along with our librarian took our Storytime kids around to our downtown businesses.  We had about a dozen kids all decked out in costumes ranging from Wolverine to Caption America to a Bumblebee to Thing 1 and Thing 2.  I read a couple Halloween stories and we went for our walk.  I couldn't miss the opportunity to dress up, and our librarian did too.  I look forward to Storytime every month and was glad we could squeeze in a Halloween celebration as well. 



Happy Halloween everyone!  Be safe, have fun, and don't eat all your kids' candy!



10 Day Give Day 5

This first Thursday of every month I donate my time and talents to our local library.  I lead a story time for the little ones in our community.  I started the story time when I think our daughter was 3.  I missed taking her like I had taken the boys when we lived in Cedar Rapids and I wanted to give her those same opportunities but without driving an hour round trip.  So, I offered to lead one at our library and it has been going ever since.  Out of all the volunteering I do, this is MY FAVORITE.  Today we had 9 kids and they are always so excited to come to story time.  The best part is when the kids see me out and about in the community.  I get the biggest hugs! So even though I am doing the giving - I think I am the one who gets the most from it!

I love selecting the book and theme for the month.  Then looking for songs, finger-plays, craft and a snack to tie it all in.  I am so thankful for the internet, as I have found lots and lots of ideas there.  My other favorite resource is THE MAILBOX.  It is a teacher resource book that is shipped every couple months.  I know that the teachers in our school use it and it has also given me great ideas.  I also have a story time friend, Lucy the Lamb.  She is a puppet and helps welcome the kids each time with our story time song.

Today's story time theme was Fall.  I read the book I SEE FALL by  Charles Ghigna and AG Jatkowska.  We also sang a song while dropping different colored leaves.  Our craft today was to make a fall tree.  I don't remember where I found this idea, but it worked really well for our group of 2-3 year olds.  You could also change this up for a Apple theme using red and green tissue paper.

Items Needed:
Blue Construction Paper
Brown Construction Paper
Red, Orange, Yellow, Purple, and Green Tissue Paper
Glue (Elmer's liquid glue works best)

A Snowman Idea and Storytime

A few months ago I offered to lead a storytime for toddlers at our small town library. So, in November I held my first storytime with 4 little ones. We learned about leaves and it was a fun hour in my day! This month my theme is "Snow". So, thanks to my friend Tina, a former teacher and current stay-at-home mom who has all the best ideas, I am giving each of the kids one of these treats to take home with them. I don't remember what Tina called them, but I just thought they were the cutest! So, if you need to take treats to school, send goody bags for a party, or have gifts to give...here is your great idea for the day...heck, maybe even the week!

SNOWMAN COCOA

1 ziploc bag

2 T cocoa mix
11 or so mini marshmellows

1 snowman peep (yes they make these...I had no idea)

All you need to do is add 1 cup of hot water!

So, I hope the kids like them tomorrow and I plan to file this idea away for future use! Thanks Tina!

I will be reading SNOW by Cynthia Rylant who is the author of the Henry and Mudge Book series and ALL YOU NEED FOR A SNOWMAN by Alice Schertle which is one of our kids favorites.