Storytime: Chickens

Books

Five Little Chicks by Nancy Tafuri

~Count with maisy, Cheep, Cheep, Cheep!  by Lucy Cousins

Chicken Story Time by Sandy Asher

~Where, Oh Where, is Rosie’s Chick? by Pat Hutchins

*The Red Hen by Rebecca Emberly and Ed Emberly

~*Here a Chick, Where a Chick? by Suse MacDonald

Books marked with a ~ were used for my toddler storytime and books marked with * were used for my all ages storytime. Chickens are a fun theme. There are so many picture book options about them! Both Count with Maisy, Cheep, Cheep, Cheep and Here a Chick, Where a Chick? have flaps to lift up and look behind. The kids defintiely wanted to help lift the flaps, which doesn't work well with large groups, but regardless, lifting flaps is fun! Where, Oh Where, is Rosie's Chick? went over really well. The kids were all laughing at silly Rosie not seeing the chick right behind her. I think I probably should have used this one in my all ages storytime too. They weren't as engaged with the two titles I chose. I thought Here a Chick, Where a Chick? would be a winner with the animal noises, but they weren't as into it today as they usually are.

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Storytime: Hugs, Kisses, and Love

Books

*Love Always Everywhere by Sarah Massini

~A Kiss Like This by Mary Murphy

Hug Machine by Scott Campbell

The Perfect Hug by John Walsh

~*Kitty’s Cuddles by Jane Cabrera

Love Monster by Rachel Bright

Books marked with a ~ are ones used for our toddler storytime. Books marked with a * are ones used for our all ages storytime. Today was my first week doing both toddler and all ages storytimes. Since our toddler storytime was on Valentine's Day this week, I wanted to do something thematically appropriate for the holiday without actually mentioning the holiday directly. There is a lot of debate in the storytime world about whether to do holiday storytimes or not. I think it's best to er on the side of caution and not do anyhting directly related to holidays in case some of my patrons don't celebrate them and wouldn't be comfortable attending a storytime themed around one. Hugs, kisses, and love can be enjoyed by everyone though! Our all ages storytime ended up only having two toddlers this week so the books skewed younger than they normally would for that day. Love Always Everywhere, A Kiss Like This, and Kitty's Cuddles all have pretty simple text with few words on the pages. There aren't any plots for younger kids to follow or concepts illustrated by the pictures that might be hard to understand for very little ones. Love Always Everywhere has a diverse cast of children in the illustrations, which I love. It's a very sweet book and perfect for a love themed storytime. If we had had a slightly older crowed for the all ages storytime, I probably would have used Love Monster and Hug Machine, but the sweet simple text in Love Always Everywhere was great for the younger group.

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Review: LifeGlow Felt

I love making felt pieces for flannelboards. I've only made a few so far since my job as a youth services librarian only just started, but I'm seriously excited to make new felt pieces every week. I know in time I'll build a big library of different flannelboards, but for now making them is a weekly occurrence as I make things to fit new themes. In the future, I'll do a write-up of my process if anyone is interested, but today I'm just going to talk about felt!

Review

Not all felt is created equal. I do sometimes use the felt that comes in rectangles at Michael's or JoAnn. If I need a color and need it right away, there aren't many other options. However, the quality of felt from most craft stores leaves a lot to be desired. It's pretty stiff and scratchy. Stiffness, I'll admit, can be a benefit when trying to cut out complex shapes, but it does make the pieces much less nice to handle. I am on the lookout for somewhere where I can buy individual sheets that are nice and soft, but if you are in the market for a variety pack, Amazon has got you covered with a pack of 40 different colors by a company called LifeGlow.