L is for Library

Week 1 of fall session featured books about visiting the library.  I thought it went well with all of the 'housekeeping' we do in week 1 talking about guidelines for story time etc.  So, our letter focus was on the letter L.  I put a dye cut L on the flannel board and asked what letter it was and what sound it made.

Our first story was Lola at the Library by Anna McQuinn.  This is a great book for introducing toddlers to the library.  Lola and her mother visit the library where they return some books, visit the children's section and story time, check-out new books, head home for a treat, and end the day reading a book that they got that day at the library.  The illustrations are large and simple for toddlers see in story time.

The second book we read was I took my frog to the library by Eric Kimmel.  This is one of my favorite books about a girl who keeps bringing her very unusual pets to the library.  Unfortunatley, she finds that pets don't make the most well-behaved library visitors.  Well, the elephant is behaved, but he causes other sorts of trouble.  This is a funny story that highlights many features of the library.  Even the old card catalog!  I had to explain that these were replaced by computers, the kids seemed oblivious, but the parents enjoyed it.

The last story we did was the flannel story of Bill Martin Jr.'s Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?  This introduced them to the book that we will be talking about all session.  I had them name the colors and the animals as I put them up on the board.  We even threw in a few animal sounds for good measure.


To go along with our library theme we had a few reading and book related songs and finger plays.  One finger play we used to get our fidgety finger quiet went:
Open the book
Close the book
Give a little clap.
Open the book
Close the book
Put it in your lap.

We also sang If you like the library and you know it.  Just like If you are happy and you know it using the following verses:

If you like the library and you know it clap your hands
If you like books and you know it stomp your feet
If you like reading and you know it shout 'Read Books!'

Other songs that we did included:

Clap Your Hands from the Wigglworms Love You album.  This is a good movement song that has the kids clapping hands, stomping feet, brushing teeth, touching their nose, and waving hello.

I feel crazy so I jump in the soup from Laurie Berkner's Victor Vito album.  Another movement song, this one has the kids jumping into a bowl of soup where they jump, swim, splash, and then sit back down.

The color of the week was Brown for Brown bear on the first page of the book.  I printed off pictures of different colored things, ie. yellow bananas, red balloon, etc, and they had to help me find things that were brown.  There was the bear and a dog mixed in with the other items.

We finished with a craft where the kids made their own little book.  I just created a small booklet that had pages for the kids to fill in information about themselves like name, age, family, favorite things, etc. and spots where they could draw pictures that went along with the information they gave.  I also put out some stickers to add to the illustrating fun!