I start every meeting with an icebreaker.  Participants were challenged to make words out of the phrase "Family Fletcher."  This was a very popular activity.  Some of my favorite words were : fairy, fart, and retch.  

For the bridge building challenge, I put out various items that participants could use to construct a bridge: straws, popsicle sticks, dominoes, jenga blocks, and masking tape.  The bridge had to be stable enough to hold some rubber bugs.  The challenge was to fit as many rubber bugs onto the bridge without causing the bridge to collapse.

The finger puppet soccer  station was a lot of fun to put together.  I used large green construction paper and created a small scale soccer field.  I printed off a couple of soccer player finger puppets from Kara's Party Ideas.  I am glad that I used cardstock for the finger puppets because regular printer paper would have ripped easily.  For the ball, I used a pom-pom.  Adults and kids had a lot of fun playing finger puppet soccer.  

Next month, we will be discussing El Deafo by Cece Bell.

Two of the action rhymes that I used today came from one of my favorite Children's Librarian blogs, Storytime Katie. I typed up the words and projected them so that caregivers could say the action rhymes with me.  

Here's a Hill
Here’s a hill (tilt left arm so that it forms a hill)
And here’s a hill (tilt right arm so that it forms a hill)
All covered with snow (raise hands up, bring down in snow motion)
I’ll put on my coat, (put coat on)
And jump on my sled (hold the rope of a sled)
And ZOOM, down the hill I will go! (clap hands, slid hands down)
Credit: The Holiday Zone via Storytime Katie

I Built a Snowman
I built a little snowman (make large circle with arms)
He had a carrot nose (point to nose)
Along came a bunny (hold up to bent fingers)
And what do you suppose? (shrug)
That hungry little bunny (make bunny again)
Looking for his lunch (hop bunny around)
Ate the snowman’s nose (pretend bunny is eating nose)
Nibble! Nibble! Crunch! (pretend to be eating a carrot)
Credit: Everything Preschool via Storytime Katie

Pre-Storytime Activity:  Winter I-Spy from Life Over C's Blog

Letter of the Week:  The letter of the week this week is the letter S.  We talked about each of the pictures in the collage.  I purchased the clipart for this collage from the amazing Krista Wallden of Creative Clips and Little Red of  Little Red's Schoolhouse.

This week it was my turn to put together the Family Storytime basket.  In honor of Martin Luther King Jr, I decided to focus on peace and kindness this week.  

If you are interested in seeing what types of materials we put into our family storytime baskets, here is a PDF of the materials that I included in my basket for this week:​

The action rhyme that I used today came from one of my favorite Children's Librarian blogs, Jbrary. I typed up the words and projected them so that caregivers could say the action rhyme with me.  

I Have a Little Heart
​
I have a little heart, (place hand over heart)
And it goes thump, thump, thump (pat chest three times)
It keeps right on beating,
When I jump, jump, jump (jump three times)
I get a special feeling, when I look at you. (point to child)
It makes me want to give you a hug or two. (hug yourself)

Credit: Jbrary

I made two flannels for storytime this week. The first one is based on the book How Kind! by Mary Murphy. I found the idea on Totally Toddler!'s blog. The second one is an adaptation of Big Hugs, Little Hugs by Felicia Bond. I have included the files for the words below, but I did not include the file for the images.  If you like the clipart, I purchased it from Krista Wallden of Creative Clips and Whimsy Clips to create my flannels.  

Pre-storytime quote: I typed up the quote "have courage and be kind" and projected it as families walked into storytime.

Letter of the week:  The letter of the week this week is the letter L.  I created a collage of items that begin with the letter L.  I projected the collage and we talked about each picture in the collage.

Take home activity:  I created a flyer listing acts of kindness.  I printed them off for families to take home with them.

The 2018 Committee for The Party That Shall Not be Named will be getting together in a few days to begin planning this year's event! I am thrilled to be serving on the planning committee for the third year in a row! The Party is one of my favorite big library celebrations and I am beyond excited to see what my committee members have in store for this year.  

In June of 2016, I had the opportunity to co-facilitate one of our Yoga inspired special programs.  I think that our my colleagues and our patrons would agree that this is a popular special program!  Whenever it is time to sign up for our special programs, this is one of the programs that many of my colleagues enjoy planning and facilitating.

We like to dim the lights, play calming music, and decorate the room to create a cozy and comforting atmosphere.  We stress that the program is yoga inspired.  We read books, do some yoga poses, and conclude with some meditation.  

Here are the ideas that my colleague and I gathered along with our finished outline for the program.