• Activities

    Storytime Theme: Fruit (2023 update)

    fruit header

    Strangely enough, my fruit and veggie storytimes have been some of my most favorite and popular ones with my families. I never expected that fruit would be so exciting, but the kids absolutely loved it! I want kids to learn about maybe some fruit that they aren’t familiar with or…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: New Baby (2023 update)

    family portrait

    Welcoming a new baby into the family can be exciting and scary for siblings! Celebrate the new addition with these great read aloud picture books, songs, rhymes, crafts, and activities for toddlers and preschoolers to help make the family transition a little more smooth. There are dozens of new siblings…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Gardens (2023 update)

    flower garden

    I know, gardening is typically a spring storytime theme, but there are so many great gardening books for kids, that I couldn’t resist doing a quick update for this lesson plan! I offered a few more nonfiction books than I usually do because they’re so cool! Especially the Smithsonian/DK Publishing…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Robots (2023 update)

    robot

    It’s another update week! Robots is a fun STEM-themed storytime! With a wide variety of titles including fiction and nonfiction, board books, and picture books, this storytime theme can work with a large audience. You can use this as a jumping-off point for a preschool lesson plan about what robots…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Rain (2023 update)

    little girl standing in rain with yellow umbrella, coat, and boots

    Although I would typically think to do a rain-themed storytime in the Spring, it’s been raining EVERY weekend this fall and is expected to rain all day today while I finish typing this lesson plan. So, I’ll share with you my (very) old storytime lesson plan about rain and give…

  • Lists

    12 Kid Lit Titles with Fall 2023 Publication Dates

    fall header

    There are so many children’s books being published every week, how do you even keep track? It’s not the easiest, even for librarians! But, here are a few resources that you can use at home to keep up-to-date with upcoming releases. You can always search for your favorite publishers (if…

  • Lists

    12 Books About Chess for Kids

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    We’ve been lucky enough to have an amazing volunteer willing to help us at my library by offering chess classes for our kids! Thankfully, we have a volunteer because my staff and I know a little bit about chess, but not enough to offer a series of classes for beginner…

  • Lists

    9 White Bird Read Alikes

    White Bird Header

    R. J. Palacio’s White Bird is being adapted for the big screen, but with several delays, I hope that it becomes available later this year. Based in the same world as her hit book, Wonder, White Bird is the story of Julian’s grandmother. As a young Jewish girl, she was…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Cities

    city header

    Well, we’ve stopped off at the beach, the desert, rivers and streams, the mountains, and now we’re headed to the busy city! I love visiting the big city, I’m not sure if I could ever actually live in one (I like my green grass and trees), but visiting is great.…

  • Lists

    9 Books All About National Parks

    National Park header

    I’m traveling this week and although I didn’t make it up to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, I will be headed to Rocky Mountain National Park later this week! I also just got back from Mammoth Cave National Park a few weeks ago. And so, with the popularity of…