• Activities

    Fun Friday: Windblown

    wind

    Whoosh! This month’s Fun Friday was a wind theme (I’m sick of snow and winter!). We talk about wind, especially about how the wind is created and the kids had some great answers to my questions! Afterward, I gave them the Windblown activity paper and had them cut out the seven shapes…

  • Lifestyle

    2014 CLEL Bell Award Winner Announcement

    Yesterday, February 5, 2014 the winners of the CLEL Bell Picture Book Awards for Early Literacy were announced.  If you didn’t even know this award existed, have no fear!  CLEL stand for Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy and it’s mission is,  “All children deserve the joy of reading and the skills in…

  • Activities

    Story Time Theme: Winter & Snow

    I was able to get to work today!!!  It probably snowed about 8 inches yesterday with more snow expected tomorrow and a Nor’easter expected to tear through our area on Sunday.  I’m tired of the snow, but couldn’t help but have a snow themed story time for my kids in…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Shapes

    Identifying shapes is so important to a child’s development, it’s the beginning of understanding letters and words and an important early literacy skill.  My first storytime of the session focused on shapes, but in a much more abstract way than identifying squares, circles, triangles, and more.  The kids did a…

  • Activities

    Sensory-Friendly Story Time Theme: Down on the Farm

    Today was our first try at providing a sensory-friendly story time at the library.  Unfortunately, no one showed up.  I’m not giving up though, sometimes this happens – especially for a brand new program targeting a specific part of the community.  Many families that have children with disabilities do not frequent…

  • Lifestyle

    Flexibility and Librarians

    I literally just posted yesterday how it’s been relatively quiet in the library and I’ve been getting a lot of work done at my desk – revamping the library website, booklists for a new librarian and patrons, and I came in today with a pretty decent to-do list and this…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Imagination Station

    box

    This is the second Saturday storytime I’ve tried this fall and it’s great to see some regular faces, but also some new faces who can’t come in during the week! I had about 20 kids show up which worked really well and before we began I explained to parents the…

  • Activities

    Story Time Theme: Mo Willems

    This week was probably one of my favorites – Mo Willems Week for story time!  Willems is an amazing author/illustrator in the children’s literature world and his books are geared perfectly to my crowd of 2 – 3.5 year olds.  We shared Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus with…

  • Reviews

    Little Red Writing

    Joan Holub and Melissa Sweet are paired together in this beautifully executed story about writing a story.  This is such a fun way to introduce children to writing stories.  Little Red Writing takes a familiar story and remakes it to include tried and true rules for writing a story.  Our…

  • Reviews

    Tea Party Rules

    Ame Dyckman has done it again, Tea Party Rules is an adorable story of friendship in the most unlikely place. Cub smells something delicious and before he knows it, he has found a tea party…complete with cookies! When the little girl shows up, she teaches Cub the (many) rules one…