• Activities

    Storytime Theme: Playground

    playground

    My niece and nephew love spending time on the playground! And I’m lucky to have a couple within walking distance, so we’re always on an adventure when they come to visit. This storytime is a perfect one for kids from toddlers to early elementary school because who doesn’t love spending…

  • Lists

    2023 CLEL Bell Award Winners

    play blocks

    The CLEL Bell Awards are announced annually by the Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy (CLEL). Five books are awarded “in recognition of five high-quality picture books that provide excellent support of early literacy development in young children.” CLEL doesn’t just award books an award. They also create early literacy activity…

  • Reviews

    #blogbookaday: Explorers of the Wild

    Summary:  “Boy and Bear both love to explore the outdoors. There are so many neat things to see, and so many strange things to find. These explorers are prepared for anything . . . except each other! When Bear and Boy meet in the woods, they’re scared at first. Really scared.…

  • Reviews

    Picture Book Month: Dogs

    This title is all about expression, and if you don’t use expression, this will be one of the most boring books you read… because the only word throughout the whole story is “ball.” The adorable dog on the cover loves playing with his ball. He waits (not so patiently) for…

  • Activities

    Blogging A to Z: Imagination

    During the month of April, I’ll be participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge.  My theme for the month is Storytime Plans From A to Z.  Each plan will have eight stories as well as four songs, fingerplays or rhymes to match the theme!  As you can see,…

  • Lifestyle

    5 Early Literacy Practices: PLAY

    Play is vital to a child’s growth and development.  It not merely a tool to keep children busy during the day.  During play, children “use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength.” (Importance of Play)  Play encourages and promotes both healthy brain development as…

  • Lifestyle

    One of Those Days…

    It’s been a fairly busy week for us – Life-Size Board Games on Monday, story times, Enchanted Library rehearsal, meetings and more.  But today was our last Parent/Child Workshop for our fall series.  It started off as a great morning, even without our usual extra help we were able to…

  • Activities

    Movement & Play

    My mom just sent me an article written in The Washington Post about ADHD and children in school.  The article states that diagnosis for ADHD is up to 11% in 2011 from just 7.8% in 2003.  There are a number of theories about the reason for this rise in fidgeting…

  • Activities

    Story Time Theme: Playing

    playing

    The answer is bubbles.  I think that anyone who offers a storytime program should definitely be aware of the power of bubbles.  Our focus this week was on the last of the five early literacy skills: play.  I read three books all about play, but hands down our favorite was…

  • Lifestyle

    Rain, Rain Go Away…

    Although, I like having a day where  my story time theme (rain) matches the weather outside, this is a little too much weather for me!  It’s been raining heavily all day long with dreary gray skies which in turn makes for a very quiet library.  It wouldn’t be a problem, because…