Let's Talk Turkey -- November 25, 2014

Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson
Bear thanks his friends for bringing food dishes to his dinner party and finds a way of sharing something of his own!

The Thankful Book by Todd Parr
There are many things to be thankful for every day...  From underwear to music to bubble baths!










Today, the kiddos got to choose a craft.  They could either make a...

Thankful Banner,

Thankful Turkey (with gratitude feathers!), or...

A Simple Turkey!

Para los Ninos: Math at Home -- November 18, 2014

Thank you, Miss Tiffany, for coming to see us today!  We love having the Children's Museum visit our library.  Miss Tiffany shared strategies to make children aware of the math present all around them:

• Talk Math  -- Use math terms in daily life.  Explore vocabulary such as greater than, less than, addition and subtraction.
• Number Symbols -- Have kids look for street and building numbers, explore signage for phone numbers, dates, etc.
• Number Sense -- Use playing cards to help your child learn basic addition and subtraction.
• Measurement -- Explore measurement and estimation by guessing how much a  container will hold, then testing to see if you were right!
• Money -- Look at coins and discuss their characteristics.  Have your child separate coins by type.
• Sorting and Classifying -- How are objects alike?  Different?  
• Geometry and Patterns -- Identify shapes in the environment.  The sidewalk is made of squares, ice cream is in a cone, a ball is a sphere!
• Graphing -- Get to know members of your family by collecting information and depicting it on a graph.
• Estimation -- Practice your skills in the produce section!  Guess how many items are in your shopping bag or estimate how much a head of lettuce will weigh.

Then we practiced counting as we read...

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Follow the progress of a hungry little caterpillar as he eats his way through a varied and very large quantity of food until, full at last, he forms a cocoon around himself and goes to sleep...

Five Little Ducks by Ivan  Bates

One by one, five little ducks wander away from their mother until her lonely quack brings them all waddling back!

One of today's math activities was the Pom Pom Toss!  (Try to toss the poms into the yarn circle, then graph how many landed inside vs. outside.)

The next station gave us a chance to make a small, medium and large caterpillar!  We used them to practice measuring.

And finally, we practiced making patterns by creating these super-cool Fruit Loop bracelets! Stylish and delicious!

Bookworms! -- November 4, 2014

The Wonderful Book by Leonid Gore
When various forest animals discover a mysterious object in the woods, they each use it for a different purpose, until a boy reads stories aloud from it, much to the animals' delight!

Lola Loves Stories by Anna McQuinn
Lola loves to hear Daddy read a new library book each night, an activity that spurs her imagination and results in inventive play the next day!

Keep your place with these super-cool Bookworm Bookmarks!