Frog Fest

Spring is a great time to celebrate this well loved amphibian with a library event aimed at children ages 2-7 years old.

Story - Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonathan London, illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz  (Who cares that it is spring and not winter! This is my favorite frog book.  Older kids still laugh about the underwear joke even when they know it is coming.)

Station #1 - Toad Blocks
Create a frog picture using the library's large pattern blocks.  I found a frog picture using these blocks in an old Mailbox magazine (Kindergarten, Oct./Nov. 2011, page 38). I had it on the table for the children to look at.

Station #2 - Frog-tastic Color Roll
For this station, I borrowed my son's color cube from his ThinkFun Roll & Play game.  The children would roll the cube and then follow the directions for each color showing on top. 
Red: Stick out your tongue like a frog
Yellow: Crawl like a toad
Orange: Dance how a frog would dance
Blue: Jump like a frog
Purple: Find a partner and croak like a set of frogs in a frog chorus
Green: How many lily pads can you find around the room? (I taped up a few lily pad pictures around the room before the program began.)

Station #3 - Bug Toss
We converted our wooden bean bag toss game into a giant frog face. We set out lots of plastic bugs and other creepy crawlies for the children to throw into the frog's mouth.

 

Station #4 - Jumping Origami Frogs
I found the simplest directions I could find for this origami craft at Origami-Fun. There was light weight paper to fold as well as cardstock. The cardstock frogs jumped best. I also put out crayons to decorate the frogs. Thank goodness for my Key Club volunteer!  She rocked at helping the children and parents learn which way the folds needed to go. 

Station #5 - Paper Plate Frogs
Simple to make frogs:
1. Fold your paper plate in half for the mouth and face.
2. Cut out and attach the arms and legs.
3. Color and decorate.
Scissors, pens, and staplers were put out for easy assembly and decorating.

Reflections - This was an easy program to put together. The children who attended the event seemed to have a great time. The bug toss was a great hit. One group of boys had fun grossing out each other and their mothers with the assortment of insects, arachnids, and invertebrates we gathered. The parents were just as excited to fold origami frogs as the kids. While I did include a STEM feature with the pattern blocks, more could be done about a frog's life cycle to include more science. One thing that would have made this event over the top great would be to have somebody on hand with their pet frogs. Alas, I could not find anybody who was cheap or willing to do this for free.

Families Together Storytime

Storytime for 1 to 3 year olds:

• Opening - Skinnamarink, Sticky Sticky Bubblegum

   

 

• Book #1 – Grandma's Tiny House: A Counting Story! by JaNay Brown-Wood, illustrated by Priscilla Burris

• Stand-up Activity – "If You're Happy and You Know It" action song from Songs for Wiggleworms by Old Town School of Folk Music

• Bridge - Open, Shut Them (fingerplay)

Open, shut them
(open and close hands)
Open, shut them
Give a little clap (clap)
Open, shut them

Open, shut them
Put them in your lap
(put hands in lap)

Creep them, creep them
Under your chin
(creep fingers up chest)
Open your mouth, but don't put them in
(do as words say)

Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap
Open shut them
Open shut them
Put them in your lap 

• Flannelboard - Daddy Mouse House (color rhyme flannelboard)

(put up different color houses on the board, hide a baby mouse picture under one house)

Daddy mouse, daddy mouse, where is your baby?

Daddy mouse, daddy mouse look for your baby under the "yellow" house.

(repeat by replacing the color yellow with other colored houses on the board until the baby mouse is found)

• Letter of the Day - "g" is for grandma and grandpa

• Book #2 – Baby Danced the Polka by Karen Beaumont, illustrated by Jennifer Plecas

• Activity – Come A' Look A' See (fingerplay song I first picked up at a workshop conducted by Jane Cobb but can also be found on the music CD The Baby Record by Bob McGrath)

• Closing - Dance with scarves to the song "Shake Your Scarves" from The Second Line: Scarf Activity Songs by Johnette Downing

  

 

• Art Experience – Place dot stickers on a paper placemat and then use a gluestick to glue the saying, "Love is easy to spot," onto the placemat

Trash & Recycling Storytime

Storytime for 1 to 3 year olds:

• Opening - Skinnamarink, Sticky Sticky Bubblegum

     

  

• Book #1 – Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemasha, illustrated by an Yaccarino

• Stand-up Activity – The Garbage Truck Rolls (fingerplay to the tune of "Wheels On the Bus" adapted by Carol Hopkins)

The garbage truck drives down the street, down the street, down the street
The garbage truck drives down the street
As it picks up garbage

The garbage truck stops adn goes, stops and goes, stops and goes
The garbage truck stops and goes
As it picks up garbage

(use other action words)

• Bridge - Open, Shut Them (fingerplay)

Open, shut them
(open and close hands)
Open, shut them
Give a little clap (clap)
Open, shut them

Open, shut them
Put them in your lap
(put hands in lap)

Creep them, creep them
Under your chin
(creep fingers up chest)
Open your mouth, but don't put them in
(do as words say)

Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap
Open shut them
Open shut them
Put them in your lap 

• Flannelboard - Five Little Garbage Trucks  (counting down rhyme, I'm not sure where I found this one)

• Letter of the Day - "E" is for Earth Day

• Book #2 – Little Helpers from Innovative Kids, illustrated by Jillian Phillips

• Activity – I'm a Little Recycling Truck (action song to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot" written by Carol Hopkins)

I'm a little recycling truck, watch me go
Here is my hopper
Here is my cab
When I get all filled up, to the recycling center I go
Just tip me over and dump the recycling out

• Closing - Dance with scarves using the song "Milkshake" from Songs for Wiggleworms by Old Town School of Folk Music

  

 

• Art Experience – Glue shredded paper strips to a picture of a recycling truck

Books to Share with Library Field Trips and Outreach In the Spring

This spring I have a new round of field trips coming to the library and outreach adventures out to area daycare providers.  I am always looking for good books to share with the kiddos, especially ones that are not necessarily books I would use at my weekly toddler storytimes.  Here are some gems I plan to use:

  

There's a Monster In Your Book by Tom Fletcher, illustrated by Greg Abbott
Grandma's Tiny House: A Counting Story by JaNay Brown-Wood, illustrated by Priscilla Burris 
More Bears! by Kenn Nesbitt, illustrated by Troy Cummings