The Four Seasons- Week #5 Photos

Several of our school/smarts book picks.

 

Practicing hand/eye coordination
with our egg & ruler game.



Coloring our owl pictures.

Black bean owl mosaics!

Keep reading!

Shaen

The Four Seasons- Week #5

Fall Story Time (Week #5)
Weekly Theme: Fall (All About School and Wise Owls)

Icebreaker: sang "I Love the Library" song with musical instruments

Books: But Excuse Me, That is My Book by Lauren Child, My Best Friend is as Sharp as a Pencil by Hanoch Piven, Owl Moon by Jane Yolen

Activity: egg-&-spoon balancing game

Craft: black bean owl mosaics

Pictures of this week of story time are up in the next post, so... 

Keep reading!

Shaen

17th Annual Halloween Happenings at JSI!

If you're looking for something fun, educational, and non-spooky to do this Saturday, October 22, be sure to stop by Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park for the 17th Annual Halloween Happenings!   The Park is located about 15 miles south of Ironton on Hwy. N, and you can take your pick of two programs, or just attend both: Halloween Vaudevillians will begin at 7 pm and will feature seasonal jokes, music, and stories, while Creatures of the Night starts at 8 pm and will feature interesting info about nocturnal animals. 

Be sure to dress warm for either event, as the programs will be held outside, and you will also want to bring your own lawn chairs for the 7 pm session and flashlights for the 8 pm session.  For more information, contact the JSI Park at 573.546.2450.

Keep reading!

Shaen

The Four Seasons- Week #4 Photos

Getting ready to play "ice pop
pickup"- we used clothespins
to snap up the laminated
shapes.

In the process of foil-printing
flags for our craft.

A masterpiece of an
American flag from
one of the preschoolers
at our Cuba branch.

Keep reading!

Shaen

The Four Seasons- Week #4

Fall Story Time (Week #4)
Weekly Theme: Summer (All About July)

Icebreaker: favorite ice cream flavors survey

Books: Flip-Flop Bop by Matt Novak, Max for President by Jarrett Krosoczka

Activity: ice pop pickup game

Craft: foil-printed American flag

Pictures of this week of story time are up in the next post, so... 

Keep reading!

Shaen

Missing Story Time?

Ok, so story time season is in full swing right now, but that fabulous day of music-making, story-reading, and craft-constructing still only rolls around one time a week in your town!  How can you recreate that magical story time atmosphere at home- without destroying the house with glitter and glue?

Well, settle back in your easy chair because multimedia giant Barnes & Noble has come to your rescue.  If you go to B&N's website, you (and your whole family) can enjoy Online Story Time, where well-known celebrities and authors read aloud classic and popular story time picks, such as Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie or Victoria and Elizabeth Kann's Pinkalicious.  Feel free to browse the titles that are already archived, or get a sneak peek at the next promising book (Tickle Monster!) being added to the lineup on November 1.

Keep reading (at the click of a mouse!)!

Shaen

A Treasure Trove of Authors!

Well, the annual Missouri Library Association Conference was spectacular- lots of great workshops (with tons of new programming ideas I can't wait to try out!), networking, and author visits!  I snagged a couple of pics for your viewing enjoyment:

Image courtesy of
Sharon Anderson of
Cape Girardeau Public
Library.

Brian Selznick (Yes, THE Brian Selznick of Caldecott fame, who wrote The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which is currently being made into a movie.  You can view the movie trailer here.) made a surprise appearance and signed a few copies of his most recent book, Wonderstruck.

Deborah Diesen was the featured speaker for MLA's Thusnelda Schmidt Children's Luncheon.  Diesen is the winner of this year's Building Block Picture Book Award, sponsored by the Missouri Association of School Librarians and voted upon by school age children in the state of Missouri.

Clare Vanderpool was the featured speaker for MLA's YASIG Luncheon and was the winner of the 2011 Newberry Medal for her historical novel, Moon Over Manifest.

If you haven't read any of these author's amazing books, what are you waiting for?  Check one out, and keep reading!

Shaen

The Four Seasons- Week #3 Photos

Two of our week number
three story time book picks.

"Beachcombing" through sand
to find hidden ocean-related
cutout shapes.





Beginning our craft (and FYI,
"starfish" are now called
"sea stars", since they aren't
technically fish).





Still working...



One of our textured sea stars!

Smiles are what we're all
about :-)

Keep reading!

Shaen

The Four Seasons- Week #3

Fall Story Time (Week #3)
Weekly Theme: Summer (All About the Ocean)

Icebreaker: packed a beach bag with neccessary items

Books: All You Need for a Beach by Alice Schertle, Sergio Makes a Splash! by Edel Rodriguez

Activity: beachcombed for hidden treasure

Craft: sandpaper starfish (aka "sea star")

Pictures of this week of story time are up in the next post, so... 

Keep reading!

Shaen

North... to Alaska!

Well, I'm not really traveling as far as Alaska, but the library car is packed up and heading north.  The Missouri Library Conference, an annual opportunity for librarians across the state to network and swap ideas, is being held in Kansas City this year, and I'm geared up for three days of author luncheons, vendor meetings, and workshop hijinks (last year, I had a tarantula dumped on my head during a particularly lively Performers' Showcase- sorry to say that there are no pictures I know of to prove it!). 

Hopefully, I'll come back with some more fun stories and a couple of pictures... in the meantime (you know what's next)...

Keep reading!

Shaen

How Time Flies...

All right, it's time to play catch-up!  There have been so many programs going on the past few weeks (last week, we clocked a whopping fifteen!) that I haven't filled you in on everything that's been happening.  Here's the rundown:

Annapolis Library Tour- Mid-September, we hosted a library tour at our Annapolis branch for South Iron Elementary's kindergarten class- such a great bunch of kiddos!-, and after the tour, we had a mini-story time and made a bundle of the cutest crazy-hair bookmarks ever.


Family Cupcake Throwdown- It sounds a little dangerous, but our Cupcake Throwdown was really just a fierce, fun, dessert-decorating contest for our pre-teen set, kids ages 8-12.  The program was held at our Ironton Headquarters and gave our tween patrons a chance to get creative with the culinary arts (and scarf down a little more candy than usual!).  Each contestant had ten minutes at his or her work station to decorate a cupcake, which was then ranked by our judges on the basis of overall presentation, creativity, and neatness; the first-place winner, Eli Jones, won a book bag stuffed to the brim with prizes.  Contest participants also listened to booktalks on recommended grade-school reads and took home their choice of craft kits.



Clockwise from top left: our book display table;
the Decoration Station chock-full of frosting and
candy; our wonderful judges tabulating the final
scores; the kids fixing cupcakes for themselves.

 Keep reading!

Shaen