Science Storytime: Color Science

We are currently on a two week break from our regular morning storytimes, so I am taking the opportunity to throw in something a little different for this age group. My science storytimes were a big hit this summer, so I decided to bring this idea back as an evening program.

In case you aren't familiar with it, the basic idea of a science storytime is that the typical storytime elements are followed by science based centers for the preschoolers to explore. These centers are a hands on way for kids to explore the theme covered in storytime. They are both educational and a lot of fun.

This summer we covered movement, water, growth, construction, balloons and bubbles, so I figured a good topic for this evening storytime would be colors. I was definitely inspired by Amy Koester's post about her Color Science storytime on the ALSC blog and by Wonderworks Color Experiments post.

For the books, songs and activities done in the storytime portion of this program, head on over to Storytime with Ms. Kelly.

Here are the centers I used for this theme:

Color mixing: A simple process of mixing a two primary colors in a baggie.  I've done this before with my K-2nd grade group, and thought it would be a fun activity to include. It teaches about the process of combining colors and is a fun sensory experience.

Dinosaur color matching: I found some dinosaur color matching printables for the kids to practice matching. I figured kids love dinosaurs, and this would be a fun easy center to create. As the preschoolers match the dinosaurs, they learn the scientific skills of observation and sorting.

Pom Pom sorting: The object of this station was the sort the colored pom poms into the cups labeled with each color. It was a modified version of Abby the Librarian's Color Pom Pom Drop.

Color a Color Wheel: I made a color wheel template in Microsoft Word and had the kids use bingo daubers and crayons to color it. The idea behind this was to give them a little bit of an understanding about how the colors are related. Use of tools like bingo daubers is also a great for development of motor skills.

Watercolor painting: This added the "A for Art" to this STEAM program. It also helps kids understand the properties of water and color. Paintbrushes are also great for encouraging the development of writing skills, as this post by the wonderful Melissa Depper details.

Tips, Tricks and Reflection:

• Doing this program in the evening did great things for our program attendance. The storytime room was packed! There were new kids able to come and regular attendees that came with parents I had never met. We do not typically do registration for preschool programs, but I definitely would consider changing this next time I offer a program like this. As much as I hate to set those kind of limits our storytime room is just not that large.
• It seems to work well to keep the stations apart from the space where the storytime portion is presented. It prevents the kids from being distracted by all the fun stuff and allows them to pay attention to the book and songs.
• Coffee filter art would be another great center to add. All you do is have the kids draw on coffee filters with markers and spray the filters with water to spread the color. The main reason I didn't do this is I had already included it in my water storytime over the summer.

We resume regular storytimes next week, and I am definitely glad I changed things up a bit during the break. As usual, I would love to hear any suggestions or ideas you may have!

Favorite Crafts for Toddlers and Preschoolers

At my library, we do crafts at toddler and preschool storytimes.

I know not every librarian does crafts at storytimes, but there are several reasons I choose to do so. First of all, coloring, gluing and other craft activities are a great way to develop a child's fine motor skills. Crafts also provide a great time for parent and child interaction. Tied in with the encouragement of interaction, creation of of a craft project also provides a tangible object to promote discussion of storytime at home.

Here are my favorite crafts to use with this age group. They are all relatively mess free, and simple to prepare. I hope you find them useful with any and all young children.

1. Collage: Collage can be done with toddlers and preschoolers in a variety of ways. It is a great form of open ended art that can be adapted for all ages. One of my favorite forms of collage to use in storytime is the magazine cut out collage. I cut out pictures related to that week's theme and let the kids create collages out of them. Stickers also make a great collage medium.

2. Torn Paper Art: All this requires is a stash of torn construction paper. Simple have the kids glue it to decorate whatever you wish. I do this a lot with animals.The only preparation is tearing the paper and printing out an outline of that week's animal.

3. Bingo Dauber Art: Bingo Daubers, or Do a Dot daubers are a great way to create a variety of open ended art projects. You can find some great printouts to use with these daubers as well.

4. Paper Plate Projects: Paper plates are one of my favorite craft supplies. They can been used in so many different ways. For instance, I've cut them in half and had the kids glue tissue paper on to make jellyfish. I've also had kids glue yarn hair and sticker eyes on paper plates to make people. This is one of my favorite crafts at an  "All About Me" storytime. Head here for more great paper plate craft ideas.

5. Yarn Art: Yarn works great to add an element of texture to any craft project. When I use it I typically cut little pieces for the kids to glue on. Depending on the project, it can be anything from "hair" to "grass".

These are just some of the common types of crafts I do with toddlers and preschoolers. I would love to learn your favorites as well!

Science Storytimes Week #5: Fizz, Boom, Pop!

Between the end of our summer reading program and major computer issues at my library, I've gotten behind on my blogging. First on my list to catch you all up on is my last science based storytime. So far we have learned about movement, water, growth, and construction. The title of our last session was "Fizz, Boom, Pop" and the subject was bubbles and balloons. I figured this would be a good theme because I know how fascinated kids are with both these things. Just like this cat is.

Another reason I chose this theme is I had two great books I wanted to read to the kids. One is "Perfectly Percy" by Paul Schmid. It is hands down one of the most adorable pictures books I have ever read. Percy is a porcupine who loves balloons. Balloons clearly don't love Percy, so he has an an obvious problem to solve.

The second book I choose was a new one, "Big Bad Bubble" by Adam Rubin. The premise is that a group of monsters is terrified of  bubbles. The preschoolers really seemed to enjoy this story, and participated well in all the interactive aspects.

I followed these stories with songs and parachute time. As usual, an exact plan of songs and rhymes is available on my storytime blog.

Our stations included:

Painting with balloons: I filled balloons with rice and had the kids paint with them. This was meant to combine fine motor skill development with a fun sensory experience. It was definitely a hit with both the preschoolers and the toddlers.

Sink and float balloons: At this station I had water balloons and air balloons for the kids to place in water. It was surprisingly even more messy than the paint was. Another surprise was that a few of the kids didn't seem very interested in this one. Maybe this was because of all the other bubbles and balloons around?

Exploring Bubbles: I had a few different types of bubble wands out for the kids to blow bubbles with. These were all purchased on sale and reused at the bubble station of our Summer Reading Finale Party.

Balloon Toss: I set out some balloons for the kids to throw back and forth. I explained to parents that doing some imparted knowledge about gravity and forces. The kids had a great time doing this, even the little one who decided popping the balloons was much more fun. I didn't get any good pictures at this station, mainly because the kids were moving around so much.

I was definitely happy with how this and my other science storytimes went. I got a lot of positive feedback from parents, and attendance did rise somewhat compared to last summer.

I would love to use this format more in the fall and would appreciate any suggestions from those who have done anything similar!

Science Storytimes Week #4: Fizz, Boom, Construct!

We've been busy little scientists this summer! During the past three weeks the preschoolers and toddlers at my library have learned about movement, water, and growth. Our topic this week is a perennial storytime favorite: Construction!

Create your own construction sign here.

For a listing of songs and book used in the first half of this storytime see my storytime blog.

Our centers included:

Building with Legos: I love to incorporate Legos into my programs whenever possible because they are just so darn awesome.They keep kids occupied like nothing else I have ever seen. For this age group I have a small collection of Duplos we received awhile back through the "Read Build Play" program. I put these out our our table for the kids to explore and provided instruction about the benefits of playing with Legos.

Constructing with boxes: We all know how much kids love boxes right? I've honestly done a whole hour long program just letting kids decorate and play with boxes. For the preschoolers and toddlers I saved a stack of boxes and challenged them to see how high they could stack them. When their tower of boxes falls they got to learn a valuable lesson about forces!

Vehicle matching: I set out pairs of construction vehicle pictures and asked the kids to match the pairs. This is practice with the scientific skills of observation. When they identify each vehicle they are using another scientific practice: classification. Unfortunately this center got overshadowed by the boxes and Legos and was passed over by many kids.

Decorate a truck:  To add the A in STEAM the kids used bingo daubers to decorate construction vehicle pictures. Bingo dauber crafts are one of my favorites and I try to use them for our crafts at least once each during each series of storytimes.

How it went:
Compared to last week the kids were a little quieter and shyer during the stories and songs. I broke out the parachute with the preschool group to get the kids a bit more excited. They seemed to love the centers, especially the Legos and boxes. One little girl in particular was having so much fun she got upset when it was time to leave :)

I'd love to hear any questions, feedback or ideas you have to contribute! Thanks for reading :)

Science Storytimes Week #3: Fizz, Boom, Grow!

So far at our science themed storytimes for toddlers and preschoolers we have learned about movement and water. The theme of this week's science storytime was growing.  I was definitely inspired by Abby's the Librarian's preschool lab on the same topic! We learned about living things and how, like this baby panda, they all grow and change.

For the preschoolers this week I chose "Do you know which ones will grow?" by Susan Shea. I love how this book provides many examples of living and non living things and asks children to participate in deciding which will grow.

After our story we did a variety of songs and crafts related to living and nonliving things. I even created a new flannel board to use. For a listing of the exact songs and activities please head over to my storytime blog.

Our centers this week included:

Painting with plants: I've been trying to include at least one craft related to our theme each week. For this theme I thought "What could be more fun than painting with vegetables?" I bought a variety of vegetables that might make neat impressions when dipped in paint, cut them up and let the kids have fun.

Living or Non-Living: I had my wonderful volunteers and pages cut out pictures of various objects for the kids to sort and glue onto a worksheet.

Plant a Flower Bulb: I bought a small bag of potting soil, pots and flower bulbs for the kids to plant. I saw this in Abby's preschool lab post and figured this would be a fun and messy way for the kids to learn about how a plant grows. Plus, the supplies were all on sale this time of year, so it worked out perfectly.

Baby Animal Matchup: To focus specifically on animals, I had the kids matchup pictures of animal parents and babies.

Measure yourself: I hung up a few of the "measure yourself" handouts that have been hanging around the library for quite awhile. I encouraged parents and kids to measure themselves, because people are growing things too! I also included a sheet for the kids to record their measurements and make a handprint.

This storytime went very well. Both groups had a good turn out and seemed to have lots of fun. More than one parent has told me how much their child is enjoying the storytimes this summer, which of course makes it all worthwhile.

Would love to hear any feedback you have or ideas for additional science based storytimes! In addition to the comments section you can reach me on Twitter and Pinterest.

Science Storytimes Week #2: Fizz, Boom, Splash!

In case you missed last week's post, I am doing science storytimes this summer. These storytimes will consist my typical storytime activities followed by science based centers. This week's theme is water.

As usual, we started out in our storytime room. We enjoyed a book together and did music and movement activities related to rain and oceans. For a list of these activities see my storytime blog.

After about 25 minutes of songs and books we went into one of our meeting rooms to enjoy our science centers. We have been doing our centers in there many because of space issues. I love my storytime room but it is a little small to run centers.

The ideas for these centers came from Amy Koester and Katie Salo.

Our centers were:

A sink or float station: This was one I found in both Amy's and Katie's posts on preschool water science. The basic idea is a variety of objects were put out and the kids got to test if they sank or floated. Some of the objects I put out included sponges, pennies, rocks, and pieces of a pool noodle.

Porosity station: The idea of this center came from Amy's post. The purpose is for kids to explore how water interacts with a variety of objects. I included sponges, dish scrubbing rings, cups with and without holes and a piece of pool noodle.

Mirror reflection station: At this station kids got a chance to see how water influences reflection. I set out of plastic bins of water with mirrors placed inside. I also provided cups for pouring water on the mirrors. The kids were able see how their reflection changed with the disturbance of the water. I got the idea for this station from this post.

Coffee Filter Art: The kids colored on coffee filters which were then sprayed with water to spread and blend the color. This is a project I've read about many different places and have done with older kids in the past. I figured that it would fit perfectly as our water themed craft.

All in all I think this storytime went very well. Both storytime groups enjoyed the centers and I think they learned a little too.

The centers also seemed to do a good job of promoting parent/child interaction. I heard many parents asking their children questions at each center.

Next week's science storytime theme is "Fizz, Boom, Grow". Let me know if you have any suggestions for science activities for that theme or any other!

Science Storytimes Week #1: Fizz, Boom, Move!

I decided to change my toddler and preschool storytime format a bit this summer in honor of our science based SRP theme. Inspired by some great preschool science programs done by Abby Johnson and Amy Koester I decided to replace my typical craft with science based centers.

For our first theme I choose movement. Because as they say in Madagascar...

We started out in our storytime room with a movement based picture book and songs. We also used a movement cube that I've been meaning to incorporate into storytime.

We had a decent sized group for a rainy day, and the kids clearly enjoyed getting to move around! After the typical "storytime" portion was over we moved into our large meeting room for our science centers.

Our centers included:

Move vs. Doesn't Move: Kids sorted clip art pictures into two categories: things that move and things that don't. This helps teach sorting, as well as helps children begin the early stages of identifying between living and nonliving things.

Car Painting: We did used vehicles (toy cars purchased at the dollar store) to paint tracks. I've seen this all over Pinterest and have been wanting to do it for a while. This was the most popular center by far.

Friction Ramps: I cut up some small boxes and covered some pieces of the cardboard with bumpy aluminum foil. Both covered and plain pieces of cardboard were used as ramps for kids to run cars down. The difference between the speed and smoothness of the car's ride is meant to illustrate the idea of friction.

Movement Signs: I hung up movement prompting signs throughout the meeting room. Parents were instructed to go throughout the room doing the movements suggested at each sign.

Overall, I think this storytime went pretty well. The kids enjoyed the centers, especially the car painting. I'm very glad I decided to use this format for the summer.

Next week's theme is "Fizz, Boom, Splash!" and I look forward to updating you about how it goes!

Toddler and Preschool Storytime Structure and Planning

Looking back on previous blog posts I realized that while I've shared information on planning and structure for Baby Storytime I haven't done so for my Toddler and Preschool Storytimes. Storytime is one of my favorite parts of my job, and I am always excited to share my ideas.

A little background information:

• Toddler Storytime is for two year olds (accompanied by a caregiver.)
• Preschool Storytime is for three to five year olds (no caregiver required)
• I always try to be flexible with the age range, especially with sibling pairs.
• I do not require registration.
• Both storytimes last about a half hour.
• I use the same theme for both storytimes. 
• All storytimes take place in my storytime room.

My storytime room

Here is my basic storytime structure:

We always start storytime with the same opening song. Following the song, I introduce our theme for the week. I also teach the children an ASL sign related to the week's theme. We then move on to our story.

The middle portion of the storytime involves active movement songs. I have many favorite storytime resources. The resources I am using the most currently are Jbrary and Storytime Katie. When I first started doing storytime, many of my themes and songs came from Step by Step Childcare.

After several movement songs we move on to our craft. My storytime crafts are typically pretty simple, and often involve torn paper, magazine picture collages, or stickers.

At this week's truck themed storytime we made stoplights:

Once the majority of children have finished their crafts I gather them back together for our closing song.

Some of the differences between Toddler Storytime and Preschool Storytime:

• Toddler Storytime gets a shorter book.
• Preschool Storytime gets the chance to play more complicated games, such as "Duck, Duck, Goose".
• Preschool Storytime includes more songs and activities that focus directly on teaching colors, shapes and numbers.

This format has worked fairly well for me, although I am always looking for ways to improve it. I recently added a parachute, which has been a great addition for our movement period. I have also decided that this summer I will be swapping our craft time for time at science based centers. I will definitely update you all with how that goes!
 
For more information on my storytimes (including storytime plans and literacy tips) see my storytime blog.