“All the Little Snowflakes” by Cindy Jin and Crafts

Weekly Trip to the Library All the Little Snowflakes celebrates winter in this rhyming board book featuring die-cut snowflakes on every page! It is a wintry celebration full of snow and all things that sparkle, this novelty board book reminds us that everyone is one of a kind -— just like each special snowflake that […]

Making Paper Snowflakes

Creative Wednesdays Whether you are buried under a foot of snow or not, all children enjoy making and decorating paper snowflakes. You can make the project as easy or difficult as you want and in a countless different shapes, sizes, and colors. Even kids that are too young to use scissors will love decorating paper […]

“Rainbow Fish” by Marcus Pfister and Project

Weekly Trip to the Library The Rainbow Fish is an international best-seller and a modern classic children’s book. The Rainbow Fish is vain and thinks he’s better than the other fish because he is so beautiful. He is lonely and without admirers until a wise female octopus advises him to give away his scales. The […]

“The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin” and Matching Shape Game

Weekly Trip to the Library The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin is a rhyming story about a pumpkin patch wherein all the pumpkins are round, except for one square pumpkin. The night before Halloween, there is a storm, and pumpkins are rolling off the vine and into the bay. Spookley has to work hard […]

“Stellaluna” by Janell Cannon and Stick Puppet

Weekly Trip to the Library Bats don’t have to be scary as they are often portrayed for Halloween. The endearing book, “Stellaluna” helps children see fruit bats as harmless and beloved creatures. Stellaluna, is a young fruit bat who gets lost and can’t find her mother. Not knowing how to get home, Stellaluna is befriended by […]

“Bats at the Library” by Brain Lies and Bat Paper Airplane

Weekly Trip to the Library “Bats at the Library” pays homage to the pleasures to be found within libraries and books. The bats are bored, but an antidote is announced: someone left a window open in the library. The golden glow from spotlights on the side of the building and an Arts and Crafts-style reading […]

“My Leaf Book” by Monica Wellington and Making Leaf Rubbings

Weekly Trip to the Library One of the most visible indicators of autumn are falling leaves. In “My Leaf Book” a little girl gathers leaves. She uses the leaves to create prints and rubbings and adds them to her own leaf book. “My Leaf Book” is a delightful way to encourage children to identify leaves. […]

“The Keeping Quilt” by Patrica Polacco and Paper Quilt Activity

Weekly Trip to the Library In The Keeping Quilt Anna is a young girl and all she has from Russia is her dress and shawl which is called her Baboushka. When Anna’s dress gets too small, Anna’s mother invites all the ladies from the neighbourhood to help make a quilt. The story follows this quilt […]

Mondrian Sidewalk Chalk Art

Creative Wednesdays Known for his Modernism abstract paintings, Piet Mondrian used the simplest combination of straight lines and right angles, creating geometric shapes of bold primary colors. After showing the kids paintings by Mondrian and reading “Coppernickel Goes Mondrian” go outside to make similar art using sidewalk chalk. Of course on a rainy day you […]

Summer Learning: Phonics Flower

Creative Wednesdays I’m not sure when or where I first learned to make phonics flowers but I started making them for the kids in my care in 1993. The goal of phonics is to enable beginning readers to decode new written words by sounding them out. Phonemic awareness helps children hear, identify, and manipulate spelling […]