Playing catch-up

It has been a busy spring (no doubt it has been for everyone!). I helped with family storytimes as per usual, but also added some school-age programming to my repertoire.

One of the school-age programs was about the creatures lurking deep down in the ocean. We focused on bioluminescence--creatures under the sea that produce their own light. Considering that most of the ocean does not have sunlight, this makes sense. Light from the sun does not make further than 1,000 yards in depth into the ocean, and the deepest part of the ocean (at least that we measly humans know of), is 12,000 yards. It was a really interesting topic and that makes it the best part -- if I'm passionate about the topic then the kids will be too, through me! I found that this website, created by the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant, had a ton of information relevant to the topic that kids would love to learn.

For the other program I was in charge of, we had a Dr. Seuss birthday party. Kids of all ages were invited to come, even if they were not in elementary school yet. Instead of reading one of our Dr. Seuss books (we have tons!), I read a poem aloud for the kids about Dr. Seuss' birthday. My children's librarian had found and saved a poem written 10 years ago ('Seussentennial'), by NPR. It was perfect, considering this was the 110th birthday of Theodor Geisel on March 2nd, 2014. I created laminated characters from the Dr. Seuss books, with magnets on the back of each one, and had the kids put them up on our magnet board when each of their character's were named. Then we had all sorts of Dr. Seuss themed crafts, games, and even cookie decorating. It was a big hit, and I especially enjoyed the kids playing hole-in-the hat. I turned one of our buckets into Cat-in-the-Hat's hat, similar to this craft, and, with several foam balls, Voila! It became a game of toss. The whole party was a huge hit and, according to a Mom I saw at storytime just this morning, her preschooler called me Dr. Seuss. Apparently I am a well-known picture-book author, in case you were curious!

So I will be playing catch-up, posting all of my storytimes from the past few months. I will also have some school-age programs that I will be keeping track of now as well!

Happy almost summer (and get reading for Summer Reading!)