Posts Tagged ‘children’
Create Your Own Story
Posted on: April 20, 2011
Last week was National Library Week, and we had so much fun celebrating in the library on Saturday! The theme for National Library Week was: Create Your Own Story. It was the perfect opportunity to have a family of authors come talk to us about how to make stories! We loved seeing the pictures of West Palm Beach (and our library) in Where do My Shoes Go? as Julia, Emily and Ainsley Miller shared their picture books with us! Thank you Julia, Emily, and Ainsley! We love your stories! You inspired us to think about the stories we can tell!
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We also created our own very own stories too! Check out the stories we made!
Taylor is 4 and she showed us how she plays the flute when she visits the library.
After Julia took her picture she drew what her story was about. Her dad helped her write down what she wanted the story to say. Her story says “Taylor was playing the flute and Strawberry Strawberry was helping her.” Hooray for Taylor!
Brianna is 6, and she thought of a story about a monkey in the jungle.
Here she is writing and illustrating her story!
Lila is 4, and she told a story about a tiger that was falling down! Watch out below!
Lennon, 5, said the name of his story is “Where is my telephone?” Lennon likes stories superheroes. He is a super guy!
Diana is 10 and called her story “Apple”
Sadie, 5, shows us her tiger. He was looking at us from inside his fort. This is the very same tiger from one of Julia, Emily and Ainsley’s stories! He came to visit the library in his favorite shirt.
Sebastian, 9, said his story was about penguins watching him on the computer. Sebastian writes in journals at home! Go for it Sebastian! Keep those stories coming!
Quintin, 6, wanted this picture called “Double Trouble”. Sounds suspenseful!
Joey, 5, told us that his story is about a boy who visits the library and likes to read about robots.
Joey’s brother, age 9, wanted his story to be about Percy Jackson. Those two loved hanging out together!
Here’s a story about traveling to space! Sounds like quite an adventure!
A big thank you to the Friends of the West Palm Beach Public Library for sponsoring the event! We raffled 4 copies of the Where Do My Shoes Go? books and a digital camera! The kids and families had a great time!
Long live stories! Don’t be shy; it’s never too late to create your own story!
-Ms. Kathy
AUDITIONS!
Posted on: April 7, 2011
April 9th, 9:30am-12:30pm @
Standing Ovation Performing Arts presents a NEW Musical Theatre Production – our first at the BEAUTIFUL Mos’Art Theatre in Lake Park! Auditions are free… rehearsals are Saturdays, 9:30am-12:30pm and performances will be at the beginning of August. Come check out this beautiful 150 seat theatre, centrally located to Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, Wellington, and West Palm Beach. Ages 6-14
Learn from our amazing professionals! Bring a song you love to sing and wear clothes and shoes you can move in!
Call Erin @ 561.707.5677 with questions… see you there!
You Can Be an Author Too!
Posted on: March 30, 2011
Have you ever wanted to write your own story?
Are you a kid between 5 and 14 years of age?
Well, we have just the contest for you!
The people who created Children’s Book Week (this year it’s celebrated May 2-8th) want you to submit a book for a chance to win super cool prizes like $350 to print your book or a poster signed by a bunch of famous and amazing authors!
Here’s the info, so get creating, ok!? You need to email them your book no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, April 22, 2011.
Happy Writing,
Ms Kathy
- In: authors | books | Literacy | poems | Poetry | Poetry for children | read alouds | reading | Uncategorized | west palm beach public library
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A few weeks ago, a NASA spacecraft took some pictures of a passing comet!
Click here to see the pictures!
Read this poem about comets and space!
Comet
Ice, rock, dirt,
Metal and gas -
Around the sun
A comet may pass.
A dirty snowball
Of space debris.
The biggest snowball
That you’ll ever see.
Have you heard about Flat Stanley?
He’s the boy who was flattened by a bulletin board! You’d think that being flattened by a bulletin board would have put an end to all his adventures, but Stanley went on even more amazing adventures after becoming flat. He’s traveled by mail to and from all sorts of exotic locations, like Africa, Egypt, Japan, Mexico and Mount Rushmore. Once he even went into space!
Last week we, the Saturday Kids’ Club, celebrated Flat Stanley and his journeys to far off places! After reading The Mount Rushmore Calamity we got together, talked about out the story and then each of us made a Flat Stanley of our own.
Next we had to decide where to mail Flat Stanley. We wrote letters to our friends and family asking them to take a picture with Flat Stanley and then mail him back to us (with a picture of his adventure too)!
Click HERE for more Flat Stanley books!
Also, if you have a child in second or third grade, check out the Saturday Kids’ Club! We’re reading Dinosaurs BeforeDark before we come together again on March 12th @ 2!
Stay tuned! We’ll write more about Flat Stanley’s future fun!
Ms. Kathy
Happy Birthday Mozart!
Posted on: January 27, 2011
- In: authors | baby | books | early literacy | kids events | Literacy | mozart effect | read alouds | reading | storytime | toddler | Uncategorized | west palm beach public library
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Happy Birthday Mozart!
The world celebrates the life of Mozart this month,
born January 27, 1756…
Though we may never compare in genius to Mozart’s gift of music, exploring and developing a LOVE for music through song, simple instruments and rhythmic activities, all play a part in early literacy! Musical activities are not only engaging but more importantly they help children develop large and small motor skills, as well as, listening skills.
A favorite musical activity at Toddler Storytime is the Numbas Rumba by Raffi! Children and parents participate in a loose rendition of a ‘rumba dance’ while large numbers are passed and the children trace them with their pointer finger! Did you know that tracing numbers and letters is a pre-writing, literacy skill? What’s even better is that this ‘learning’ activity is just plain FUN for Toddlers! This activity crescendos with children hopping across the ‘numbas’ rug! This entire musical activity enhances children’s awareness of numbers and letters and they develop an interest to explore these symbols even more!
Check out Rise and Shine by Raffi!
Another way of exploring and developing a love for music at storytime is to sing a picture book. One of my favorite pieces of music in the whole wide world is, What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. It has child friendly lyrics that ALL ages easily understand! The music is played from a CD while turning the pages of the wonderfully illustrated children’s book by George David Weiss, of the same title! This is but one example of a picture book that can be sung instead of read and in this case set to the music as well!
So next time, you pass by Toddler Storytime take a moment to enjoy the music! They really are exploring and developing a love for music and books!
Your city library has a wide variety of children’smusic CDs and DVDs to enjoy with your child no matter the age!
The Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts is a wonderful DVD collection for the more musically minded elementary age kids that teach all about music and the orchestra.
…and who knows…introducing and developing a love of music early may lead to more formal music training known as, “The Mozart Effect.”
Research shows, “Teaching the music of Mozart or Beethoven to children as young as three can improve their academic performance. Scientists have proved that children who practice for as little as 10 minutes a day on the piano score dramatically higher results in intelligence tests.” (Norton, Cherry. “Early music lessons boost brain power.” Sunday Times (London, England) Oct 12, 1997)
-contributor, Jeanne Taylor, Children’s Librarian
Happy Birthday Mozart!
A first-time ever study has been done on hand clapping games! Important skills are gained by this activity, like motor skills and cognitive development. The rhyme and rhythm of this activity are well known early literacy skills.
Leave it to children to naturally make the things we work so hard to teach into a fun game!
Check out the study and then learn or revisit some hand claps with your kids!
http://www.israel21c.org/201008108010/culture/applause-for-clapping-your-hands
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Directions for basic hand clapping game
Face your clapping partner. Begin by clapping your hands together at the same time, then reach out with your right hand to clap your partner’s right hand. Next, clap your hands again. Now reach out with your left hand and clap your partner’s left hand. Repeat. Clap on the beat. You can mix it up or clap straight across with both hands.
Miss Susie
Miss Suzie had a steamboat
The steamboat had a bell
Miss Suzie went to heaven
The steamboat went to
Hello operator
Please give me number nine
If you disconnect me
I’ll kick you from
Behind the refrigerator there was a piece of glass
Miss Suzie sat upon it and cut her little
Ask me no more questions
Tell me no more lies
The boys are in the bathroom zipping up their
Flies are in the meadow
The bees are in the park
Miss Suzie and her boyfriend are kissing in the
Dark is like a movie
A movie’s like a show
A show is like a TV screen
And that is all I know
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Say, Say, Oh Playmate
Say, say, oh playmate
Come out and play with me.
Bring out your dollies three.
Climb up my apple tree.
Slide down my rainbow
Into my cellar door.
And we’ll be jolly friends
Forevermore, one two three four!
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Miss Mary Mack
Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack
All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons
All down her back, back, back
She asked her mother, mother, mother
For fifty cents, cents, cents
To see the elephants, elephants, elephants
Jump over the fence, fence, fence
They jumped so high, high, high
They touched the sky, sky, sky
And didn’t come back, back, back
Till the fourth of July, July, July
Kids Compost!
Posted on: November 4, 2010
Did you miss out on our composting program Wednesday night?
Never fear, here are few links to get started with your family.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/kindergarden/kidscompost/compostingforkids.pdf
http://www.ehow.com/how_5741753_make-composting-fun-easy-kids.html
http://meetthegreens.pbskids.org/episode4/kitchen-composting.html
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