It's Love!!

Stop by the West Regional Children's Dept on St. Valentines and leave us a valentine on our great, big heart!

We'll also be creating origami hearts at the Children's desk for the day. We hope to see you there!

If you have any love you would like to share, post in the comments below :o).

Zoo Trek is Now Over

Karl and the zoo crew have wrapped up the spring session of Zoo TREK.  Our Terrific Responsible Ecology Kids have learned so much about conservation and have come away with a better understanding of how all our actions affect the animals who share this planet with us.  Thanks so much, Mr. Karl!  We're looking forward to another session in the fall!

More Spring Fling Pics

The Fling Has Been Flung

At our spring art fling, we had a blast!!! We made muse of chance collages....

We tried Warholizing dogs, cats, and other creatures.

And, of course, we action painted to our hearts' content!

Action (Painting), at Last!

We were finally able to try our hand at some Jackson Pollock inspired action paintings.

One

Two

Y is for...

yak, and for yuck, and for you
    For yap, and for yard,
     And for yam and yip too.
     For yoga, for yogurt,
     for yodel, and yoke.

     We have two y's in yo-yo

     And that's not a joke.

     Y is in yank.

     Y is in yarn.

     Y is in yonder,

     But isn't in barn.

     Y is in yip

     And also yokefellow,

     Yummy and yurt

     And, best of all, yellow!

We hope you enjoy our hastily written poem!  We read about all things yellow during today's storytime:  a very special yellow fruit in Beautiful Bananas (Elizabeth Laird/Liz Pichon), a adorable yellow animal in Hoppity Skip Little Chick (Jo Brown), and something not only yellow, but also round, in Louella and the Yellow Balloon  (Molly Coxe).  [We couldn't find a pic of that last one!]

   

For our art project, we made one of the most important yellow things of all:

the sun!!!!

Storytime Time was Eggs-cellent This Morning

We had 45 kids and parents in storytime this morning!  That is so awesome!!!!  (There we go with the exclamation points again!)  We had such a crowd it was hard to take pictures of the kids individual crafts, but you'll see some samples in our next post.

Our favorite egg story was EGG-napped! by Marisa Montes and illustrated by Marsha Winborn.


We also had fun pretending to be birds in an egg.

I'm a Little Birdie
[tune of "I'm a Little Teapot]
I'm a little birdie
ready to hatch,
(squat down as if
inside an egg)
pecking my shell--
scratch, scratch, scratch!
(pretend to peck shell
with hand)
When I crack it open,
Out I'll leap,
(jump up)
Fluffing my feathers--
Cheep, cheep, cheep!
(fold arms like wings
and flap them)

So...Much...Fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, we went a little overboard with the exclamation points...but making a "muse of chance" collage inspired by techniques of Hans Arp really is awesome. You can find out how to make one and join in the fun during our Spring Art Fling.

Spring Art Fling

got art?

Come to our Spring Art Fling and create your own masterpieces in the styles of three famous artists.

 Saturday, April 30, 2011 §  12:00-3:00

West Regional Branch Library

1425 Chaffee Rd. S., Jacksonville, FL 32221, 904-693-1448

Spring Art Fling

Saturday, April 30, 2011

12-1:00 pm—Hans Arp Paper Drop

1-2:00 pm—Andy Warhol Picture Repeat

2-3:00 pm—Jackson Pollock Paint Fling

*Kids 12 and under can participate in one or all events!

Children under age 8 must be assisted by an adult.*

[Be sure to wear old clothes as some of these art projects will be quite messy!]

Library Card or Work of Art?

In preparation for our Spring Art Fling on April 30th, a library card has been Warholized!

You can create your own masterpiece in the style of Andy Warhol and two other artists two weeks from today!  

Z is for...

zebra, zither, zigzag,

zipper, zap, and......ZOO!!!!!  

We read three books during storytime today.

Yes indeed! It's true!

 

We also made paper plate lions! 

You can make one too!

His mane is shredded brown paper.

Buy it at a craft store near you.

U is for...

U, u, u! What begins with u? Unicorn, ukelele, and umbrella too!

Before the preschool storytime crew made these watercolor masterpieces, we shared several stories and songs about rain and umbrellas.

Our favorite umbrella-themed book was:

Our favorite umbrella-themed song was:

We Put Our Umbrellas Up

[tune of "Looby Loo"]
We put our umbrellas up.
Arch arms overhead.
We close our umbrellas down.
Lower arms to side.
We give our umbrellas A shake, shake, shake
Shake hands.
And turn them all around.
Roll hands.

R is for....

rabbits, a.k.a. bunnies!

Last Wednesday, we sparked up our spring spirit with these books:

Of course, no rabbit storytime can be done without a little hopping.

Rabbits, Rabbits

[tune: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star]

Rabbits, rabbits hop, hop, hop.

Rabbits, rabbits stop, stop, stop.

Twitch your ears and twitch your nose.

Twitch your tail and twitch your toes.

Rabbits, rabbits hop, hop, hop.

Rabbits, rabbits stop, stop, stop.

And one must also do a little jumping:

Funny Little Bunny

Start out standing

Funny little bunny

Sat on a stump,

Squat down

Flicked his floppy little ears,

Put a hand on each side

Of head and flop

And then gave a jump!

Jump up.

Our art project will come as no surpise, though it was hard to photograph such busily bouncing bunnies...er...rabbits...