Top Discovery of the Week

I found the coolest thing ever! TeachingBooks.net has an audio Author Name Pronunciation Guide. Click on any one of 1,815+ audio recordings of authors and illustrators saying their names. Some even come complete with the story behind the name and funny anecdotes. Excellent discovery!

Summer of Reading

With school ending, many parents ask, "What can I do to keep my kids reading this summer?"

 Below you'll find resources, both locally and nationwide, to encourage reading over the long summer break. Check out local libraries, bookstores, recommended summer reading lists and information just for parents!

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Local Library Programs

Seattle Public Library: Kiddos of all ages can keep up with their reading, earn prizes and attend free programs throughout the Seattle area.

King County Library: Earn badges online and keep track of the books you've read with this cool chart! Stop by any King County Library location to get started!

Everett Public Library: The Everett Public Library offers summer reading programs for both children and teens, with a suggested reading goal of 24 hours.

Sno-Isle Library: Enter to win a new bicycle by participating in the summer reading program at Sno-Isle Libraries.

Pierce County Library: Kids win prizes for every five hours they read, including a free pass to Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium or Northwest Trek and a Round Table Pizza coupon.

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Bookstores

Do you need book suggestions for summer? Check out UW Bookstore's site. Earn cool prizes and get your All Access Pass!

The Elliott Bay Book Company is hosting its summer reading program. All kids between the ages of 6 and 14 are invited to help recommend some great books for other children.

The Feed Your Brain Summer Reading program at Half Price Books, for kids ages 14 and younger, includes reading at least 15 minutes a day (or getting read to, if your kids are still learning).

Earn a free book AND find all the latest book recommendations at your local Barnes and Noble!

Do you want to help break a reading world record? Visit the Scholastic Summer Reading site, log your minutes and help to make history!

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Summer Reading Lists

American Library Association

     Grades K - 2

     Grades 3 - 5

     Grades 6 - 8

New York Public Library
     Grades K - 1
     Grades 2 - 3
     Grades 4 - 5
     Grades 6 - 8

San Francisco Public Library
    Children
    Teens
    Adults

The Horn Book
     Overview List
     Picture Books
     Middle School Fiction & Non-fiction

Education World
     Kindergarten
     1st Grade
     2nd Grade
     3rd Grade
     4th Grade
     5th Grade
     6th Grade
     7th Grade
     8th Grade

Scholastic
    Overview List

Seattle Public Library
     Coming soon!

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Just for Parents

• Learn How to Raise a Summer Reader
• 10 Ways to Make Reading Fun
• 6 Ways to Encourage Boys to Read

Top Discovery of the Week

Brought to you by Picture Book Month, a wonderful organization. Check it out!

Preschool Storytime: Ants

The ants go marching one by one, hurrah! Hurrah!

This week we did an ant storytime and it was so much fun! With warm weather on the rise, it was exciting to talk about picnics in the park and snacks by the swimming pool.

When I was first brainstorming books for this theme, I was sure the selection would be small. Oh, no! It was quite the opposite. There are a ton of great ant books and many of them have a math tie-in, which I love. Any excuse to sneak in some STEM is a big success in my book.

We started by reading/singing the Jeffrey Scherer version of The Ants Go Marching, I was surprised to find that a lot of the kiddos weren't familiar. Once they figured out the repetition, they were all on board. This was my favorite book of the week, I would definitely recommend it!

 The second book we read was the Berenstains' A Book, so much fun! We had a blast brainstorming where those angry ants might be going. It is a perfect book to demonstrate alliteration; a after a after a.

Last but not least, the flannel project that inspired this week's entire storytime... Five Hungry Ants. I first discovered this rhyme through Anne Hicks over at AnnesLibraryLife and it was too cute to pass up:

Five hungry ants, marching in a line,

Came across a picnic and thought they could dine.

They marched into the salad,

They marched into the cake,

They marched into the pepper...

Uh, oh! That was a mistake! Ahhh-ahhhh-ahhhhh-choo!

*Throw one of the ants over your shoulder, the kids squeal with glee*

Continue counting down until all the ants are gone.

Preschool Storytime: I Broke My Trunk

The time of year has come when I have to officially decide what storytime themes will make the cut and which ones will have to remain a Pinterest dream until the next school year rolls around. Well, the year just couldn't come to an end until the brilliance that is Mo Willems made an appearance.

As soon as I found Lisa's I Broke My Trunk project at Thrive After Three, I knew I had to try it. I printed Lisa's template for Elephant on white cardstock and then filled him in with colored pencils, laminated him and used tongue depressors to make him into a puppet. For the other puppets, I just printed them on letter-size pink and blue paper. Easy peasy.

I was sure to make a "before" Piggie and an "after" Piggie, if you look closely, you can see a bandaid on the left Piggie's little snout. That was a big hit! If you want to try it, I just took a normal bandaid and cut it down to size, it was perfect and so easy.

Super-Library Assistant-Extrodanaire, Stella sat next to me and while I read the story, she "acted it out" with the puppets. The kids were rolling laughing when they saw Gerald's truck wrapped in gauze. It was so much fun!

When we reached the end of the story, I unveiled his "trunk" and they squealed with delight when I blew on the party favor. I even snuck a little science in as we talked about how the air was inflating the party favor.

I used white cardstock for the kids' Elephants, as well. They colored them, cut them out and then the adults punched a hole for the trunk. I didn't print the Piggies or the animals Gerald balances on his trunk, they wouldn't have had them time to cut all of them out. Maybe next time...

Per Lisa's advice, I purchased the blowout party favors from Oriental Trading because they are essentially noiseless, hurray! (The teachers loved me!) They worked perfect, but did take a bit of time to be shipped, so if you're planning to do this, give yourself a couple weeks.

Just in case you missed it above, here is the template.

This was so much fun, I can't wait to do Mo Willems again. Next time... Don't Let the Pigeon. Oh, the possibilities!

Mother's Day Gifts

This week some of my older kiddos made Mother's Day gifts during library and they are enough to just melt your heart!! I discovered the idea through Pinterest (where else?) where Sandy and her second graders made beautiful "I Love You Because..." cards with their iPads. By the way, if you haven't discovered Soaring Through Second Grade, it's a must, must, must!

Instead of using the iPads, the kids finished their sentences on paper and added a little decorative flare. After taking their pictures and printing them out, I added the photos to the back of their paper for a special little Mother's Day gift.

I did this with kindergarten, first, second and fifth. While they were all great, fifth grade was a bit tough. Some of the work was beautiful and heartfelt, while others begrudgingly wrote things like, "I love you because you didn't put me up for adoption." They're getting to the I'm-almost-in-middle-school-and-I'm-far-too-cool-for-this stage of the year...

These are a few of my favorites...

 You are the highlight of my day. You are so caring. You help me when I'm sick. You are the best. I love you, Mommy.

 You make my day better, thank you for the football. 

 You are so loving to me, you help me when I have a problem, when I cry you cheer me up, you help me with my homework.

You are the most special person to me. You pick me up from school. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.

P.S. - I love that I work in a school where things like this are not only possible during library time, but encouraged and supported. Sigh.

Preschool Storytime: Go Away, Big Green Monster

Who doesn't love adorably cute but supposedly scary monsters? This girl sure does! And the classic Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley does not disappoint. If you're not familiar, well... You should be. You might remember me talking about Ed Emberley in my Choo! Choo! storytime post, he is the guru of fingerprint art and he inspired our thumbprint trains. Check out some of his other (incredibly cool) books.

 I read the original version of the story while using a felt manipulative I created. All of the pieces are removable so as the monster is appearing and disappearing, the little felt monster can follow along.

Next, we read Nighty Night, Little Green Monster, how cute is he!!! The kids love the contrast between the scary monster and the cute baby monster.

For our project, I was so in love with Ms. Jessi's "squash painting" monsters, that I knew I had to try and re-create them. We used white card stock and then squeezed a small amount of each color on one side, "squashed" it closed, "smooshed" it around and when we opened it back up, we had monsters! I ended up adding the eyes, nose, mouth and teeth with construction paper after they dried. I would have loved to have the kids do this, but there just simply wasn't enough time.

These are a few of my favorites... check out the chins on those guys!