MacReads

During the past few months the community of McMinnville has been reading the book, "The Highest Tide" by Jim Lynch. This is a community reads program supported by the McMinnville Public Library, Linfield College English Department, Friends of the Nicholson Library, Friends of the McMinnville Public Library and Third Street Books. I finished the book not long ago and found it a fun and interesting read. A coming of age story with great tidbits about marine life near in the southern part of the Puget Sound. Since this is an adult fiction title, we in the Children's Room will be reading in stories that follow the marine life theme. Each of us will be using the title, "Looking for Crabs" by Bruce Whatley. The story follows a family as they hunt for crabs on the beach. The illustrations of the hiding crabs are delicious.


We also will be having craft related times after story time.
Just thinking about the warm beach makes me long for summer.







One of my new favorites for story time also has the marine life them. "I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean" by Kevin Sherry is about an egotistical giant squid who meets his match.

Diana

Animal Sounds

The next Busy Hands and Feet Story Time will feature books on animal sounds. The kids love to create the sounds of the various animals in the stories.

Our first title is Clip-Clop by Nicola Smee. With simple rhythmic text and fun illustrations Smee captures the joy of the animals.

Pop-up books are a real hit in story time. Keith Faulkner has a whole series of books that are wonderful. His title The Giraffe Who Cock-A-Doodle-Doo'd features strange sounds coming from the jungle. That morning all the animals have the wrong voice. A very silly story.

For the music portion of the story time I will be featuring Old McDonald.

Diana

The Letter B

An ongoing part of our children's services at the McMinnville Public Library is providing storytimes for local HeadStart classes. These are some of my favorite storytimes. This month I am concentrating on the letter B.

Here are some of the books I will be using:

I work with the kids on the early literacy skill of letter knowledge. It is the knowledge that each letter has a specific sound and shape. I have the children tell me something in the storytime room that begins with the letter B. I enunciate the b sound to help them identify more items or concepts that begin with the B sound.

The book, Not a Box by Antoinette Portis is a great imagination stretcher. I brought in a cardboard box and after I finished the book the children imagined what else a box might be. Tons of fun.

Diana