The Library will be closed Monday, February 15th for Presidents’ Day! It seems like this entire upcoming weekend might be snowy and cold, so be sure to stop by and grab your materials soon so you can cuddle up with a book over the long weekend! Remember, we now have a drive-thru window so you don’t even have to leave your warm car!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
DON’T FORGET TO PICK UP YOUR TAKE HOME CRAFTS FOR THE WEEK! This week we are making Valentines for our feathered friends by making an easy, fruit loop bird feeder!
Happy Valentine’s Day! Valentine’s Day is this Sunday, February 14th so for Storytime we read about love and feelings. The books we read are “If You Were Spaghetti” by Kevin & Haily Meyers, and “In My Heart, A Book of Feelings” by Jo Witek.
Week 2.8.21 Storytime books
Looking for fun, easy crafts for Valentine’s Day? Check out some ideas here: https://www.teachingmama.org/valentines-crafts-for-toddlers/
And here: https://www.messylittlemonster.com/2020/01/valentines-day-crafts-for-toddlers.html?m=1
Children have big emotions and it is never too early to begin helping them communicate their emotions in a healthy manner.
A fun, simple way of broadening a child’s emotional vocabulary is to make thumb print feelings. Use finger paint to have your child make a number of thumb prints on paper. Then draw faces onto the thumb prints and label them with different emotions such as happy, sad, nervous, excited, scared, embarrassed, silly, proud, etc…
Social emotional learning is an important process which helps children manage their emotions, show kindness & empathy , and create positive relationships with others. An easy way to incorporate this into every day life is by asking children how they think a character feels when reading a book together.
Our Letter of the Week is “X”. Since there are very few words that begin with x (xylophone begins with x but can be tricky to explain that it does not have an x sound), it is fine to focus on the ending x sound for words like box, fox, and mix.
A fun craft for learning about X is to make your very own x-ray! All you need is some black construction paper, a white crayon, a few q-tips, and your child’s hand. Trace the outline of your child’s hand onto the black paper and then have them glue their “bones” onto it to make an x-ray!
Groundhog’s Day & Shadow Fun!
DON’T FORGET TO PICK UP YOUR TAKE HOME CRAFTS FOR THE WEEK! Create your own Superhero out of play-do! Pick one up today 🙂
This week we had a lot of fun reading about the funny little creature called a groundhog! Groundhog’s Day is the perfect time to learn about shadows.
We read “The Night Before Groundhog’s Day” by Natasha Wing, and also a book about shadows called “The Black Rabbit” by Philippa Leathers.
Any easy way to explain shadows to younger children is simply saying that a shadow is made when something blocks light. Some ideas to help children understand shadows are:
Go outside on a sunny day and trace your child’s shadow with chalk. If the sun is not shining, that’s okay! Use a flashlight indoors for some shadow fun.
Have your child pick some toys to take outside when the sun is shining and have them trace the shadows of their toys.
Play Shadow Tag! Shadow Tag is a fun game that is the same as regular tag except instead of touching the person you are chasing, you step on their shadow. Once you step on their shadow, they become “it”!
Our Letter of the Week is W! Walk around your home and find things that begin with W. What will you find?
Here are some other easy things to do for the letter W:
Play with Water
Pretend you are a Worm
Take a walk and talk about Winter
Sing the Wheels on the Bus
Wash Windows
Eat Waffles
Make a Winter Watermelon
Watermelons in Winter
Dark green paper
Light green paper
Red paper
Black finger-paint
Directions:
Cut a large watermelon shape out of dark green, cut one slightly smaller out of light green, and a still smaller red one. Glue these to resemble a slice of watermelon. Dip your thumb into the black finger-paint and then place them on the red part of your watermelon to make the seeds.
This website has a ton of fun, easy, FREE, alphabet activities and more! You can even print out your own FREE alphabet cards with pictures. Check it out at: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/letter-w/.
Book Bracket Battle
Looking to read AND compete? Join our Book Bracket Battle happening in March!
This is a book trivia competition for Adults, Young Adults, and Junior readers! Grab up to two friends (or be your own team), and together read the three selected titles for your bracket battle.
Starting March 8th, there will be Google Form battles sent to your email, or you can stop by the library, and the competition begins. Winning teams will move on to the next week.
The books are available at the library to check out and read. Give us a call to put a book on hold. You can sign up for the battle on our webpage by clicking the programming tab and then Book Bracket Battle – or clicking here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScjGZRlP5KmgCoo1fzMagf1Hed8U-OcgXI80UQMWpAINjJ07w/viewform?usp=sf_link.
For the Adult Battle (Geared for adults), the books are:
The Harpy by Megan Hunter ~ Dark Contemporary
**** Book Available for Checkout
The Book of Lost Names by Kristen Harmel ~ Historical Fiction
**** Book Available for Checkout, also available on Libby as an Ebook and Audiobook, and CloudLibrary as an Ebook and Audiobook
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James ~ Thriller
**** Book Available for Checkout, also available on CloudLibrary as an Ebook and Audiobook, and Libby as an Ebook and Audiobook
For the Young Adult Battle (Geared for grades 8 -12), the books are:
The Inheritance Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes ~ Contemporary/Mystery
**** Book Available for checkout, also available on Libby as an Ebook and Audiobook, and as an audiobook on CloudLibrary
The Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas ~ Fantasy/LGBTQ
**** Available for Checkout, also available on CloudLibrary as an Ebook and Audiobook
Be Not Far from Me by Mindy McGinnis ~Horror/Thriller.
**** Available for Checkout, also available on Libby as an Ebook.
For the Junior Battle (Geared for grades 5-7), the books are:
Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri ~ Nonfiction.
**** Available for Checkout, also available on CloudLibrary as an Ebook and audiobook, and as an Ebook on Libby
King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender ~ Contemporary/Magical Realism/LGBTQ
**** Available for Checkout, also available on CloudLibrary as an Ebook and audiobook
Planet Earth is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos ~ Historical Fiction.
**** Available for Checkout, also available on CloudLibrary as an Ebook and audiobook.
Library Board Opening- Applications Due March 5th!
The Mulvane Public Library Board of Trustees has an opening! This Board meets monthly on the second Monday at 5:30pm for approximately an hour. If you live in City limits, love your Library, and are interested in serving on this Board, please fill out an application and return it to the Library or City. The current Library Board will review the applications and provide a recommendation to the Mayor, who will make the final appointment.
Please submit applications by Friday, March 5th.
Click here for an application or stop by the Library for a printed copy.