Note: Annamarie serves as chair of the ALSC Notable Children’s Recordings Committee. Due to her position, she listens to and evaluates many audiobooks for children and teens. Annamarie never includes any of the audiobooks she listens to in her “What Are You Reading?” posts.
While a Stuffed Animal Sleepover is certainly not a unique program idea–a quick Google or Pinterest search will quickly bring up ten or more articles featuring libraries who have run this type of event–it is still one of my favorites. In addition to being downright adorable, it helps young kids practice parting with precious items for a brief amount of time–an important skill.
Last week, we had 17 stuffed friends spend the evening at the library.
Drop Off Storytime
I structure my Stuffed Animal Sleepover with a drop off program and then an all day next day pickup. This evening program means less attendance than we would receive during the day, but it also means providing a program for our working parents.
Our program was designed for ages 2-6 and followed a standard storytime format, with the idea that each child’s stuffed animal acted as their “baby”–meaning the attending children bounced their stuffed animal and helped them participate in the rhymes and songs. The full storytime PowerPoint is available below:
We had some library owned stuffed animals on hand for any drop-in attendees who did not bring their own stuffed animal but wanted to participate.
Before starting the storytime, as families came in, they worked on information sheets for each stuffed animal. These sheets helped us give each stuffed animal the best experience and eased the fears of some of our younger attendees.
We ended our stortime by singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with Raffi and putting our stuffed animals to sleep underneath our parachute. We had a few kids who were hesitant to part with their stuffed friends, but they did eventually.
Stuffed Animal Sleepover Photo Time
After the storytime is over, the real fun begins. I had two hours to take as many pictures as possible, design souvenir albums, and assemble the albums. Even with plenty of help, it was a whirlwind few hours!
I had a few planned photos, and everything else was just what worked best at the time. I knew I definitely wanted photos of:
Stuffed Animal Dinner Party
Stuffed Animal Glow Party
Youth Dept. Treehouse
Book Sorter
Some of my favorite photos are below:
After taking pictures, I inserted the pictures into our souvenir photo albums, printed them, and had teen volunteers help stuff the albums so they were ready for pickup the next day. A sample album is featured below (with one of our sample photos featured throughout):
All of our stuffed friends were picked up the next day, with lots of adventures to share with their owners.
After each of my baby storytimes, I include a Discovery Time free-play session that encourages parents to talk to one another and to interact with their children. I include a variety of fine motor, gross motor, and sensory activities that appeal to 0-2-year-olds.
Babies love a challenge. Making their regular favorite items just the smallest amount harder to access can be just enough to serve as an interesting distraction and build strong finger muscles needed for writing when they are older.
Spider web baskets are a very simple project that just requires a little time ahead of a storytime to prepare. Find a stash of baskets that have holes along the sides–the ones pictured here are more standard, sturdier laundry baskets from Walmart, but there are many baskets of this style at Dollar Tree. Toss favorite toys, instruments used in storytime, or bright, colorful items onto the bottom, and tie a web of strings across the top. Fewer strings in simpler designs for smaller babies, and more complicated creations for older kids.
How to Make Spider Web Baskets
Materials: laundry basket, yarn, baby-safe toys or household objects
Steps:
Place toys or objects in the bottom of the basket (this can be done after the next step instead).
Tie string across the basket in various patterns, at least 5-6 strings for a very simple challenge.
Cost: $0-10
Baskets (can be bought at Dollar Tree, though sturdier laundry baskets can be found at Walmart for less than $10)
Yarn
Time to Make: 10 minutes
Pro-Tip: Make sure to double knot the string to the basket so that it is less likely to come undone and be a potential hazard for little ones.
Conversation Starters
Start conversations as babies play with this tool by asking questions like:
What toys can you reach?
How can you get the dog out of the basket?
What toy did you find?
What color is the toy?
What can you do with the toy?
Are any toys stuck?
What do the strings feel like?
Stretch Vocabulary
When talking with little ones, use big words and small words. The more new words a child hears, the larger their vocabulary will be when they start to learn to read.
Consider using some of the following vocabulary words when using this activity:
Note: Annamarie serves as chair of the ALSC Notable Children’s Recordings Committee. Due to her position, she listens to and evaluates many audiobooks for children and teens. Annamarie never includes any of the audiobooks she listens to in her “What Are You Reading?” posts.
Michala’s Reading
Michala’s top titles include:
Land of Lustrous 1-9 by Haruko Ichikawa translated by Aletha Nibley & Athena Nibley
Note: I fell down a rabbit hole and read all that has been published in this series so far. #10 comes out in February and finishes the series.
A few year’s ago, one of my personal work goals was to start a monthly kids passive program. At the time, our library offered a monthly Imagination Station, a pretend play space for approximately ages 2-6, and a monthly teen passive, for students in grades 6-12. Children in the middle often ended up trying to participate in the activities designed for younger or older kids.
My very first kids passive involved a passive game of I Spy, playing off of the format of the well-loved book series. Our fantastic marketing department printed a massive I Spy poster I designed in Microsoft Publisher. The print took up the bulk of our passive wall at 84″ long by 36″ tall.
Luckily for you, I like to share. The full poster is available to download as a PDF here:
Each week, I put up a different I Spy Riddle that families used to interact with the wall. Download here.
In addition to playing using pre-written riddles, kids had the opportunity to write their own I Spy riddles, which we added to the wall for further interaction. Download here.
While I have done many kids passive programs since (look forward to future posts!), this is still one of my favorites. The size of the I Spy print thrilled many young visitors, and even with the hours it took to design the Publisher file, that process was still much less time consuming than cutting out and taping up each item individually (plus, the file can easily be reprinted!).
After each of my baby storytimes, I include a Discovery Time free-play session that encourages parents to talk to one another and to interact with their children. I include a variety of fine motor, gross motor, and sensory activities that appeal to 0-2-year-olds.
In most of my baby play posts, I talk about items that are easy and relatively cheap to replicate, often with items found around the house or at Dollar Tree. I love using play items like cereal boxes and straws and taped toys because they provide parents with ideas that they can easily recreate on their own and remind everyone that baby toys don’t have to be super expensive.
However, if a library has the budget, it can also be nice to provide some items that cost money too. For more affluent parents, you are providing them an opportunity to test out some baby items before making the decision to purchase something. For those families with less funds, you are giving their little ones an opportunity to interact with a type of toy they may not be able to experience at home.
One of my coworkers came across Squiqz when visiting family. These “fun little suckers” (the actual slogan) are essentially flexible, brightly colored building tools with suction cups. A standard collection comes with eight different designs, most of which involve at least two suction cups. They stick to each other and most surfaces, including windows, mirrors, and cookie sheets, never leaving a residue behind.
These tools are a fascinating texture for little hands (and mouths). Made of BPA-free, latex-free silicone, they easily survive the chewing that always takes place during baby play time. The smallest babies just love exploring their shapes with their hands and mouths. Slightly older babies (8-18 months) are developing the fine motor skills to be able to stick these individually to a flat surface and to pull them off afterwards (often more challenging). Older toddlers can start to build structures by sticking them together, as their finger muscles get stronger.
Start conversations as babies play with this tool by asking questions like:
What does it feel like?
What color is the Squig?
Can you make it stick to the window?
How many do you have?
What can you do to get the Squigz off the cookie sheet?
What happens if the Squigz get wet?
Stretch Vocabulary
When talking with little ones, use big words and small words. The more new words a child hears, the larger their vocabulary will be when they start to learn to read.
Consider using some of the following vocabulary words when using this activity:
Note: Annamarie serves as chair of the ALSC Notable Children’s Recordings Committee. Due to her position, she listens to and evaluates many audiobooks for children and teens. Annamarie never includes any of the audiobooks she listens to in her “What Are You Reading?” posts.
Note: LeVar Burton is indeed proud. I am maintaining a reading streak! On a personal note, I have just secured a new apartment and will begin the crazy fun of moving during the holiday season!
I love hosting popular character parties, and in January 2019 I was able to celebrate one of my favorite characters of all time–Winnie the Pooh.
I planned to begin the program by reading a Winnie the Pooh book, but as I looked through the titles we owned, none were really great for a read aloud for preschoolers. After bouncing like Tiggers and talking about Winnie the Pooh, I sent attendees to complete activities.
We regrouped about 20 minutes into the program to play Winnie the Pooh BINGO.
Activity stations included:
Craft: Pooh and Friends Headbands
Game: Pin the Tail on Eeyore
Scavenger Hunt: Count the Bees
Obstacle Course: Catch the Heffalump
Winnie the Pooh BINGO
About 20 minutes into the program, we all played Winnie the Pooh BINGO. We play a few rounds until everyone wins.
Since most of our audience was younger (ages 2-4), these boards only require four in a row to earn a BINGO. BINGO boards can be downloaded here with slips here.
BINGO winners received a Winnie the Pooh Activity book, downloadable here. These were printed on 8.5″ x 11″ paper to create a foldable booklet.
Honey Pot Bags
At many of my party programs, kids create or earn a variety of small trinkets. I learned early on that this turns into parents having a variety of items to carry around and kids leaving items they made all over the place (possibly resulting in tears or arguments later). To help with this, I provide a bag for each child.
These bags, while adorable, were way too much work to make. The dripping honey was cut by hand out of yellow cardstock, and the letters were printed on yellow vinyl by our Cricut. The other side of the bag included a white label with space for kids (or parents) to write their name.
Winnie the Pooh & Friends Headbands
Kids could make a headband to wear based on their preferred character–Pooh, Piglet, or Tigger. Attendees practiced scissor skills and built finger muscles cutting out ears, and parents and teen volunteers assisted with stapling headbands together.
Pin the Tail on Eeyore
Just like it sounds–kids played Pin the Tail on Eeyore. Eeyore and tails were printed on our library banner printer by our marketing department. After winning, they received a Winnie the Pooh sticker (bought off Amazon).
Count the Bees Scavenger Hunt
Thirty-two bumblebees were hidden around our meeting rooms. Kids went on a hunt to find as many bees as they could. If they counted a number 25 or higher, they received a Pooh bookmark.
Participants could complete an age-appropriate “Catch the Heffalump” obstacle course. Kids crossed Pooh Stick’s bridge, crawled into Rabbit’s House (tunnel), dug through Eeyore’s Gloomy Place to find his tail, bounced with Tigger, and completed exercises with Pooh.
Winnie the Pooh Books & Materials
As always at programs, I included a variety of appropriate library materials. Kids and parents sat and Pooh books. During the event (except during BINGO), the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh played on the large screen. Many families took Pooh materials home.
Kids have always been afforded coloring sheets, and then adults realized that “hey this is really relaxing” and the adult coloring book craze began…but somehow teens were, for the most part, left out in the coloring cold. When I inherited my teen department it actually came with a a few coloring books for use in house, but they were not really utilized by our teens.
Our current selection of coloring books in the Teen Room
I could tell there was a want, as many times the books would be looked at, but I think they were tired of the books we had and wanted things that were less intricate to color in. So came my quest for some new fun coloring books!
I started trolling Amazon looking for simple pictures, pop culture references, and random odd things. (This can sometimes be harder than it sounds as when the pictures get simplified they can begin to look very juvenile.) However, once you fall down the rabbit hole you can find an amazing plethora of coloring books such as:
Every other week I do wind up going through the coloring books looking for any inappropriate additions to the books, or as I call “my sweep for Ds and Fs”. Any swear words, social media handles, or genitalia drawn in gets pulled from the books. I also will pull any overly scribbled on pages because when there is a lot of scibblage no one will continue to color on that page. I don’t pull all additions from the book though and sometimes you wind up with some greatness.
Occasionally, I will also have a large coloring sheet printed out and I will tape it to a coffee table that I have in the teen room for some “allowed vandalism”. It stays on the table until it is either colored in, has lost the battle to swear words, penises, and “follow me @s”, or my favorite death, having every square inch covered in Old Town Road lyrics and a rainbow of a million “YEETS”. (Does that make it Yeeted to death? Yoted?)
And sometimes you wind up with some gorgeous, collaborative art.
After each of my baby storytimes, I include a Discovery Time free-play session that encourages parents to talk to one another and to interact with their children. I include a variety of fine motor, gross motor, and sensory activities that appeal to 0-2-year-olds.
The pool noodle abacus helps the littlest children practice fine motor skills and older toddlers and preschool practice basic math. While a true abacus requires more than two strings, this creates a similar effect for young learners, while also providing a cool activity to experiment with how the pool noodle pieces move back and forth and how much pressure the yarn can withstand.
I tied the string between two chairs, though I would suggest something more sturdy if you have that available. Many children moved the chairs or manged to remove one end of the string (the top piece was taped on instead of tied on). Also consider whether you want the string closer to a wall or further away–having the lower string further from the wall encouraged climbing between the strings. This can be a great way to practice gross motor skills, or it can also be seen as a tripping hazard.
How to Make A Pool Noodle Abacus
Materials: yarn, pool noodles, knife, scissors
Steps:
Use the knife to cut 1-2 pool noodles into roughly 1-3″ pieces.
Tie one end of a piece of thick yarn to a sturdy surface, like a chair.
String about 20 pool noodle pieces onto the string (or whatever amount fits in the space you have).
Cut the other end of the string, leaving at least 1-2 feet of empty string so pieces can be moved easily.
Securely tie the other end of the string to another sturdy surface.
Repeat for however many rows of strings you would like to create.
Cost: $0-5
2 Pool Noodles (Dollar Tree)
Yarn
Time to Make: 10 minutes
Pro-Tip: To expand this activity, try cutting a vertical slit in one side of a pool noodle piece so the pool noodle piece can also be removed from the string. Little ones can explore how to add or remove pool noodle pieces from the abacus.
Conversation Starters
Start conversations as babies play with this tool by asking questions like:
How many red pool noodle pieces are on the rope?
Can you find a blue pool noodle?
How many pool noodle pieces are on the rope total?
Can you push five pieces to one side of the rope?
How do the pool noodles feel?
Stretch Vocabulary
When talking with little ones, use big words and small words. The more new words a child hears, the larger their vocabulary will be when they start to learn to read.
Consider using some of the following vocabulary words when using this activity:
