Monthly Crafts

Program Description

Craft days are designed to be fairly simple and low cost programs.  Each program with open with a story and a song related to the craft theme.  Children will be invited to participate in the different craft stations for the next hour.  There will be three crafts offered and children can choose to create one or all of the crafts.  Crafts help children develop gross motor skills necessary children preparing for school, such as holding a pencil and using scissors properly.  Linking books with crafts helps children remember and retell the story (Peck 2009, p. 63).  The library hosts a craft day every month except for December because the library is closed for several days due to the holidays and furlough days.

	January: Weather
Welcome Song	“If Your Ready for a Story”
Book	A Snowy Day Ezra Jack Keats
Song	“Rain, Rain, Go Away”
Craft	Paper snow flakes
Craft	Could painting: Children create cloud shapes in shaving cream which is dyed blue with food coloring.  When they have created an image they want to capture place the shiny side of finger paint paper on shaving cream capturing the cloud image (Fishbaugh 2011, p. 121)
Craft	Streamer rainbow: Children decorate a paper plate cloud with cotton balls and attach a rainbow of crepe paper streamers (Sprout 2011a)
Display	Books about weather

	February: Valentine’s Day
Welcome Song	“If Your Ready for a Story”
Book	Froggy in Love Jonathan London
Song	“Skiddamarinka”
Craft	Celery heart stamp valentines
Craft	Heart Collage
Craft	Heart Flutters: children make Valentine window hanging by gluing hearts between two pieces of wax paper (Kohl 1994, p. 169).
Display	Books about love.

	March: Dr. Seuss
Welcome Song	“If Your Ready for a Story”
Book	The Cat in the Hat
Song	“The More We Get Together”
Craft	Cat in the Hat hat
Craft	Red Fish, Blue Fish tissue paper mosaic
Craft	Toilet paper Cat in the Hat pop-up puppets: children color cat in the hat puppet and toilet paper roll, then glue the pupper to a craft stick.
Display	Dr. Seuss books

	April: Earth Day
Welcome Song	“If Your Ready for a Story”
Book	The Lorax Dr. Seuss
Song	“Over in the Meadow”
Craft	Origami planting pots: Children will make origami paper pots (with the help of a parent if necessary) and then plant seeds to take home in their pots (Reichmann 2012).
Craft	Earth mosaic
Craft	Bird Food Feeders: Children cover water and flour paste pretzel with bird seed (Darling-Kuria 2012, p. 178).
Display	Books about the environment, plants, and animals.

	May: Spring
Welcome Song	“If Your Ready for a Story”
Book	Planting a Rainbow Lois Ehlert
Song	“Five Green and Speckled Frogs”
Craft	Paper frog Large green paper ovals Two small white circles Four strips of green paper Children will glue white circle to green oval as eyes.  Then they will accordion fold the strips of paper and glue them to the green oval as the frogs arms and legs.  Children can finish their frog by drawing a face. (Fishbaugh 2011, p. 161).
Craft	Tissue paper flowers Children will accordion fold a stack of tissue paper, fold in half and secure with a green piper cleaner.  Then children separate the layers of tissue paper to create a fluffy tissue flower (Sprout 2011b).
Craft	Twirling ladybugs: Children paste black spots on precut paper circles and then cut a slit cut through half of each circle.  Interlock the slits to create a three dimensional ladybug.  Tape string to the top take hang up at home (Formaro 2012)
Display	Books about spring, flowers, and frogs.

	June: Eric Carle
Welcome Song	“If Your Ready for a Story”
Book	A Very Hungry Caterpillar Eric Carle
Song	“Flutter Flutter Butterfly”
Craft	A Very Hungry Caterpillar hand print art: using their handprints children create a caterpillar (KK 2011).
Craft	Egg Carton Caterpillar: children paint half an egg carton green with a red head to look like the hungry caterpillar.  Insert pipe cleaners with help from an adult for antennae.
Craft	Watercolor paper towel butterfly: children use watercolors to stain a paper towel.  When the paper towel is dry, secure in the middle with a piper cleaner to create a butterfly.
Display	Eric Carle books

	July: SRP “Dream Big, Read!”/Bat mascot
Welcome Song	“If Your Ready for a Story”
Book	Applemandos Dream Patricia Polacco
Song	“The More We Get Together”
Craft	Paper plate dream catcher: Cut out the center of a paper plate and punch five to six holes around the inside edge.  Children will lace a piece of yarn through the holes
Craft	Origami bat
Craft	Egg carton bat
Display	Stories about bats and dreams.

	August: Summer
Welcome Song	“If Your Ready for a Story”
Book	Mama, Is it Summer Yet? Nikki McClure
Song	“Five Little Ducks”
Craft	Watercolor sand art (Fishbaugh 2011, p. 210).
Craft	Paper plate sun visor: Paper plates will be precut by teen volunteers.  Children will decorate their visors and then with help of an adult or volunteer, children will staple the visor portion to the band (Schiller 1993, p. 152).
Craft	Flower sponge painting: Children sponge paint flowers using sponges shaped like flower petals (Schiller 1993, p. 130).
Display	Books about summer

	September: Autumn
Welcome Song	“If Your Ready for a Story”
Book	Leaf Man Lois Ehlert
Song	“Fall Leaves”
Craft	Leaf prints: children dip leaves in paint and print onto to paper
Craft	Fall leaf collage: children use leaves to create a unique collage
Craft	Fall hand tree art: children will trace their arm and hand and then paint like a tree.
Display	Autumn stories

	October: Halloween
Welcome Song	“If Your Ready for a Story”
Book	Los Gatos Black on Halloween Yugi Morales
Song	“The Pumpkin Started as a Seed”
Craft	Milk jug ghosts: children use black markers to draw ghost faces on recycled gallon milk jugs.
Craft	Pumpkin face collage: children collage faces onto construction paper pumpkins.
Craft	Paper pumpkins: child glue 6-8 strips of orange paper to circular paper base in spiral.  Bend strips of paper up to create pumpkin shape.  Glue other end of strips to another paper circle.  Glue a small piece of green paper to the top for the pumpkin’s stem.
Display	Halloween books

	November: Thanksgiving
Welcome Song	“If Your Ready for a Story”
Book	Gus, the Pilgrim Turkey Teresa Bateman
Song	“Five Fat Turkeys Are We” (Schiller 1993, p. 54)
Craft	Handprint turkey: children will trace their hand to draw a turkey
Craft	Turkey hats: children will assemble precut pieces into a turkey hat.
Craft	Paper bag turkey: Children use a stuffed small paper bag as the turkeys head and attach it to a large staffed paper bag which serves as the turkey’s body.
Display	Thanksgiving books

Costs

The total craft budget is $195, with $15 a month budgeted to the monthly craft program.  Additional money or money left over from the monthly craft is spent on replacing frequently used craft supplies such as glue, paint, scissors, and crayons.

Staff/Volunteers

At least one staff member is needed to organize and select crafts and associated books for storytime and display.  Teen volunteers can help prepare the crafts and help during the craft event.

 

Marketing/Advertising

Crafts will be advertised on the library website and with flyers in the library.