Blind Date with a Book

Happy (belated) Valentine’s Day!!

Throughout the month of February we have had a “Blind Date with a Book” display. Teens were invited to find love at first page! We covered a variety of Young Adult books with brown or white paper bags, each bag was decorated with hearts and a sign was placed on it to indicate the genre. We wrote the barcode number for each book on the outside of the bag, this way teens could not see what book they picked out until they took it home. This display was available through February, and in total we had 16 books checked out. This is our first year doing “Blind Date with a Book” and I think it was a success, many teens enjoyed it so much that they came back for more!

Storytime: Fish

This past Saturday I presented a storytime to 15 children, ranging from 2-8 years old, and their parents. The theme I chose was “Fish,” now I know this might sound like a weird February theme but at my public library we are holding Summer activities all month long and what better way to celebrate summer than with fish!

“The Pout-Pout Fish” by Deborah Diesen

“Rainbow Fish” by Marcus Pfister

For this book I chose the shortened board book version which I have multiple copies of. Each child was able to read or attempt to read along with their own copy.

“Smiley Shark” by Ruth Galloway

Five Little Fishies Swimming in the Sea

(Tune of Five Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree)

Five little fishies, swimming in the sea

Teasing Mr. Shark, “You can’t catch me! No, you can’t catch me!”

Along comes Mr. Shark, as quiet as can be

And snatches that fishy right out of the sea!

(Repeat until all fish are gone)

Did You Ever See a Fishy

(Tune of Did You Ever See a Lassie)

Did you ever see a fishy, a fishy, a fishy

Did you ever see a fishy, swim this way (lean forward) and that (lean backwards)?

Swim this way (lean to the right) and that way (lean to the left), and that way (lean forward) and this way (lean backwards).

Did you ever see a fishy, swim this way (lean right) and that (lean left).

Gone Fishin’

A fellow librarian was kind enough to let me borrow these amazing fishing poles and fish she made. Essentially the poles are made from paper towel rolls, twine and paper clips; the fish are cut outs with a magnet on the back. The kids and parents loved fishing, it took some of the children a couple of tries to get the hang of it but once they did they really enjoyed it. The only thing I would change is that I would make the magnets bigger, if the paper clip did not land perfectly it was very difficulty to get a fish.

Craft

I went with a Rainbow Fish craft for this week’s theme, I was able to find a Rainbow fish outline and punched a lot of circles for scales. I also cut out one shiny scale for each child.

If you have any “Fish” books, songs, activities or crafts you really like please share them!