S.T.E.A.M. Storytime - Chinese New Year - Year of the Horse

 

Storytime / Craft

Opened by discussing different kinds of New Year
(Jan 1st, Chinese, Rosh Hashonah, Sept school beginning)

Read: This Next New Year by Janet S Wong

Show video Sam & the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn 

(musicalized reading https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzsvSrtns9g)

(Another good film option: Reading Rainbow: Liang & the Magic Paintbrush)

Read: The Race for the Chinese Zodiac by Gabrielle Wang

(The Great Race; The Story of the Chinese Zodiac by Dawn Casey is another good choice)

then figured out their birth year animals - horoscopes here:

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2015/01/chinese-new-year-celebration.html

Finished with fold-out book: The Dancing Dragon by Marcia Vaughan

Craft Stations:

· Group Dragon – Kids decorate bulletin board paper or tablecloth to make a dragon. (materials: scissors, gluesticks, tape, staplers, markers, curling ribbon, crepe paper)

·Cut paper lanterns http://thecraftingchicks.com/2011/06/paper-lantern-kids-craft4th-of-july-style.html (materials: red construction paper, scissors, gluesticks, hole punch or tape, ribbon, optional: sequins)

· Chinese Leisees – red good luck envelopes (materials: red construction paper,  good luck symbol for outside, markers, anything else to use for decorating) - based on Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn

· Noise-makers (folded paper plates – kids decorate then fold (or use two plates together), fill with beans and staple or tape shut, optional: crepe paper streamers) and/or Dragon’s Breath (toilet paper tubes, kids glue colored paper around the tube, add google eyes and scales, then attach tissue paper streamers to the end of the tube – when you blow into the tube it looks like the dragon is breathing fire.)

· Write Your Own Fortune Cookie (materials: circles cut from manila colored oak tag or heavy paper, folded in half and then in half again, strips of white paper upon which kids write fortunes to tuck inside).

Finish with dragon parade around library (carrying group dragon and using noisemakers) used Lion Dance music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jORRVTC4M9Q

CDPL 2/11/26

School Age S.T.E.A.M. Storytime & Craft: What Can You Do with A Dot?

 

Similar program to  Memory Cafe (YMCA) Pointillism

School Age S.T.E.A.M. Storytime & Craft: Very Special Trees

 

A seasonal storytime incorporating history & empathy, fantasy, gratefulness & giving back

Ask who’s seen the Rockefeller Tree?

Book: The Carpenter’s Gift: A Christmas Tale about the Rockefeller Center Tree by David Rubel (Construction workers at the Rockefeller Center site help a a boy and his family in need—then many years the boy, now grown to an old man, donates his enormous tree after learning that it will not only give pleasure but will also be used to help another family.  Afterward talks about the tradition and logistics involved with the Rockefeller Center Trees and notes that since 2007 the wood from the tree has been milled and used for Habitat for Humanity houses.) 

Book- talked: Night Tree by Eve Bunting (Every year a family decorates a tree in the woods with edible ornaments for the animals),

Book:  The Night Gardener by Terry and Eric Fan. (A boy in an orphanage and a rundown town are transformed by the magical topiary creations of the night gardener. Fascinating parallel story to compare with The Carpenter’s Gift – both have boys lives transformed by a generous stranger and the metaphor of the tool passing from generation to generation.) 

Singable Book: The Marvelous Toy by Tom Paxton (hand-me-down toy has special meaning; performed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCjslf_a11c)

 

Book: Thankful by Elaine Vickers (A child creates a paper chain listing all the things she is thankful for - a great way to cultivate gratitude - and maybe make a nightly tradition to cultivate resiliance.)

Craft: Make our own "thankful paper chains," also trees and other paper ornaments (supplies: construction paper, scissors, markers, glue sticks, stamps & stamp pads, various things to decorate with)

Afterwards, finished with an indoor snowball fight 

Activity: Snowball fight using plastic bag snowballs, to the music “Sleigh Ride” by Leroy Anderson (on album Season’s Greetings)
Making snowballs for the program:
1) Gather a white plastic grocery bag into a long, skinny tube-like length with the handles on one end.
2) Fold the length in half, then in half again.
3) Wind a rubber band around the middle until it is tight.
4) Cut open both ends to remove any folded areas.
5) Then fluff out pieces

Idea courtesy of:  Susan Dailey, librarian, speaker and author of "A Storytime Year"-  

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2014/01/let-it-snow-winter-storytimecraft-ages.html

More ideas at: https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2013/12/school-age-storytime-very-special-trees.html and https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2013/12/school-age-storytime-gifts-and-giving.html

Clarence Dillon Library 12/10/2025

Preschool Storytime: Flutterby Butterfly!

Preschool Storytime: Flutterby Butterfly

A celebration of individual differences, life-cycle, nature and change. Includes fiction and non-fiction and sign language songs.  More books, lyrics, and craft ideas at
  https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Caterpillars%20%26%20Butterflies

Bob and Otto – Robert & Nick Bruel  (Otto the worm is saddened when his friend Bob the caterpillar becomes a butterfly until Bob reassures him that his role in digging through the earth is critical in this story which beautifully combines earth science and the power of friendship.) 

Sign Language Song: "Look up Look Down"  -from Pick Me Up: Fun Songs for Learning Signs – Robert Berg, et. all 

From Caterpillar to Butterfly -- Deborah Heligman (describes the metamorphosis through the eyes of a classroom hatching butterflies)

Flannel: Color Butterflies (color IDs) - text (and lyrics to songs that follow) at: https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2013/12/preschool-storytime-flutterby-butterfly.html

Song: Roly-Poly Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle (reinforcing days of the week and counting, talked about how Eric Carle used colored tissue paper to make his collage papers)

Song: Life of a Butterfly 

If at First You Do Not See - Ruth Brown (kids practiced close observation with this clever  book -- vegetation becomes faces when the pages are turned upside down...possibly inspired by the works of the 16th c. Italian painter Guiseppe Arcimboldo)

Sign Language Song: "Let's Take a Little Walk") -from Pick Me Up: Fun Songs for Learning Signs 

Waiting for Wings -- Lois Ehlert (different sized pages and beautiful collage illustrations reinforce the butterfly life cycle. A musical version is on the Scholastic DVD Singalong Stories, great to act out with scarves).

Art idea: have the children make nature collages inspired by the books "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "Waiting for Wings"

6/5/2025 The Children's Corner Preschool

School Age S.T.E.A.M.: Flutterby Butterfly!

School Age: Flutterby Butterfly A celebration of individual differences, life-cycle, nature and change. Combines fiction and non-fiction, and sign language songs. More ideas at https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Caterpillars%20%26%20Butterflies

Bob and Otto – Robert & Nick Bruel  (Otto the worm is saddened when his friend Bob the caterpillar becomes a butterfly until Bob reassures him that his role in digging through the earth is critical in this story which beautifully combines earth science and the power of friendship.) Booktalked: Bubba & Trixie – Lisa Campbell Ernst – (An adventuresome ladybug with a damaged wing who cannot fly befriends an apprehensive caterpillar and helps him learn to enjoy life and be happy with what he is and what he becomes.)

Sign Language Song: "Look up Look Down"  -from Pick Me Up: Fun Songs for Learning Signs – Robert Berg, et. all 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle (reinforcing days of the week and counting, talked about how Eric Carle used colored tissue paper to make his collage papers)

If at First You Do Not See - Ruth Brown (kids practiced close observation with this clever  book -- vegetation becomes faces when the pages are turned upside down...possibly inspired by the works of the 16th c. Italian painter Guiseppe Arcimboldo)

Sign Language Song: "Let's Take a Little Walk") -from Pick Me Up: Fun Songs for Learning Signs 

A Butterfly is Patient 595.789 AST (wonderful book in the An Egg is Quiet and A Seed is Sleepy series) Because this group today was on the younger side, we skipped a lot of the detailed info here but there is a lot of great info. – e.g. the difference between a chrysalis and a cocoon - the latter is spun of silk, the former is a kind of exoskeleton formed from the caterpillar's skin; also that butterflies can fly a mile in 3 minutes (faster than a human can run)

DVD: Waiting for Wings -- Lois Ehlert A musical version is on the Scholastic DVD Singalong Stories, we acted out with scarves).

Did some of the art projects featured here. https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2013/12/art-science-flutterby-butterfly.html

Additional art idea: have the children make nature collages inspired by the books "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "Waiting for Wings"

5/28/2025 Clarence Dillon Library

Making History - STEM Ideas to bring History to Life

  

Making History - STEM Ideas to bring History to Life

I was one of the participants in this NJ Makers Day Event, which brought together museum educators and librarians to share some of their ideas for interactive history.

A resource guide was compiled from those presentations - my slides are also reproduced below
(click on the Resource Guide link for full-sized slides & more info):

More info: https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Archaelogy

Ancient civilizations: 

More info: 

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Ancient%20Egypt

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Ancient%20Greece

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Ancient%20Rome%20%28Pompeii%29

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Chinese%20New%20Year

More “Picture This” program ideas:

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Art%20%26%20Artist%20Programs

More info:

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Architects

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Empire%20State%20Building

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Houses%20%20Homes%20and%20Habitats

More info: 

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Brooklyn%20Bridge

https://tellingherstories.com/school-visits/

https://tellingherstories.com

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Bridge-Building

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Aviators has many other programs 

I also have several Telling Her Stories programs on female aviators, details at www.tellingherstories.com & https://tellingherstories.com/school-visits/

Details & more ideas: 

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Engineering

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Eggs

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Houses%20%20Homes%20and%20Habitats

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Recycled%20Orchestra

Many more ideas:

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/S.T.E.A.M.%20Storytime%20Surprise

https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/S.T.E.A.M.

www.tellingherstories.com

Making History: A History Focused Maker Event
Brought to you by the League of Historical Societies of NJ, LibraryLinkNJ, and NJ Makers Day
10/22/2024
Piscataway Public Library, Kennedy Branch
500 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854