We had a nice turnout today for our Make a Splash at Your Library Summer Reading Program.   Today we read books about sharks, dolphins and whales.

In addition to Cynthia Rylant’s The Whales pictured here, we also read Great Pal Dolphin by Child’s Play and illustrated by P. Adams; Dolphins by the Cousteau Society with wonderful photos, and selections from I Can Draw Sharks, Whales and Dolphins by Terry Longhurst.  We listened to music by Brent Holmes in the background (Sea Tunes for Kids).  After our reading we made mini shark books, fingerprint fish, and fingerprint ocean scenes.

Ed Emberly has some great fingerprint art books but today we used 2 Klutz Press books for our inspiration, “The Most Amazing Thumb Doodles Book” and “Fingerprint Fabulous”.  We learned a lot of fun facts about whales, sharks and dolphins and we all enjoyed getting our fingers inky and making our undersea worlds!

It was a small but dedicated group today.   A fishy good time was had by all as we read Marcus Pfister’s “The Rainbow Fish”

And then made our own Rainbow Fish

We read Stella Blackston and Clare Beaton’s “Secret Seahorse”

and Eric Carle’s “Mister Seahorse”

And made our own seahorses

And then for good measure we made our own hanging octopi/jellyfish

All in all it was a very productive, informative hour of fun!

Shiver me timbers matey, we found treasure at the library!  We celebrated with Pirates Booty, Mango Tango Juice, and lots of shiny plastic beads for the pirate treasure bags.  We made and decorated pirate hats, wore our pirate eye patches and beards, read our pirate story and made and followed our own pirate map around the library.  Ahoy!!

Our program next week will be on Fish and Sea Creatures.  Tune in next week, Thursday, 3-4pm.

The last early literacy skill in our list of 6 is Letter Knowledge.  Letter Knowledge is knowing that letters are different from each other, have different names, and are related to sounds.  Early on it is helpful for children to learn to distinguish different shapes, as later this will help them recognize and make the letters.  Trace letters, play with magnetic letters, encourage drawing and writing, etc.  Alphabet books are fun.  You don’t even have to read the whole book.  Your child might want to stay on the first letter of their name for awhile, or the letter at the beginning of the name of an animal they like, etc.  Keep it fun but keep reading!!

Mary, Gregg and Falco from the White River Partnership were our presenters today for the Summer Reading Program.  Continuing with our theme of “Make a Splash at your Library” we learned about what is in our rivers and what that means in regards to the health of the river and the watershed.

White River Partnership

In each of those containers behind Mary are river water, rocks and water creatures.  We were able to see different water bugs, find out what likes to eat them, and how what we find tells us things about the river.

Here is Mary showing the kids the bugs from the containers.

Then Gregg showed us how people make fake water bugs, or “flies” to use to catch fish.  He made 2 flies while we watched.

This was his equipment.  Now when we are cooling off in the river we can also see what’s under those rocks and know a little bit about what that means for our river!  Thanks Mary, Gregg and Falco, and the White River Partnership!

We enjoyed another great program courtesy of the Grafton Nature Museum last Thursday.  We learned about amphibians and we got to see some live specimens.  The adults in the room enjoyed it every bit as much as the kids, I know I was so absorbed that I forgot to take pictures!

We were able to witness a toad similar to the one pictured here having its dinner.  This week’s program will take place at 3PM on Thursday, July 8th.  It will feature a representative from the White River Partnership and they will teach us how to keep our local rivers healthy.  Join us with your children between kindergarten and grade 6 for learning and fun!

Another early literacy skill is Print Awareness, which includes knowing that print has meaning, how to handle a book, and recognizing environmental print.  Take opportunities to point out print to your child throughout the day, signs, labels, the text in a book you are reading, etc.  Turn the book upside down and point out that you have a hard time reading that way, or that if you start at the end of the book the story doesn’t make sense.  Have fun with it!