Janet,
This great gardening idea, complete with the dirt pudding, goes in the file.
Have you thought about contacting a local 4-H leader or a county Master Gardener as a speaker?

Jonnie

Thanks Jonnie! What a good idea - I do have some contacts for a Master Gardner so I will certainly use the idea of bringing one in for the kids.

Great suggestion on using a 4H leader or Master Gardener for a speaker when doing a garden project.

Wow! That sounds like fun. You never know, you just may create a gardener in the future. And I love the notion of having people from the local retirement center come. It really involves the community.

Having a yearly calendar of themes and projects would be a tremendous time saver after the initial investment of putting it all together. It would also give time to collect recycled items for use in crafts since you would know far ahead what projects you were doing.

I am going to choose the month of July for my planned project.

Our town holds many events leading up to Independence Day when we have a large parade. One of the more recent events is a Frog Jumping Contest.
I would like to do some frog themed activities, crafts and story times.
I would read The Wide Mouth Frog, of course, along with a couple more frog books. Songs and fingerplays about frogs, such as Five Green and Speckled Frogs would be fun to do with the kids.

Games to play could include "Pin the Fly on the Frogs Tongue" and some form of Frog Hop. The little plastic frogs that you can buy at Oriental Trading could be used in some sort of jumping contest or game.

The town’s frog jumping contest has also been billed as a "Huckleberry Finn" type of old fashioned small town celebration, so there are many opportunities to get creative there, from fishing to Raft making, or the science of steam engines.

We have a couple blow-up baby pools we could use to practice floating things or the rafts we make.

Snacks could include Lemonade, cookies, pies, and old fashioned candy, like those hard stick candies.

As far as an Art Project goes, I think it would be fun to have the kids paint frogs in different patterns and see what wild looking frogs they come up with!

The frog theme would be great for the younger kids, whereas the Huckleberry Finn book offers opportunities to include older children, teens and even adults in the fun and discussion.

I think there is a local artist in Indiana who impersonates Mark Twain.

I LOVE doing a frog themed program! Lots of books to choose from:
"I Love To Eat Bugs" by John Strejan
"I Took My Frog To The Library" by Eric A. Kimmel
"The Icky Sticky Frog" by Dawn Bentley
"Picasso, The Green Tree Frog" by Amanda Graham and of course Keith Faulkner's "The Wide-Mouthed Frog" pop-up book!
Then there is "The Croaky Pokey" by Ethan Long that you do just like Hokey Pokey. Two of my favorite crafts for this theme are to cut out a frog head(which you want to be just about as big as a child's head, and we do it with foam). Googly eyes, draw a great big smile and then cut a slit so you can put in one of those blowouts that you get at birthday parties for the tongue! I glue or tape a tongue depressor to the back so the children can hold the frog up to their face and blow out the frog's tongue! The children can glue the googly eyes on, draw the smile and even add polka dots stickers! The other craft is to color a cork(I use those BIG crayons because I feel it's easier for the children - green of course). Then you take a pipe cleaner and put it across the smaller bottom of the cork, down the sides, then twist it at the larger end of the cork and form frog legs! Back at the smaller part you add googly eyes and draw on a smile. Tie a string around the pipe cleaner(at the face - between the eyes and mouth)fill a kiddie pool with water and watch the kids pull their frogs across the water!

And I have added the game "Pin The Fly On The Frog's Tongue" to any future frog themed programs - THANKS!

Froggy Theme is a great idea. My 4 year old daughter's favorite books are the Froggy books by Jonathan London. The Froggy Gets Dressed book makes a flannel board activity as well!

I already have to have in advance some of my crafts. 2 months ahead usually. Though I like a yearly calander I would also have to make it general. I like finding new ideas or ways to modify an idea at last min. For my sample month I choose Sepetember. I love getting kids excited and ready for school. I like for them to feel a stable smooth transition between the end of summer and getting back into a scheduled day. Finding things to help them keep organized all of the school year. And while at the same time keeping things light and fun. A simple craft with mailing boxes taped together one on top of another usually 3 or 4 will do. Then let them pick out some wrapping paper or just brown paper to decorate to wrap them in. It makes a great way to keep school papers organized for the week or even a month at a time. You can make as many as you want one for each subject mabey. They easily stack in a corner of a desk or if you dont have the room on a desk simply stack on the floor beside the desk.

My personality-always a planner. I really benefit with having a yearly calendar planned. January theme-Winter fun at the library. I love working with my 3,4 and 5 year olds at storytime.They have so much fun with such simple ideas. We are going to have an indoor snowball fight. All you need is toilet paper. We put it on a rod and let them get their snow pile. Then they tear it up to make snowballs and have a great time. After this we go ice skating in the library. You need wax paper for skates and carpet for skating rink. I can even do spins with this kind of ice skating.

The indoor snowball fight idea! I also like the skating inside idea, very good use of wax paper.

We have done the indoor skating with wax paper and the kids really loved it!

I am going to have to try this indoor skating idea with was paper!! The kids would love it.

Yeah, no mess and it is cheap, not to mention the fact that you don't have to freeze :)

I love this Nancy, it is such a wonderful idea! I know that the kinds at my library would love this. One thing that I really wanted to do is create an Igloo using milk gallons. I think that it would be such a great addition to a winter program and than I wanted to have the kids build their own igloos with sugar cubes. Thanks for sharing this great ideas :)

We have done the milk jug igloo and the sugar cubes igloo. The librarians made the milk jug igloo and I sent a picture to Valerie. The kids loved both projects.

The wax paper skating is fun i used to do this at home when I was a kid!!!

Since it is just around the corner - I choose January with a "LET IT SNOW!" "LET IT SNOW!" "LET IT SNOW!" theme(even though I live in Indiana and really don't - let's just say appreciate snow - I like the books and other activities involved!)
Of course we always decorate the children's dept. and the special area we do our story times. I'm thinking of have the kids made snowballs over winter break using small rounder balloons, liquid starch and string. Dip the string in the liquid starch, removing most of it. Wrap the string over and over again around the balloon to form a ball(gloves help when using liquid starch), let dry, pop and remove the balloon, tie fishing wire to the ball and hang throughout the children's dept. I already have some snowflakes cut out using the Ellison and some construction paper with glitter in various sizes to hang from the ceiling and walls for story time. So many books to choose from:
"The First Day Of Winter" by Denise Fleming
"Snowballs" by Lois Ehlert
"The Twelve Days Of Winter" by Deborah Lee Rose
"Winter Is The Warmest Season" by Lauren Stringer, and "The Mitten" Adapted by Jan Brett. I would like to do a special after school story time and read
"The Biggest, Best Snowman" by Margery Cuyler, make a snowman with the kids help to put on the bulletin board - which they love helping the Librarian's! Then read "The Missing Mitten Mystery" by Steven Kellogg and add a heart to the snowman on the bulletin board. Serve powder sugar Munchkins for a special snack. There are many finger plays for that season. One of the games I like to play with the children is "Lost Mittens" which you hide mittens(paper or real)in various colors around the room, and sing; "Where oh where did my RED mitten go, oh where oh where can it be? I have looked high and I have looked low, oh where oh where can it be!" The children love looking for the mittens! I usually do this at all our story times, so I need to switch the hiding places around. Crafts would include making the snowman for the bulletin board, a snowman made with cotton balls, and my new favorite thanks to Val's links a adorable penguin puppet. I made a polar bear for our first "homework" assignment of the class because we only had white 16 oz cups instead of the 9 oz cups they instructed for the pink bunny that I plan on making for when I do "Little Bunny Foo Foo", but the penguin does require a 16 oz foam cup(instructions found at www.daniellesplace.com thanks to Val). Check it out because I see "The Three Little Pigs", The Three Billy Goats Gruff", Goldilocks And The Three Bears", and Little Red Riding Hood" puppet shows in our future. Stories most children know and easy lines to remember. They also have a craft using puzzle pieces and googly eyes to make another penguin! TOO CUTE! I would love any other craft suggestions that have worked for others. I thought that maybe I could also ask for mitten(even hat & scarf)donations since our city does appreciate that kind of help in the winter.

A monthly calendar is very helpful! It is also fun to make and I find putting in a monthly calendar format helps people see what day the program is on. Also using consistent font and short program description (with title, time of program, location and age group) is helpful to parents and caregivers. also, I like clip art a lot, and a good selection of usable clip art helps the calendar pop out more and be more creative.

I like the idea of a back to school theme in the month of September. I would include a preschool program about learning the alphabet and going to school and a book about school buses. There is a book called School Bus by Donald Crews. Also, we would of course sing Wheels on the Bus and do the motions to the song. The art activity can be a tree picture where the children can use green ink to create leaves with their fingerprints and red ink to make apples in the tree.

One program I have done before at the library was for school age children. I got a bunch of pencil boxes ( super cheap at Dollar General) and I got puffy fabric paint, stickers and glitter. The children were able to decorate their own pencil boxes. A cool teen program if you are willing to get wooden pencil boxes would be to let the teens paint the pencil boxes.

Hi Sarah,

September is a great month for programming with a back to school theme. Each year we have a Back to School Bash which is in the evening and a family event. We have games and crafts (sometimes stories) and the children can win small school supplies. There is also a drawing for a backpack or two that also have school supplies in them.

We also do some school related programming with our preschoolers.

We have a program titled 50 books before Kindergarten. The kids are read books by family members and recorded at the library. When the goal is reached, they receive FREE school supplies. We also print out a certificate to keep and give to their Kindergarten teacher on the first day of school. This program is funded by our Friends of the Library.

I usually do tentatively plan out the whole year with a general idea of what we are doing and when. There are some things we always do like nutrition programs quarterly and story times in four sessions a year. In the last few years we have gone with the collaborative summer reading club theme and then we try to have our Halloween program go along with that theme so we can reuse lots of the props we buy for summer. My month would be February--Love Your Library Month. The website www.librarysupport.net is a greta place to find ideas. We put reasons to love your library in the newspapers every week and suggest things like volunteering some time at the library, joining the Friends group, attending story time or donating a book in memory or in honor of a loved one. We had a nutrition program "The Nature of Chocolate" and tied it in with Valentine's Day. I usually try to go out in to the community at a Lion's meeting or Kiwanis to promote the library that month. In story time we talk about taking good care of the library's books and we read about libraries. We could do some programs and displays to feature many kinds of love, such as love for our family, sweethearts, children, pets, country, community as well as love for libraries. We have played Valentine Bingo at story time. We have had Love Your Library puzzles--a new one for each week--and then entered the names of patrons who completed the puzzle correctly into a drawing for a prize of some kind, usually a Library t-shirt or sweatshirt or book bag. One of my favorite books to read for Valentine's story time is Bloom, by Maria Van Lieshout. Then the children make tissue paper flower to give to someone they love.

Tissue Roses or Tulips are fun to make. We also make them out of Duct Tape. The Nature of Chocolate sounds interesting. Think I will look into doing something like that.

One of my favorite months to create programming for is April. I love that it lends itself to a variety of programs and one thing that I love about it is coming up with new and fun ways of creating Sheep and chicks and Rabbits. This could either be an Easter or Spring Theme.

Some of my favorite books to use for this theme are:

Can't Sleep Without Sheep

Charlie the Chick (younger kids always love this book!)

Duck! Rabbit! (a wonderful way to engage kids imaginations, and to create cloud shapes using white paint on black paper or cotton balls!)

Too Many Frogs (don't worry their is a Rabbit involved in this story)

Duck for Cover or Duck Soup by Jackie Urbanovic (really fun books)

Duck for President or Click, Clack, Cows that Type

As for music:
Disney has a wonderful CD called "Disney Dance Along" and I love for this theme using "The Chicken Dance" and "The Bunny Hop" both songs are on the CD and children love being silly and dancing to them.

Food:
Some of the fun things that you can do are:

Rice Kripie easter eggs - the kids get a kick out of making them and decorating them. Last year I made this with them and we filled them up with mini M&M's and then we decorated them and as I said the kids had a ball!

Cookie Sheep - I made this cookies with our young patrons and they love them. We used sugar or snicker-doodles for the body, we then put frosting on the cookie and we place a vanilla wafer on the cookie to use as the head and we used miniature marshmallows to create the wool (the frosting lets them stick on very well!), for the eyes and ears we used mini M&M's. The kids love creating this and they really loved eating them!


Crafts:

Sheep - I made a simple cloud like shape out of white paper for the body an egg like shape for the head and another sort of cloud like shape for the wool on top of the sheep's head. Our young patrons glued the pieces together and to give it a more sheep like look they added cotton balls to the cloud shapes as well as gave their sheep faces using a liquid paper pen on the black paper or you can also use gel pens.

Rabbit - I made top hats and each child created a rabbit using pink or white paper. The rabbits where attacked to long wooden sticks and the top hats where glued together with the top being left unglued so that the rabbit could pop out.

Chick - we used yellow plates, we drew tiny eyes on it and added an orange square for the beak, we also added a little yellow father on top and some kids added little bows to the father or they created little bow ties for them. for the wings we made a circle out of yellow paper and we cut it in half and for the baby chicks half cracked egg we made circles cut it in half and place it at the bottom of our plates. The kids decorated the half shells using strips of paper in different colors as well as foam shapes.

We also did a sort of special story time using "Alice in Wonderland" as the bases for our story theme and we had a tea party to which we invited the White Rabbit and we watched Sesame Streets "Abby in Wonderland"

I could go on and on, as I said I love this theme and it is one with endless possibilities. I will try to send Valerie pictures of some of this projects in case that anyone is interested in doing them :)

One last thing a fun fingerplay to do with your young patrons is "The Ducks on the Bus" Have fun and I hope that someone can use some of this ideas!

Montserrat,
Your list of books have several of my favorites. Thanks for sharing new ideas for creating the cute Spring critters.

Jonnie

We usually do plan many months ahead which, as some mentioned, gives enough time to collect all the materials that we would need. Also, it gives us time to adjust if something would come up. We also do a big wall calendar for each month so that patrons know what is happening for the month as they came in.
I picked March, and I would do a themed program around Dr. Seuss for his birthday. Naturally, I would use some of his many books for a story time program. The craft we could do would be to create Thing 1 and Thing 2. Using paint, have the kids dip their hand in red paint and place their fingers down to create legs, arms, and body. Whip their hand with baby wipes, then using white paint on the child’s palm, have them place it on the paper above the red to create the head. Then have the kids dip their fingers in blue paint and put them above the white head to create some crazy hair. Then have them paint a face and the patch for Thing 1 or 2 on the red body. We did this craft before, and the kids loved it. It got them really involved; just make sure that you have plenty of paper towels and wipes on hand. Then for a snack, have some oblong cookies, red and white icing, and the kids can make a Dr. Seuss cookie hat.

I would choose March because it is National Craft Month and also National Youth Art Month. It is also the month that we have our babysitting workshop for the Teens.
I would incorporate into the Babysitting Workshop a Crafts for Kids class. I would help the teens realize age appropriate expectations for infants, toddlers and preschool children.
Starting with infants: Handprints and Footprints are not only fun but also very sentimental for parents to capture these moments. I would introduce them to possible projects they could do by painting an infants hand or foot and making a print. I would provide them with information as far as safety. What kinds of paints are appropriate and also using edible paint in the probability that an infants first response to the sensation of paint on their hands will be to put it into their mouth.
For Toddlers: The same safety issues apply, but the options are of a wider range. Most toddlers cannot cut and any art project that requires cutting would have to be done by the babysitter. This is a great age group to practice fine motor skills so that the child begins to learn the developmental stages of cutting, coloring, & writing. Painting with marshmallows or pudding finger painting are the first two ideas that I would present for this age group.
Preschoolers: Safety would still be a topic to be discussed, but most preschool age children are past putting everything into their mouths and are able to use children's scissors with supervision. This is also a great age to incorporate colors and shapes into their art projects. In this workshop I would have the babysitters in the workshop come up with their own project idea to do with the preschool children. I would discuss that painting with objects around the house such as forks, bubble wrap, the bottom of cups, the bottom of a celery stalk makes great flower prints and let their creativity grow.
These art projects are fun to do no matter what your age. I would have the examples that I presented for the babysitter's to do themselves. Once they realize how fun they can be it will build the passion within them to put them into action with the children that they may be supervising over the summer!
We have grown from having projects at the library to equipping the teens in the community productive skills for some of the children that we may not see over the summer!

I haven't used a monthly themed calendar for my job at the library, but I have used them before when I taught preschool. I found pros and cons to having them. Yes, I could plan my month out, see what I needed and get materials etc... ready ahead of time. Sometimes I have found that an entire month of activities and programs based around a theme got to be too much and by the time the program came, what I was looking so forward to doing, didn't have the same effect on the participants. That aside, I did a month of "music and movement". Our library was fortunate enough to book Jim Gill to come perform for us and I based all of my story times and other activities on books and music by him. Our favorite book by far was his "Soup Opera" and we created masks for the characters, and acted it out. I also included music from other favorite singers, we had a "band" day where we got our instruments out and performed. I wanted to make sure that the kids who came to story time had heard some of Jim's songs before, so they could interact better when he visited.

When I was the lead teacher for a Head Start preschool class, I would create my lessons based on a weekly theme. The themes always were planned out a year ahead and we would plan our themes depending on what holidays the month had and what went with the month we were in.

One of my favorite months for planning lessons or programs was May because we would focus on Spring time crafts and also had an entire week devoted to family appreciation, which was the week of Mother's Day. We also had the mothers/guardians come in on a certain day and make crafts and do activities with the children. Before hand we would make the mothers a few special projects to give to them when they came in. We created a handprint heart and wrote a poem together, we created a coupon booklet that gave the mothers special favors they could ask their kids, and we also made a scrapbook page using many different materials/art supplies. The scrapbook page was always very special to make and fun to see what the children and mothers could create when given varies supplies and materials. I enjoy letting children take their creativity to a new level and let them be the master of their art by not giving any boundaries.

Hello All,
Scheduling gives one a sense of control of a program or project; cuts the overwhelming-factor considerably. Knowing what’s on the horizon, allows time to collect needed supplies and provides a focus if you’re planning a large, multi-phase art project. We like to provide opportunities for the children to experience different art/crafting media. Also, in researching a project, you might stumble upon a brighter idea and can substitute it for another. Below is a partial calendar of events.
I think it would be fun to celebrate some of the lesser known festivals and holidays around the world with our elementary-aged youngsters. There are several books available to use as starting point: Hands Around the World, Kids Around the World Celebrate, Kids Around the World Cook, Around the World Art & Activities. The children would learn a little history of the festival, costumes, music, art, etc. Activities could include mask-making, noise makers, shoebox parade floats, creating hats/crowns, designing posters, postcards, playing a game, and sampling foods associated with each festival.
Jan-Feb: Chinese New Year (Kung Hei Fat Choi) Using the Chinese zodiac calendar, find your birth year animal and create a picture. (Discovered I’m a Rat, but loveable, who knew?) Lanterns are an important part of the celebration and would be an easy project.

Feb-Mar: Mardi Gras (Carnival in Rio, Carnevale in Venice) I’m particularly drawn to pre-disaster New Orleans and it’s rich multi-cultural history. Mardi Gras falls 47 days before Easter so the festival can be either in Feb or Mar. What’s Mardi Gras with out beignets or pralines?

Mar.-May: Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival. It's said that the origin of Hanami dates back to more than one thousand years ago when aristocrats enjoyed looking at beautiful cherry blossoms and wrote poems. Children could attach tissue paper cherry blossoms to branches, either real or drawn. Of course, we’d enjoy a tea ceremony and read our poems.

May: May Day. This old English festival centers on a huge striped maypole that’s decorated with flowers and streamers. Children hold the streamers as they dance around the pole, weaving intricate patterns as they pass each other. The most common May Day custom is to secretly leave a basket of flowers or other small gifts on a neighbor's doorknob or doorstep. Roll a piece of pretty paper into a cone shape, glue the edges together. When the glue has dried, punch two holes on opposite sides of the cone and attach a piece of ribbon to make a handle. Gather some fresh flowers, if available, or make paper flowers. The children could design and string a lei using beads and felt flower petals. We’ve also had the children decorate small wooded picture frame either by gluing embellishments or painting.
June-Aug: Summer Festivals and Celebrations.
In 2012, the Eiteljorg Museum hosted the 20th anniversary of the annual celebration of Native American culture—Indian Market and Festival. Visitors were treated to authentic Indian cuisine, arts, music, and hands-on family activities. We could design our own festival complete with costumes, jewelry, and pottery making (with a little help from local artists).

Sept.-Oct.: Harvest Festivals and Celebrations. “Harvest festivals are traditionally held on or near the Sunday of the Harvest Moon. This is the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox (about Sept. 23). In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. “ Eating, contests games, art, and music are common features of harvest festivals around the world.
We could make a harvest table from a shoebox. Cut a piece out of the four sides leaving a one-inch margin (these are the “table” legs.) Have the children paint or use colored paper to create a tablecloth. Now add harvest fruits and vegetables to the table by using the produce as stamps. Cut the fruit and vegs. in half, dip into paint, and stamp onto table.
Tell the children they can make an apple tree painting without using a brush. Brown, green and red finger paint is needed. Pan for the brown paint should be wide enough for child to fit his hand into. Make a tree trunk by dipping the side of the hand (pinky side) into the brown paint and pressing hand down onto a piece of white or light-colored construction paper. Leaves are made using a forefinger dipped in green paint; apples are from a pinky dipped in red.
Make a poster or placemat by painting with corn. Corn-on-the-cob can be fresh or dried. Using tempura paints, roll the cob in the paint, then apply the paint to large white or light colored construction paper by rolling...try rolling in different directions. Let paint dry and then changes colors and apply a second coat. Once everything is dried, the placemat/poster can be laminated. Leaf-prints can be made using different shaped leaves and paint.

Nov.–Dec.: St. Lucia Day. “The Festival of Santa Lucia or St. Lucy’s Day—is celebrated on December 13 each year. Though Santa Lucia’s Day traditions were originated in Sweden, it is also celebrated in other countries, including Bosnia, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Italy and Norway.”
History indicates that Saint Lucia wore a wreath of lights on her head. We can create our own wreath of lights by using a sturdy paper plate. Cut out the center of the plate so it resembles a wreath. Decorate the plate with construction or tissue paper leaves. If available, use some real greenery. For candles, use coffee filters that have been tightly rolled and glued or paint paper tubes white. Add flame-shaped construction paper pieces to tops of candles.
Lucia candle holders can be made from inexpensive glass votives and glass paint in stained glass colors. Paint the outside of the votives in a variety of colors. Once dry, add plain white candle.

Jonnie

Jonnie,

This calendar of events looks exciting. With programs like this there is the opportunity to invite in guest speakers or to work with museums that might be in the area or to invite international students to share their culture. Anderson University has a great number of international students. A few years ago, a colleague and I did a series of programs for elementary schoolm aged children called Global Creativity. We explored music, dress/fashion, art,food, and stories/tales from these countries. It was quite successful. I wish you well with your program!

Jeanetta,
Thanks for the Anderson Univ. tip. The Children's Museum did have a gallery devoted to cultures around the world and would host performers.

Jonnie

Jonnie,

Thanks for the wonderful ideas. I'm planning my year with some of your ideas as I type. Thanks!

WEEK 4 TOPIC 1

a. Have you or would you benefit from creating a yearly calendar of themes and projects?

b. Select one month and design a library program around that month. Give a description of the art
projects, music, food, guest speakers, etc. Only one program is needed for the month you select.


a. I have not created a yearly calendar before but could probably benefit from one. Our Children’s
Department has five programmers and we rotate working with various age groups. Our department
has monthly meetings and a separate agenda for programming. We tend to plan in 3-6 month
segments although we submit publicity for events on a monthly basis. We each have a day planner to
use and a large desk calendar is maintained at our Children’s Department desk to record program statistics and such. We have a large monthly calendar in a display case outside our story hour room. We also have flyers/calendars (8 x11) that list children, teen, and adult activities for each month. In addition, we also have an online calendar on our website that may be browsed.

The use of a thumb drive for storage of plans has certainly been wonderful and a space saver. I agree with others in the class that we also plan so we can buy things on sale for future programs.


b. April is the month I have chosen. There is so much that can be done with Spring, mud, rainy weather,
growing things, ponds and frogs… I especially like themes that may be used with a variety of age
groups. This one is planned for 4 and 5 year olds.

Favorite Books: The Wide Mouth Frog - Faulkner; The Five Green and Speckled Frogs – Burris; The Little White Duck – Whippo; One Rainy Day – Gorbachev; In the Small, Small Pond – Fleming; A Frog in the Bog – Wilson; Jump, Frog, Jump! - Kalan



Activity 1:

Frog on Lily Pad Craft
Paint the palm and four fingers(no thumb) wth green paint. Fingers should be slightly apart. Cut out hand when dry. Turn hand upside down so the fingers are facing downward. Add wiggly eyes to the palm area. Make a lily pad out of green construction paper. Glue frog onto pad.
~Submitted by Susan N.


Activity 2:

Jumping Frog Race—Use plastic frogs to jump into Cakepan “pond.”








Little Tadpole
(Tune: Frere Jacques")

Little tadpole, Little tadpole
Lost his tail, lost his tail.
Now he has two feet
Now he has four feet
Look a frog! Look a frog!
Snack:
http://spoonful.com/recipes/fruity-frog
This apple-phibious treat is so charming, your kids may not even notice that it's good for them.
What you'll need
• Green apple (such as a Granny Smith)
• Cream cheese
• Chocolate chips
• Green grapes
How to make it
1. Cut the apple into quarters and remove the core. Cut a thin wedge from one quarter for a mouth. For the eyes, shape cream cheese into two half-inch balls, and set them in place. Insert a chocolate chip, point-side in, into each cream cheese ball.
2. Use the grapes, cut in half, for the legs and feet. Slice four halves to create toes. Arrange the pieces as shown and serve on a paper lily pad.


• I would also use the flannel board and sing Five Green and Speckled Frogs.

• It would also be fun after reading The Wide-Mouthed Frog to have the children guess what other
creatures the frog might encounter on his journey.

• If possible I would have a visitor from the Mounds State Park bring some pond life for the children to
learn about.


• I like to have areas where the children may explore before and after the program, so I would have
the water table and some simple water related experiments the children and parents could do
together.

My Month would be December. This is a busy month for us at Melton Library. This year we had the Voice of the Polar Express come and read the book and we gave out bells and had a treat when Santa came to visit. We also make Gingerbread houses for the Learning Center and Elementary kids. Winter Bingo is also a big hit. With the extra Marshmallows we use for the bingo, we can use the marshmallows for snowman crafts.