Songs and stories teach shapes and colors
Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.The table was set up for the children to do crafts after storytime was over. The children created 3D gumball machines by gluing colored pom poms onto the paper.
Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.The children rushed to the craft table to start their gumball machine projects. Pom poms were glued to matching gumballs to help the children learn their colors.
Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.The first book that Austintown librarian, Miss Ashley, read was "Shape by Shape" by Suse MacDonald. The children tried guessing what the animal at the end of the book would be by seeing what shapes it was made out of. The animal turned out to be a dinosaur, which is what many children guessed it would be.
Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Miss Ashley closes storytime with the song "If You're Happy and You Know It." The children are encouraged to sing and dance along to the different parts of the song.
By ALEXIS BARTOLOMUCCI
Austintown librarian, Miss Ashley, led Pre-Kindergarten Storytime on Nov. 4. This theme of this storytime was all about colors and shapes.
The children started out the morning with the opening song called “Can’t Wait to Celebrate!” from Jim Gill’s CD “Irrational Anthem.” After the opening song was done, Miss Ashley got the children to engage in an activity that identified shapes while singing a song called, “Where is Triangle, Where is Triangle?”
The songs and activities of the event were designed for the children to work on their readiness skills. These skills allow children to recognize patterns, identify certain objects - like shapes and colors - and help them classify objects by different features.
The first book, “Shape by Shape” by Suse MacDonald, introduced the children to different shapes that were put together to form a dinosaur at the end. The children enjoyed guessing throughout the story what animal the shapes would create.
“Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes” by Eric Litwin was the final book that was read. In this story, Pete the Cat had white shoes that changed colors depending what he stepped in. Each item Pete stepped in allowed the children to guess what color the shoes would turn.
Miss Ashley ended storytime with the song “If You’re Happy and You Know It.”
The children ended the storytime by working on their gumball machine craft. A gumball machine was printed on paper with different colored gumballs inside. It was the children’s job to match different colored pom-poms to the correct color inside the gumball machine.
The pre-kindergeraten events at the Austintown library give children an opportunity to advance their skills before they start school.