Spring into Reading
You’ve been waiting and now it’s fast approaching! Beginning March 8 you may sign up for the popular Food for Thought program sponsored by In-N-Out Burger. This program here at City of Mission Viejo Library will run from March 8 through April 19. For those of you not familiar with this program, children ages 4 to 12 are rewarded with a free hamburger from In-N-Out Burger for reading library books. You can’t lose!!! It’s a winner for all.

Mommy & Me Storytime
February 25, 2008

Today’s Mommy & Me Storytime was all about fish. Our friend, Mr. Lion, brought three great books about fish for us to share and surprised us with a bright red fish puppet! We started by reading Ten Little Fish, counting down as each little fish leaves. We followed that with our Five Little Fishies fingerplay and flannelboard. Our next book was What Do You Say? We made lots of animal sounds as we answered the title question and found out just what to say to a fish. We sang and acted out the song “I’m a Little Fishy” to the tune “I’m a Little Teapot”, pretending we were fish swimming around the sea. The last book we shared was Hooray for Fish! We met all of Little Fish’s fishy friends and learned which one he loves most of all. We ended our time together pretending our scarves were fish and swimming them through the air to the song “Under the Sea”. By the end, we were all cheering “hooray for fish”!

DON’T FORGET!
Our next session of storytimes will begin in April. Preschool Storytime will start up again on Tuesday, April 1. PajamaRama and Mommy & Me Storytimes will start Monday, April 7.

Early Literacy Tip of the Week
Be sure to visit your library and take advantage of all it has to offer. Attend storytimes. Borrow books to share with your child. The library has a wonderful picture book collection as well as a great selection of board books. Borrow children’s CDs and sing songs together. There are CDs and DVDs to educate as well as entertain. Check it out at your library!

Mommy & Me Storytime
February 11, 2008

Today’s Mommy & Me Storytime was all about love, hearts, hugs, and kisses in honor of Valentine’s Day! We began by doing the motions to Skidamarink and singing, “I love you in the morning, and in the afternoon. I love you in the evening and underneath the moon.” Our first book was If You’ll Be My Valentine by Cynthia Rylant. In it, a little boy tells friends and family what he’ll do for them if they’ll be his valentine. We also read Who Do You Love? by Melanie Mitchell. We found out what the little bears like to do and who they love. We played with our scarves to the song I’m a Valentine for You making teeny-tiny movements, medium movements, and great big movements with our scarves. Our last book was My First Valentine’s Day Book. The animal pairs in the book shared valentine gifts with each other. We ended by singing along with Barney and friends to his classic song I Love You and passing out valentines to all of our storytime friends. Happy Valentine’s Day!

DON’T FORGET! Monday, February 18th is a holiday and the library will be closed. Our next Mommy & Me storytime will be Monday, February 25 at 10:30am and 11:30am.

Early Literacy Tip of the Week
Sing to your child! You’ll be helping your child by letting them hear the rhythm and rhymes of the words. Have fun and don’t worry about your singing ability. You’re not singing for American Idol judges but for an appreciative child who will benefit from and enjoy the experience. The library has a wonderful children’s CD collection. Check out some CD’s to learn some new songs or refresh your memory of the ones you loved as a child!

Mommy & Me Storytime
February 4, 2008

Dinosaurs! Today at Mommy & Me we read and sang about dinosaurs. We started with the book Dinosaur Dinosaur by Kevin Lewis and heard all about the busy day in the life of a dinosaur. We also read How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen and learned that they give a big hug and a kiss when they say good night, and don’t give mommy and daddy a hard time. Our flannelboard was about five enormous dinosaurs and we counted down until there were none left. We read the book Dinosaur Roar! by Paul Strickland and learned about all kinds of dinosaurs, including ones that are sweet, grumpy, spiky, or lumpy. We finished our storytime marching with our sponge dinosaurs to Laurie Berkner’s song “We Are the Dinosaurs”. It was a “roaring” good time!

NEWS TO KNOW! The library has a special collection called “Storytime in a Bag”. These ‘do-it-yourself’ kits contain all you need to conduct a successful storytime. Selected by library staff, each kit contains a book, a puppet, a music CD, fingerplays, and a craft activity all related to the story. In addition, each bag contains instructions on how to present a storytime and suggestions for further reading. Parents, teachers, and caregivers will want to pick one up at the library soon and hold a storytime for their own kids, their class, or the kids in their neighborhood, and see just how much fun it can be! For more information or to reserve your kit today, please call (949)830-7100 ext 4010.

Early Literacy Tip of the Week
When reading to your toddler, follow along with your finger under the words as you read them. This helps your child learn the left to right movement of reading and helps them realize that the black marks on the page have meaning.

Mommy & Me Storytime
January 28, 2008

Today’s Mommy & Me Storytime was all about visiting. First we read Bear at Home by Stella Blackstone where we visited with Bear and got to see all the rooms in his house. We especially liked seeing his playroom with the big toy chest! Then we went to visit with Miss Mouse on the flannelboard. Only we couldn’t remember which house she lived in so we checked one by one calling “Miss Mouse, Miss Mouse, are you in the blue (green, yellow, etc.) house” until we went through most of the colors, finally finding her in the red house. We followed that by reading Baby Loves Visiting by Michael Lawrence. Baby loves visiting lots of places especially the library where there are many fun things to see and do! We pretended we were going visiting and sang and did the motions to the song “I’m Going to Kentucky”. Then we read Let’s Go Visiting by Sue Williams counting all the colorful farmyard friends. In the end, we decided what we like most about visiting is playing with our friends so we ended our storytime by playing the freeze game with our scarves and music by Greg & Steve. It was so fun!

NEWS TO KNOW! The library recently added a couple hundred new books to our Board Book collection. You’ll want to check them out after storytime. They’re located in the Wickiup just off the main children’s area.

Early Literacy Tip of the Week
Nursery rhymes make wonderful choices when reading aloud to your child. The rhythm and the rhyme make them enjoyable to even the youngest of children. The library has a wonderful selection of Mother Goose books and other classic nursery rhyme collections. We’d be happy to show them to you next time you visit.