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Fine Motor Skills
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Snack Necklace
Back to school schedules often leave families pinched for time together. Taking a short break to play a game or fix a snack can provide a valuable opportunity to build fine motor skills. How about a spirited game of KERPLUNK and a Friday Night Snack Necklace? These activities will get little finger muscles moving and faces smiling!
Making a snack necklace is delicious and fun. Start with a long length of string and a variety of favorite snacks suitable for looping. Tape one end of the string for easy threading and begin adding snacks one by one. Fill the string completely or make a pattern for an extra challenge. The finished product will be a yummy treat and special time together!
-Kaci Schwenk
Kentwood (Richard L. Root) Branch
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Music Minute
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Fun with Scarves
Fall is a great time to incorporate scarves into music play. The flowing movement of the scarves simulates the movement of leaves floating down from the trees. Trying singing the following song together:
Autumn Leaves
(to the tune of "London Bridge")
Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down,
falling down.
Autumn leaves are falling down, to the ground.
Red and yellow,
orange and brown,
orange and brown,
orange and brown.
Red and yellow,
orange and brown,
on the ground.
With a scarf in each hand, children can practice swinging their arms in time to the rhythm or act out motions.
Scarves are a good way to combine music with movement.
Give children a dance challenge. Can you dance with the scarf on your head? Your knee? Continue to add body parts as children dance to the music.
Looking for good music to use with scarves? Try "Shake Your Scarves" from The Second Line: Scarf Activity Songs by Johnette Downing or "The Airplane Song" from Laurie Berkner's Whaddaya Think of That!.
-Sara M.
Sand Lake / Nelson Township Branch
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Kent District Library is here to provide you and your child with the skills needed to succeed in school and in life. KDL's Early Lit Bits newsletter is full of FUN and simple activities that will help foster that growth. For more information regarding the skills your child needs before he or she learns to read, visit the Play-Grow-Read section of the KDL website. You can also stop by any KDL branch to speak with one of our helpful youth librarians. We hope to see you soon! For more early literacy activity ideas be sure to check out KDL's Monthly Early Literacy Calendar.
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Learning With Crafts
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Leafy Hedgehog
A crisp fall morning is a great time to enjoy a walk together. All kinds of interesting natural items fall to the ground in autumn. Talk about textures in nature with your child. Can you find leaves that are rough, wrinkly or spiky? Take a walk outside and collect a few interesting leaves to use to make a hedgehog craft.
Materials
· Paper plates
· Scissors
· Markers
· Glue
· Dried leaves
Directions
· Fold the plate in half
· Trim to match the profile of a hedgehog
· Add eyes, ears, nose and a smile with markers
· Fringe the curve of the plate with scissors OR
· Attach dry leaves to the curve with glue
Learn more about hedgehogs in the Homework Help section of KDL's website. Then curl up together and read The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle in which a little girl searching for her lost handkerchief visits a very peculiar little hedgehog.
-Dana D.
Kentwood (Richard L. Root) Branch
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Book Review
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Countablock by Christopher Franceschelli
Christopher Franceschelli, author of Alphablock, now explores numbers in this fun new counting book. Bright illustrations and thick board pages that are die cut into the shapes of numbers make this count book stand out. Two pages are devoted to each number: the first gives a number of objects and the second shows what those objects become. One acorn becomes one oak tree and two snowmen become two puddles on a sunny day. After number ten, the book starts counting by tens and eventually reaches one hundred. Have fun introducing young children to the names of numbers or counting by tens with older children as you share this book.
-Anjie Gleisner
Walker Branch
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App Review
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iWriteWords is a colorful and educational app that helps to teach kids letters, numbers and simple words. Use a finger to drag the crab character along a letter or number and follow the numbered dots to make the shape. When done correctly, you will hear the letter name. Drag the letter or tilt your device to drop the letter into the corner. When spelling words, a related picture will appear. The cute illustrations and easy-to-use format will engage a child while also helping children to recognize letters and their names. It also will help them begin to learn how to form letters, which aids in preparing them to be ready to write. Try other features as you change the letter size, practice with upper and lower case letters or tap the tune of the alphabet song. Sing, talk and read together as you try out this app available from the Apple app store. The Lite version is free, and the full version is $2.99.
-Julie R.
Caledonia Township Branch
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