Sturdy for Common Things

Wild Things in March

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Lion, lamb, lion, lamb, lion, lamb… March ticked tocked back and forth between winter and spring. This year spring came prematurely with blooms and animals surfacing early, but not without cold bursts and even a surprise snow on Easter morning- A fluffy snow that melted by afternoon. We’ve been spending quite a bit of time at our favorite wetlands spot. At the beginning of the month, there were only a few geese and recently emerged frogs, but now the habitat is in full celebration of the warmer weather. A springtime frog choir, tadpoles, frogs, a big ol’ water snake, skittish ducks and geese, a belted kingfisher, turtles sunning themselves on a log, and water striders skimming the water surfaces. Looking forward to see what surprises April has in store! What are your plans outdoors for the month ahead?

1. Spring Equinox
2. Hello little lady
3. “Hey, I know! Let’s go in this enchanted forest!”
4. Cottonwood leaf smiles
5. Forced spring branches
6. Springtime blues
7. Poking and stirring and stomping and splashing
8. Tadpoles
9. Tree hopping
10. Front porch friends
11. Easter snow
12. Big ol’ water snake
13. Wetland walkin’
14. Littlest choir member
15. Looking down, looking up

Yesterdays as amateur naturalists. For new adventures follow along on Instagram.

 

Favorite Children’s Books about Spring

The crocuses have bloomed, the birds are singing, the sun is rising earlier each day– Signs of spring are everywhere! The first official day of the spring season, the Spring Equinox or Vernal Equinox, is just around the corner and there are so many terrific kids books to  welcome the new season. My autumn booklist and winter booklists were a bit on the looong side, so in attempt to break them down a bit this will be more of a general “all things spring” booklist. In the following weeks, I’ll follow up with lists that tie-in with the season such as weather, ponds and wetlands, gardens, bugs, etc. If you have a springy booklist suggestion, please let me know!

 

BOOKS ABOUT SPRING & SPRING EQUINOX
Mostly nonfiction books about the Spring Equinox and what happens during the spring season in nature and culturally in the northern hemisphere.

A New Beginning: Celebrating the Spring Equinox by Wendy Pfeffer, illustrated by Linda Bleck
What Happens in Spring? by Sara L. Latta
Sorting Through Spring by Lizann Flatt
Butterfly Birthday by Harriet Ziefert, illustrated by Mark Jones
Everything Spring by Jill Esbaum
A Kid’s Spring Ecojournal by Toni Albert, illustrated by Margaret Brandt

 

SPRINGTIME STORIES
Picture books about the joys, surprises, and wonders of spring.

And Then It’s Spring by Julie Fogliano, illustrated by Erin E. Stead
Mud by Mary Lyn Ray, illustrated by Lauren Stringer
Abracadabra, It’s Spring! by Anne Sibley O’Brien, illustrated by Susan Gal
Crinkle, Crackle, Crack: It’s Spring! by Marion Dane Bauer, illustrated by John Shelley
When Spring Comes by Kevin Henkes, illustrated by Laura Dronzek
Mama, Is It Summer Yet? by Nikki McClure
Spring Thaw by Steven Schnur
It’s Spring! by Susan Swan, illustrated by Linda Glasser
Spring Song by Barbara Seuling

 

SPRING BIRDS
Birds are very busy in the spring. They’re migrating south and building nest for their new family. These are a few books that highlight birds in spring.

Cold Little Duck, Duck, Duck by Lisa Westberg Peters, illustrated by Sam Williams
My Spring Robin by Anne Rockwell, illustrated by Harlow Rockwell and Lizzy Rockwell
When Blue Met Egg by Lindsay Ward
Forever Friends by Carin Berger
The Best Nest by P.D. Eastman
Riki’s Birdhouse by Monica Wellington

 

MAPLE SYRUP SEASON
In the spring, the maple trees come alive again. When temperatures get warmer, stored starch turns to sugar and then sugaring season begins.

Maple Syrup Season by Ann Purmell, illustrated by Jill Weber
Ininatig’s Gift of Sugar: Traditional Native Sugarmaking by Laura Waterman Wittstock
The Sugaring Off Party by Jonathan London, illustrated by Gilles Pelletier
Sugarbush Spring by Marsha Wilson Chall, illustrated by Jim Daly
Sugaring by Jessie Haas
Sugaring Time by Kathryn Lasky

 

VINTAGE SPRINGTIME FAVORITES
Timeless spring picture books that are at least 30 years old that you’ll enjoy reading time and time again.

The Happy Day by Ruth Krauss, illustrated by Marc Simont
The Story of the Root Children by Sibylle von Olfers
The Caterpillar and the Polliwog by Jack Kent
The Boy Who Didn’t Believe in Spring by Lucille Clifton, Brinton Turkle
Spring Story by Jill Barklem

 

SPRING POETRY
Poetry books especially for the spring season.

Laughing Tomatoes: And Other Spring Poems / Jitomates Risuenos: Y Otros Poemas de Primavera by Francisco X. Alacon, May Christina Gonzalez
Handsprings by Douglas Florian
Flower Fairies of the Spring by Cicely Mary Barker

 

SPRING BOOKS FOR BABIES AND TODDLERS
Springtime books for littles! Kids ages 0-2 will take pleasure in these reads.

A Nest in Springtime: A Mandarin Chinese-English bilingual book of numbers by Belle Yang
Spring by Gerda Muller
Mouse’s First Spring by Lauren Thompson, illustrator Bauket Erdogan
Spring is Here by Taro Gomi
It’s Spring! by Samantha Berger, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
In the Spring by Craig McFarland Brown
Kitten’s Spring by Eugenie Fernades

 

I’m thinking about making the next book list about either the WEATHER or WETLANDS. If you have a preference, let me know! Other booklist suggestions are welcome as well!

Happy Spring!

Storytime Anytime: Blocks

Storytime Anytime is a simple storytime experience that parents and caregivers can recreate at home. Each storytime focuses on a book about a specific interest, a song, rhyme, or fingerplay that complements the story, and then a few, simple extension activities. Storytime doesn’t just happen in the library, storytime can be anytime! 

READ: Moving Blocks by Yusuke Yonezu (public library|local bookstore) is a book I came across at our local bookshop. Even though the shop’s  children’s section is small (it’s a teeny tiny store in itself!), they do a fantastic job keeping a variety of children’s books that are on the bestseller list and gems you wouldn’t typically find shopping online or at a mainstream bookstore. Moving Blocks is a brilliant board book for toddlers and preschoolers. The bold cover was what caught my attention and I’m pretty sure I let out an “ooh” when I opened the cover.

The story alternates playfully between large patterned pictures of block shapes and an assortment of transportation vehicles that can be built with those shapes. The bright, primary colors and guessing game cutouts of this book are visually appealing for kids to explore and encourages readers to let their imaginations beep, toot, whizz, and soar.

SING: My go-to storytime singing librarian duo, Jbrary, has a fun song to learn after reading this book called “Zoom, Zoom, Zoom”. Moving Blocks ends with a block rocket ship blasting off to the moon, so this easy movement song is a natural transition after reading. Is your child into trains more than rocket ships? They have a large collection of transportation songs on their YouTube channel that will satisfy any child’s transportation interest!

PLAY: These are no-stress activity ideas to enjoy with your little one after reading Moving Blocks:

• Get out the blocks and play! Build your own rendition of one of the many moving vehicles mentioned in Moving Blocks, or build something of your own imagination. Knock it down and build it again!
• Repurpose cardboard boxes as building blocks for an entirely different take on building play. Use smaller boxes like cereal boxes or use large moving boxes for supersize building fun.
• Cut a variety of simple shapes (circle, rectangle, square, triangle, etc) out of colorful construction paper. Using a glue stick and a blank piece of paper, prompt your child to build a shape collage of the colorful, cut-out pieces. “What are you building? What can it be?” The collage doesn’t have to be anything in the end. The construction of gluing pieces together and exploring shapes is the fun part!
• Pretend to be a transportation vehicle! Can you float like a boat? Stretch out your arms and fly like a plan? What about crouching down low and blast off like a rocket ship? What vehicles can you pretend to be that are in this book?

MORE BOOK SUGGESTIONS:
When I Build With Blocks by Christy Hale
Changes, Changes by Pat Hutchins
Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building by Christy Hale
Away We Go!: A Shape and Seek Book by Chieu Anh Urban
Not a Box by Antoinette Portis
Yusuke Yonezu’s Squares , Triangles, and Circles books

 

 

 

Wild Things in February

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Our adventures in nature for February ended in sunshine. Ahhh sunshine! The days have been windy and warm and cold and up and down and back around true to transitional Kansas weather. One day the pond is frozen and the next day it has thawed completely. It will probably freeze again this week. Among the brown all around are little specks of lavender or gold– Crocuses! Spring is near. It’s almost here.

1. February sunrise
2. “Speak softly and carry a big stick”
3. Valentine’s Day nature box
4. winter bones
5. pond shadows
6. Shadow selfie
7. more shadow play
8. spot of color among winter pallor
9. Afternoon skies over Kaw Valley
10. signs of spring
11. Skipping on sunshine

Yesterdays as amateur naturalists. For new adventures follow along on Instagram.

Chocolate Box Nature Collection

Don’t throw out those chocolate boxes just yet! After Valentine’s Day we found they make the perfect miniature cabinets of curiosities for young nature collectors. Full disclosure: I bought the boxes pictured in this post for myself, because Valentine treats to yourself is always a good idea. Also, chocolate. But what I didn’t count on was the perfect way these boxes preserve little treasures found outside. The small boxes are extremely portable and easy to tuck away for another day.

Filling a chocolate box was a good excuse to go outside during the February month when we often found ourselves hibernating from the whipping, cold winds of Kansas. If you have older children, try taking time to identify each object found by labeling who found it, where, and when. Go one step further and classify each item referring to the Linnaeus classification system. The book Cabinet of Curiosities: Collecting and Understanding the Wonders of the Natural World (public library) by Gordon Grice does a wonderful job breaking down this process.

Here’s an example with another chocolate box we had on hand using items found on a walk a week ago and a couple items that were already in our home nature center. Some boxes chocolate containers are pretty deep, so I found using folded tissue paper helped support each item.

If you didn’t happen to get a chocolate box for Valentine’s Day this year, they’re usually on sale for cheap after the holiday or can be found year-round at grocery stores. Nothing says “Be Mine” like a box full of rocks, shells, and dead bugs!