Children's Update: Pearland

Preschool storytime saw more than 200 people in October. We started off the month by celebrating Johnny Appleseed’s birthday. We read stories and did an apple craft. The next week we recognized National Cookie Month by playing with Play-doh and plastic cookie cutters and had children make their own Play-doh cookies. On week three, the children listened to stories about autumn. Each child decorated his or her own leaf with fall colors. Week four was jack-o-lanterns and harvest time. The craft was pumpkin collage art. Orange, green, yellow and brown strips of paper were used by each child to make a collage. The last week of the month was Halloween. We read funny stories about Halloween and the children made their own Halloween masks.

The toddlers also enjoyed the month of October with about 40 people coming to Toddler Time. We chose to celebrate fall themes. Week one, we celebrated apples. Week two we read about leaves and the changes in the weather. On week three the children enjoyed stories about squirrels. Our final week of the month we read about pumpkins and Halloween. We always allow the toddlers to play with toys for a brief play time after stories. They really enjoy it.

The Tween Book Club was held on October 9. They read “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle.

Halloween Stories & Crafts was held in the evening with 30 people in attendance. We started the program with some Halloween stories. The first six children who arrived got real mini-pumpkins to take home. Our crafts were set up on five different tables. The crafts were:

• make you own face mask
• 3-D tissue pumpkin craft
• pumpkin collage craft
• toilet paper roll monster/spider craft
• color your pumpkin paper lunch bag puppet

We listened to Halloween music, and Laura brought out a box of dress-up props that the children used for a brief play time. We handed out treat bags with pencils, rings and stencils as well as popcorn balls to all the participants before they left.

We are planning a Library Trivia Game on November 18. Our patrons are pretty smart so we'll have to come up with some really creative questions. Our movie night with clerk Charon is scheduled for November 9. There will be plenty of snacks and fun to go around! The next Tween Book Club will be on November 13. November programming will wrap up with our Fall Craft.

We are very pleased with our new A/V shelving. We have welcomed 3 new shelvers to our branch within the last month and a half. They are catching on pretty quickly, and we are so happy to have them.

Laura, children's specialist