J is for... Jewels, Jellyfish, and JAYMI!

     Well, this week we covered my absolute favorite letter, Jj!  Now you may ask why this is my favorite letter.  It’s my first initial, duh!  This week was all about jewels, jellyfish, and me, JAYMI!  Ok, not really on the last one, but we did do crafts and books on jewels and jellyfish.  The only one really interested in J is for Jaymi was Sammy the Toucan, who sported a few “I love Miss Jaymi” buttons all day.

     If I had it my way, the kids would have decorated the letter Jj flashcard with lots of pictures of… ME!  Or as Cauli, our MPL roving reporter would say, “MOI!”   However, I thought that may be a tad bit overboard, so I decided to go with Jj is for jewels.  My library has a lot of crafty materials lying around and I knew this would be quick, easy, and fun!

Materials:  Letter J flashcard, sequins or jewels, glue dots, crayons

Front of card

Back of card

1)    Color the letter J.

2)    Trace capital and lowercase J on the back of the card.  Cover your J in beautiful jewels and sequins!

     The other craft for this week was something I just made up on a whim.  Now I am sure that someone, somewhere, already put this online, but oh well.  I was pretty proud of this craft considering it used all materials we already had at the library.  Can you guess what Jj craft this might be?

Materials:   Plastic bag, cotton balls, rubber band, googly eyes, cut-out of a fish

1)    Cut plastic bag into square.  Make slits in the side to create “tentacles.”  Fluff up cotton balls.  Place in middle of plastic bag.

3)    Tie rubber band around jellyfish to create a head.

4)    Attach googly eyes to the head and the fish to the tentacles.

TA DA!  A cheap and easy jellyfish with materials you probably have lying around your house!

     For those of you who have been keeping up on my posts, you know that picking books for Story Time has been a struggle for me lately.  I always try to keep in mind what kinds of things my kids are interested in as well as what will help reiterate my theme, however, I just can’t seem to pick books that my kids like as much as I do.  I got luck this week.  I chose two GREAT books that my kids seemed to love.

     Jewel books are a bit hard to come by.  I really wanted to find a book about kings or queens that discussed jeweled tiaras or rings, however, that just wasn’t happening.  I ended up going with a book called Bat Jamboree by Kathi Appelt.  Although it had NOTHING to do with jewels, jamboree is a pretty great Jj word and my kids really enjoyed the book.  Who doesn’t love a book that ends with the pun, “The spotlight will shin on that six-story screen.  And the show won’t be over till the bat lady sings.”

     As for a jellyfish book, I went with a pretty well-known book.  I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry is one that I have read before.  The kids I read it to then seemed to enjoy it so I figured it couldn’t hurt to try it again.  I am glad that I did.  There are all kinds of creatures that you can talk about and discuss with the kids, not just the jellyfish.  I was really impressed with all of the sea animals my kids knew about.  I would definitely recommend this book!

     This week, in Story Time, I moved on to the last installment of the alphabet song.  Below is the video for the “Q-Z Alphabet Song” by Kidzup Educational Music.  I have had quite a few parents tell me they really like having access to these songs because they are able to not only use the song, but also discuss the different sounds a letter can make.

"Q-Z Alphabet Song" by Kidzup Educational Music.

This song can be purchased from iTunes.

     That seems to be it for this week's installment.  I hope you were as excited about the letter Jj as I was.  Next week we will have another extra special installment in order to celebrate an upcoming holiday!  Hope to see you then!