“Kids Art” was a program created to pair a book with a larger art project. The library already hosts a monthly craft program for grades 1-6, but our little kids were not getting much art — other than my storytime attempts. Thus, “Kids Art.”
This time, I found the craft before I found the books to go with it. Luckily, there are some adorable octopus books. I began with “An Octopus Followed Me Home” by Dan Yaccarino.
I love this book, and Yaccarino’s illustrations and story crack me up. It was a great primer to begin the program today.
The craft for this Kids Art is this amazing octopus craft that I found in the book: “Crafty Kids : Fun Projects for You and Your Toddler” by Rosie Hankin on pg. 38-39.
My teen volunteers had pre-cut both the plate and the bubble wrap, and they also pre-assembled the craft. All the kids did was sponge paint the plate and tentacles. (We have tablecloths on our craft tables, so no worries about getting paint on the tables!)
While we waited for their octopuses to dry, we played several games of Sticky Octopus (Hot Potato with an octopus beach ball) before reading our last story: “Tickly Octopus” by Ruth Galloway.
This was a great way to end our program for the day, and the kids were very excited about getting to take their octopuses home that day, since we waited for them to dry.
storytime katie 
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