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HERSCHELL CARROUSEL FACTORY MUSEUM
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December First Friday Storytime

12/11/2024

 

Hi Friends!

Happy December! I hope you enjoyed Reindeer on Strike by Holly Lansley and Clare Fennell. It is a cute book that reminds us to talk about our feelings. 

​For this month's activity we are making a reindeer!

Activity: Reindeer

Materials: brown paper, scissors, glue stick, pencil, black marker, red marker
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Step 1. Fold your paper in half. This means we only have to draw 1 of each shape but when we cut them out we'll have 2 identical shapes. 
Step 2. Draw a bubble "U" shape to be the reindeer's body, draw a circle for the head, draw an arch for the ears, and draw an antler shape.  
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Step 3. Cut out your shapes. Cut out a rectangle and fold it back and forth to make a "Z" fold. 
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Step 4. Using the black and red markers, draw eyes, a nose, and a mouth on your circle to make the face.

Step 5. Glue the ears and antlers onto the back of the circle. 

Step 6. Glue the head onto the top of one of your body pieces. 

Step 7. Use the black marker to draw hooves on the body pieces. Fold the hooves to help your reindeer stand. 

Step 8. Glue the "Z" folded rectangle to the inside sides of the reindeer's front body and back body parts to connect your reindeer. 

​You're all done! Great job! Your reindeer is very cute. Do they have a name?
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Have a wonderful holiday season and we'll see you in 2025!

Ms. Marissa

Fall Children's Book Week!

11/8/2024

 

Hi Friends!

Happy Fall Children's Book Week! I hope you enjoyed all of the books we read this week. A special thank you to Mr. Austin, Ms. Danielle, Mr. Tim, Ms. Dru, and Ms. Terry for reading this week! If you didn't get to listen to this week's storytimes you and your adult can find them on our Facebook page or our YouTube channel.
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Children's Book Week Scavenger Hunt

For Children's Book Week I have a scavenger hunt for us to do! You can download the scavenger hunt here. 
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Have a great Week!

Ms. Marissa

November Storytime

11/1/2024

 

Hi Friends!

Happy November! I hope you enjoyed Mighty Tug written by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and illustrated by David Mottram. It is a good reminder that no matter your size or age you are STRONG and can do hard things. 

Make a Boat

This month's activity is making a boat! 

Supplies: colored construction paper, white construction paper, 1 black marker, 1 colored marker, scissors, and a glue stick
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Cutting Out Your Shapes
Folding your colored construction in half cut out a big "C" shape with the curve being the open part of the paper. 

Cut out a rectangle from the white paper and a smaller rectangle from the colored paper. 

Cut out an "O" and 2 small thin rectangles from the white paper. 
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Putting Together Your Boat
Glue the white rectangle to the folded edge of the boat. 

​Glue the colored rectangle on top of the white rectangle. 

Glue the 2 smaller white rectangles upright to be the smoke stakes. 

Draw 3 circlers with your black market to be the portholes (windows). 

Use the colored marker to make colored segments of your "O" shape and then glue it onto the body of the boat. This is the life raft. Every boat needs a life raft. 
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Your boat looks so beautiful. I am so proud of you. I will see you next week for Children's Book Week. 

Have a great day,

Ms. Marissa

October First Friday Storytime

10/4/2024

 

Hi friends!

Happy October! I hope you enjoyed Gustavo, the Shy Ghost by Flavia Z. Drago. It is a great story to remind all of us to reach out and ask people to join us when we are doing fun things. Ms. Marissa was very shy when she was a little kid (I'm still pretty shy as an adult!) and some of my best friends are the people who saw me and asked me to play with them. 

For this month's activity we are painting a ghost! I thought this was a spooktacular activity for October! 
Paint a Ghost
1. You need
  • black paper
  • white paint
  • black paint
  • 3 other paint colors
  • pink paint (optional)
  • pencil
  • your fingers
Remember friends if you don't have paint you can make your ghost with crayons, markers, or colored pencils! 
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2. Draw a ghost outline on your paper. I did this by drawing half of a circle and making the end lines very long. Then I made a wavy line to connect the straight lines. 
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3. Use your thumb as a paint brush to make your ghost white. 
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4. Use your other 4 fingers and your 3 colorful paints to make dots around your ghost. 
​This gives your ghost friend a fun background. 





​
​5. Use your black paint to give your ghost eyes and a mouth. (Optional) Use your pink paint to give your ghost blushing cheeks.
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I'm really proud of you! Your ghost looks AWESOME!
I hope you have a wonderful October.

Happy Halloween!

Ms. Marissa

July Storytime

7/5/2024

 

Hi Friends!

Thank you to Mr. Ben for reading A Not-So-Scary Monster! by Jonathan Fenkse! I hope all of you enjoyed the book! This month's activity is making a monster out of shapes. 

How to make a shape monster

Materials: colorful construction paper, markers or crayons, scissors, and a glue stick
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1. Cut out different shapes from the construction paper. Make sure to have a BIG shape for the body of your monster. 

Let's look at the shapes I cut out:
  • A big triangle for the body
  • A square for the head
  • 4 rectangles for the arms and legs
  • 2 circles for the eyes
  • An oval with a hole for the lips
  • 2 Pentagons for the hands
  • An oval for the nose
  • Lots of triangles, circlesm, and squares of different sizes to decorate the body
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​2. Glue together your monster. Look how good your monster looks! I LOVE IT! You did such a great job!
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Have a great July!

Ms. Marissa

Spring Children's Book Week

5/10/2024

 

Hi Friends!

I hope you enjoyed Spring Children's Book Week 2024! Here is a recap of the books we read. 
I Don't Want to Read This Book written by Max Greenfield with pictures by Mike Lowery. 

​This was such a silly book. I really liked it. Did you?
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That Bear Can't Babysit by Ruth Quayle and Alison Friend. 

This was a fun story! Bear was a great babysitter!
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Grow Flower, Grow by Lisa Bruce with pictures by Rosalind Beardshow

This book taught us a lot about growing flowers! Thank you to Dr. Darren for reading to us today!
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Carousel by Donald Crews

This was a fun book about what happens when you ride a carousel! Did it remind you of coming to visit the museum? Thank you Ms. Dru for reading Carousel to us!
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My Bear and Me by Barbara Maitland with pictures by Lisa Flather.

This was one of my favorite books when I was a kid! I have a special teddy bear and this story always reminds me of him. 

Thank you to Mr. John for reading My Bear and Me!
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How is your reading bingo going? I have 6 spots filled in on mine! But they're not in a row! Here is the link for your bingo card if you need a new one! Download your reading bingo card here.

Happy Reading!
Ms. Marissa

May First Friday Storytime

5/3/2024

 

Hi Friends!

Thank you Mr. Bud for reading Bears to the Rescue by David Biedrzycki. I sure do love when Mr. Bud reads to us! I think he is a AWESOME reader!
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Spring Children's Book Week 2024 is May 6th through May 12th! The museum will have storytime Monday and Tuesday on Facebook at 11:00am and Wednesday-Friday in-person in the Children's Gallery and on Facebook at 11:00am. To help you celebrate I made a Reading Bingo Card. You can download your card here.
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Happy Reading!
​Ms. Marissa

April Storytime

4/15/2024

 

Hello Friends!

I hope you enjoyed listening to A Few Beautiful Minutes: Experiencing a Solar Eclipse by Kate Allen Fox with pictures by Khoa Le. I think it is a beautiful book about the eclipse. Did you get to experience the total solar eclipse? It was a cloudy day here at the museum, but we saw a little bit of it!
Here is a picture of our view of the eclipse from the museum!
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This month's activity

This month's activity helps us learn what happens when a total solar eclipse happens. 
You will need this printout, crayons or colored pencils, whole puncher, scissors, tape, two strips of construction paper that are the same size, and 4 paper fasteners.
Step 1. Color the sun, moon, and earth.

Step 2. Cut out the sun, moon, and earth.

​Step 3. Use the hole puncher to punch 1 hole in the center of the sun, moon, and earth. Ask an adult if you need help. 

Step 4. Use the hole puncher to punch 1 whole on each end of each strip of the constriction paper
.
Step 5. Using the holes in the sun and the moon, attach the moon to the sun using 1 piece of construction paper and 2 fasteners.

Step 6. Using the holes in the sun and the earth, attach the earth to the sun using the other piece of construction paper and 2 fasteners.

Step 7. Show how a total solar eclipse works by moving the moon in front of the sun. This is what happened on April 8th!
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I hope you enjoyed this activity! We will see you next month!
Ms. Marissa

March Storytime

4/8/2024

 

Hi Friends!

I hope all of you enjoyed our March book Art and Joy: Best Friends Forever by Danielle Krysa. It is a truly wonderful book that tells us to make whatever art that brings us joy and not to listen to any art critics. 

The activity for this book is to create a piece of art that makes you HAPPY! Here is my artwork: 
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I created a happy flower scene by using watercolors to create the background, 2 pipe cleaners to make the flower petals, 1 pipe cleaner to make the center of the flower, 2 straws to make the flower stems, and 3 cotton balls to make the clouds. I hope you make an artwork that brings you joy!

See you next time!
​Ms. Marissa

Happy February Friends!

2/12/2024

 
I hope you enjoyed Lovebird Lou by Tammi Sauer with pictures by Stephanie Laberis! It's one of my new favorite books! I love how Lou's family is very supportive and proud of him. They give him confidence to try new things. 

This month's activity: Woven Heart Basket

This month we are making a woven heart basket. It is a small basket that is perfect for a couple of Valentines or pieces of chocolate! 
Supplies: 2 pieces of color paper, scissors, pencil, glue stick (optional), and ribbon (optional)
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Step 1: Fold both of your papers lengthwise and then unfold them. 
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Step 2: Fold both of your papers hamburger style. Draw one half of an oval on each half of your paper. Have the open side of the oval go down to the fold. When we cut out the ovals we want to have 2 long ovals. 
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Step 4: Keep the ovals folded, draw 3 straight lines on the ovals, and then cut on the lines. If you don't want the lines on your template showing on your basket, unfold the paper after cutting the 3 lines. Now fold your paper the other way to hide the lines on the inside. 
Step 3: Keep the paper folded and cut out the ovals. This should give you 2 long ovals. 
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Step 5: Label the strips on your templates. On your folded oval label the strips D-C-B-A. On the other folded oval label the strips 1-2-3-4.
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Step 6: Place the oval on the right side under the oval on the left and rotate them to form a right angle. 
Step 7: To start weaving, take Strip 1 and weave it through the loop of Strip A. ​
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Step 8: Weave Strip 1 around Strip B.
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Step 9: Wave Strip 1 through the loop of Strip C. 
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Step 10: Weave Strip 1 around Strip D. 
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Step 11: Push Strip 1 up until it touches the top of the slits. 
Step 12: Do the opposite for Strip 2.
             Take Strip 2 and weave it around Strip A.
             Weave Strip 2 through Strip B.
             Weave Strip 2 around Strip C
             Weave Strip 2 through Strip D. 
​             Push Strip 2 up against Strip 1.             
Step 13: Repeat Steps 7 to 11 for Strip 3. 
Step 14: Repeat Step 12 for Strip 4.
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Step 15: Gently push your strips to the edge to form the heart. Erase any pencil marks. 
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Step 16 (Optional): Cut out a handle from paper or ribbon and glue both ends inside the heart basket. 
I hope all of you enjoy your heart basket! We will see you next month for First Friday Storytime on Friday, March 1st at 11:00am and on the blog for next month's activity. 

Have a great month!
​Ms. Marissa
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  • Shop
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