literacy-based crafts

One way to prompt conversations between a child and their grown-up during your craft time is to include some written questions as part of the project materials. For example, if you are handing out a coloring sheet, can you write in an open-ended question or two before you photocopy it?

This very simple rocket craft adds an “outer space” coloring sheet with a couple of prompts for the grown-ups to read as the children play.

First, the rockets!

Many of our storytime families will be traveling this summer! Here’s a craft you can use with a Things that Go or Travelling storytime that starts with recycled maps.

Ask your staff or patrons if they have old maps they can bring in, or call your local AAA office to see if they have out-of-date maps they would be willing to donate.

Cut the maps into smaller pieces, and cut triangles and squares out of construction paper. If you have a diecut machine, you can use it to cut Xs, but if you don’t, skinny rectangle shapes can be glued criss-cross to make your own Xs.

In this series, we’ve looked at the benefits of craft time at library storytimes, how an open-ended library craft time can support early literacy learning, and provided some tips for creating and choosing literacy-based craft projects.

In this series, we’ve looked at the benefits of craft time at library storytimes, how an open-ended library craft time can support early literacy learning, and provided some tips for creating and choosing literacy-based craft projects.

There are thousands of craft ideas to choose from!

Budgets, library program schedules, the storytime space, age of storytime children, available preparation time, and staff preferences are just a few of the factors that influence which crafts are chosen to present at storytime. How should we be selecting which type of crafts to offer at literacy-based storytimes?