Library Programs: Building Block Picture Book Award Voting Party: Part 1

Each year the Missouri Library Association chooses a list of picture books to be the shortlist for the Building Block Picture Book Award. The books are chosen by librarians and are for ages birth-five. The purpose of the award is to encourage reading aloud, help develop pre-reading skills and introduce children, parents and caregivers to a variety of authors and titles. The books are voted on by kids.

This year we had a large poster of all the nominees displayed in the department along with ballots for the kids to vote for their favorite. I also decided to host a voting party in December, the month all the votes are due. I set up our storyhour room with activities and stations as well as displayed all the nominated titles and encouraged patrons to come and go throughout the day, read the books, do some crafts, and vote on the book they liked most. It was lots of fun and I hope to repeat the program with next years list. Here's what I did for the 2012 list:

Station 1: Mitchell's License by Hallie Durand, illustrated by Tony Fucile

-Car racetrack. We have large rolls of butcher paper, so I taped a long sheet of paper across the floor. I put crayons out for kids to draw their own roads and paths along with some plush cars to race down the tracks.

Station 2: The Wonderful Book by Leonid Gore and Dog in Boots by Greg Gormley, illustrated by Roberta Angaramo

-Read to stuffed animals. Both of these books feature animals and a love of stories, so I set up some stuffed animals around the books for a reading station.

Station 3: I Spy with My Little Eye by Edward Gibbs

-I Spy Game. My wonderful volunteer made me a giant I Spy collage using animal pictures from magazines.

Station 4: Rrralph by Lois Ehlert

-Make your own Rrralph collage. This was a great way to use up scraps of fabric and paper. I provided large sheets of paper, crayons, glues and random scraps of paper, fabric, and anything else I could find to make a collage.

Station 5: Hugless Douglas by David Melling

-Give a hug. The endpapers of this book feature sheep trying out all sorts of hugs (group hug, sideways hug, etc), so this station asked kids to give parents to give their kids a hug like the sheep.

Stay tuned-I'll post part two of our voting party tomorrow!