October 21, 2025, By Library Staff in Early Literacy.
The Youth Services team at Flathead County Library plans and implements early literacy programs for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers in Kalispell, Bigfork, and Columbia Falls. Our goal in every Storytime is to connect with young children and their caregivers through books, songs, and interactive activities that foster early literacy and social emotional skills.
Explore the Storytime Schedule
Last weekend we attended the 3rd annual Harvestfest event hosted by the Columbia Falls Chamber of Commerce. This family fun day featured a 5k race, chili cook-off, and pie eating contests, along with a variety of fall themed activities for kids.Take a look at some of our fall favorites below and visit our branches for storytime over the next few weeks to try them out for yourself!
Fall Favorites:
- Leaves in the wind tunnel
- Gather up a handful of leaves and watch them soar! Then grab a rake to collect the fallen leaves and go again.
- Dot Marker Trees
- In this art activity, kids can exercise their fine motor skills by using dot markers to add color to a bare tree.
- Pumpkin Playdough
- There are many ways to spruce up our traditional playdough recipe for fall! We love to add a little cinnamon spice and food coloring to resemble apple or pumpkin, but you could also try out a few drops of your favorite essential oils. At this event we paired our playdough with farm animal footprint stones and some fall themed mats with challenges like “add a pumpkin to the patch”.
- Numbered Apple Matching Game
- This puzzle activity challenges kids to find matching number pairs from 1-15.
- Obstacle Course
- Our obstacle courses are a great way to practice gross motor skills and get the wiggles out! It’s even more of a challenge when costumes are involved 🙂
