The Youth Services team at ImagineIF Libraries 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

Raise your trunks and get your stomping feet ready! This month’s storytime highlight is all about elephants.

Books Read:

When Your Elephant Comes to Play

by Ale Barba
ISBN: 9780399163128

Doris

by Lo Cole
ISBN: 9781915801289

A Parade of Elephants

by Kevin Henkes
ISBN: 9780062668288

Songs & Interactives:

If You’re an Elephant and You Know It (Credit: Cape May County Library)

If you’re an elephant and you know it
Stomp your feet!
If you’re an elephant and you know it
Stomp your feet!
If you’re an elephant and you know it,
Then your face will surely show it,
If you’re an elephant and you know it
Stomp your feet!

repeat: + monkey: jump up and down,
+ crocodile: snap your jaws,
+ lion: give a roar!)

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Activities:

Elephant Stomp!

Elephants often stomp around, and in storytime this week, we did too! We used duct tape to secure strips of bubble wrap on the ground and encouraged our storytime families to stomp around and pop the bubble wrap! This activity was simple, but provided endless fun, and it was a great way for our youngest participants to practice their gross motor skills!

Letter Recognition Game

This week, we made a game to practice letter recognition and work on fine motor skills. Kids used their fingers or a pair of tongs to pick up laminated peanuts, each with a capital letter on it. Then, they fed the peanut to the elephant! We encouraged parents to help their child spell out their name, or sight words.

Retelling of Doris

We read the book Doris by Lo Cole this week, featuring Doris the bright red elephant who wants to blend in to her surroundings. She finds good hiding spots among colorful fish, birds, and flowers, but eventually she learns it is okay to stand out. We gave our families the chance to recreate this story, using our light table, cut-outs of Doris, and an assortment of colorful accessories. Can you find Doris hiding in the picture? (bonus points if you find 2)

Collaborative Art

We worked together on our art project this week to paint a giant elephant! It slightly resembles Elmer the Elephant from the books by David McKee, and it certainly got us all talking about colors 🙂