What's in Your Story Hour Closet?

What supplies do you keep on hand for your story hours? Do you have favorite items that you believe are necessary for your story hour programming?

Luci Bledsoe of the Johnson Creek Public Library shared this list on the March CEO for the Lakeshores Library System. The following suggestions are either very inexpensive or can be donated by your library customers and story hour parents.

Send an email to Jamie if you'd like to share what's in YOUR Story Hour Closet!

What do we have in our closet at Johnson Creek PL?

• Cotton balls (the white ones are perfect for snowmen; if you can find the colored ones, they are great for decorating paper Easter eggs or making spring pictures)
• Brown paper lunch bags (paper bag puppets)
• White paper lunch bags (perfect for Valentine bags; gift bags for making a Mother’s or Father’s Day gift)

• Advertising Magnets (cut them with scissors; put a dab of glue on the printed side and attach to the craft project for a memorable refrigerator magnet (thanks to Nancy B at West Bend for this idea!)
• Old or damaged compact discs or CD-ROMS (used to make CD-ROM fish or birds; hanging mobiles—use 2 discs for a project and glue the printed sides together)
• Empty cereal boxes (have a volunteer or staff member cut them and save the fronts and backs. We use them for patterns (for our Valentine Story Hour, we cut out half hearts and showed the children how to fold paper; trace the half heart; and cut on the traced line). Although we have our die cut machine, we still need to make or cut an original pattern for tracing. *Extra bonus—if there is a promotional item available such as a small toy, send for a free toy for a SLP prize!)

• Stickers (magazines and other companies will send stickers as a small gift—they go into our sticker box and are used for a variety of crafts)
• Paper towel tubes (we do not use toilet paper tubes for obvious reasons! We have used cut down paper towel tubes for making small turkeys; groundhogs, binoculars, etc.
• Yarn (don’t buy it, just put up a list of what you need and your customers will donate! We use scrap yarn for holiday crafts; paper dolls; gift bags, etc.)
• Ribbons (again we use donated scrap ribbon for holiday crafts; lacing paper plates together, etc.)
• Gift bows (use as a color matching activity)

• Cheap white envelopes (hold game pieces when we make paper dominoes or play Color and Shape Bingo)
• Reinforcement labels for hole-punched paper (we use both white and colored. The white ones are used to reinforce punched holes for adding a bow to a paper bunny or cat)
• Inexpensive paper punch (if you make a paper bunny, punch 2 holes on the neck; add a ribbon for a bow, and it is one classy bunny!)

• Cheap paper plates, both large and small (lace a whole plate and ½ plate together; fill with paper flowers and small candies for a Mother’s Day gift or May Day gift; we also use them for small trays if we work with glitter or paint; also can be used for masks)
• Paper cups (planting a seedling or bean or radish seeds)
• Craft sticks (ask your local doctor’s office to see if they will donate tongue depressors, use for paper plate puppets)

• Powdered detergent measuring cups (fill with dirt, add a small seedling; glue buttons on sides for wheels, and you have a small wheelbarrow for a gift)
• Scoopable kitty litter jug lids (I used to use milk bottle caps, but they are potentially dangerous due to their size. I use kitty litter bottle caps for counting; matching colors; shape recognition, graphing, etc.)
• Brass paper fasteners (allows the head/arms/or legs of a paper animal to move)