By Niamh, Leixlip library
There are lots of resources on the internet for children to use during lockdown, including many educational sites. In terms of fiction, authors having been going above and beyond to make their work, and extra materials, available during these unprecedented times. I’ve listed a few of their contributions here, so you can check them out for yourself!
For The Smallies – Ages 3 and Up
While many librarians around the country (myself included) are hosting Story Time frequently on social media, there’s an extra bit of sparkle that comes from hearing the author read his or her work. One such storytelling favourite is Oliver Jeffers who has been posting his work on YouTube for some time.
My all time favourite of his for the really small is Stuck, but his crayon stories are also fantastic, and they’re perfect for ages 5 or so. To entertain kids stuck at home, Jeffers recruited some friends to read The Day the Crayons Quit, with each special guest taking on the role of a different crayon. Special guests include author Neil Gaiman, musician Amanda Palmer, actors Matthew Rhys and Kerri Russell, among many others.
You can watch The Day the Crayons Quit on YouTube by clicking here!
If you want to catch-ups on Jeffers’ book a day you can do so here: https://www.oliverjeffers.com/abookaday
If you want a Story Time as Gaeilge on the other hand, Futa Futa have been posting lovely little clips on their Facebook page of board books as Gaeilge being read. Reading in another language is great for teaching new skills in a fun way. If your small child has been learning Spanish, or indeed if it’s the first language of one or more of their relatives, a really nice initiative called Save With Stories online has some well known actresses reading in Spanish.
Extra Activity Tips from your Librarian: Along with your own Story Time, it can be fun to do crafts, colouring and drawing connected to the author or topics in your stories. For example, beloved author Mo Williams has loads of doodling videos to follow along with here.
Story-Time in the library is often followed by a craft and some in the past have included: Cat in the Hat hats created by taping strips of red and white paper together, paper plate animals, superhero arm cuffs, toilet roll Paddington Bears and Gruffalo masks. All of these activities can be done with only a few materials and you can generally find ideas with a quick Google search.
For Ages 7 and Up
Any Librarian can tell you that authors like Dav Pilky, David Walliams, and J.K. Rowling rarely stay on the shelves for long, even without weekly class visits. Thankfully, even if you’re waiting on the books written by these authors to come available on BorrowBox, there are plenty of materials available for free on the internet.
As a grown-up fan of David Walliams, I appreciate the humour presented in all of his books and definitely see why his books are so popular! If you love his books too, you should check out some of the fun activity packs that are available for free on his website. There are word searches, puzzles, drawing tutorials, quizzes, and lots more all themed around David Walliams’ books. You can find them here.
For Harry Potter author JK Rowling, she’s created a whole new website for keeping your Potterheads of all ages happy. It’s called Wizarding World and you can find it by clicking here. It boasts that it will place a “Banishing Charm on boredom” with reading, drawing demos, puzzles and games.
Extra Activity Tips from your Librarian: A lot of your child’s favourite authors will already have loads of activities on their respective websites and there are even full event packs for The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series that I’ve used before that include games such as Cheese Touch Tag.
A list of some of these websites​ is below, but why not challenge yourself and your child to draw your very own Gangsta Granny, Worst Teacher or Wimpy Kid and even give them a diary entry!
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