ICPL Bookmobile adds special preschool visits to fall schedule

Starting this month, the ICPL Bookmobile will be making stops at area preschools on Wednesday mornings. This will be an additional service for several preschools who are already receiving regular visits from an ICPL Children’s librarian each month for a classroom Storytime. Preschoolers and their families as well as teachers will have the opportunity to check out books on the bookmobile, sign up for library cards, and even redeem prizes for the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten reading program! While the Wednesday morning preschool visits will not be publicly advertised on the schedule, if you happen to see the bookmobile parked at a school, the public is welcome to return library books, pick up holds, check out library items, etc.

This morning was the first preschool outreach day with the bookmobile, and the preschoolers loved touring the bookmobile and reading books on the floor! At some outreach sites, parents will have the opportunity to check out items for their family at the end of the morning pick-up, and some preschools are opting to allow students to select books to check out that stay in the classroom.

In addition to the services offered on the bookmobile, each preschool will receive a classroom Storytime. This month’s theme is “Apples and Butterflies!” With the cool weather we had in August, the apple trees are bursting with fruit in September just in time for Monarch season! This morning we read stories on the grass outside of the bookmobile. Favorite stories to read in September include The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, What’s an Apple? by Marilyn Singer, and Butterfly, Butterfly: a Book of Colors by Petr Horáček. Rhymes on the apple tree flannel include “Way up High in the Apple Tree” and “Ten Red Apples.” Using Storytime scarves, preschoolers will emulate butterflies as we sing and dance to “Fly, Fly, Fly, the Butterfly.”

The Children’s staff is so excited to offer this service to the preschoolers of Iowa City. If you haven’t had the opportunity to visit the ICPL Bookmobile yet, check out the fall schedule online.

To continue our collective celebration of butterflies and bookmobiles, be sure to come to the second annual Iowa City Monarch Festival from 1 to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 24, 2017, at the East Side Recycling Center, 2401 Scott Boulevard SE.. All are invited to view caterpillars, chrysalis and beautiful, orange adult Monarchs. The bookmobile will be on site as well! There is no charge to attend. See you there!