By Julia Beauregard
Hometown Weekly Editor
At the tail end of the holiday break, families with little ones ventured out to the Sherborn Library to spend a morning with local children’s performer, Deb Hudgins.
As the program began, the performer introduced herself to her audience: “I’m Mrs. Hudgins and I’m so excited to sing with you today! Today, we are going to sing songs about the winter.” Although a frequent performer at the Sherborn Library, Hudgins explained that she had not performed there since their initial reopening in the spring. By all of the excited faces, it was safe to say that local families were happy for her return.
Hudgins began the program by singing a silly song with lots of movement called “Pudding on the Plate.” This allowed for the children to move their bodies, use their voices, and release some of their energy so they could focus on the stories and songs to come.
The children’s performer engaged the children in a variety of interactive songs such as, “Hello Winter,” “Let’s Play in the Snow Together,” and “Snowflakes Falling Down,” just to name a few.
Hudgins showed the children how to move their bodies and use their imaginations to encourage interaction and enforce what each of these songs were teaching. Children pretended to build snowmen, form snowballs, ice skate and glide around the community room.
She provided instruments including clappers, tambourines, and maracas for children to experiment with as they loudly sang along to “Jingle Bells,” and “Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer.” All of the children were delighted to choose the instrument that they used during these two songs.
Apart from playing guitar, singing, and dancing, Hudgins read stories to the children that kept with the winter theme this program was embodying. The fan favorite story that she read was, “Winter is Here,” by Kevin Hanks. The beautiful illustrations captured the children’s attention as she shared these pictures with the crowd. The performer asked the children questions as she read to encourage and aid in their reading comprehension ability.
All in all it was a wonderful program that aided these little ones in learning about the winter season that was before them all.
For more information on programs offered by the Sherborn Library, please visit their website: https://sherbornlibrary.org/calendar
