The Ironton branch of the Briggs Lawrence County Public Library resumed its preschool story program Monday after a winter break.

“The Ironton library has its preschool program on Mondays at 11 a.m.,” Jan Gullett, librarian assistant, said. “We are in our winter and spring sessions that run through the end of April, then we will take a break for the month of May and start back in June.”

Gullett has run the children’s programs for seven or eight years, but has been at the library for 15, she said.

“Preschool story hour is usually ages 3-5, although kids of any age can come,” Gullett said. “But the stories and activities are geared toward preschool age children.”

The program starts with exercise followed by story time and finishing with a craft or a game.

“We have a different theme each week,” Gullett said. “We try to gear the books, crafts, games or whatever we are doing that particular week to that theme. We do a variety of different things that kids love. There’s something for each child.”

The theme on Monday was the five senses, as the children listened to stories about hearing, sight, taste, smell and touch and then worked on a craft where they constructed Mr. Potato Head models out of paper cut outs.

“One of the things we do here at story time is try to encourage early literacy skills,” Gullett said. “We do things that they need to know before they start reading.”

The children’s library programs are meant to be educational.

“A lot of the time they are learning and don’t even realize it because they are having fun,” Gullet said. “A lot of the songs that we sing focus on sound recognition with letters and their sounds. It is not only for the kids, but we try to model things that parents can do at home to help with early literacy.”

There is also a toddler program on Tuesdays at 11 a.m. and programs for all ages at all of the Briggs Lawrence County branches which can be found at the library website.