A Gift for Mommy

I am looking forward to Mother's day next week!  I always like to do a Mother's Day theme for preschool storytime. It's a BIG hit with the mommys and grandmothers that come to storytime!  I have two books that I ALWAYS use;  My Mom by Anthony Browne and My Mommy Is Magic by Carl Norac. I loved this CUTE felt set and song at Storytime ABC's, so I made my own!  For laughs and so much fun, we sing 'Mama Don't Allow'.  I wanted one more flannelboard rhyme and couldn't find one I wanted to use so...I made up my own.  I found Google pictures for each item and of a child kissing his mom. The color words are links to a Google page.  I printed and mounted each picture on bright green paper and laminated them.  I flip the papers as I say the rhyme.  I think it will lead to some discussion about what gifts we'd like to give to our mother for Mother's Day. Here you go:

                                                                A Gift for Mommy

By Kathryn Roach

I want to get a gift for Mommy

For this Mother’s day

Let me think, what could I find?

I don’t have money to pay!

I know she likes some fancy shoes

I bet she’d like them blue!

Maybe a fancy, party ring?

A lovely purple one could be the thing!

A mug for the coffee she likes to drink?

I know she likes the color pink!

Or a purse to carry all her stuff

A red one might be big enough!

An orange scarf, fresh and light,

With white polka dots, could be right!

I know what I can give to Mommy

I know that this won’t miss!

I’ll tell her, “Mommy, I love you”
With a great big hug and kiss!

I have adapted Jane's (Piper Loves the Library) adorable version of the Little Mouse hiding game to be a Mother's Day version.  I already had 3 felt houses for the original version of the game, so, I just made two more color houses,  a mother mouse and felt cheese. In my game little boy mouse is looking for a piece of cheese to give to his Mother mouse for Mother's day. I hid other small things behind each house and he even finds one piece of cheese.  He's so hungry and it smells sooo good that...he eats it! Oh no!  But, he finds another piece of cheese (in the last house) to give to his mother. (We all know, don't go grocery shopping on an empty stomach! LOL!)    I call my version, 'Where's the cheese for Mother Mouse?'  I have a purple house that I forgot at work.  The pattern for the mice came from Feltboard Fingerplays by Liz and Dick Wilmes.  The mice are made out of pellon and the houses and cheese are felt.  Notice that Mother mouse has shiny gold earrings? ...little things... LOL! 
I have as much fun as the kiddos that come to Storytime!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Up, Up and Away

I know this post might seem random...well it is! But, ... this was a fun theme and I wanted to share with you.  Two summers ago our Summer Reading Theme was One World Many Stories and one of the images on our marketing pieces was of children in a hot air balloon. That gave me the idea for this theme.  Then I found a book that I really wanted to use, The Big Trip by Valeri Gorbachev and I was ready to go! We sang the fun song, When I'm Feeling Up by Rick Hubbard to complete the 'up, up and away' theme.  We enjoyed the following rhyme that I adapted by adding more verses and colors. Then we played a "Which one's missing?" game with the colored balloons. I'll have to share the riddle rhyming game I made up in another post.  

Pretty Balloons

adapted by Kathryn Roach

Pretty balloons are in the air

Lots of colors everywhere.

Red and Yellow,

Green and Blue;

Can you see the colors too?

Foating high up in the sky

Lots more colors we can spy.

Orange and Pink,

Purple and Brown

Balloons are high above the ground.

Up high we'll ride and look down below

As we ride in our hot air balloon RAINBOW!

I still remember the fun we had with this theme; plus I am in love with the glittery hot air balloons!  

I have so much fun with my friends at Storytime!!

I'm Feeling Sheepish!

Spring weather has me thinking about lambs frolicking in a meadow...which leads to thoughts of fun at Storytime with sheep!  I've been wanting to use Counting Ovejas by Sarah Weeks and the adorable colored felt sheep that I made after I saw Miss Mary Liberry's here.  Another pretty sheep book is Ten Sleepy Sheep by Phyllis Root. I love the book, Little Baa by Kim Lewis and there's Mary Had a Little Lamb by Sara Hale.  Farmer Brown Shears His Sheep by Teri Sloat is fun too.  I have to use, Where Is The Green Sheep? by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek!  The trick is going to be to narrow down my book choices. I have an adorable flannel set that I made from a pattern and rhyme that a coworker shared with me (thanks Ruth!) that I can't wait to use!
Five White and Fluffy Sheep
(tune: Five Green and Speckled Frogs)

Five white and fluffy sheep
In the pasture fast asleep.
Their wool kept them warm all night long.
SNORE, SNORE!


The Farmer ran away with one,
Sheared her wool till he was done
Now there are four white fluffy sheep.
SNIP, SNIP!

Baaaaaaaa!

I made the bodies of the sheep from a heathery brown felt. I had thought about lt. pink but decided against it when I found this felt.  The tail, heads, and both sets of legs are cut and glued on. I used black slick fabric paint for the line between the legs and the face. Of course the silly google eyes make the sheep look so funny when the farmer 'shears' each little sheep.  I cut cotton balls in half so that I had that curly look and so it wasn't too fluffy.  I glued them to a piece of felt to make the fleece.  You can see that I covered their eyes so that they can be sleeping and after they are sheared they are wide awake! Baaaa!

Sheep are a lot of fun at Storytime!

Do You Feel Lucky?

I know St. Patrick's Day is gone but as I was putting away some of the files I used from last month I saw this one and I wanted to share it with you.  This is a version of the classic, Little Mouse...hiding in the color house game.  I made a small 'pot of gold' out of black felt and gold sequins and the other pieces are about 6-8 inches so that I could 'hide' the pot of gold.  I just had to add some glitter ;)  and the mushroom material is a fabric swatch from a sample book that was donated to the library.  Actually the polka dots inspired the whole set because I really wanted to make a mushroom with it and then I needed a way to use the mushroom and one thing led to another...

I made up a little rhyme I say and then the children guess where the leprechaun has hidden his pot of gold.

"Do you feel lucky? Let's be bold! 

Let's see if we can find the leprechaun's pot of gold!"

This game was a big hit!  The only problem was that the sequins made the pot of gold a little lumpy and the older kids picked up on that quickly!  Anyway, we all enjoyed the game and talking about what we'd do if we really found a pot of gold.  Lot's of fun at Storytime!

Which Came First? The Chicken or the Egg?

Having just done an Easter Egg program, I've got eggs on the brain! Maybe my brains are 'scrambled?' cue the laugh track...  Anyway, I thought I'd share these two cute little chicken flannels that I've had a loonnggg time!  I can't remember where I got the rhymes or the idea for the nest and mother hen's movable wing.  I've used Nancy Tafuri's book, Five Little Chicks and Hurry! Hurry! by Eve Bunting when I do a chicken and/or egg theme.  I also like A Big Fat Hen by Keith Baker.   Another good egg book that's not necessarily about chickens is First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger.
When I do these rhymes I always do the Five and Five Eggs rhyme first with the mother hen.  Then I  read a book, sing a song and do the other rhyme, Sleepy Chicks, with the same mother hen, but a different nest.

Five and Five Eggs 

Five and five eggs
that makes ten.
Sitting on top is mother hen.
Crackle! Crackle! Crackle! 
What do I see?

Ten fluffy chicks as yellow as can be!  


I made two nests and stacked them on top of each other.  When I say the crackle line, I take off the top nest and ...ta da! there are the 10 yellow chicks!  Even the caregivers laugh when they see the surprise! The chicks are made of yellow cottonballs with little google eyes and orange felt beaks glued on.

Sleepy Chicks

"Come little children,"

calls mother hen.

"It's time to take your nap again."

So under her feathers the small chicks creep,

and she clucks a song till they fall asleep.

I start with just the mother hen on the nest.  I put the chicks under her wing when she calls and finish the rhyme by closing her wing.   We play peek-a-boo a few times with the mother hen's wing which is always a big hit with my youngest preschoolers.  We do a lot of clucking and peek-a-booing; and a lot of giggles!

Chickens are a lot of fun at Storytime!