Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Get in Shape!

I'm starting the year off with a basic theme of Shapes! I saw this post about Summer Shapes @ Mel's Desk and loved the idea of using shapes to make seasonal items. I decided to make a winter set for our shape theme.  I've got circles for a snowman, a square shape for his hat, triangles for trees, a rectangle for a sled and for tree trunks. This game/activity will go well with the book, Shape Capers!
We have a Home Extension craft with this theme. A coworker programmed a paper with pictures of our mascot, Harvey and 5 different shapes. I diecut the circle, star, and heart shapes with my Sizzix diecuts. Squares and triangles are quick easy cutouts with the paper cutter.  The kiddos can play a matching game and then glue the shapes on their paper. Shapes are a lot of Fun with Friends at StorytimeCheck out the rest of the Flannel Friday roundup @ so tomorrow for great ideas. Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blogBe sure to check out the Flannel Friday Facebook page too!

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Gossie and Gertie

When we were planning to do a friendship theme for storytime, I happened to be doing some research on Jane's blog, Piper Loves the Library.  Lo and behold, there was an adorable post about two best friends, Gossie and Gertie.  Oh Happy Day! It was exactly what we needed for the toddler storytime kiddos! I made a felt set of Gossie and Gertie. Then I scanned, enlarged, printed and laminated the pages from the little book to tell the story. I put the script from the story on the back of each page with cues for the felt pieces at appropriate places. This turned out to be easy to present and a big hit! Thanks, Jane, for the inspiration!






















































I have so much Fun with Friends at StorytimeCheck out the rest of the Flannel Friday roundup @ What is Bridget Reading? for great ideas. Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blogBe sure to check out the Flannel Friday Facebook page too!

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Let's Be Friends!


We used this theme as a Thanksgiving tie-in. There are so many great 'friend' books that this theme would be easy to do any time of year. I like to do it at Valentine's too.  I used my pellon set of 10 little children/friends that I made many years ago. I'd really like to either, remake them bigger out of pellon, or try making the set out of felt. I'll just add that to my to-do pile ;) I made up a quick little 'counting to 10' rhyme to use with them and then used them to play, "Which One Is Missing?" after the rhyme. To make this a little easier for younger preschoolers you could use only 5 of the easiest colors; red, blue, green, yellow and pink. I think (it was a really long time ago) I used illustrations from the book, The Best of Totline Newsletter edit. by Jean Warren;  illustrated by Kathy Kotomaimoce.This is an awesome resource!! 
Here's the link for the rhyme 10 Friends Today.

We made Harvey's Friend name badges as our Home Extension. These were laminated so that we could add the kiddos' names and some double-sided tape for each of our storytime friends.  This was so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!
Check out the rest of the Flannel Friday roundup @ What is Bridget Reading? for great ideas. Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blogBe sure to check out the Flannel Friday Facebook page too!   

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Christmas Candles Shining Bright

I so enjoy Christmas picture books.  I really enjoy Christmas storytimes although we don't program in December anymore. Thank goodness I have grandchildren that I can do 'storytime' with at my home.  I have a set of 10 Christmas Candles that is fun for counting to 10, and then subtracting again. 
Here is the link to print the rhyme; Ten Christmas Candles.
I hotglued the yellow felt flames to a gold glitter pipe cleaner piece and the pipe cleaner to the white felt candle. I also hotglued the green felt holly pieces and used red slick fabric paint for the berries. Check out the other posts on Flannel Friday @ Mel's Desk. There are some really cute ideas on the Flannel Friday Christmas Pinterest board. Check it out hereHave questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog Merry Christmas!

Monday, November 24, 2014

Mmmm, Cookies!!

We had such fun with this Cookies theme! Yum!! I saw  this post @ Story Time Secrets for The Doorbell Rang and wanted to make my own. This turned out to be a big hit with the preschoolers! We added a twist by using our Cookie Monster box that I made last year with a set of ABC chocolate chip cookies on a magnetic tray (the shelf of our easel). When the doorbell rings after Grandma brings in her tray of cookies, we bring out Cookie Monster and our tray of 'cookies'! We invited the kiddos to come up and put 2 cookies in the monster's mouth.  The older preschoolers said the letter as they picked off the cookies. Of course, I made a lot of cookie eating noises! Margaret tells the kiddos that Cookie Monster got too full and .... (dumps out the cookies) "Oh No! Cookie Monster lost his cookies!" LOL! Here's a cute idea @ Thrive after Three for Who Ate All the Cookie Dough?  Here are a few other cookie theme/rhyme ideas: @Miss Mary Liberry; @ storytime Katie ; & @ Mel's Desk. ...last one @ Read, Rhyme and Sing.
























































Here's our segue from Thanksgiving to Christmas since we won't have any Christmas programs. We used the 5 Christmas Cookies rhyme I shared last year. Of course, there was more munching and pretend eating as I took each 'cookie' off the board. Baking Day at Grandma's is a new picture book that we just had to use. There's a repeating refrain that the kiddos really enjoyed saying with me! Our Home Extension was a ziplock bag with 2 chocolate chip cookies! Those little faces lit up when I got out our tray with the bags of cookies. Adorable!  Mmmmmm Cookies are so yummy and Fun with Friends at Storytime! Check out the other posts of Flannel Friday @ Mel's DeskHave questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Mice!




Last week's book, Run Home, Little Mouse reminded me that I have not posted any mice posts. What's up with that???  There are a lot of really cute books that feature mice; not to mention the many posts about the 'Little Mouse, Little Mouse' guessing game that we all have. I do have a Five Little Mice rhyme that I've used for 10 years below to share. Here's my easy-to-make set of mice and the rhyme. Here's a link for a second 5 Little Mice rhyme/song that's fun to sing with LOTS of expression when Mama mouse does her squeaking! She gets quite agitated by the end of the song..the way I do it. LOL!  
Five Little Mice

Five little mice scampered through the door.
This little mouse said, “It’s time to sweep the floor.”
This little mouse said, “Look, I baked a cake.”
This little mouse not a sound did make.
This little mouse said, “Why don’t we have some cheese?”
This little mouse heard a kitten sneeze.
“ah-choo!” sneezed the kitten.
“Squeeeeek!” the mice cried.
And they all scampered back to their hole to hide.

Lauren Thompson has an adorable series about a little Mouse. They are seasonal or for special occasions and perfect for toddlers.  Whose Mouse Are You is one of my favorite mouse/family/being brave/funny books ever!! 
I did offer a Home Extension with this theme. It is lots of fun and easy to prep and assemble. The child can either, tear bits of the large triangle to make it Swiss cheese, or use a hole puncher. Either way they are exercising those small muscles needed for holding a pencil!
You could adapt the craft to a Christmas mouse by adding slits in the body to hold a candy cane 'tail'. You could always color on some holly leaves and berries, or cut out and glue on a Santa hat shape. Then, by adding a piece of tape to the back to hold the candy cane on, it becomes an ornament like this one I saw  @ Little Giraffes Teaching Ideas.





Here's another cute Mice theme idea @ Mel's Desk. Mice are an abundance of cuteness and Fun with Friends at Storytime! The rest of the Flannel Friday Roundup is HERE.  Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blogBe sure to check out the Flannel Friday Facebook page too!

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Nocturnal Animals

We did a really fun Nocturnal Animal themed storytime last week. I love it when I get to teach little children big words. I think that at least one or two of the kiddos will remember the word nocturnal after today. I really drilled it! LOL! Anway, I used this great board book with large pictures and cutouts for guessing. I want to buy my own copy to always have it on hand. The children ages, 2-5 were very engaged the whole time. On the page with the large yellow eyes the 5 year old in the group guessed that it was a cat. When I turned the page we saw that it was a fox. The 2 year old beside him said, "Kitty!" and no matter how many times I said, "it's a fox!" he kept saying, "Kitty!". The other 2's took up the refrain until I turned the page. Hilarious! This is why I love storytime!!  There's a fox, weasel, owl, and several other nocturnal animals including the last page that has a lot of small cutouts with eyes that are the mouse's family. Awwww! Happy ending!

We used Nancy Stewart's song of the month, "Nocturnal Animals". I used Google images to make a large set of pictures for me and small pictures that we laminated and hotglued to large tongue depressors. We practiced holding up the matching picture as I held up the big picture and then we tried it again with the song. Big Hit!!  I also used her song, "Five Coyotes".
This theme was a chance to use my Five Little Bats again. I also have a set of 5 little owls that were a big hit with the kiddos. Eli really liked the goofy eyed owl! He even wanted to hold it after storytime and fly it around. Precious moments for me to see the joy of a child! I got my design idea from Loons and Quines@ Librarytime.








Here's the Home Extension that we handed out. We had a lot of help prepping these from our Teen Corp Volunteers. Thank goodness! Actually, this is fairly easy to prep. We used hole reinforcers for the eyes. I made small pics of the finished piece for the caregivers and paper clipped all the pieces together.  They loved it! I'm a firm believer in these Home Extensions. As the child does the activity they can remember the storytime theme and activities we did at the library. Everytime the kiddo looks at their raccoon they'll remember our book, Raccoons and Ripe Corn. They might even remember that big word, nocturnal!  Nocturnal Animals are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!
*Update* For a terrific customized search through MANY blogs for a theme or topic head over to Mel's Desk and use her search box!! It's Terrific!!
The rest of the Flannel Friday Roundup is HERE.  Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blogBe sure to check out the Flannel Friday Facebook page too!

Friday, November 7, 2014

Pizza for Thanksgiving!

Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!  What does a turkey want for Thanksgiving Day? Pizza for everyone! I saw this adorable set by Ms Monica @ Ram Sam Storytime and fell in love. Here's my version of the turkeys and pizza for our storytime fun! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!






























Since our featured book, Turkey Trouble ends with everyone eating pizza, and the flannel set ends with pizza, and we had some leftover craft sets to make paper pizzas....guess what the kiddos got for their Home Extension? If you guessed paper pizza you are Right!

Turkey and Pizza are yummy and a lot of Fun with Friends for StorytimeYou'll want to see the rest of this week's Flannel Friday Roundup HEREHave questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blogBe sure to check out the Flannel Friday Facebook page too!

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Going on a Turkey Hunt!

Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE holiday.  There's no big hype leading up to it, no presents, just, family, food and fun!! I wish Christmas was celebrated this way too! Anyway... I mentioned this Turkey rhyme/activity from Mommy and Me Book Club blog in my Thanksgiving post last year. I like it because it's versatile. It can be done with colored turkeys (I use felt Ellison diecuts) to be added to the board by the presenter or the children. It can also be done with a file folder!  There's lots to discuss with this rhyme! Here's a link to a Google doc of the rhyme that you could print out. Going On a Turkey Hunt!  
I guess you can't take the preschool teacher out of the girl. LOL.  Here's a learning game/activity that I made with some foam shapes and the copier.  I just put the pieces on the glass and laid a white paper behind them and printed them on yellow paper then laminated it on a piece of brown construction paper.  The copy was not in color. It was interesting to see  how some children approached this.  I used this when I taught preschool, but it could be a quiet activity for the early birds to do while waiting for storytime to start.  I've also made matching games with diecut shapes and seasonal stickers that I laminate and cut out and offer to the kiddos. So easy and fun too.
I also have a very simple craft/Home extension that is super easy prep and the children really like it. I show the kiddos my finished turkey before I hand out the turkey body and let the children pick 5 colored "feathers" for their turkey's tail. I suggest to the caregivers that the turkey can be attached to a toilet paper roll and will stand up.  I have programmed a sheet of paper with 3 of the turkey bodies so that I can stack and cut out several of them at a time. Prep for the week for 5 storytimes can take maybe 30 min. or an hour.  Easy, Peasy!!  Since the feathers are so easy to cut 3 or 4 at a time, I cut out A LOT and spread them out on one of our small tables.  This craft involves counting and decision making and the children have some control by choosing the colors they want.  I give the caregivers a little pep talk before I do this by telling them that making choices (within reason and when appropriate) builds connections in the brain and helps the kiddos learn to have self control. Having fun and building a brain...pretty amazing! 
Going on a Turkey Hunt is a lot of  Fun with Friends at Storytime!
You'll want to see the rest of this week's Flannel Friday Roundup HEREHave questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blogBe sure to check out the Flannel Friday Facebook page too!

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Little Forest Animals


This post originally went with my camping theme but you could use it with MANY themes. I use my Beanie Baby animals but I also have clipart pictures of the animals.  This is a riddle/rhyme I made up a couple of years ago when our summer theme was Dig Into Reading. It turned out to be a lot of fun and there is a lot of learning/thinking going on too! Here's the link for the rhyme: Little Forest Animals. You could easily add more forest animals to guess; an owl, or beaver, or deer...This theme would be a great time to use my Hedgehog flannel set too! Forest Animals are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

You'll want to see the rest of this week's Flannel Friday Roundup HEREHave questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog. Be sure to check out the Flannel Friday Facebook page too!

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Camping Out!

Going camping is a really fun theme and really resonates with children. The idea of sleeping in a tent and being outside all the time is very appealing! I've got a not-a-flannel rhyme/activity that I used with my preschoolers and they really enjoyed it.  I saw this technique originally @ Mel's desk with farm animals and tweaked it to a tent shape with items you'd see out camping.  I set it up by showing and talking about the matching big pictures first.  Talking is one of our ECRR components! It's easier to manage these big pictures with a dot of velcro on the back and add them to the flannelboard as you talk and then as you say the rhyme. We did this twice so that the kiddos could get a sense of mastery and for the fine motor practice. Here's the link for the rhyme; Camping Song.   My pictures below make the tent shape look yellow, but it's really orange. I found some Google images that I scaled small for the tent and large for me. Making multiples is easy if you program a sheet with four rows of the small pictures. I used my little laminator, cut them out and we were ready for FUN!!  This also gave the caregivers an idea for some fun at home/preschool that would strengthen those fine motor muscles. I suggested paper plates programmed with shapes or colors or numbers...the possibilities are almost endless.         
Camping is a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime





























You'll want to see the rest of this week's Flannel Friday Roundup HEREHave questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blogBe sure to check out the Flannel Friday Facebook page too!