Holidays with Dinos

We did a mashup of holidays this week for our last programs for this session. We had fun with dinosaurs and Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. I had already shared a set of Christmas candles HERE. I adapted the rhyme for Kwanzaa candles. Here's a link for that, Kwanzaa Candles. 

We offered a fun craft too.  

Holidays and candles and dinosaurs!! How much Fun is that with Friends at Storytime?! Here's more ideas from this week's Flannel Friday Roundup. Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more info!

Three Happy Reindeer!

I'm sharing my reindeer Christmas ornaments that I think I'll eventually make into a set for a rhyme. This is the second year that I've made a felt set of Christmas ornaments for my grandsons. Last year I used a Fox pattern to make the cutest ornaments.

This year I saw a cute reindeer ornament in a store and came home and made my own. Since I have 3 grandsons I had to make one for each but not all just alike! I'm thinking of a rhyme so that I can make a set to use in storytime! If you think of one and want to share it, add it to the comments!

Here's a hand drawn pattern that might help you make your own set. I assembled mine with hot glue.

I made my own set of  'lights' with cord, cut up sequins and felt. They were tedious but I love them!  

Here's more ideas from this week's Flannel Friday Roundup. Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more info!

Newest Halloween Friends

We have been presenting our Halloween Hoot here and used this new adorable book!! It was a nice segue into talking about dressing up for Halloween (or anytime). A lot of the kiddos came to storytime dressed up so that made this activity really fun! I posted some felt kiddos dressing up for Halloween last year HERE. Two years ago I made a medieval set of kiddos that we used for our Halloween theme that year  HERE. This year we used them all plus three new friends that I made! Miss Margaret made up a new rhyme for them all and there was a lot of laughing and talking about dressing up for Halloween. You might even recognize some of the superheroes that I made a couple of years ago too!  HERE.  Here's the link for a printable version of our rhyme HERE

Dressing up is a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime!
There are other great flannelboard ideas on the Flannel Friday Roundup.  Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more info!

Peek-a-boo Baby!

I wanted to share an update for this post about emotions and babies, Poor Little Baby,  from a while back. I made a new set of babies that are LARGE! This time I added a surprise monster baby at the end and tweaked the rhyme to be a Peek-a-boo Baby rhyme/activity. Now, how much Fun with Friends at Storytime is that?!

There are other great flannelboard ideas on the Flannel Friday Roundup.  Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more info! 

Go to sleep baby!

I made this set of colored babies and beds for my church VBS preschool class but I intend to also use it for a Baby theme for storytime. I made up a little rhyme and will say it as I add the right color baby to the colored bed.  I do have 2 more baby posts HERE.

'Go to Sleep, Baby!'
Sleepy little baby, such a sleepyhead
Sweet dreams, go to sleep in your turquoise bed. 
(Hand out the babies to the kiddos and as you repeat the rhyme change the color bed for the kiddos to match on the flannelboard) I made 10 colors but you can always make more ...white, tan, grey, orange...























Karen Katz has some of the cutest books for babies and about babies that I've seen! My grandson loved her book, Counting Kisses as a bedtime book when he was a toddler. The illustrations are great and these are just right for the younger kiddos! Babies are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!! There are other great flannelboard ideas on the Flannel Friday Roundup.   Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more info! 

Flannel Friday Roundup for August 25th, 2017

Here's the last Roundup for August! The summer seemed to zoom by! It's time to plan for fall storytimes. Here are some ideas to get you started!  As always, I can add to this post through Sat. morning.

Laura @ One For the Books has a great post about Mice! She has a lot of great ideas!

Thanks Wendi @Flannelboard Fun for sharing some great Birthday Present storytime ideas!!






I'm sharing a post with an interactive rhyme about sweet, colorful, sleepy babies!

Check out previous Flannel Friday Roundups on the Pinterest boards. Here's the link for more info about Flannel Friday!

Being Thankful!

I'm thinking ahead for Thanksgiving and saw this post on Flannelboard Fun's page and she credited Mel's Desk . I loved it and wanted to make my own set. I made my pieces big and tweaked the bird and changed some of the colors but I really liked the sort of stained glass, primitive look of these pieces to use with the Raffi song, 'Thanks a Lot'.  I'll probably let the kiddos help me put the pieces on the board as we sing the song.  It's such a sweet song and I'm sure it will give us a lot to talk about too! I'm thankful for so much in my life and especially for Fun with Friends at Storytime!

  

There are other great flannelboard ideas on the Flannel Friday Roundup.   Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more info! 

Shoo Fly!

This is a theme we did 2 years ago but it was so much fun I'd love to do it again! There are several Flannel Friday Pinterest posts about flies and then there is the classic, 'I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly' but I made up an interactive rhyme so that the kids could buzz up to the flannel board. Here's the link for the rhyme, 'Colored Flies'.  I programmed a sheet of paper with a Google image of a fly and printed it on colored paper. I used my little laminator and then cut them out and added a piece of velcro to the back and we were set!

Get out your fly swatter and get ready for Fun with Friends at Storytime!

There are other great flannelboard ideas on the Flannel Friday Roundup.   Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more info! 

My Lovey Friend!

We just did a sweet program about having a 'Lovey'.  I made up a rhyme with an activity for our program. Since not every child has a teddy bear as their lovey I made it a little more inclusive, LOL! Here's a link for the rhyme 'Where's Teddy?'  I saved the Google images that I used on that link also. I printed them, rough cut so that I could laminate 2 images at a time in our little laminator, cut them out and put a dot of Velcro on the back of the big pieces. I used a piece of double-sided tape on the backs of the 'lovies' so that there is no bump under the big pieces. I set up the board with the teddy bear last. I set up the activity before the kiddos came. This way the kiddos didn't see that there was something behind every item. I let the kiddos come up and check under each item for teddy. I used the different lovies so that each kiddo finds something! So much fun! After that game we played 'Which One is Missing?' with the lovies. Talking and Playing are those ECRR components covered with this activity.  

This turned out to be a really fun theme that seemed to 
resonate with the littles in my storytimes this week! I used this precious book at both my toddler and preschool sessions and it was a big hit! I also used Knuffle Bunny with the older set. When I introduced it I heard a child say, "I love that book!". Yay!!

We offered a Home Extension based on the illustrations from Sam and Jump. Those kiddos love something with a handle!! We had a picture of our mascot puppet, Harvey cut out so that he would tuck into the bucket shape.  I suggested that they use Harvey to play a hide and seek game at home later. I heard caregivers affirming that idea! Love when that happens! We love our 'Lovies'! and have Fun with Friends at Storytime!! *update: I had a caregiver tell me the next week that they had played with Harvey all week! Love it!!

There are other ideas this week @ Flannel Friday Roundup. Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more info! 

Traffic Light - Stop and Go!

Beep Beep, STOP! now, GO! Cars and Transportation is always a fun and easy theme with the kiddos in storytime. They spend so much time in the car it's a theme that really resonates with them, LOL! I have posted my file folder rhyme HERE and there are many fun flannel sets on the Flannel Friday Pinterest boards. I found this one at Libraryland and wanted to make a set for our kiddos...of course, I added lots of glitter to mine. I made my own glitter felt with white glue, a layer of glitter, and then another layer of glue. I let each piece dry before I added the second layer of glue. Now, the glitter doesn't continually shed as I handle the pieces!  Here is a link for the printable rhyme, 'The Crazy Traffic Light' We also did a fun active rhyme with just the regular three colors...'Green Says Go' from Leah @Toddler Storytime: Stories, Songs and Rhymes.

We offered an easy Home Extension too. We cut 4 in. by 9 in. strips of black construction paper and put a point at one end. We had sheets of large circle stickers that we cut into strips with 3 circles for each child. The kiddos color the circles and stick them on the black strip to make their own traffic light.  Transportation and traffic lights are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime! There are other ideas this week @ Flannel Friday Roundup. Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more info! 

Fireworks!!

Fireworks are fun anytime, not just for the Fourth of July!! Here's a rhyme that you can use for any celebration theme. Fireworks!

It's a little hard to tell but the bottom left 'firework' is the pink one.  Fireworks are super Fun with Friends at Storytime!! Check out the other ideas in today's Flannel Friday Roundup!

Happy Gorilla and Rainbow Bananas!

I just shared 2 story times at my favorite preschool's end of the year picnic and wanted to share with you the Gorilla rhyme/activity that I used. I shared a fun gorilla blog post before HERE but didn't have this activity finished then. Here is 'Rainbow Bananas for Happy Gorilla'.  I programmed a paper with 6 banana images and printed it on 7 different colors of paper. I used a deconstructed Google image for my Gorilla face and construction paper for him. I just free-hand cut green fun foam that I had to make the leaves to hot glue to my shoe box. I painted the inside of the shoe box black before I glued the leaves to the box. I laminated my banana papers and Gorilla face and cut them out. I taped the Gorilla face to my box and we were ready for FUN!

I had the banana shapes on a small table by the door as the kiddos entered the storytelling room. I invited them to pick a colored banana and find a spot on the rug. They held onto the banana until later in the program when we played our game. Since this was a family event I had all ages of preschoolers for the program and everyone was able to play and everyone enjoyed feeding the Gorilla! Something about stuffing a colored banana into the mouth of a Gorilla was exciting and Fun with Friends at Storytime!! Check out the other ideas on the Flannel Friday Roundup HERE!

Building with Blocks

We are getting ready for our Summer Reading Programs and since our theme is a building theme we needed a set of blocks! I'm not totally happy with these so they might get redone before June but for now they will do.
Let's Build with Blocks
by Kathryn Roach
We have some colorful building blocks ready for some fun!
We can work together and add each and every one!

I made 3 of each color shape so that we can play some interactive building games with these. The short rhyme I have made up is still a work in progress. Actually, you don't really need a rhyme to direct an activity with these. They will also lend themselves to our favorite game, 'Which one is Missing?'. Building with colorful blocks is so much Fun with Friends at Storytime! There are more ideas on this week's Flannel Friday Roundup. Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more 

A Basket Full of Easter Eggs



I know I have posted other Easter Egg posts...here and here... but here's one more just-for-fun set. I made this set with my Sizzix small double egg diecut. I made another basket and egg set that is a lot bigger in this post HERE. This one is a lot smaller so it would work with a smaller group or as a center for one or two children. The larger eggs are glued to the basket shape and the smaller eggs are meant to match them. I could see this used several different ways. I could 'hide' the small egg shape in the room for the children to hunt and then bring to match the one in the basket. I could hand out the small eggs and either point to an egg or call a child's name to bring their egg up and match the egg on the basket.
I could put all the small eggs in a cute container and let the children take turns pulling one out and matching it to the one on the basket. This could be a quiet activity for one child that needs some alone time. I plan on using this little Easter Basket in several different settings and several different ways! To use this set in storytime I did make up a rhyme to go with it:

Basket Full of Easter Eggs
A basket of Easter Eggs is so much fun!
Let's match the pretty eggs one by one!

Yes sirree! Matching colored eggs is a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime! There are other ideas this week @ Flannel Friday Roundup. Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more 

Shy Ladybug!

I've got my version of the ladybug, Little Mouse rhyme and game to share today. There are many ladybug posts on the Bugs - Flannel Friday Pinterest board but I'm adding one more. I can't remember where I found it but I thought it was really cute!  Here's the rhyme;
'Ladybug, Come Out and Play'
Ladybug, ladybug, come out and play.
Where are you hiding from us today?

I just free hand cut out the big pieces and the ladybug is an Ellison diecut so that was easy! I added a small piece of velcro on the backs to make sure the flowers and leaf stay on the board as we look for the shy ladybug. I have a filefolder ladybug post HERE too. Ladybugs are so much buggy Fun with Friends at Storytime!  There are other ideas this week @ Flannel Friday Roundup. Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more info! 

Flannel Friday Roundup 03/03/2017 - Sixth Anniversary Celebration!

Wow!! Happy Birthday/Anniversary to Flannel Friday for sharing 6 years of Flannel Board Fun!!!
This roundup is to celebrate the collaboration of likeminded storytime/circletime presenters. Thanks to everyone that has contributed over the last 6 years. Check out the wonderful resources from the last 6 years on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more info!

To start us off are Five Brave Firefighters in case the candles get out of hand! Thanks Wendy @flannelboardfun for this adorable set and cute rhyme!!

Time for a party game from Laura @One For the Books. What a fun interactive flannel board for the kiddos to play with! 

Mr Keith @Felt-tastic Flannelboard Funtime has the cutest set of bluebirds on a resentful hill! LOL! Check out the variations too. 

Party decorations are from Kate @Felt Board Magic. Balloons make even a regular day feel like a party! 

Another party game or a great idea for this summer from Emily @Literary Hoots. This set of not a flannel seashells and little crab are easy and adorable!

Here's some party guests from Heather @Lady Librarian! Five of the cutest yetis are here to play!!

Heather also has this adorable set of Five Enormous Dinosaurs to come to the party!

Time for cake!! Hope Mr. Snake doesn't eat it all! Thanks Jessica @Storytime in the Stacks for the cute variation of the Little Mouse game!

I'm reposting one of my first Flannel Friday contributions in time for Easter Egg Fun. 

Thanks to everyone that participated in this week's roundup. Many thanks to everyone in the Flannel Friday community for sharing and encouraging each other as we Talk, Sing, Write, Play and Read to children everywhere!! Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more info!