Not a Flannel post---New Books for Old Themes!!

 Hey Ya'll!  We recently got a lot of new books at my library and I tested them on my 4 year old grandson. LOL! He loves books! Anyway, there were several that I thought would be great for storytime and so I'm adding the link to the storytime theme I've already done beside the book that would be a great addition to that theme! 

Dogs   or Transportation:  

This book has minimal text and nice large clear pictures! We thought it was funny!   It's a counting up to 10 and then subtracting back to 1 with a surprise ending. Fun!

Fathers  or   Hair/haircuts:                     

 The conversation between the father and child is charming. They both are so handsome with new, fresh haircuts at the end! We liked this one. 

Farm animals or Ducks or Emotions or Rain/Rainbow: 

 This is not a new book but it's a favorite! The ending is soooo satisfying.  My grandson really enjoys the buildup to the great ending! Smiles all around. 

Rabbits/bunnies  or Garden/veggies: 

  There's a tension between 'expert carrot growers' and then a mystery and a great resolution!  Some of the illustrations are a bit busy or intricate. But mostly it's easy to follow and lot's of fun! 

Music/ Rock and Roll: 

 Penelope the T-rex is back! We loved We Don't Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins and this title is just as tongue in cheek funny! Read it several times!! 

Nature  or Thankfulness!

 Oh My Goodness! This book is stunningly beautiful. We did a lot of looking and talking about these large clear pictures. There's minimal text that rhymes and the pictures are wonderful! This one was my favorite! 

Great books are so much Fun with Friends (and Grandchildren!) at Storytime. 

One Potato...and more! *Update!

  * This is an update with a new picture book that would be so fun to use with older preschoolers.  My 4 year old grandson liked this book a lot! His 9 and 11 year old brothers enjoyed the clever play on veggies plus animals!  

I've been thinking about St. Patrick's Day and this summer's library theme, "Dig Into Reading", and naturally I thought of potatoes!  I did a potato storytime several years ago and we all really enjoyed it!  I used Diana Pomeroy's One Potato and Potato Joe by Keith Baker.   I've recently discovered this adorable book, Pigs Love Potatoes by Anika Denise, and would like to find a way to use it too!  Of course we'll do the traditional One potato, Two potatoes rhyme and I found a cute potato chant at Yakaberry that I want to use too.  I really didn't find any other potato rhymes so I made one up to go with some felt potatoes that I had made for a simple count to 10 activity. 

 

Digging Potatoes  

by Kathryn Roach

Let’s go out to the garden and dig in the ground,
Down in the dirt 10 potatoes will be found!

10 brown potatoes growing so fine,
The farmer dug one up and that left nine.

Nine brown potatoes will be yummy on my plate!
The farmer dug one up and that left eight.

Eight brown potatoes in a line so even,
The farmer dug one up and that left seven.

Seven brown potatoes for my potato pancake mix,
The farmer dug one up and that left six!

Six brown potatoes have grown to a good size.
The farmer dug one up and that left five.

Five brown potatoes now,... there used to be more!
The farmer dug one up and that left four.

Four brown potatoes that have eyes but cannot see!
The farmer dug one up and that left three.

Three brown potatoes to add to the veggie stew,
The farmer dug one up and that left two.

Two brown potatoes that never saw the sun!
The farmer dug one up and that left one.

One brown potato, the last one of the bunch

The farmer dug it up and baked it for his lunch!

   

Transportation Activity: Where Does it Go?

 

Here's a fun activity with a new rhyme for our next Transportation theme for Storytime.  You can use any flannelboard transportation pieces that you have to sort them by where they Go.  This is a fun and educational activity.  Here's a couple of articles that explains all the benefits of sorting.  From Especially Education, "Sorting-Why Children Need This Skill" or from Education.com, "Preschool Math: All Sorts of Sorting".    Here's my rhyme and instructions for Where Does it Go?  Sorting and Playing are so much Fun With Friends at Storytime! 

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater!

Here's my latest in my Nursery Rhyme series of felt sets. I had to use several different Google images and tweak them a bit to get my patterns for my Peter and Mrs.Peter.  He looks happy with his sweet Mrs and cute pumpkin house! LOL!  Check out my other nursery rhyme sets HERE.   I figured this set could be used in the fall with a pumpkin theme, or in the spring with a garden/bunny theme.  I did think of an alternate line to the rhyme about Mrs. Peter. 
"He had a wife and wanted to please her. They moved into a pumpkin shell and there they lived very well!"   Anyway, bunnies and pumpkins are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Wheels on the Bus several ways.

I recently made a set of 10 colorful buses for a fun activity/song for The Wheels on the Bus.  My grandson loves to watch videos of this song and we saw a really cute one that I wanted to make for Storytime.  So I found a Google image that I deconstructed for my pattern.  I first made a bus with the little children riding in it. I have a diecut for the paint splashes and children. Then I made 10 colorful buses that can be counted or used with the kiddos.  This can be a match the wheels to the color bus or match the wheels to the color splash or count the color buses activity.  I'm super happy with how it turned out. 

Singing and playing the Wheels on the Bus at Storytime is so much Fun with Friends at Storytime! 

A Tisket a Tasket; A Green and Yellow Basket

This nursery rhyme could be added to a Friend theme or Mail or even Valentine's day themes.  It's also fun to sing and skip around the room to!  I stacked 2 sheets of felt (green and yellow) and stapled them around the edge. I cut the basket shape out of both at the same time and then cut off the handle part and cut it apart. Then I stacked alternating color pieces to make the handle look like it's wrapped. I cut the bottom yellow piece into strips and wove them through slits in the top green piece.  The 'letter' is a long rectangle with a rounded edge folded and hot glued with a 'stamp' in the corner. I used fabric glue to write on the letter. The basket is made like a pocket so that the letter can go in it.  This could lend itself to games or activities using the basket. You could make a set of color letters that the kiddos bring up to the board as you say the color.

Nursery Rhymes are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

1,2, Buckle My Shoe!

This is a favorite nursery rhyme for counting, rhythm and the funny fat hen at the end! 

I did use a real buckle for my shoe and stuffed my sticks made of felt with a pipe cleaner so that I could bend them into the shape I wanted.  I added velcro dots to the back of these pieces because they are large and heavy. Counting is lots of Fun with Friends at Storytime!   

                  

Cobbler, Cobbler, Fix My Shoe!

Everyone loves new shoes! If I see a book with shoes on the cover, I'll pick it up to investigate everytime! LOL!  I got my felt piece for Cobbler, Cobbler done to add to a shoe themed storytime. I refreshed my shoes from another post HERE. Here's the rhyme for those painted and embellished pellon shoes,  Busy Little Cobbler. I also have a cute rhyme that uses some laminated shoes that came from the teacher store. I found this adorable active chant at Read, Rhyme and Sing blogspot.  Don't forget Mr. Al's song about shoes , Show Me Your Shoes! Shoes are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!   

The Turnip: a Russian Folktale

This cumaltive tale of an Enormous Turnip is a lot of fun! There are a lot of variations too.  I used The Flannel Board Storytelling Book by Judy Sierra for my patterns and story.  I made the ground as a pocket for the turnip to 'grow' and pop out at the end. I used a couple of shades of purple marker to shade the top of the turnip. Here's a tip, let it sit and dry for a couple of hours!  I did add a lesson at the end of the story. "Big or small, old or young when we all work together we get the job done!"  Such a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Hand Clapping Miss Mary Mack!

Handclapping chants and rhymes are a very fun and important part of Storytime. There's a lot of learning happening during the silliness.  A Google search for Hand clapping chants for literacy will pull up a wealth of encouragement to include these as a great component for Storytime.  We have been doing Nursery Rhymes at our Storytime. This quarantine has given me time to make several felt sets to use when we are able to have Storytime again.  Here's my newest, Miss Mary Mack! She's got silver glitter glue buttons down her back.  I tweaked a Google image to make my pattern.  I made her so she can be flipped from front to back.  Handclapping is so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Three Men in a Tub!!

Nursery Rhyme time! Here's 'Rub a Dub Dub'!  I think this is my favorite one yet. I used several Google images for ideas and then did my own tweak to make my 3 sailors.  This rhyme would go well with a boating theme or community helpers theme; or perhaps a bathtime or cooking/baking theme? Nursery Rhymes are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

There was a Crooked Man Nursery Rhyme

Here's my set for the nursery rhyme There was a Crooked Man. This was a combination of several Google images and lots of simplifying and rearranging but I'm pleased with the results.  I bent a copper colored sequin for the sixpence. I used glitter glue on the windows and lantern of the crooked house and some fabric paint for faces and buttons.  This was tedious but rewarding as it came together! We will be doing a house and then mouse theme to go with this rhyme. I have other posts for those themes.  HOUSE and MOUSE.   Be sure to check out my other nursery rhyme posts too.  We are featuring a nursery rhyme for 2 weeks at our storytimes so that the children can enjoy these fun, silly rhymes! We are having so much Fun With Friends at Storytime!

Pat a Cake Baker Man!

We are doing a Nursery Rhyme series at storytime and wanted to do the wonderful and delicious, Pat-a-Cake rhyme!  I was inspired by Mr. Keith's version HERE!  I have a Sizzix diecut set of alphabet letters that I cut out to do our version of the Pat-a Cake tweak that Mr. Keith talks about in his blogpost.  Ya'll know I had to add some glitter!!  The cupcake is about 5in. and the letters are about 1&1/2 in.  We used the rhyme as a starting point for a Babies theme!  This set will lend itself to several themes! This is going to be a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Knock, Knock Who's There?

Miss Melissa, our young child librarian wanted to do a storytime theme about Neighbors. We have been doing storytime themes that start with a nursery rhyme. This week is Wee Willie Winkie.  So, we were brainstorming and here's the result! I made 10 doors that were big enough to hide the children that I've made over the years.  Here's my rhyme to play a version of Little Mouse except there is someone behind every door.  A Neighbor Behind the Door. I did make a brown door but we ran out of room on our flannelboard.
This game is always Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Wee Willie Winkie

So here's my felt piece for the roaming insomniac, Wee Willie Winkie! LOL!  We used him to kick off 2 different storytime themes. Miss Melissa talked about Neighbors last week and this week she's talking about Clocks and Time.  We had a fun home extension for our clock theme too! The kiddos and even parents liked the home extension this week! It was easy prep. We cut paper towel rolls into 1 and 1/2 inch pieces and cut out watch faces printed on card stock. They loved it!

Miss Melissa talked about having a schedule for our day and a digital clock and an analog!   

Wow there was lot's of vocabulary and lots of Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Georgie Porgie!

Here's the next in our Nursery Rhyme series! That fresh little boy, Georgie!  I'm not sure why the girls cried when Georgie was handing out kisses but we talked about only kissing your family in Storytime!  LOL!  I used a Google image to start and simplified the pieces to make this set.  We used this set the week of Valentine's day so of course we had to talk about Kisses!  Here is an excellent article about the 10 Reasons that children need to hear Nursery Rhymes HERE.  We are having so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Jack Jump over the Candlestick!

We are doing a series of storytimes springboarding from Nursery Rhymes. One of the first is Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick.  My children's librarian chose to do a 'Jump' theme one week and a Birthday theme the next.  A big hit was an activity that involved jumping over a pretend candle. Here's the idea here.  I have several posts of birthday ideas that we used the week of our Birthday theme Here.   I deconstructed a Google image to make Jack and his candlestick. He ended up being about 6 inches tall.  We're having a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Tick Tock, Here's a Clock!

It's time for a story about time. This storytime is a chance to teach children the word 'analog'! I made a large clock face with numbers hotglued to diecut circles that are removable. The clock hands can also be moved as we talk about the time that we do different activities in our day.  Here's my rhyme 

Counting Numbers on the Clock. There's always time for Fun with Friends at Storytime!!

Little Mouse has a New House!

Little Mouse is in the market for a new house.  I recently remade my Little Mouse set and I'm super happy with the little houses! I used a Google image and deconstructed it for my houses. My little mouse is Pellon painted with acrylic paint and a black fabric dot eye. He's flatter and less likely to make a bump under the house and give away his hiding place. This classic hiding game is always a hit and so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!