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!

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 here! Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog.  Merry Christmas!

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 Desk. Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog. 

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 blog. Be sure to check out the Flannel Friday Facebook page too!

I Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I have several books and not-flannel props and a new flannelboard rhyme/game to share. One of my favorite toddler tested books is Nancy Tafuri's book, Counting to Christmas. It has large clear pictures and minimal text and a wonderful ending! I like to sing/read Here Comes Santa Claus by Gene Autry. Here's a youtube link if you need to hear him sing it HERE.  I just sing it without any music so I can go slower or faster or even stop and make a comment if I need to. The pictures are big and beautiful and the ending is adorable!

My grandson and I have discovered a new Christmas favorite that is hilarious! Dori Chaconas has written a wonderful rhyming story with a very satisfying ending and Lynne Chapman's illustrations of the cows are absolutely hilarious! 

Since the main focus of the story is the tree dilemma, I have a not-a-flannel prop that I like to use. This is a bulletin board cutout that I embellished with a large star and glitter glue on the top and dots of colored glitter 'bulbs' to make the tree shiny and special. I use this prop with several Christmas tree rhymes.





I have a new felt set that I made this year. I used an Ellison diecut stocking and made 10 different colored stockings and added glitter!of course! I made Google images of items to match the rhyme/activity that I made up. I laminated the images and put a dot of velcro on the back. I hide the items behind each stocking. As I say the rhyme and give the clue the children guess what the item is. Here's the link to the rhyme Christmas Stockings.

I also wanted to share a couple of extras that I've used before and after storytime as activities for the children to enjoy. I used old Christmas cards (I save them every year) that had a small picture on the back that matched all or a part of the picture on the front of the card. I mounted the small pics on yellow construction paper squares and laminated the card front and the yellow squares. I lay out the cards and hand the children the small squares to match them up. The matching game is fun and helps the children learn to isolate parts of the bigger picture. My 2 year old grandson got the hang of it after a little instruction. My 4 year old grandson played it on his own and was very proud of himself when he got all the matches done correctly and quickly! The other activity is laminated cards that I punched holes around the edge and tied a ribbon in one corner so that the children can lace around the card. Excellent for eye-hand coordination.
 I hope everyone has a peaceful and love-filled holiday season!
Christmas is so much Fun with Friends at Storytime.

Mmmm... Gingerbread!

There are many good smells this time of year, but one of my absolute favorites is gingerbread! Gingerbread houses are adorable and fun to make and gingerbread men (and women) are cute and Yummy! This is a fun, festive and not totally Christmasy theme to use right after Thanksgiving.  Jan Brett's cute book, Gingerbread Baby is fun to use with this theme. I tell parts of it because it is a bit long but the ending is fabulous!! This theme can include any Christmas cookie related books too.  Here's several gingerbread and a cookie rhyme for this theme. These 2 Gingerbread Man rhymes are fingerplay/action rhymes. I do put up my sweet gingerbread man at the end of one and leave him up for the second rhyme. I point to my eyes, nose, head and toes; pretend to run and then 'ta da' point to the board again when you say the last line.
Gingerbread Man
Stir a bowl of gingerbread (stir as in a bowl)
Smooth and spicy brown.
Roll it with a rolling pin (pretend to roll back and forth with a rolling pin)
Up and up and down.
With a cookie cutter (hold up pretend - or real if you've got one- cookie cutter)
Make some little men.
put them in the oven (pretend to open oven and slide pan in)
Until half past ten. (tap top of wrist as if tapping a watch)

Guess Who?
I have big raisin eyes
And a red hot candy nose.
I have yummy white frosting
From my head down to my toes!
I can run, run, run
Just as fast as I can.
Can you guess who?
I'm the Gingerbread Man!

Five Little Gingerbread Men
5 little gingerbread men on the tray.
one jumped up and ran away.
Catch me, catch me, catch me if you can!
I'm pretty fast, I'm the gingerbread man!
4, 3, 2, 1,
No little gingerbread men on the tray
I will have to bake some more another day!!

Here's another 5 Gingerbread Men
5 little gingerbread men in a row
(hold up 5 fingers and wave back and forth)
Not gonna eat one, No, No, no.
(shake finger and head 'no')
But they look so sweet from head to toe
(look at felt figures and rub tummy)
Crunch, munch.... uh oh!!
(slap thighs on crunch, clap hands on munch, then put hands over mouth on 'uh oh')
* count down 4, 3, 2, 1, til *
No little gingerbread men in a row
Wasn't gonna eat one, no, no, no (shake head no, hold hands out )
But they looked so sweet that it's sad to tell
(hand binoculars to eyes, then index fingers run down cheeks to represent tears on 'sad')
Crunch...munch...Oh Well!
(slap thighs once, clap once, then throw hands up and shrug shoulders on 'Oh Well!')
I usually pretend to eat each felt gingerbread man and wipe the 'crumbs' from my mouth. This is always a BIG HIT! I can't remember where I got any of these because I've used them sooooo long! Ha!
Here's one more. This is a classic and I'm sure many of you have it too:

Five Christmas Cookies
5 Christmas cookies with frosting galore.  *mother* ate the white one and then there were 4.
4 Christmas cookies, 2 and 2 you see. *father* ate the green one and then there were 3.
3 Christmas cookies, but before I knew; *sister* ate the yellow one and then there were 2.
2 Christmas cookies, oh what fun! *brother* ate the brown one and then there was 1.
1 Christmas cookie, watch *me run. *I ate the red one and then there were none!
(*you can use children's names *)
I used an Ellison diecut for the little gingerbread men and 5 cookies with some white slick fabric paint on the little men and glitter 'sugar' on the 5 cookies. The big gingerbread boy was a gift from a friend many years ago so he's pretty special to me!  This would lend itself to a 'Frost the cookie' extension! How fun would that be?!  Christmas Cookies are Fun with Friends at Storytime!