Two Little Bats

Here's my Two Little Bats in time for Halloween Fun!  I do have another post that include bats HERE! These are super easy and lot's of Fun with Friends at Storytime! 

Two Little Bats

By Kathryn Roach  10/24/2023

Two little bats hanging out in a cave.

One named  Shiver and one named Brave.

Fly away Shiver!

Fly away Brave!

Come back Shiver!

Come back Brave!

Two little bats hanging out in their cave.

One named Shiver and one named Brave! 

Two Happy Jack-o-lanterns!

 

Here are my 2 little finger puppet Jack-o-lanterns for Halloween.  These are bigger than usual so that they fit on 2 fingers.  I cut a front and back using an Ellison diecut pumpkin as my pattern and just tweaked the bottom a little.  I did add a brown felt stem and my green vine is hot glued between the stems and to the top to keep that curly effect.  

Here's my rhyme:

Two Happy Jack-o-lanterns!

Two Happy Jack-o-lanterns ready for Halloween.

One named Jax and one named Jean.

Roll away Jax and Roll away Jean.

Come back Jax and come back Jean.

Two Happy Jack-o-lanterns say Boo! for Halloween.

One named Jax and one named Jean!

I do have other Halloween and Pumpkin rhymes Here and Here. Two Happy Jack-o-lanterns are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Halloween Babies

Last year I made a large set of babies and blankets to play a Peek-a-Boo game with our youngest storytimers.  It was a big hit! Here's the link Peek-a-Boo Baby!   So this year I made a new set and a new rhyme for Halloween. These make me smile!!

Trick or Treat Peek-a-boo Babies

By Kathryn Roach (10/2018)

Trick or Treat!

Look and See.

Someone is knocking.

Who can it be?

We had used Frankenbaby last year and he sort of was the inspiration for Halloween babies. We are using felt sheets with a large sequin 'doorknob' to hide the babies and then we'll say the rhyme and the magic happens! LOL!   Babies and Peek-a-boo are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime!

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!

Five Friends Play Dress Up!

Miss Margaret and I and our newest staff member, Camille, are busy planning the fall programming session. When you get three storytime-picture book lovers together the ideas are abundant!! We are planning several themes in a row with a unifying device of a story that our mascot, Harvey is 'writing'. This will tie into our ECRR component of Writing! So the first week we are doing Astronauts and space, then Pirates, then Cowboys, then Ninjas and finally, Monsters! That will get us to our Halloween Hoot and dress up fun! I made a set of 5 friends that we will use each week as we talk about our story.  I can tell from the pictures that I need to do a little trimming but I was too excited to wait to share them with everyone. Here's the link for my dress up friends from last year. Here is a second version of the Friends dressing up rhyme from that post...Five Jack-o-lanterns shining Bright (opt. version). Friends that dress up are going to be a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime!! There are more great 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!

Five Jack-o-lanterns Shining Bright

We are combining Halloween and a Medieval storytime theme this year. Dressing up for Halloween is a great time to pretend to be a king or princess or knight in shining armor!  Miss Margaret had a cute prop of 5 jack-o-lantern shapes that are clothes-pined to a cute wooden fence. So, to use that prop and tie it into our theme I made up a rhyme and made this set of flannel children for our combination storytime.

Five Jack-o-lanterns Shining Bright

  (by Kathryn Roach)

Sitting on a fence on Halloween night

Five smiling Jack-o-lanterns are shining bright.

Watching the kids going Trick or Treat

Filling their bags with something sweet.

First comes a king with his crown on tight

He takes a Jack-o-lantern shining bright.

Next a princess, such a beautiful sight

She takes a Jack-o-lantern shining bright.

Third comes a knight with his sword of might!

He takes a Jack-o-lantern shining bright.

Fourth comes a dragon, I don't think he'll bite!

He takes a Jack-o-lantern shining bright.

Last is a jester with black and red tights

She takes a Jack-o-lantern shining bright.

Five Trick-or-Treaters on Halloween night 
Have five smiling Jack-o-lanterns shining bright.

Happy Halloween!

Check out my post about dragons HERE. And my Medieval post HERE.   Dressing up for Halloween is a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime!

There are more great posts on the Flannel Friday Roundup. Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. If you want more info about Flannel Friday here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog.

Trick or Treat Candy

I was looking at the Halloween blogposts, and I looked through all my Halloween sets and found very few, almost no, rhymes about candy! Oh My! That's one of the main reasons for Halloween for children. The dressing up is fun but the free candy is the best! I found a cute candy song video HERE. Mr. Al has a song about candy on his CD, Kids Wanna Rock. Well, I did some thinking and rhyming and came up with an interactive rhyme I called, Trick or Treat Candy.
You can do this two different ways. 
You can tell the kiddos that we are pretending that the board is our Trick or Treat bag and they can bring their colored candy piece to stick on the flannelboard. Or you could have a Halloween treat bag or plastic pumpkin and have the kiddos drop their colored candy piece in it. The kiddos that come to my storytime like to see the flannelboard full with all the pieces that they brought up. You could instruct them to line up the colored pieces and essentially make a graph. Then you could count the different colors and see which is the most or least. I can slightly control where the pieces go by placing the first piece as I say the color and then I 'help' the kiddos find a place on the board for their piece. I say, "Let's make a line with our pieces." Sometimes, a child that brings up their piece will realign another piece that isn't quite straight in the line. LOL!  Usually once they see the first color in a row, they add their piece after mine right in the row. 

I used a Google image to program a sheet of paper to make copies on colored cardstock and bright paper. I laminated them with my small laminator and cut them out and added a small piece of velcro (hook side) to the back. Now we're ready for some candy Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Check out the rest of the blogposts for Flannel Friday HERE! Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog.  Be sure to join us on the Flannel Friday Facebook page and enjoy the great Flannel Friday Pinterest boards too!

How Does Your Pumpkin Grow?

As I was going through my fall theme tub, I found a cute pumpkin prop that I got a few years ago from a guest presenter from the Farm Bureau. I tweaked it a little and added the Jack-o-lantern to mine. Since then I found a cute set HERE.  

Here's mine: 

                 'Life Cycle of a Pumpkin'

A seed is planted in the ground. 
(pull out seed shape)

A leaf appears. (keep pulling until leaf shows)

Next comes a blossom...   

Then a small, green pumpkin...               

Which grows and grows and turns orange.  

Here's an orange pumpkin that we can pick and carve into ... 

(After you show the orange pumpkin, flip the brown paper plate over and show the Jack-o-lantern) 

A funny Jack-o-lantern!

I painted one paper plate brown for the 'ground' and taped a long piece of green curling ribbon in the center of it. I stapled another paper plate to the back of the brown plate with the ribbon sandwiched between the two. I taped the shapes at intervals on the ribbon and then stacked them on top of each other and tucked them into the paper plates with a small piece of ribbon showing to pull the pieces out. I used Google images for a Jack-o-lantern for the back side. There was a lot of 'oooing' and 'ahhhhing' as the pieces magically appeared from the paper plates. Way fun!!

The Pumpkins Are Here                                                      

The pumpkins are here. The pumpkins are there.

The pumpkins, the pumpkins are everywhere.

The pumpkins are up. The pumpkins are down.
The pumpkins, the pumpkins are all around.

The pumpkins are in. The pumpkins are out.
The pumpkins, the pumpkins are all about.

The pumpkins are low. The pumpkins are high.
The pumpkins, the pumpkins all say,  "Goodbye!"

This classic rhyme sung to the tune of the 'Farmer In the Dell' is fun. Give each child a pumpkin cutout on a popsicle stick to move as you sing the song.  I usually sing the song very slowly when I do it with toddlers.  If you make enough props, you could let the kiddos take one home as their home extension. I have offered a craft with my pumpkin/ Jack-o-lantern storytimes also. Here is a fun easy one that was very popular.  I printed the Jack-o-lantern pattern  on construction paper. Then I cut it out, including the facial features and covered the front with a piece of contact paper cut to fit. I put the paper piece on the back until we were ready for the craft time. Then the caregiver or older preschooler peeled the paper off and added glitter to the features. I do it 2 different ways. I usually use a pie pan or paper plate with glitter in it that the kiddos can either, pat their Jack-o-lantern on; or 'pinch' the glitter and sprinkle it over the features. The pinching of the glitter is a good fine motor exercise. I have wet wipes or wet paper towels for the glittery fingers. The kiddos really like this craft!

Pumpkins and Jack-o-lanterns are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime! Check out the rest of the roundup @ Mel's Desk .  Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog.  Be sure to  join us on the Flannel Friday Facebook page.

Inspired Pumpkins

This is my version of Sarah @ Read Rabbit Read's 'Five Giant Pumpkins'. I loved the 2-sided action with her images. I combined felt and images in my set. I made the pumpkins out of felt and, of course, added some glitter. I used laminated Google images with velcro on the back for the items hiding behind the giant pumpkins.  The kiddos really liked this one last year. Then we played, 'Which One's Missing?' with the items after I moved the pumpkins. I love a 2 for 1 set!!

You just can't have too much Fun with Friends (and pumpkins) at Storytime.  Check out the rest of the roundup HERE.  Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog.  Be sure to  join us on the Flannel Friday Facebook page and enjoy the great Flannel Friday Pinterest boards too!

Another Pumpkin Post.

Here's another not-a-flannel prop that I use when I do my pumpkin/Halloween theme. I cannot remember where I found this little rhyme. I've been using it for years! Anyway, I made two paper jack-o-lantern shapes and put black paper behind one and glittered white paper behind the other and then put them back to back and added a brown stem and green pipecleaner vine and green paper leaves. As I say the rhyme I start with the frown side and then turn it around for the happy face! It's always a big hit with the toddler crowd!

Little Pumpkin
I'm a little pumpkin, orange and round.
When I'm sad, my face wears a frown.
But when I am happy and all aglow,
watch my smile just grow and grow!



So much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Not so Scary Scarecrow.

I don't really do scary Halloween themes for storytime. I don't read books that have ghosts or scary witches. That's a personal preference and presenter's prerogative. Here are some of my previous Halloween ideas; spiders, monsters and bats.  I do have a not-so-scary scarecrow that I like to use. I made this cute scarecrow many years ago from Liz and Dick Wilmes' terrific book, Felt Board Fingerplays with Patterns and Activites: Rhymes and Songs. I have used so many of their patterns and rhymes over the years. This is one of my favorite, most used resources!  Anyway, I did enlarge the patterns a little because I like my flannel sets to be big.

Let's Build a Scarecrow!

First the body,
Then the head,
a big straw hat,
and a scarf of red.
buttons for eyes,
a carrot nose,
a mouth made of stitches,
In two smiling rows

I made my scarecrow out of pellon and colored him with color pencils. There's two pieces of velcro on the back of the buttons to hold them on the scarecrow. I may have to use some tape because they tend to slip and slide when I put them on. His carrot nose and mouth are made of felt. I'm thinking of doing a little freshening with some yarn and slick puff paint this year.  I can't leave well enough alone! LOL!
My coworker introduced me to a cute little song, "Dingle Dangle Scarecrow" to use with this theme.  Here's another youtube link for the song.  I also talk about the fact that scarecrows are for scaring crows and not people. We talk about dressing up and pretending at Halloween.

We have a lot of Fun with Friends...and scarecrows...at Storytime.

I'm Going Batty!

I have an adorable little Beanie Baby bat that inspired this theme for my Storytime. Last year when I saw this cute post by Amanda at Trails & Tales about Bats! I just had to make my own set.  I tweaked the rhyme by adding one more verse*.

5 Little Bats
1...
2...
3...
4...
*5 little bats were trying to behave
They hung by their feet upside down in a cave.
They slept all day until the fading of the light.
Then they woke and said, "We're hungry!" and flew into the night!
(alternate: Then they woke and said, "Happy Halloween" and flew into the night!)


Then I found an adorable song by Carole Peterson on her CD, H.U.M. - Highly Usable Music, All Year Long!; "Black Bat Farm".  I decided to make flannel pieces to go with it as I sang it. I don't use the CD because I don't sing the ghost verse.  But, it is still adorable!  It's a version of "The Green Grass Grew All Around".
Black Bat Farm
Carole Peterson - adapted by Kathryn Roach

There was a farm - *echo line*
A quiet farm -*
The quietest farm -*
that you ever did see...eeeeee!
A field is on the farm, the farm is dark and quiet
Chorus: And the black bats flew all around, all around
Oh, the black bats flew all around.
And in that field -*
There was a vine -*
the creepiest vine -* that you ever did see...eeee! The vine in the field, the field on the farm, the farm is dark and quiet
Chorus

And on that vine -* 
There was a pumpkin -*
the cutest pumpkin-*
that you ever did see...eeeee!
The pumpkin on the vine, the vine in the field, 
the field on the farm, the farm is dark and quiet...
Chorus

And on that pumpkin -*
There was a face -*
the happiest face -*
that you ever did see....eeeee!                
The face on the pumpkin, the pumpkin on the vine,
the vine in the field, the field on the farm, the farm
is dark and quiet...BOO!
Chorus
Happy Halloween!

I made the field with two sheets of felt and pieces of yarn glued on as rows in a plowed field.  The vine is green ribbon with some velcro under the pieces of felt glued to the 'B' and exclamation point.  I glued the ribbon so that the 'O's keep their shape.  I cut out 10 of the small black bats and added a few each time I sang the chorus until they were all up on the board. The caregivers and kiddos soon were singing the chorus with me and everyone liked the happy Jack-o-lantern face at the end. I also got quieter as I sang the last part, "the farm is dark and quiet"... pause... then I said, "Boo!" and we all laughed and sang the final chorus together. This was a really big hit! Turns out I am a batty old lady after all!  LOL!   
Bats are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime.
update: Check out the rest of the roundup @ Library Village.  Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog.  Be sure to  join us on the Flannel Friday Facebook page and enjoy the great Flannel Friday Pinterest boards too!