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!

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. 

ABC Caterpillar

We have incorporated the 5 components of ECRR in our storytimes at my library and so we have increased the emphasis on recognizing the alphabet symbols as well as their sounds.  I recently made my own set of an adorable alphabet caterpillar to use with all ages of our preschool kiddos. The original idea came from Shelley Lovett at childcareland.com. She has an awesome site!  I made my set as a color pattern and alphabet set so I could turn them over and use just the color side with the toddlers. I talk about the alphabet and put up the caterpillar face and have the kiddos bring up the letters to add to the board as we all say the alphabet together.  It's a big hit! I used a diecut to make about 2 inch circles and a 1&1/2 inch letter diecut for the alphabet. You can see the color pattern in the circles and the letters. The face of the caterpillar has felt eyelashes and mouth, google eyes and a tiny pom pom nose and pipe cleaner antennae. I used a lot of tacky glue!!  I don't let the kiddos play with this set after storytime.  At least not yet...I won't let them play with the face because of the small pieces that could be picked off and eaten! LOL!

Talking, Singing, Writing, Reading and Playing ... is a lot of  
Fun with Friends at Storytime!