Here's a new set to use for a Book or Library theme!  I have 2 ways to use these. I found these rhymes at Storytime in the Stacks' blog post HERE. I added an enlarged  and laminated pic of our library card that we give out to our children patrons. I'm sorry but these colors are not true to life. In person they are more vibrant! I used 2 shades of each color except the pattern books.  I found a Google image that I adapted and deconstructed for my pattern. These were quick and easy!  When I use the ten books I am going to print and laminate book covers of favorite picture book characters to 'hide' behind each book.

I have made a document with the rhymes and pictures of the books HERE.  They never get tired of this activity! Yay for books from the library for Fun with Friends at Storytime!

More Duckies!

Well, it's spring time and in my mind that means eggs and chicks and ducks!! I shared the set I made last week for a Duck theme HERE.  Our preschoolers right now are young and so they really enjoy an interactive activity at the flannelboard so I made a set of colored ducks and a new rhyme so that we can play a game.  They don't seem to get tired of this activity!!  I say the first part of the rhyme initially and then only repeat  *The (color) ducks go swimming with a quack quack quack* and change the color each time. The kiddos with that color felt duck get to bring it up and put it on the felt board "pond". Then I close the rhyme with the last two lines and we all admire the colorful ducks!  

Old McRainbow’s Colorful Ducks

by Kathryn Roach 

There’s a funny kind of farm where colorful ducks grow.

They’re cared for by a funny farmer, Old McRainbow!

Waddling to the pond way out in the back

*The red ducks go swimming with a quack quack quack!

Orange Yellow  Brown Green Black Blue Purple Pink  White

See the colorful ducks swimming and their quacking seems to say,

"Please come back to play with us on another day!"

                         

Be sure to check out my other duck post HERE!  Ducks are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Mugs of Hot Chocolate!

 Now that the weather is cooling down, I start needing something warm and cozy in my hands! Hot chocolate always is a delicious way to warm up on a chilly day or evening.  Here's some rhymes to go along with the different mugs.  Five Mugs of Chocolate is a fun add one more rhyme. I have a twofer using the 10 different colored mugs here  Hot Chocolate.  I can't wait to use this beautiful book! Hot Chocolate is always so much Fun with Friends at Storytime.

How to Knit a Monster!

        I saw this post on the Flannel Friday Pinterest boards @ Storytime with Ms.Emily Library with her process for making her balls of yarn. I tweaked the pattern by using my 4" circle diecut to make my balls of yarn.  They were slightly tedious but not difficult. I made a 'bowl' for them too.  I love this book also! This is really a fun theme with several books that would work.  Knitting and yarn is 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! 

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!   

10 Sleepy Owls

I've made a new set of owls for our Halloween Hoot storytime! Here's a link for the doc.  10 Sleepy Owls. They turned out cuter than I expected. That's always a happy thing! Owls are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Astronauts in Space!

I love my new set of colorful astronauts! I used an adaptation of the song, One Elephant Went out to Play. Here's a link for the rhyme I used; Five Astronauts Went Up in Space.  I copied Amanda's astronaut on Mr. Keith's blogpost Here.  I love how they turned out!! They were tedious and halfway through I was tempted to stop at 5 but I'm so glad I did the ten. With a small group the kiddos can help put the astronauts on or take them off the board. They love that!  It's hard to tell in the pic but they have shiny glitter glue 'knobs' on their front panel. The red astronaut has a glitter felt face shield since I didn't have an alternate color to use for that.  These astronauts made storytime out-of-this-world Fun with Friends!

Marching Elephants

We recently did an elephant theme for storytime and I wanted a new flannelboard set! I have shared my circus elephants HERE and I also made my own set of 5 Elephants in the Tub but that just wasn't enough! LOL! I made a new set of 10 elephants marching trunk to tail.  Elephant Counting. This rhyme gives us an opportunity to talk about 'first' and 'last'.  We really enjoyed counting to 10 and then, subtracting and counting backwards to 0.
Elephants are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

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! 

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 

Pandas!

So, we are programming for the winter and realized we've never done a Panda theme at our library! Well, that's got to change! I had seen this cute idea @Storytime Sparks and decided it was just the ticket for our program. I had made a felt set for Pippa's Penguins by Susan M. Dailey similar to the one @ RainMakesApplesauce. So I just adapted the story script to reflect our boy, Peter, and his cute colorful pandas. My pandas are a deconstructed Google image. Since we are using a nonfiction book about pandas too, we can talk about the difference between the real pandas and pretend toy pandas! Talking and Playing are two of our ECRR components!

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 info!

I Love Food!

It's getting close to Thanksgiving so my mouth is already starting to water, thinking of FOOD!  I shared on another post about a rhyme I have about healthy food called 'Brown Bread, Brown Bread'. We have used it this week in storytime to talk about Thanksgiving food. It's been a lot of fun. I laminated Google images of the different colored foods and handed them out. As I put a pic of the food on the flannelboard, the kiddos bring up their matching picture and put on my big platter on my lap. It's so cute that many of the little ones are so used to putting their piece on the board that they'd stand there and try and try to stick their laminated piece on the board! Since they had 2 different pictures (I made 5 of each food) the second time they would get it right!

We used one of my favorite food/family books, Feast for 10. I really like Cathryn Falwell's book for toddler/preschool storytime. It has nice big uncluttered pictures and minimal text. The kiddos think that the 5 kinds of beans page is funny! (hint: one of the kids is holding a bag of jelly beans!).  One of my kiddos today noticed that on the last page of the book, one child is eating jellybeans while the other is reading a book! It's not explicitly a Thanksgiving book but it ends with the family seated around a table that looks a lot like Thanksgiving!  
We  also gave out a fun Home Extension of pieces to make a bunch of grapes. The pieces are different shapes and the circles are different sizes and colors so there is a lot of scope for conversation about that! I have a sizzix diecut for the circles so prep was quick! 

Food at Thanksgiving is delicious and 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!

Giraffe wants a Snack!

 You know there aren't a lot of flannel rhymes about just giraffes and I wanted one so, I wrote one! LOL! I really didn't want to make 5 or 10 giraffes so my rhyme is about one giraffe that eats 10 leaves! How easy is that?! Here's the link for my rhyme: 'Giraffe Has a Snack'. As I count the leaves for the giraffe to eat them, I can take them off; or the kiddos can help if the group is small.

I used Google images for ideas for my tree and giraffe. For some reason the giraffe looks yellow but it is really a tan color. I used a googly eye and some black fabric paint for the mouth, nose and tops of the little horns. I couldn't resist a little glitter glue for the vein on my leaves. Giraffes are so much 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!

Sunny Days!

I saw this post by Amy @one little librarian and remembered the sunflower post I shared a few years ago. I mentioned that I had done a Sunshine storytime that was so much fun. I just had to make a set of those cute little suns and clouds to add to my plan. I used my Sizzix sun and circle diecuts and glued on google eyes and a crescent piece cut from a large sequin. I just freehand cut out the cloud shapes and added a little white glittery fabric paint. I'm kinda pleased with how these turned out. I'm so happy to have the great resources from Flannel Friday! 

Amy has the rhyme for the 10 little suns that I made into a printable doc HERE and the lyrics for Raffi's song Mr. Sun.  Here's a youtube clip of Raffi singing, Mr. Sun.  We offered a Home Extension using my Sizzix sunshine diecut and some pipe cleaners to make 'sun'glasses! Ha! We enjoyed playing rhythm sticks with 'You Are My Sunshine'. We had so much Sunshiney 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!

Catching Fireflies

Fireflies are so magical! I've done this theme for years! Several years ago I made up a rhyme that I used with a pellon set of a jar and 5 pellon fireflies. Then I made a smaller set of 10 fireflies and a smaller pellon jar. Then, recently I was inspired to remake my set in flannel when I saw this post @catch the possibilities. Check out the Flannel Friday 'bugs' Pinterest board for other posts about fireflies. I decided to add my set and rhyme to the mix!  Here's a printable link for my rhyme,  'Catching Fireflies'


Here's the progression of my fireflies...

I also offered a craft with this theme. I cut out a jar shape from black construction paper. I put out pans of glue with glitter stirred in it and the kiddos stamped with little porcupine rings to make fireflies in their jar. Easy Peasy!  We recently got in this new firefly book. It's beautiful!! I want to use it next time I do this firefly theme! Fireflies are so much 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!