Hello Friends!

 

We wanted to have a diverse set of children felt set for multiple uses so
I made a set.  I used 5 different skin tones and made my kiddos slightly different sizes and 2 have some physical challenges. They all have on different outfits that can be changed if we want to. You can see my little girl in her 'underwear'.  They are 'holding' musical instruments that match the ones we used in Storytime that week. I made up some rhymes to go with them for our debut use.  Their different colored backgrounds correspond to the colors of the 5 components of ECRR that we use for our Storytimes.  They are anywhere from about 10 inches to 12 inches tall.  

Hello Friends!

Hello friends, I’m glad to see each boy and girl today.

We’ll talk and sing and write and read and of course, we’ll play.

Let’s take turns, and smile a lot! these 5 friends will show the way.

Storytime and friends are great! Hip Hip Hooray!

We had a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime!

The Band is Rockin'!

Here's my 10 Rock and Rollers ready for Summer Reading Storytime Fun!! I had a diecut for the body and the rock and roll clothes and accessories. I had to modify the body cause they weren't made for each other. I made my own patterns for the hair and adapted the clothes to make a vest and shirt for two of my rock n roll stars. Ya'll can tell I used a good bit of glitter and sequins and shiny fabric paint too! I did make up a rhyme for these rock stars too. Here's a link for 10 Rock and Rollers in the Band.
 Rockin' out is 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!

Everyone Loves a Marching Band!

Miss Margaret has struck again! She had an idea for a Marching Band theme but we couldn't find any flannelboard rhymes to go with it. So...we collaborated and made up our own. Well, she did most of the rhyme and I made the felt pieces to go with it. I may end up making a couple more band members for a clarinet and saxophone. Just not yet. This was kinda labor intensive since I made my patterns as I went and *gasp* I threw them away!! You can see that I started with a Google image and I tweaked it some and I made my own pattern for the instruments. Anyway, here is a link for the rhyme  'The Marching Band'.  Music and marching bands 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!

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.

Family Hero Fingerpuppets

Last week Miss Margaret showed me an adorable blogpost about Two Little Superheroes @ Sunflower Storytime and I just couldn't leave well enough alone. Ha! We are doing a week of Family as Heroes so I adapted the rhyme to reflect family members and different colored capes/outfits. There is a link in that blogpost for a printable set of capes and masks from Hello Bee. They are so cute but I adapted them to make my Family Hero Fingerpuppets. I decided to make the fingerpuppet and cape the color that I needed and to make the head as if the family member is wearing a full hooded outfit. I'll probably eventually add some hair to some of them. And maybe a mustache for Papa fingerpuppet!  Anyway, using some glue and fabric paint and tiny google eyes I made a set of felt Happy Hero Family Finger Puppets!  Here's a link for a short rhyme inspired by 'There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe' that I adapted for our Hero Family Theme. The link includes the rhymes for the fingerpuppets inspired by the Two Little Blackbirds rhyme to use with the fingerpuppets:      Happy Hero Family!

There are great posts on the Flannel Friday Roundup this week. 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.

Super Heroes Read Books!

Here's a link for my latest Super hero Rhyme:  Superheroes Read Books. I was inspired by Storytime Katie's Five Little Books. Because I have Superheroes on the brain for the summer, I thought about having my super guys and gals check out books....I know it seems random but that's what really happened!!  I made my own pattern by looking at Katie's felt set and decided to add super hero titles to my set. We are planning to have a lot of fun with these this summer! 

Superheroes and checking out books are so much Fun With Friends at Storytime!! There are great posts on the Flannel Friday Roundup this week. 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.

More Super Heroes!

Here's the sequel to my previous Super Hero post.  I made 5 more little Super Heroes and 1 Villain! I am super pleased with these little guys and girls!! Take a look!  

 

I think we are ready for Super Hero Action this summer with our SRP storytimes! Wow! Biff! Kapow!! We'll have some Super 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.

Super Hero Fun!

Five Superheroes and Their Mixed-Up Capes

By Kathryn Roach

 Five superheroes have been standing up for Right!

They sent their capes to the cleaners to get them clean and bright.

But while the capes were there, the villain made a switch!

Now their capes are mixed up. Let’s find which is which!

*talk about each color of cape and match it to the color superhero.*

Now, our superheroes have their own cape to wear.

All you evil villains better beware!

These colorful heroes are strong and brave.

They are ready to make every villain behave!

Well, we are getting ready for the Super Hero fun this summer and I made a set of Five Little Superheroes. Here's the link for the rhyme: 5 Superheroes. The original rhyme is from Jbray. A coworker added one more verse. This felt set was labor intensive because I was making up and tweaking the pattern as I went. I started with an image given to  me by a coworker. The redhead with the black cape is the original pattern.  I changed the mouth and used google eyes on my superheroes. Then I made the other superheroes with different hairstyles and used 5 shades of skin tones. I made each one so that you could see the back because the cape and masks are separate pieces.This made the boots and gloves double pieces and the hair had to cover the back of the head. Each superhero is about 8 inches tall. I used my star diecut for the first little guy and lots of fabric paint, glitter glue, rhinestones and Aleene's Tacky glue! I made up a rhyme that involves matching the capes to the Super Hero. Here's a link for a printable copy Five Super Heroes and Their Mixed Up Capes.  This was a lot of fun and I'll probably make 5 more different ones so that we'll have a set of Ten Little Super Heroes. Check out the Super Hero Flannel Friday Pinterest board for more ideas!

There are more great posts on the Flannel Friday Roundup. There are more 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.