A Collection of Finger Puppets for Spring

 We've started planning for Spring! Yay! We like to end our storytime with a finger puppet rhyme. The repetition of the technique doesn't get old because we change up the shape and the names of the two littles! Here are my ducks, frogs and trees! These are addictive to make! LOL!

Two yellow Ducks paddling in the pond. one named Daphne and one named Don.

Swim away Daphne. Swim away Don...

Two little frogs croaking in the swamp. One named Ribbit and one named Jump.

Hop away Ribbit! Hop away Jump! ...

Two happy trees, waving in the wind. One named Fancy and one named Finn.

Wave your leaves Fancy. Wave your leaves Finn!

Stand up tall Fancy. Stand up tall Finn!

Two happy trees, waving in the wind. One named Fancy and one named Finn.

We are having so much 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!

Ducks Away!!

 

I wanted to make a felt set to use as I read this adorable book , Ducks Away!.  Our storytime group is tending to be the younger preschoolers right now. I wanted to have a little more movement as I read the book to try to keep the attention of our young crowd. Since we are a small community branch we don't have age specific storytimes so we have All ages! It can be slightly challenging some times, LOL.  I intend to add the ducklings as they do in the book and then when one 'falls' into the water under the bridge I can tuck their feet behind the blue felt so that they look as though they are swimming.  The momma duck is two sided so that she can turn around to look down at the ducklings in the water.  I'm in love with the whole set! Ducks are always so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Guest post for Bethany: Three Nervous Turkeys!

I'm so happy to be hosting Bethany on my blog! She is Head of Children's Services at the Bedford Free Public Library. She has a really fun song/rhyme in time for Thanksgiving!

Three Nervous Turkeys

A Thanksgiving flannel board song

I found Five Nervous Turkeys on the ALSC blog (http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2013/11/give-thanks-for-storytime/).  The song is funny, filled with my favorite autumn fowl, and easy to make with free clipart.  But, as I searched for images and hummed along, I wanted a chorus for everyone to sing and a new verse for the ducks.  5 turkeys, with a full chorus between each verse, plus a final verse to acknowledge the duckiness … is too long for my young storytime kids!  I reduced the turkeys to 3 and scavenged my surplus turkeys for silly mistakes on the duck costumes.

Three Nervous Turkeys—tune: “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean”

Three turkeys were getting quite nervous.

Thanksgiving Day soon would be back.

So one turkey put on a duck suit, (swap a duck for a turkey)

And now he goes “Gobble, quack-quack.”

Chorus:

Turkey, turkey, (hook thumbs together, fingers stretched out for the turkey feathers)

Turkey goes “Gobble, quack-quack, quack-quack.” (flap elbows/wings like a duck)

Turkey, turkey, (feathers)

Turkey goes “Gobble, quack-quack.”  (wings)

Repeat for 2 turkeys and 1 turkey.

After all of the turkeys are in duck suits:

Now no little turkeys are nervous.

They’re finally feeling their luck.

But you, my poor dears, might get hungry …

… unless, of course, you like duck!

(Chorus)

Ha! Thanks Bethany for sharing a fun Turkey flannelboard set! 
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.

Lucky Ducks!

This picture book is great for several reasons! There are nice clear pictures, adorable ducklings, a big problem and then a wonderful resolution! We really enjoyed this picture book this week at all of our storytimes. The younger ones enjoyed quacking and the older ones enjoyed the suspense and rescue. Harvey had to pretend to be a duck and there was a lot of laughing and quacking going on! I wanted to use the cute ducks I saw at Mel's desk but I wanted 10 ducks, that were different colors to play a "Which One is Missing Game". I tweaked a previous rhyme ("Turtle Fun") and came up with a counting by 2's rhyme with 10 different colored ducks. I outlined my ducks with slick, black fabric paint and used google eyes. Here's the link for the rhyme:Ducks on the Pond. 

We also offered a cute paper plate duck Home Extension. Here's a link for the template and instructions. daniellsplace. You have to scroll down a little to see it and she calls it a goose. We used it as a duck. We chose this pattern because the prep is super easy and quick and the finished 'duck' is so cute!




























Ducks are 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.

Morning on the Farm

 

There are so many fun books about Farm that you could use it for the overall theme for a month! Actually, I've done that before. The first week I did general Farm books. The second week I did Chicken books. That was an excuse to use Laurie Berkner's song, ' I Know a Chicken' and use the shaky eggs! The third week I did Pig books and the fourth week I did Sheep books.  I guess I could have continued with Cow or Tractor or Seeds or Veggies.  There are so many great books to choose from. Also, there are so many great songs to use too! There's the classic 'Old MacDonald had a Farm'. It's not technically about a farm but 'Cat Goes Fiddle-i-fee' has all the farm animals. I have a new favorite song now from Nancy Stewart. It's her song, 'When Ducks Get Up in the Morning'.  I think I first saw it mentioned on one of the Flannel Friday blogposts...but I can't remember which?! Anyway, since I have access to some great Ellison farm animal diecuts I decided to make the song an interactive activity. So I cut out about 5 or 6 of 6 different farm animals and handed them out to the kiddos. As we sang about that animal the children holding the matching animal diecut brought it up to the board. I tried a different way to do this with a small group of 2's and young 3's. I was able to give them all the same animal and they had to wait for me to say the sound that the animal makes to bring up their diecut. Waiting and listening for the sound before they could get up was challenging for one of the little kiddos. It didn't take long though, he got the hang of it and could sit on the edge of his chair and wait for the animal sound! I had as much fun as they did!! Playing is one of the ECRR components that we model in our storytimes. Now, I'm thinking a set of jungle/zoo animals might be next on my to-do list. The song is really easy to learn so that you don't have to have the music and you can improvise as you like. Be sure to check out some of the other great Farm/farm animal ideas on the Flannel Friday Pinterest boards.

Farm animals are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime! 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 too.