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!

A Tisket a Tasket; A Green and Yellow Basket

This nursery rhyme could be added to a Friend theme or Mail or even Valentine's day themes.  It's also fun to sing and skip around the room to!  I stacked 2 sheets of felt (green and yellow) and stapled them around the edge. I cut the basket shape out of both at the same time and then cut off the handle part and cut it apart. Then I stacked alternating color pieces to make the handle look like it's wrapped. I cut the bottom yellow piece into strips and wove them through slits in the top green piece.  The 'letter' is a long rectangle with a rounded edge folded and hot glued with a 'stamp' in the corner. I used fabric glue to write on the letter. The basket is made like a pocket so that the letter can go in it.  This could lend itself to games or activities using the basket. You could make a set of color letters that the kiddos bring up to the board as you say the color.

Nursery Rhymes 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!

Space Friends!

We're winding down our Summer Reading space adventure but I wanted to share this Rhyme/Story flannelboard set.  I used some pieces I already had and added the rocket and made up a new story/rhyme that used them all! 

Here's the link for Space Friends.  

My rocket was inspired by Mr. Keith at felt-tastic Flannelboard Fun Time!! I had already posted about Astronaut Amy Here!  We have had so much Fun with Friends at Storytime this summer!  

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!

My Lovey Friend!

We just did a sweet program about having a 'Lovey'.  I made up a rhyme with an activity for our program. Since not every child has a teddy bear as their lovey I made it a little more inclusive, LOL! Here's a link for the rhyme 'Where's Teddy?'  I saved the Google images that I used on that link also. I printed them, rough cut so that I could laminate 2 images at a time in our little laminator, cut them out and put a dot of Velcro on the back of the big pieces. I used a piece of double-sided tape on the backs of the 'lovies' so that there is no bump under the big pieces. I set up the board with the teddy bear last. I set up the activity before the kiddos came. This way the kiddos didn't see that there was something behind every item. I let the kiddos come up and check under each item for teddy. I used the different lovies so that each kiddo finds something! So much fun! After that game we played 'Which One is Missing?' with the lovies. Talking and Playing are those ECRR components covered with this activity.  

This turned out to be a really fun theme that seemed to 
resonate with the littles in my storytimes this week! I used this precious book at both my toddler and preschool sessions and it was a big hit! I also used Knuffle Bunny with the older set. When I introduced it I heard a child say, "I love that book!". Yay!!

We offered a Home Extension based on the illustrations from Sam and Jump. Those kiddos love something with a handle!! We had a picture of our mascot puppet, Harvey cut out so that he would tuck into the bucket shape.  I suggested that they use Harvey to play a hide and seek game at home later. I heard caregivers affirming that idea! Love when that happens! We love our 'Lovies'! and have Fun with Friends at Storytime!! *update: I had a caregiver tell me the next week that they had played with Harvey all week! Love it!!

There are other ideas this week @ 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!

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.

Gossie and Gertie

When we were planning to do a friendship theme for storytime, I happened to be doing some research on Jane's blog, Piper Loves the Library.  Lo and behold, there was an adorable post about two best friends, Gossie and Gertie.  Oh Happy Day! It was exactly what we needed for the toddler storytime kiddos! I made a felt set of Gossie and Gertie. Then I scanned, enlarged, printed and laminated the pages from the little book to tell the story. I put the script from the story on the back of each page with cues for the felt pieces at appropriate places. This turned out to be easy to present and a big hit! Thanks, Jane, for the inspiration!

I have so much Fun with Friends at Storytime! Check out the rest of the Flannel Friday roundup @ What is Bridget Reading? for great ideas. Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog. Be sure to check out the Flannel Friday Facebook page too!

Let's Be Friends!

We used this theme as a Thanksgiving tie-in. There are so many great 'friend' books that this theme would be easy to do any time of year. I like to do it at Valentine's too.  I used my pellon set of 10 little children/friends that I made many years ago. I'd really like to either, remake them bigger out of pellon, or try making the set out of felt. I'll just add that to my to-do pile ;) I made up a quick little 'counting to 10' rhyme to use with them and then used them to play, "Which One Is Missing?" after the rhyme. To make this a little easier for younger preschoolers you could use only 5 of the easiest colors; red, blue, green, yellow and pink. I think (it was a really long time ago) I used illustrations from the book, The Best of Totline Newsletter edit. by Jean Warren;  illustrated by Kathy Kotomaimoce.This is an awesome resource!! 

Here's the link for the rhyme 10 Friends Today.

We made Harvey's Friend name badges as our Home Extension. These were laminated so that we could add the kiddos' names and some double-sided tape for each of our storytime friends.  This was so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!
Check out the rest of the Flannel Friday roundup @ What is Bridget Reading? for great ideas. Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog. Be sure to check out the Flannel Friday Facebook page too!   

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. 

Valentine's Day

I have so many Valentine felt sets that I usually do a couple or three weeks of storytimes about friendship, love and Valentine's Day. There are soooo many books that lend themselves to these themes. Many of the books I like to use aren't necessarily Valentine's Day books.  This year a new book came in that isn't a Valentine book but will be perfect for the theme!! You Know What I Love? by Lorena Siminovich.  The illustrations are clear, uncluttered, two-page spreads and there is minimal text. I know this one will work with 2's and up for storytime!  It's my newest favorite! Another book that works well is The Biggest Kiss by Joanna Walsh.  A couple of songs I like to use are, 'A, You're Adorable' and 'Teddy Bear Named Freddy Bear' by Ralph Covert.  

I have a few flannel sets and not-flannel sets to share with you.  Be sure to check out the Flannel Friday Pinterest boards for a treasure trove of Valentine ideas. You'll see that this first set was inspired by a post I saw last year at Busy Crafting Mommy;  Six Little Valentines by Elizabeth Stefanov and Miss Meghan. I used laminated Google images for the animals and laminated WordArt hearts that I programmed with the rhyme for the Valentine. I put a small piece of velcro on the backs of each piece. The felt envelopes were easy to cut, fold and glue. I used a small stick-on foam heart for my 'stamp'.

     

Five Little Hearts
Five Little hearts all in a row;
The first one said, "I love you so."
The second one said, "Will you be my Valentine?"
The third one said, "I will, if you'll be mine."
The fourth one said, "I'll always be your friend."

The fifth one said, "We'll all be friends until the
very end."

I flip the hearts over after I do the rhyme and we read the hearts. I always tell the kiddos that my favorite is the one that says KISS! (I'm such a grandmother! LOL!)

I have another counting to 5 rhyme that I've used for many years.

Five Pretty Valentines
Five pretty valentines waiting at the store.
(child's name) bought one and then there were four.
Four pretty valentines for everyone to see.
(child's name) bought one and then there were three.
Three pretty valentines said, "I love you"
(child's name) bought one and then there were two.
Two pretty valentines, this was so much fun.
(child's name) bought one and then there was one.
One pretty valentine sitting on the shelf.
I liked it a lot! So, I bought it for myself.

I glued/taped kiddy valentines to heart cutouts and laminated them for my pretty valentines. I added a dot of velcro to the back so they'll stick on my flannelboard. I've used these for about 15 years!!  When I taught preschool I would tell the children that we would do the rhyme again so that every child would have a chance to hear their name and come up and 'buy' a valentine from the board.  Simple things are always a big hit with small children! Thank goodness!
Valentine's day is so much Fun With Friends at Storytime! Be sure to check out the Flannel Friday Roundup at Mel's Desk.