Two Little Bunnies (fingerpuppets)

 

Here's a new fingerpuppet set in time for our spring bunny theme at storytime!

Two bunnies in the garden. The farmer shouts, "Stop!"

One bunny is Hippity and the other is Hop.

Hurry away Hippity! Hurry away Hop!

(the farmer left, let's call them back)

Come back Hippity! Come back Hop!

Two bunnies in the garden. The farmer shouts, "Stop!"

One bunny is Hippity and the other is Hop!

Here's the link for the other bunny posts I have made,  Bunny  Bunnies are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater!

Here's my latest in my Nursery Rhyme series of felt sets. I had to use several different Google images and tweak them a bit to get my patterns for my Peter and Mrs.Peter.  He looks happy with his sweet Mrs and cute pumpkin house! LOL!  Check out my other nursery rhyme sets HERE.   I figured this set could be used in the fall with a pumpkin theme, or in the spring with a garden/bunny theme.  I did think of an alternate line to the rhyme about Mrs. Peter. 
"He had a wife and wanted to please her. They moved into a pumpkin shell and there they lived very well!"   Anyway, bunnies and pumpkins are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Rabbits!

A few weeks ago, Wendy @Flannel Board Fun shared her bunny sets and several rhymes and I was inspired!! We are planning to do a bunny theme in May so Wendy's post was a tremendous help in our prep! There are lots of bunny posts on the Flannel Friday Pinterest boards too. Anyway, here's my take on the bunny sets plus an original rhyme/activity set too. I used pom poms for the bunny tails and google eyes instead of making them from felt. I like the extra dimension it gives to the bunnies...plus cutting out eyes is a pain! LOL! I love the carrot patch and the baby bunnies!

Here's a printable link for Rainbow Rabbits. It's a take on my Old McRainbow character and his rainbow carrots and rabbits that eat them! The felt rabbits are a diecut. The carrots are just freehand cutouts. They are about 6 inches long. I did add some glue to the back of the carrot tops to stiffen them. They weren't quite dry when I took this pic. I do plan to make a filefolder of the carrot shapes too...eventually.

Rabbits are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime! There are more 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!

Veggies in the Garden

Time for planting gardens!! I made a set of veggies to go with a
song by Jean Warren to the tune of "Down by the Station. I can't remember where I found it originally because it's not on her excellent website, Preschool Express right now. There are a lot of other great vegetable songs there though!

Here is a printable copy of the song/flannelboard rhyme, Out in the Garden. I didn't really use a pattern for these pieces. I looked at a few Google images but they are pretty easy shapes to just freehand cut out. I could see playing the ever popular game, 'Which one is missing?' after singing the song. There's any number of ways to use these pieces and the song/chant. The children can help add the pieces or take off the pieces. If your group is too big you can have a puppet animal 'eat' the veggies!! Vegetables are 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!

Old McRainbow's Flower Garden

Here's another post for springtime bees and flowers! I was inspired last week to make up a new rhyme for Old McRainbow for Springtime! This is a color recognition and listening activity as well. Since I hand out the colored bees the kiddos have to wait and listen and watch for the color of the flower to change in the filefolder. There are several learning skills happening with this simple little activity! My littlest kiddos get the hang of this very quickly and love to add their piece to the flannelboard! Here's the link for the rhyme:  Old McRainbow's Flower Garden.

This is fairly easy to make too. I used a Google image of a cute bee and programmed a sheet with four bees and copied them on colored paper. I used my handy little laminator and laminated them. I rough cut them so that I could laminate 6 at a time and use less laminating film. Once I cut them out more carefully I'll add a small velcro dot to the back. I also used a Google image for my flowers. I just cutout some 'grass' for the bottom of the filefolder and a couple of leaf shapes. I cut out the flowers and the bee but colored with a sharpie the outline and stripes of the bee shape. I laminated the filefolder and hotglued two little googly eyes and stacked my paper and we're ready for 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!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

We are celebrating springtime here at my library!  I'm ready for warmer weather and playing outdoors.  The daffodils, Bradford pears and dogwoods are in bloom. They are sooo pretty.  At storytime we wrote a big S for Spring, in the air with our fingers.  I sang/shared a book that is a song; Inch by Inch; the Garden Song by David Mallett.  It's an older book with nice big illustrations.   I found a great Youtube video of John Denver singing it on the Muppet show here.  I also read, My Garden by Kevin Henkes. Here is a flannelboard rhyme I made up a few years ago.

Flowers Grow In Flowerpots   
(by Kathryn Roach)
Here are 10 flowerpots ready for some fun.
I'll sit them outside in the bright warm sun.
(we say the color of the pot as I put it on the board)
I have 10 flower seeds that need a spot!
I'll plant each of them in a color flowerpot.
(we count as I put the 10 seeds in the pots)
Each little seed will grow to be,
A beautiful flower for all to see!
(I place matching flowers to pots with kid's help)
With sunshine* and water* the seeds can grow
Into 10 pretty flowers. 
See my lovely flower show!
(* = add sun and raincloud)

The flowers and flower pots are Ellison diecuts.  I couldn't resist adding some glitter on the flowers and the sun and rain clouds.  I used metallic pipe cleaners to represent rain. I used a couple shades of blue, pink and purple as well as orange and red and yellow for my pots and flowers.  We talked about the difference in the light blue and dark blue or light pink and dark pink shades.

I also sang  The Flower Song by Nancy Stewart, with the kids. I printed, cut out and mounted on green construction paper squares, Google images for a daffodil, yellow rose, tulip and iris. I laminated them and handed them out and we 'planted' each flower as the song played.  They were careful to keep the squares in nice rows!  I always identify the flowers before we sing and this time the children started to call out the kind they wanted.  I've trained them though to be happy with what they get by the little rhyme...(they can say it with me)..."Take what you get, and don't pitch a fit!". There's usually a lot of laughing as we say that rhyme together.   Actually, as I handed out the cards they were excited and showed each other what they had.  When the song was over and they saw the flannelboard full of flowers they were happy and proud.  I'm so glad spring is here!

Slowly Goes the Snail

In nature the snail is kinda slimy.  But...in picture books the snail is really adorable!  I found a book that involved two cute snails and was inspired to do an entire storytime around the little critters.  This is one of my favorite picture books. I know I've mentioned it before; The Secret by Lindsay Barrett George. The illustrations are large and the detail on each page leads to interesting comments as the children notice things meaningful to each of them. Mr. and Miss Snail are precious!  I used them as a basis for my flannel pieces. The other book I use with this theme is Hi Harry!; The Moving Story of How One Slow Tortoise Slowly Made a Friend by Martin Waddell. The children are really empathetic towards Harry as he tries to make friends but has no success.  When Harry meets Sam Snail they all perk up and are pleased that he has found a good friend to play with!
The classic fingerplay Garden Snail is essential when I do this theme!  The contrast between verses of the slow snail and the quick mouse is a lot of fun. With older preschoolers I like to point out that they are opposites. I have another sweet little rhyme about Sammy Snail that is fun too. I have a beanie baby snail that I use as a prop when I do this rhyme.
Here's my 5 Whatsits snail rhyme. I can't remember where I got it...I've had it a long time.

This Little Snail
This little snail peeked in the door,
This little snail slid across the floor.
This little snail came out to play,
This little snail slid slowly away.
This little snail said, "Dear me, dinner is over and now it's time for tea!".
This little rhyme gave me an excuse to make 5 cute little snails. I used felt and embellished them with slick, black fabric paint and little pearl beads for eyes at the end of the little stalks.
I've thought of a couple of ideas to add to this storytime with ideas from Flannel Friday posts.  Either this one by Kari Ann at My Storytime Life or a take on the Little Mouse hiding in the color house game.  I've also thought about making up a color snail rhyme and let the children put matching colored snails on the flannelboard.  I'm thinking laminated cardstock snails might be the way to go for that.

I found a really cute paper plate and tissue paper squares snail craft from a Pinterest post too!  Snails are lots of Fun With Friends at Storytime!