Two Little Zebras

 

A new set of 2 little fingerpuppets!  Here is Zoe and Zane. They like to gallop on the African plain. I found a cute Google image to deconstruct for a pattern and used some hot glue and slick paint and here they are! Zebras are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

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!

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!

Happy Gorillas!

During the month of November we are featuring storytime themes that start with the letter G. Our first week is a week of gorillas! After checking the Flannel Friday Pinterest boards, I decided to make my own rhyme and set of gorillas. Here's the link for 'Happy Gorillas' and pics of my counting to five set of gorillas and colorful gorilla food.  To make my pattern for my gorillas I used the best features from 2 or 3 different Google images that I traced and deconstructed for the parts.I made my own patterns for the banana, leaves, tree, bush and bugs. The five bugs have pipe cleaner legs hot glued to the back. I have a diecut that I used for the flowers and the berries. We are giving a Gorilla paper bag puppet as our Home Extension.  Yep, Gorillas 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!

Happy Hippos

We recently got this new juvenile nonfiction book at our library. It has great pictures and the text lends itself to condensing or telling so I tested it on my preschool grandsons. Big Hit!! So....one thing led to another and I made up a couple of hippo rhymes and made a set of 5 hippos and we are ready for Happy Hippos at Storytime! Hippos are terrifying in real life but adorable in animation or illustrations in picture books. You know, there are a lot of pictures books that feature adorable illustrations of animals that are really not so nice in real life!! Anyway, I found a Google image that I tweaked a little and used some black slick fabric paint and little google eyes for my set of hippos. I remove one at a time as I do the rhyme and I put up the folded 'river' after the last hippo is gone. Then I unfold the river to show the 5 cool hippos swimming in the water! Makes me smile!

5 Hungry Hippos

Kathryn Roach

5 hungry hippos eating grass by the shore.

One went swimming in the river and that left 4.

4 hot hippos under a shady tree,

another went swimming and that left 3.

3 grazing hippos, found some grass to chew

another went swimming and that left 2.

2 hot, cranky hippos want to get out of the sun

one went swimming and that left 1.

1 lonely hippo needs the others for some fun!

He went swimming and now there are none...

But wait!...

Look in the river, what do we see?

5 cool hippos now happy as can be!!

 

The book, All God's Critters by Bill Staines features illustrations of the funniest hippo ever! Hippos can be 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.