Calling All Firetrucks!

I'm still in the fall mode for planning and remembered that October is Fire Safety month. When I taught preschool the firefighters would bring the firetruck to our school. Most of my 3 year olds loved it.   My grandson, J. loved firetrucks when he was 2 and 3 years old.  He fixated on Firefighters! Speeding! Spraying! Saving! by Patricia Hubbell, when he was about that age and we read it a LOT! Another great firefighter book is Firefighters A to Z by Chris A. Demarest.  Check out this link for the National Fire Prevention Association here.  I decided to make a rhyme/activity with a firetruck Ellison diecut.  I embellished the diecut a little by adding either yellow or lt. blue to the window opening and a shiny sequin 'light' for the top of the firetruck. I hand out diecut firetrucks to the kiddos and then as I say the rhyme and put my firetruck up they can 'drive' their firetruck to the flannel board too.  I eventually want to make this a filefolder color recognition activity for our toddler storytime.

Calling All Firetrucks!  

by Kathryn Roach

Fire! Fire! Emergency!

Someone is in trouble.

Calling all *blue  firetrucks

Come on the double!

(repeat until all the children have added

their firetruck to the board)

Spray the water,

Now the fire is out!

"Everyone is safe!"

We all shout.

*green; yellow; orange; purple; black;

white; pink; brown; red.

Firetrucks and firefighters are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Eeek! A Spider!

We're beginning to plan for the fall and of course that means...Halloween! When I think of Halloween I think of creepy things and one of those creepy things is...duh, duh, duh...Spiders!  I have some not-so-creepy spiders that I like to use with the younger, easily creeped-out kiddos at storytime. I have a 5 whats-it rhyme that I adapted from Preschool Express. Jean Warren had written it as Three Little Spiders.  I used some flannel pieces from other sets along with my ADORABLE little spiders. I placed the *item and made one of the spiders fall with each verse. I added back the spiders for the last verse.   I also changed the last line to be a Happy Halloween rhyme.  You can see that some of my * items didn't match the rhyme...but I'm making some more pieces that will!...or, you can just name the *items that you have.  Either way...Fun is about to happen!!

Five Little Spiders

by Jean Warren (adapted by Kathryn Roach)

Five little spiders climbing up the wall.

Along came a *grey squirrel and made one spider fall. 

Four little spiders climbing up the wall.

Along came a * little mouse  and made one spider fall.

Three little spiders climbing up the wall.

Along came a * hoot owl  and made one spider fall.

Two little spiders climbing up the wall.

Along came a * black cat  and made one spider fall.

One little spider climbing up the wall.

Along came a * Jack-o-lantern  and made one spider fall.

Five little spiders landed on the ground.

They said, "Happy Halloween!" and then didn't make a sound. (shhhhh)

Sorry for the quality of the pics. The spider's legs are made of metallic pipe cleaners. I used google eyes and half of a large circle sequin for the mouth.  I sandwiched the legs between two ovals with a LOT of glue!  These guys make me Happy!

Picnic time!

One of the first Flannel Friday inspired sets that I made I called 'Picnic Basket'.  I had only begun to follow Flannel Friday posts and came across this one by Ms. Anna @ Future Librarian Superhero. Her's was a Fill the Shopping Cart post. I thought,"This would work as a picnic basket activity!". So, I wrote a rhyme and laminated some Google images and found a basket and we had a great time! I handed out the pics and as I said the rhyme the children would 'help me pack the basket'. I made 4 of each item. This activity also generated a lot of discussion about foods we like!    I just love Flannel Fridays!

Picnic Basket
by Kathryn Roach

Picnic basket, open it wide.
what are some things you see inside?

Chips and pickles, sandwiches, too.
A picnic lunch for me and you.







Apples and strawberries, a hot dog too.
A picnic lunch for me and you.

Watermelon slices, an ice cream cone too,
A picnic lunch for me and you.










Cold lemonade and juicy grapes too,
a picnic lunch for me and you.

A hamburger with ketchup and a soda too,
A picnic lunch for me and you.







* You can continue as long as you can think of things or have flannelboard pieces.





We're Going On a Picnic by Pat Hutchins, The Bunnies' Picnic by Lezlie Evans and Mouse's First Summer by Lauren Thompson are great with this theme.  Picnics are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime.

Watermelon!

It's picnic weather here and time to eat yummy summer picnic food! One of my favorite summer treats is watermelon! Check out this link for National Watermelon Day on August 3.   I made a rhyme to use a few years ago when I taught preschool and we tasted watermelon. I used the watermelon prop at the art table too. Summer food is fun ... and delicious!

Sharing Watermelon
by Kathryn Roach

I have a big red watermelon
A juicy summer treat.
I want to share it with my friends
They'd like a slice to eat!

I'll share one,...
Now another,...
One more slice makes three.
Here's one more for my friend,
And that leaves one for me!


I usually line up the felt watermelon slices and take them off as we 'subtract' until the last one, that I pretend to gobble up! 

Some good watermelon books are...Watermelon Day by Kathi Appelt; One Watermelon Seed by Celia Lottridge; The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli; and a nonfiction book, Watermelon for Everyone by Pat Griffeth. You could sing Raffi's book/song, Down By The Bay (Raffi Songs to Read). Then there's one of my favorites, Lunch by Denise Fleming. There are several wonderful Flannel Friday posts based on Fleming's book. Check out the food Flannel Friday pinterest board! Here are some great previous Flannel Friday posts about watermelons; Miss Mary Liberry has Watermelon contest.  Anne @ So Tomorrow has a link to a cute rhyme Yummy Watermelons.  Wow! Watermelons are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Shoes!!

Every child loves new shoes. I love new shoes!! Everyone loves new shoes!  So, of course, I have shoe flannel sets.  There's the beloved nursery rhyme, The Old Woman Who Lived In a Shoe. That set is made from pellon that I painted with acrylic paints and outlined with black Sharpie. I always love the ending where she 'kisses them sweetly and puts them to bed'. Every chance I get to blow kisses at my storytime kiddos makes me happy! 

I also have a cute little color/counting to 10 shoe rhyme.  I got the original rhyme from Nursery Rhyme Theme-a-Saurus by Jean Warren. I wanted to have 10 shoes so I added some more verses and colors. It's called 'Busy Little Cobbler'.

I used clip art from several sources including shoe ads for the patterns. I traced and outlined each shoe on pellon with a Sharpie. I painted them with acrylic and fabric paints. The purple and orange shoes are partially colored with color pencil. Then I embellished them with sequins, jewels, gold glitter glue and ribbons.  I had a lot of fun making these!

I like to use New Shoes, Red Shoes by Susan Rollings and Whose Shoes? by Anna Grossnickle Hines with this theme. I have used Red Dancing Shoes by Denise Lewis Patrick with older preschoolers. Another fun book is Shoe Baby by Joyce Dunbar. It goes without saying that Pete the Cat : I Love My White Shoes or Pete the Cat : Rocking In My School Shoes by Eric Litwin need to be included too!!

I found several posts on the Flannel Friday Pinterest boards too.  Try this one at Read it Again, or at Read Sarah Read,...one more at Ram Sam Storytime.
Shoes are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Putting Away My Tools

I just love Flannel Fridays!! I had seen several posts about tools and toolboxes recently and felt inspired to make my own version.  I have a little red toolbox/fishing tackle box that I used with laminated Ellison diecut tool shapes.  I enlarged the tool shapes to make nice big pieces for the flannelboard.  We first identified each tool shape and what it does. Then I handed out 2 shapes per child and we got ready to 'put away the tools'. As I said the rhyme, then gave the clue, and put the large tool shape on the flannelboard,  the children would bring their tool that matched and put it in my toolbox.  The older children were able to keep track of 2 different tool shapes and only put away the appropriate one.  The younger children not so much ;). It's so much fun to watch them begin to learn a new developmental skill! Especially when an older child is trying to help the younger one understand how to play the game.    Still everyone had a great time!

                      The Tools In My Workshop                       

by Kathryn Roach

In my workshop there is a special wall

There's a place for my tools, one and all.

Look at each shape and then you'll know

Where each and every tool needs to go!

This tool helps me pound a nail.

This tool helps me twist a screw.

This tool helps me tighten a bolt.

This tool helps me cut (saw) the wood.

This tool helps me bend a wire.

When my work is done

At the end of the day.

I always put away my tools

Then I can go and play!

Here's one more Flannel Friday tool post that's a game too! Who knew cleaning up could be so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Hedgehog Love!

As I was browsing through the Flannel Friday Pinterest boards, I came across Miss Angie's adorable hedgehog post at Miss Andre's Library blog.  What a happy coincidence that she's hosting the roundup this week!!    I loved the sweet little rhyme she had composed to go with her cute little hedgehogs. Here is my version of the hedgehogs from a Google clipart that I found and deconstructed for the pattern. I cut the spikey part(?!) separately and the head, feet and body as one piece. The ear and nose are separate pieces too. The eyes are black slick fabric paint.  I'm in love with them!! 

Hedgehogs are such Fun with Friends at Storytime!