Here's a new set to use for a Book or Library theme!  I have 2 ways to use these. I found these rhymes at Storytime in the Stacks' blog post HERE. I added an enlarged  and laminated pic of our library card that we give out to our children patrons. I'm sorry but these colors are not true to life. In person they are more vibrant! I used 2 shades of each color except the pattern books.  I found a Google image that I adapted and deconstructed for my pattern. These were quick and easy!  When I use the ten books I am going to print and laminate book covers of favorite picture book characters to 'hide' behind each book.

I have made a document with the rhymes and pictures of the books HERE.  They never get tired of this activity! Yay for books from the library for Fun with Friends at Storytime!

A Very Hungry Caterpillar felt set!

     

I had been wanting to do this set for a long time and was too intimidated. A few months ago I gathered up my courage and felt and scissors and hot glue gun and got busy! This took a couple of weeks off and on to make but I am super pleased with the result!  Check out the other sets on Flannel Friday's Pinterest board, Bugs.  I love the fat caterpillar and his cocoon. I had to tweak my butterfly a bit but I think it's a pretty good interpretation of Eric Carle's.  

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Not a Flannel post---New Books for Old Themes!!

 Hey Ya'll!  We recently got a lot of new books at my library and I tested them on my 4 year old grandson. LOL! He loves books! Anyway, there were several that I thought would be great for storytime and so I'm adding the link to the storytime theme I've already done beside the book that would be a great addition to that theme! 

Dogs   or Transportation:  

This book has minimal text and nice large clear pictures! We thought it was funny!   It's a counting up to 10 and then subtracting back to 1 with a surprise ending. Fun!

Fathers  or   Hair/haircuts:                     

 The conversation between the father and child is charming. They both are so handsome with new, fresh haircuts at the end! We liked this one. 

Farm animals or Ducks or Emotions or Rain/Rainbow: 

 This is not a new book but it's a favorite! The ending is soooo satisfying.  My grandson really enjoys the buildup to the great ending! Smiles all around. 

Rabbits/bunnies  or Garden/veggies: 

  There's a tension between 'expert carrot growers' and then a mystery and a great resolution!  Some of the illustrations are a bit busy or intricate. But mostly it's easy to follow and lot's of fun! 

Music/ Rock and Roll: 

 Penelope the T-rex is back! We loved We Don't Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins and this title is just as tongue in cheek funny! Read it several times!! 

Nature  or Thankfulness!

 Oh My Goodness! This book is stunningly beautiful. We did a lot of looking and talking about these large clear pictures. There's minimal text that rhymes and the pictures are wonderful! This one was my favorite! 

Great books are so much Fun with Friends (and Grandchildren!) at Storytime. 

Guest Post for Nancy

I'm glad to be hosting this week for Nancy Becker Foss to share some of her adorable decorating ideas for her library! Here are some of her ideas:

She made a garland of tiny books 

And a Library Chandelier made from an old lampshade covered in fabric scraps and hung with tiny paper books! 

How clever!

Thanks for sharing Nancy! 

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.

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.

Bzzzz...Said the Bee!

I have a felt set...well, really a Pellon set of animals to use with the text of this great book! I think I adapted the animal patterns from Felt Board Fingerplays many years ago to use for this set. If I could only have 1 resource for storytime this is the book I would have! I have used this book A LOT!! So I made my Pellon animals and colored them with crayons. I did add a tiny google eye to the bee. I had the text of this Easy Reader book typed out and used the animals on the board. It's easy peasy and lots of fun! I'm sure the minimal text and simple plots of a lot of Easy Readers would lend themselves to being adapted to flannel board stories. Hmmm.... I'll need to do some more research on that! This little story would go well with any farm theme and this song that I posted HERE.

Bees and farm animals are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime! There are other great ideas 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.

There Was A Bold Lady That Wanted a Star

This week I did a 'Rocket' theme and wanted to use this really fun book! This book could work for several themes. You could use it with a transportation theme or stars or space. The pictures are detailed and a little bit small so I made my felt pieces big and used them as I read the book. I found this pattern set to download from The ALA website from the great resource book,  Storytime Magic.  I tweaked them a little and used the set this week and it was a BIG hit! I heard ooohhhs and aaahhhs when I put the jar with the star in it on the board. I had taken the star off the board and pretended to put it in my pocket. I had the jar piece sitting in my lap and so I just added it to the jar as I was putting it on the flannel board. This turned out better than I had hoped! That's always a win!! I started with the small glittered star in the top corner of the felt board then I lined the pieces up from top to bottom with the rocket and jar at the bottom.  You could just as easily line them up from bottom to top as it is in the book. I just made the pieces that she bought in her quest to get to the star that was so far...away. I made the shoes and skates big! I made my own pattern for the shoes and skates by looking at the pictures in the book. The bicycle was a little tricky! But, it turned out to be my favorite piece of the set. I made my own pattern for the big jar too. Can you tell I like for my pieces to be big? LOL!

I offered  a Home extension so that the kiddos could make a rocket-in-space picture to remember our fun rocket theme. The rockets are diecuts. I taped pieces of Christmas tinsel to the bottom as the 'fire' exhaust. The fireworks foam stickers were leftover from another activity. We also had some SRP stickers leftover that had a rocket on them that I handed out and the kiddos were so happy to get them! 

We sang Laurie Berkner's really fun song, Rocketship Run. I heard one of the little boys singing it as we were checking out books after storytime. Ha! That's why I do what I do! I can't believe I get paid to have this much fun! 

Rockets are so much 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.

Dressed for Winter!

Time for winter themes!  I have so many flannel sets for winter, snow, snowflakes, snowmen, penguins... but still I make new ones LOL!  I was inspired by this terrific post by  Lisa @ Thrive after Three of her flannel set for the book, The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Nietzel; illus. by Nancy Winslow Parker.  Of course, my set doesn't exactly match hers or the illustrations in the book. I used, felt, fabric paint, some yarn and a pom pom. I'm really looking forward to using this set with my storytime children this January.  I plan on handing out the pieces and as we read the book they can bring up their piece and add it to the board.

I'm planning to read, Keats' The Snowy Day and  Under My Hood I Have a Hat by Karla Kuskin. Lisa also has this recent post with her flannel set for Under My Hood... Maybe I can make me a set before next year?!  

I also play my 'Which One is Missing?' game with this theme. I made 5 adorable felt toboggans to count, discuss colors and play with. I used the variegated color yarn from Walmart to make my pom poms. I used a Google image as a pattern.  I cut 5 extra brims; one of each color, and cut them apart and glued them back together for each toboggan.  I LOVE these little hats!!  I made up a rhyme to use with these before we play the game; here's the link to 'Five Toboggans'.   Winter time is Fun with Friends at Storytime.