Strawberry Pie!

 

  

Spring strawberries are the best! I'm planning a storytime them of  Strawberries are Red for this summer and I needed another felt set! I have a set of 5 strawberries in this post HERE. I made up a rhyme/story about picking strawberries and making pie Here!  I used some Google images for my leaves but I kinda freehand cut the strawberries, bucket shape and pie pieces.  I referenced my blueberry post here for the bucket and pie shapes.  Red Strawberries are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime.

Our Tree in Four Seasons

 

We did a tree themed storytime at my library last week and I needed another felt set/ story for my program.  I already had these two Here and Here but I needed a story or something to round out my theme.  We used Tap the Magic Tree and The Busy Tree for our books.  I saw this idea on Etsy in several shops so I adapted it and made my own set. I used some glitter glue on the snowflakes but otherwise nothing shiny! Can you believe it?! I don't have a set script for this we just talked about the seasons as they follow each other and then ... start over again! Easy Peasy.  Trees are very important and Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Berry Picking Time

 

Time to pick some berries!! 

Picked a Berry 

to the tune of Darling Clementine

Picked a strawberry, picked a strawberry that was growing in the sun.

Then I washed it, and I ate it. and I picked another one.

Change out blueberry, blackberry, raspberry and cherry as you pick them and pretend to eat them!

Here's another rhyme to use with the berries also.

Down in the Market

Down in the market at the end of the street, there are 5 ripe berries, so juicy and sweet.

Along comes a shopper with a nickel to pay. She buys the cherry and takes it away!

4...raspberry; 3...strawberry; 2...blueberry; 1...blackberry.

This theme resonated with the kiddos. They all like berries and around here it's strawberry picking time and the blueberries will soon be ready. We also played 'Which one is missing?' with the berries. That's always a big hit! This is one of my favorite themes for Storytime! Check out my other posts about berries Here and Here.

Yummy berries are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime! 

Life Cycle of a Butterfly!

   

We're planning for Spring story times and wanted to include a butterfly theme this year.  I saw this wonderful song and felt set Here and wanted to make my own. I made each piece about 6 to 8 inches.  I did tweak my butterfly to have lots of different colors and I'm ready to go! 

Caterpillars and Butterflies are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!  

Two Little Butterflies

 

I'm ready for Spring! I have Two Little Butterflies ready for Storytime:

Two Little Butterflies on a daffodil

One is Lindbergh and the other is Lucille!

Fly away Lindbergh. Fly away Lucille.

Come back Lindbergh. Come back Lucille.

Two little butterflies on a daffodil, 

One named Lindbergh and one named Lucille.

My butterflies have black plastic-coated wire antennae and sequins and glitter glue for fun!

Butterflies are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

A Collection of Finger Puppets for Spring

 We've started planning for Spring! Yay! We like to end our storytime with a finger puppet rhyme. The repetition of the technique doesn't get old because we change up the shape and the names of the two littles! Here are my ducks, frogs and trees! These are addictive to make! LOL!

Two yellow Ducks paddling in the pond. one named Daphne and one named Don.

Swim away Daphne. Swim away Don...

Two little frogs croaking in the swamp. One named Ribbit and one named Jump.

Hop away Ribbit! Hop away Jump! ...

Two happy trees, waving in the wind. One named Fancy and one named Finn.

Wave your leaves Fancy. Wave your leaves Finn!

Stand up tall Fancy. Stand up tall Finn!

Two happy trees, waving in the wind. One named Fancy and one named Finn.

We are having so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Ducks Away!!

 

I wanted to make a felt set to use as I read this adorable book , Ducks Away!.  Our storytime group is tending to be the younger preschoolers right now. I wanted to have a little more movement as I read the book to try to keep the attention of our young crowd. Since we are a small community branch we don't have age specific storytimes so we have All ages! It can be slightly challenging some times, LOL.  I intend to add the ducklings as they do in the book and then when one 'falls' into the water under the bridge I can tuck their feet behind the blue felt so that they look as though they are swimming.  The momma duck is two sided so that she can turn around to look down at the ducklings in the water.  I'm in love with the whole set! Ducks are always so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Birds of a Feather

 

Spring is in the air and I've seen robins and cardinals and blue jays and woodpeckers and so many small chickadees and sparrows in my backyard I've been inspired! I found these beautiful bird patterns at Downeast Thunder Farm's lovely blog! She has many gorgeous patterns that she makes into ornaments. I tweaked them a bit because I am not stitching mine. I used hot glue and some fabric paint and glitter glue to make mine for the flannel board.  I've posted about bird storytimes before.  I also made the set that is on Melissa's blog, Mel's Desk.  Be sure and check out the Bird board on Flannel Friday's Pinterest Here!  I'm sure you can find several bird rhymes to go with these but I made up a quick little rhyme:  Birds in My Backyard to go with the 10 birds that I've made.  There are so many lovely books to go with this theme! Birds in Spring 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!

A Basket Full of Easter Eggs



I know I have posted other Easter Egg posts...here and here... but here's one more just-for-fun set. I made this set with my Sizzix small double egg diecut. I made another basket and egg set that is a lot bigger in this post HERE. This one is a lot smaller so it would work with a smaller group or as a center for one or two children. The larger eggs are glued to the basket shape and the smaller eggs are meant to match them. I could see this used several different ways. I could 'hide' the small egg shape in the room for the children to hunt and then bring to match the one in the basket. I could hand out the small eggs and either point to an egg or call a child's name to bring their egg up and match the egg on the basket.
I could put all the small eggs in a cute container and let the children take turns pulling one out and matching it to the one on the basket. This could be a quiet activity for one child that needs some alone time. I plan on using this little Easter Basket in several different settings and several different ways! To use this set in storytime I did make up a rhyme to go with it:

Basket Full of Easter Eggs
A basket of Easter Eggs is so much fun!
Let's match the pretty eggs one by one!

Yes sirree! Matching colored eggs is a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime! 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 

♫Green Grass Grew All Around♫

A couple of years ago I saw this post from In The Children's Room for the song, 'The Green Grass Grew All Around'. I loved the song and the idea! Here's a Youtube link for a longer version of the song.  I set to work to make my version of each of the flannel pieces so that we could sing this fun song!  I told the kiddos to pretend they saw the tree and then added the branch, nest, egg with bird, feather and flea. My nest has pieces of rafia and string glued to it. I used a feather with a piece of purple felt glued to the back. I used this with a bird theme but you could also do it with a theme about trees or homes!  This was 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!

Flowers Make a Rainbow

I'm so happy that the daffodils and hyacinth are blooming here!!  I couldn't resist this adorable flower rhyme. I've had it a long time and used it several ways. I made a new set of flowers to go with it and am sharing with everyone in time for springtime flower storytimes!! Here's a link for a printable copy of 'Flowers Make a Rainbow'. I used my Sizzix flower diecut and 2 shades of each color to make my newest flower set. You can't tell it but there are two shades of yellow on the yellow flowers. Anyway, you can do the rhyme and put up the flowers then talk about the colors and the concept of 'more than'. If you have a fairly small group you can hand out the flowers and let the kiddos bring up the color as you say the rhyme. This is a more tactile way to get the concept of  'more' as they help make the rows of colors. There are lots of ways to use these flowers! There's always so much Fun with Friends at Storytime in the spring!!

There are more great posts 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!

Umbrellas

Umbrellas are so much fun for preschoolers! There's something cozy and safe about being under an umbrella that preschoolers really love. This is such a fun and easy theme for storytime. Using a real umbrella as a prop is always a big hit. I have an activity/rhyme that I like to use called 'It's Raining'. I've used it so long that I don't remember where I got it originally! I have noticed that this set has no glitter or shine?! *gasp* I will certainly fix that before I use it again! I put the big umbrella on the board and the kiddos with that color little umbrella bring it up to the board.  I say the rhyme slowly and pause after each color to give the kiddos time to bring their umbrella up. My little umbrellas are an Ellison diecut. This is always a big hit as we recognize colors and play together! I also have a song we sing to the tune of 'Ring around the Rosie'. It's called 'Listen to the Raindrops'. We pretend we're holding an umbrella over our heads as we sing and do the actions to the song. Big Fun!!

I also offered a Home Extension/craft with this theme that is a lot of fun. I cut out the umbrella and handle shapes and then used 2 primary color washable markers to make stripes on the umbrella part. A piece of tape or a dab of glue make it an umbrella and then the fun really starts! The kiddos 'paint' with water and watch the 2 colors blend to make a new color... Magic! Rainy days and umbrellas are 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.

More Kite Flying

This is a repost for the Roundup at Flannel Board Fun for June 24th, 2016

By the end of the week of our kite theme, a book that we had requested finally came in to the library. Kite Flying by Grace Lin is perfect for older toddlers, 2 and young 3 year olds. There is minimal text and clear, uncluttered illustrations! I loved it so much that I have bought my own copy and made a felt set to match it that is an activity.  My plan is that after we read the book I 'make' the kite on the flannel board, except for the colorful streamers around the edge. I hand out the streamers and call for a color streamer and they bring it up and add it to the kite on the board. I had thought of calling for kids whose name begins with ..."name a letter". This would only work with older 2's or 3's. You could call for kids wearing socks or kids wearing a skirt or kids wearing a belt, kids that have a dog...you get the idea. If the group is small you could call for the boys to come up and then the girls to come up and add their color streamer to the kite.  It always takes longer than you would think to do these activities with the young kiddos, but it's worth the effort for all the learning happening!
Here's my felt set:

I cut out the center of the big yellow circle and filled it with purple glitter. I added orange glitter (non-metallic) to the edge of the yellow circle.

I edged several pieces with blue/green glitter glue and used purple shiny glitter for the 'eyebrow' and eyeballs of the dragon kite.  Walmart sells some colored glitter that is not metallic that is really pretty that I used for the yellow whiskers and the edging of the big octagon kite shape. I made up my own patterns by looking at the book's illustrations.  To get the nose even on both sides I drew and cut out my pattern folded in half and then opened it and placed it on the felt. The red kite is a 9x12 sheet of felt with the edges trimmed. I'm so pleased with how it turned out and the kiddos that played this activity at storytime seemed to really enjoy it!

Kites are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Check out the other Flannel Friday posts at the roundup hosted by Bridget @ What's Bridget Reading?. .  Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog.  Be sure to  join us on the Flannel Friday Facebook page and enjoy the great Flannel Friday Pinterest boards too!