Traffic Light - Stop and Go!

Beep Beep, STOP! now, GO! Cars and Transportation is always a fun and easy theme with the kiddos in storytime. They spend so much time in the car it's a theme that really resonates with them, LOL! I have posted my file folder rhyme HERE and there are many fun flannel sets on the Flannel Friday Pinterest boards. I found this one at Libraryland and wanted to make a set for our kiddos...of course, I added lots of glitter to mine. I made my own glitter felt with white glue, a layer of glitter, and then another layer of glue. I let each piece dry before I added the second layer of glue. Now, the glitter doesn't continually shed as I handle the pieces!  Here is a link for the printable rhyme, 'The Crazy Traffic Light' We also did a fun active rhyme with just the regular three colors...'Green Says Go' from Leah @Toddler Storytime: Stories, Songs and Rhymes.

We offered an easy Home Extension too. We cut 4 in. by 9 in. strips of black construction paper and put a point at one end. We had sheets of large circle stickers that we cut into strips with 3 circles for each child. The kiddos color the circles and stick them on the black strip to make their own traffic light.  Transportation and traffic lights are 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 info! 

My Little Red Car

Here's another car post for your driving pleasure! LOL! This is a file folder rhyme that changes colors. It could be an interactive rhyme if you had car cutouts that the kiddos 'drive' up to put on the flannelboard as you hold the file folder and say the color rhyme.




My Little *Red Car

Hop right in my little *red car,
Let's drive up and down.
Round and round and round we go
All around the town.

*change the color sheet as you say the rhyme. Use the colors you prefer. I had red, blue, yellow, green and orange.

I used a copy of a map to cover the file folder back. I used a Google image to cut out the car shape.  I cut out 2 black and 2 smaller silver (tinfoil) circles for the tires. I taped the tires and headlight and taillight pieces on with double sided tape and ran the file folder through the laminator. Then I positioned the window pieces and ran it through again. You could skip the last step and just draw on the film with a sharpie all the details. I stacked my papers in the folder and we are ready to go! Cars 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.

Drivin' in my Car!

My grandsons have been obsessed with cars since the Disney movie Cars came out a few years ago. We have cars here and at their home and in their car... I guess it's about time I did a post about cars. Many years ago I made a set of 5 race cars to go with a cute rhyme that I had discovered. I didn't cite it on my copy so I don't know where it came from (I hate when that happens!!) Anyway, I used it and made 10 different colored cars to do the basic, count to 10 rhyme and read some books and we sang a fun song and had a great storytime! I used 'Driving in my Car' from the fun, Ralph's World CD. I've used several of the songs from this CD.

Five Fast Race Cars

Five fast race cars speeding round the track.

The first car said, " I can't look back!"

The second car said, "Oh no! I'm out of gas!"

The third car said, "Beep! Beep! I'm fast!"

The fourth car said, "Watch my tires spin."

The fifth car said, "Vroom vroom! I win!"

Then beep went a horn and flash went the lights,

And five fast race cars sped out of sight!

Here are my 10 little race cars...

1 little 2 little 3 little race cars;  4 little 5 little 6 little race cars;  7 little 8 little 9 little race cars;

10 race cars zoom past!

10 little 9 little 8 little race cars;  7 little 6 little 5 little race cars; 4 little 3 little 2 little race cars;

1 race car is last!  (Feel free to tweak this!! please!!)

You can tell I used a diecut for the car shapes. They've been handled and stretched a bit but they are still lots of Fun with Friends at Storytime!

I did a craft at the time I did this storytime but you could easily adapt the idea for a Home Extension. I had copied a map onto 11 x 17 paper and set out pans with some green paint and small cars. The kiddos 'painted' by dipping the car wheels in the paint and driving them on the map. I had a small paper green car for them to glue to the map after they painted. FUN!! You could hand out the map paper and small car cutout and tell them to take it home to color or paint. 

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.