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!

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!

10 Swimming Seahorses

Here's another post about getting ready for summer.  I found this rhyme that I made up a couple of years ago when our summer theme was a beach theme.  I made the rhyme work with seahorses and starfish. I really love the seahorses!  I used an organza ribbon to make the ruffled fin down the back of the starfish.  The eyes are flower and circle sequins.
Here you go:
Ten Swimming Seahorses (*Starfish)
by Kathryn Roach

Let's count 10 seahorses* swimming by
All different colors, my, oh my!
The first is red
the next light blue
Here is orange
And purple too.
I see one that's green
We're not done
I see a white one;
This is fun!
Now, yellow, then blue
pink is last
10 Seahorses* swimming fast!
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10


*Update*  This could also be done with a laminated file folder cutout and colored paper.**

Here's the craft we did. I used a strip of yellow crepe paper sandwiched between 2 seahorse shapes. The children spongepainted the seahorse shapes with a small sponge and blue paint and added a stick-on eye.  They were pretty pleased with these!  I had some teen volunteers help cut out the shapes.







Of course, I couldn't leave the starfish shapes alone! Notice the shiny glitter? LOL!










Happy swimmy summertime to come!!

Which Came First? The Chicken or the Egg?

Having just done an Easter Egg program, I've got eggs on the brain! Maybe my brains are 'scrambled?' cue the laugh track...  Anyway, I thought I'd share these two cute little chicken flannels that I've had a loonnggg time!  I can't remember where I got the rhymes or the idea for the nest and mother hen's movable wing.  I've used Nancy Tafuri's book, Five Little Chicks and Hurry! Hurry! by Eve Bunting when I do a chicken and/or egg theme.  I also like A Big Fat Hen by Keith Baker.   Another good egg book that's not necessarily about chickens is First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger.
When I do these rhymes I always do the Five and Five Eggs rhyme first with the mother hen.  Then I  read a book, sing a song and do the other rhyme, Sleepy Chicks, with the same mother hen, but a different nest.

Five and Five Eggs 

Five and five eggs
that makes ten.
Sitting on top is mother hen.
Crackle! Crackle! Crackle! 
What do I see?

Ten fluffy chicks as yellow as can be!  


I made two nests and stacked them on top of each other.  When I say the crackle line, I take off the top nest and ...ta da! there are the 10 yellow chicks!  Even the caregivers laugh when they see the surprise! The chicks are made of yellow cottonballs with little google eyes and orange felt beaks glued on.

Sleepy Chicks

"Come little children,"

calls mother hen.

"It's time to take your nap again."

So under her feathers the small chicks creep,

and she clucks a song till they fall asleep.

I start with just the mother hen on the nest.  I put the chicks under her wing when she calls and finish the rhyme by closing her wing.   We play peek-a-boo a few times with the mother hen's wing which is always a big hit with my youngest preschoolers.  We do a lot of clucking and peek-a-booing; and a lot of giggles!

Chickens are a lot of fun at Storytime!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

We are celebrating springtime here at my library!  I'm ready for warmer weather and playing outdoors.  The daffodils, Bradford pears and dogwoods are in bloom. They are sooo pretty.  At storytime we wrote a big S for Spring, in the air with our fingers.  I sang/shared a book that is a song; Inch by Inch; the Garden Song by David Mallett.  It's an older book with nice big illustrations.   I found a great Youtube video of John Denver singing it on the Muppet show here.  I also read, My Garden by Kevin Henkes. Here is a flannelboard rhyme I made up a few years ago.

Flowers Grow In Flowerpots   
(by Kathryn Roach)
Here are 10 flowerpots ready for some fun.
I'll sit them outside in the bright warm sun.
(we say the color of the pot as I put it on the board)
I have 10 flower seeds that need a spot!
I'll plant each of them in a color flowerpot.
(we count as I put the 10 seeds in the pots)
Each little seed will grow to be,
A beautiful flower for all to see!
(I place matching flowers to pots with kid's help)
With sunshine* and water* the seeds can grow
Into 10 pretty flowers. 
See my lovely flower show!
(* = add sun and raincloud)

The flowers and flower pots are Ellison diecuts.  I couldn't resist adding some glitter on the flowers and the sun and rain clouds.  I used metallic pipe cleaners to represent rain. I used a couple shades of blue, pink and purple as well as orange and red and yellow for my pots and flowers.  We talked about the difference in the light blue and dark blue or light pink and dark pink shades.

I also sang  The Flower Song by Nancy Stewart, with the kids. I printed, cut out and mounted on green construction paper squares, Google images for a daffodil, yellow rose, tulip and iris. I laminated them and handed them out and we 'planted' each flower as the song played.  They were careful to keep the squares in nice rows!  I always identify the flowers before we sing and this time the children started to call out the kind they wanted.  I've trained them though to be happy with what they get by the little rhyme...(they can say it with me)..."Take what you get, and don't pitch a fit!". There's usually a lot of laughing as we say that rhyme together.   Actually, as I handed out the cards they were excited and showed each other what they had.  When the song was over and they saw the flannelboard full of flowers they were happy and proud.  I'm so glad spring is here!

Yummy for my Tummy

I shared a National Nutrition Month Special Storytime this week at my library.  We annually collaborate with our county's Health Dept. to share nutrition and exercise information with parents and caregivers. It's a great opportunity to talk about N is for Nutrition and explain that big word to little children.  I love to hear big words coming from preschool children and I usually have a couple of word lovers in storytime that will use that word at home later!  I used one of my favorites for this nutrition theme, Burger Boy by Alan Durant. I had planned to use Keith Baker's adorable book, 1-2-3 Peas but ran out of time.  I used a counting color fruit rhyme (here) that I made up a long time ago with some not-flannel board props.   I used Google images of the fruits and diecut numbers and mounted them on different colors of construction paper and then laminated the papers. I just flipped the pages as I said the rhyme.  A great followup to the fruit rhyme was Laurie Berkner's  fun song, Fruit Salad Salsa!
I also adapted a rhyme I found here that is a take off of  Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  I call it, Brown Bread, Brown Bread. (Try saying that fast three times! LOL!)  I added some more foods and changed the ending to be more like the book's ending with healthy children looking at ...(name all the foods we used).    I used small/medium sized Google images of the foods and printed them on card stock, laminated and cut out enough to hand out to the children.  As I said the rhyme and put a picture of the food on my 'plate' on the flannel board, the children holding that food brought it up and put it on the large plastic plate I was holding on my lap.  I pointed to each food on the flannel board as we recapped all the healthy foods we had seen. We also talked about the foods we like to eat!  I gently discouraged saying 'yuck' about foods that other people liked.  I pointed out that we all like different things and that's o.k.!
Here is one of my favorite rhymes and flannel prop that goes along with  1-2-3 Peas:

Five Little Peas
Five little peas in a pea pod pressed,
One grew, two grew and so did all the rest.
They grew and they grew and they did not stop!
Until one day the pod went...POP!

I usually hold the pea pod vertically with two hands so that the children can see the 'peas'.  When I say POP! loudly, I thump the underside of the 'pod' and send the peas flying!  This is a big hit everytime!  Another rhyme that I do is Pea Soup. I can't remember where I found it. 
Pea Soup
One little pea jumped into the pot,
and waited for the soup to get hot. (* I put a green pom pom pea in my hand "pot" as we count)
Two little peas...
Three little peas...
Four little peas...
Five little peas...
Finally, the soup got so very hot,
All the little peas jumped out of the pot!  (* I throw the "peas" up into the air)

I wish I had had enough time to do all the 'pea' stuff. But, we had fun with the things we did! This is really a fun theme and a great collaboration with our county Health Dept. too!  

Animals in the circus

Here's the next installment of flannel board rhymes about the circus. There are lots of animal acts at the circus that lend themselves to being great flannel board rhymes.  I have a Sizzix diecut machine and a diecut of a seal and ball that I used to make a flannelboard set.  I used a Google image to make my matching colored tubs for the seals to balance on.  I cut out 10 black seals and 10 different colored balls and matching tubs.  I added red glitter to their noses, a black sequin for their eyes and a piece of wired ribbon on the tubs.  I had the diecut and wanted to use it but didn't have a rhyme, so I made one up:

Ten Circus Seals
Ten circus seals ready for a trick
which color ball will each one pick?
Let's match them up one by one
Circus seals are so much fun!

I put up the colored tubs first and we say the colors as I do.  Then we put up the seals and count them as we put them on the board. Then I say the first part of the rhyme.  Then I hold up a colored ball and let the children name the color and I put the ball on the seal's back flippers or nose to match the tub. If the group is small enough I can allow the children to take turns doing this. Then I say the last part of the rhyme:

Ten circus seals ready to rest
They have the color ball that they like the best.
We matched them up one by one
Circus seals are so much fun!

I tweaked this rhyme a little:
Five Circus Elephants 
Five big elephants - oh, what a sight,
Swinging their trunks from left to right!
Four are followers, and one is the king.
They all walk around in the circus ring.
*(take the last elephant off the board)
Four...*
Three...*
Two...*
One circus elephant - oh, what a sight,
Swinging his trunk from left to right!
One circus elephant marching round the ring.
All the others left and so did the King!

I used a diecut and embellished them with puff paint, felt, glitter, sequins and the king's crowning plume; metallic pipe cleaner.  I can never leave well enough alone! Glitter makes everything more fun! Circus animals are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime!