Hot Dog Song

 

Years ago I posted a hot dog post HERE. I included a song I made up about making a hot dog to eat. Well, I finally got around to making some pieces to use as I sing the song. My plan is to add the pieces to the felt board as I sing the song and the finished hot dog at the end.  I found Google images for each item and printed them out, cut them out and laminated them and cut them out again.  I think this is an easy way to illustrate the song and then play, "Which One is Missing?" afterwards. Yep, hot dogs are so yummy and Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Two Delicious Pickles!

 Happy Summer time! Just in time for picnics I have a new finger puppet set.  Here are my Two Little Pickles.  I just used a Google image and jazzed them up with fabric paint, and googley eyes.  These two make me smile 

Two little Pickles in the fridge being chill.

One is Sweet and the other is Dill.

Roll away Sweet… Roll away Dill.

Come back Sweet...Come back Dill.

Two little Pickles in the fridge are so chill!

One is Sweet and the other is Dill.  

Be sure to smile when you say 'sweet' and pucker up after you say 'dill'.  LOL!

Yummy pickles are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!  

Five Sugar Cookies! Yum!

Here's a variation of the Five Christmas Cookies rhyme for a baking theme at Storytime! I have a large (4") circle diecut for my sizzix machine and I just freehand cut out the 'frosting' shapes and added some white glitter glue "sugar".   As always the different colors will lend them to be used in a 'Which one is missing?' game after the rhyme.  Easy Peasy!  I have other posts for Cookies  and for Baking.  Yummy cookies are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Cinnamon Buns for Breakfast!

 After a recent trip and stop at Buc cees for a large cinnamon bun, I was inspired to make this set! I had made the first one a couple of years ago just because and now I finished the set with the magic preschool number of 5!  It's hard to tell but there's iridescent glitter glue 'sugar' on each of the buns. Here's the rhyme;  Five Breakfast Buns.  I have a couple of other breakfast food posts; Flip Flap Jack and Pigs and a Pancake.  Yep! Breakfast is so delicious and Fun with Friends at Storytime!

                                     

Making Grape Jelly!

 

This summer our theme is Color Your World. We are focusing on a different color each week at Storytime so I made a new rhyme and felt set to use for the color Purple!  I used several Google images and some free hand additions for my patterns. Here's a link for the rhyme, Making Grape Jelly. This set could be used for Fruit, Food, or the color Purple.   I have a Sizzix circle diecut to make the grapes and I layered the grey 'lid' onto a purple piece for my jar and the  PB&J.  The peanut butter part of the sandwich is a different shade of brown felt, as well as the crusts.  I generally make a background piece and layer all the other pieces on it to make a more 3 dimensional look. Of course I added some glitter glue to jazz the pieces up some!  This set turned out even better than I had hoped for! That's always a win!  

Purple grapes are a delicious way to have 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!

Mouse Eats all the Things!

 

This is one of my favorite  mouse, food, colors  books ever! The double page illustrations are wonderful and perfect for storytime. This mouse is adorable too!  I used an activity sheet that is available on Denise Fleming's website for my mouse pattern. You can't tell but he's about 7 inches tall to the tip of his tail. I made all my food pieces large too! I have a circle diecut for the blueberries and grapes and peas.  I just freehand cut out the other pieces and then used plenty of glitter glue to jazz them up! I end my flannelboard with a recap of all the colors by adding little 'crumbs' of each color onto the mouse. A ravenous mouse and colorful food is so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

 

Mary At the Cottage Door.

  Here's a new nursery rhyme set!  I deconstructed  a Google image to make my Mary but I just free hand cut the cottage door and plate and cherries. I did add a little sparkle to the door and cherries and plate with glitter glue. This is a fun counting rhyme!

1 2 3 4  Mary at the cottage door;  5 6 7 8  eating cherries from her plate!  

Yum! Nursery rhymes are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Mouse Loves Cheese Shapes!

 Here's a new game/rhyme for a Mouse that loves cheese shapes!  I had an old pattern sheet that I deconstructed for my mouse and the shapes were easy peasy. They're all about 3 1/2  to 4 inches tall.  I did make up a quick little repeating rhyme:  'Here's a little mouse looking for his lunch. He found a circle cheese to munch, munch, munch!'  Just change the name of the shape as you add another one to the flannelboard. Be sure to make munching noises as you have the mouse eat the shapes.  The kiddos always think that's hilarious! I can use this with a couple of fun mouse books...

We're having so much Fun with Friends at Storytime! 

One Potato...and more! *Update!

  * This is an update with a new picture book that would be so fun to use with older preschoolers.  My 4 year old grandson liked this book a lot! His 9 and 11 year old brothers enjoyed the clever play on veggies plus animals!  

I've been thinking about St. Patrick's Day and this summer's library theme, "Dig Into Reading", and naturally I thought of potatoes!  I did a potato storytime several years ago and we all really enjoyed it!  I used Diana Pomeroy's One Potato and Potato Joe by Keith Baker.   I've recently discovered this adorable book, Pigs Love Potatoes by Anika Denise, and would like to find a way to use it too!  Of course we'll do the traditional One potato, Two potatoes rhyme and I found a cute potato chant at Yakaberry that I want to use too.  I really didn't find any other potato rhymes so I made one up to go with some felt potatoes that I had made for a simple count to 10 activity. 

 

Digging Potatoes  

by Kathryn Roach

Let’s go out to the garden and dig in the ground,
Down in the dirt 10 potatoes will be found!

10 brown potatoes growing so fine,
The farmer dug one up and that left nine.

Nine brown potatoes will be yummy on my plate!
The farmer dug one up and that left eight.

Eight brown potatoes in a line so even,
The farmer dug one up and that left seven.

Seven brown potatoes for my potato pancake mix,
The farmer dug one up and that left six!

Six brown potatoes have grown to a good size.
The farmer dug one up and that left five.

Five brown potatoes now,... there used to be more!
The farmer dug one up and that left four.

Four brown potatoes that have eyes but cannot see!
The farmer dug one up and that left three.

Three brown potatoes to add to the veggie stew,
The farmer dug one up and that left two.

Two brown potatoes that never saw the sun!
The farmer dug one up and that left one.

One brown potato, the last one of the bunch

The farmer dug it up and baked it for his lunch!

   

I Love Food!

It's getting close to Thanksgiving so my mouth is already starting to water, thinking of FOOD!  I shared on another post about a rhyme I have about healthy food called 'Brown Bread, Brown Bread'. We have used it this week in storytime to talk about Thanksgiving food. It's been a lot of fun. I laminated Google images of the different colored foods and handed them out. As I put a pic of the food on the flannelboard, the kiddos bring up their matching picture and put on my big platter on my lap. It's so cute that many of the little ones are so used to putting their piece on the board that they'd stand there and try and try to stick their laminated piece on the board! Since they had 2 different pictures (I made 5 of each food) the second time they would get it right!

We used one of my favorite food/family books, Feast for 10. I really like Cathryn Falwell's book for toddler/preschool storytime. It has nice big uncluttered pictures and minimal text. The kiddos think that the 5 kinds of beans page is funny! (hint: one of the kids is holding a bag of jelly beans!).  One of my kiddos today noticed that on the last page of the book, one child is eating jellybeans while the other is reading a book! It's not explicitly a Thanksgiving book but it ends with the family seated around a table that looks a lot like Thanksgiving!  
We  also gave out a fun Home Extension of pieces to make a bunch of grapes. The pieces are different shapes and the circles are different sizes and colors so there is a lot of scope for conversation about that! I have a sizzix diecut for the circles so prep was quick! 

Food at Thanksgiving is delicious and 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!

Color Fruits!

I'm looking ahead to March to Nutrition Month. I've got food on the brain! LOL! I mentioned this rhyme and picture set in a previous post HERE. I thought I'd share the rhyme and some pics for this great counting, color, fruit rhyme! I had found it somewhere and this version is my adaptation of the rhyme.





Color Fruits
1 yellow banana extra nice,  pretty please, give me a slice.
2 round oranges really sweet, what a super-duper treat!
3 red apples very bright, hurry up and take a bite.
4 purple plums in a sack, make a really special snack.
5 ripe pears golden delight, good to eat, morning or night!
6 green melons nice to eat, a sweet dessert that can't be beat.
7 peaches rather pink, a very good fruit to eat, I think.
8 blueberries firm and good, do have some, you really should
9 cherries so shiny red, try some now. Go right ahead.
10 green grapes so great to munch, here, eat a few for your lunch!
10 great fruits and now you know. Eat some daily to help you grow!

I used diecut numbers and Google images of real fruit. I glued the pieces on different colors of construction paper and laminated them. I usually hold them and flip through as I say the rhyme. I'd eventually like to make felt fruit that the kids can help put on the flannelboard. Good nutrition is yummy and 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.

Mmmmm, I Love Apples!

I have a fun interactive apple rhyme that I made up a few years ago. Here's the link for 'I Love Apples - game'.   I diecut about 4 or 5 of each color. I hand them out and tell the kiddos to bring the matching color to put on the flannelboard as I say the rhyme. You could just as easily use laminated paper apple shapes and let the kiddos come up and put their apples in a basket. Any way you play it, apples are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime. Check out my other apple posts HERE and HERE.






I love Apples - game
by Kathryn Roach
I love apples, so good to eat!
* color * apples can't be beat!
*sweet-red
*tart-green
*mild-yellow
*funny-blue
*surprising-purple
*tangy-orange
*silly-pink
See my apples. I can't wait
to eat my apples. They're so great!

I have a small apple die cut that we used with a basket shape for the kiddos to make their own basket of apples for our Home Extension. We got 2 baskets from one 9x12 piece of construction paper. The kiddos can use a glue stick at home as they remember the fun storytime at the library!
Another option could be to stamp apple shapes on the basket using stamps or real apples and 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.

Check your Pocket!

Miss Margaret wanted to do a 'Pocket' theme for storytime and wanted to use this book, What Did You Put in Your Pocket? by Beatrice Schenk deRegniers. Michael Grejniec's illustrations are childlike and very bright and colorful but the text is difficult to read on some of the pages because of the placement. So,... we made a felt set to use with the text.  I did use a little creative license with one of the items from the book. I changed the Monday item from chocolate pudding to pistachio pudding. I didn't have enough brown felt for two items (pudding and molasses) and I did have a great pistachio green piece of felt. I used some slick fabric paint and some glitter glue for details on the pieces. My grandson's hand was the pattern for the hand.  I did paint the back of that piece with glue to stiffen it up a bit.  I typed up the text and we're ready for some rhyming fun!

We offered a Home Extension too!  We prepped 2 shapes and made holes for lacing to make a pocket. We did use some glue on the ends of the yarn to stiffen it a bit to make it easier for the kiddos to lace the shape. We gave the kiddos some leftover  ant die cuts from another programming session to go in their pockets. The ants tied our pocket theme into another book,  Max Cleans Up by Rosemary Wells.  Max is always so funny! Check your pocket for lots of Fun With Friends at Storytime!   Mallory @Mallory Tells Stories has the rest of this week's roundup! If you have any questions about Flannel Friday you can find answers at the official Flannel Friday blog.

Mmmm, Cookies!!

We had such fun with this Cookies theme! Yum!! I saw  this post @ Story Time Secrets for The Doorbell Rang and wanted to make my own. This turned out to be a big hit with the preschoolers! We added a twist by using our Cookie Monster box that I made last year with a set of ABC chocolate chip cookies on a magnetic tray (the shelf of our easel). When the doorbell rings after Grandma brings in her tray of cookies, we bring out Cookie Monster and our tray of 'cookies'! We invited the kiddos to come up and put 2 cookies in the monster's mouth.  The older preschoolers said the letter as they picked off the cookies. Of course, I made a lot of cookie eating noises! Margaret tells the kiddos that Cookie Monster got too full and .... (dumps out the cookies) "Oh No! Cookie Monster lost his cookies!" LOL! Here's a cute idea @ Thrive after Three for Who Ate All the Cookie Dough?  Here are a few other cookie theme/rhyme ideas: @Miss Mary Liberry; @ storytime Katie ; & @ Mel's Desk. ...last one @ Read, Rhyme and Sing.

Here's our segue from Thanksgiving to Christmas since we won't have any Christmas programs. We used the 5 Christmas Cookies rhyme I shared last year. Of course, there was more munching and pretend eating as I took each 'cookie' off the board. Baking Day at Grandma's is a new picture book that we just had to use. There's a repeating refrain that the kiddos really enjoyed saying with me! Our Home Extension was a ziplock bag with 2 chocolate chip cookies! Those little faces lit up when I got out our tray with the bags of cookies. Adorable!  Mmmmmm Cookies are so yummy and Fun with Friends at Storytime! Check out the other posts of Flannel Friday @ Mel's Desk. Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog.