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.

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! 

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! 

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!

Trees!!

The trees around my house have got new baby leaves all over and the promise of shade for hot days in summer! We did a tree story time last year and it was a big hit! I have a small apple die cut that I used to add some apples in the book Tap the Magic Tree. I had to hold the book tightly until we got to the page when the apples all fall out of the tree. There were oohhs and aahhs when we got to that page! So much fun!! We also used a finger play about trees that Miss Margaret added some verses to called , The Rainbow Tree. Yummy fun! She started with the rhyme Two Big Lemons at Everything Preschool.com and added verses about other fruit! I made a tree for the fruit pieces but I might add velcro to the fruit pieces and use my Apple Tree hand puppet.  I shared my Apple Tree puppet in my post HERE.

I have a post about fruit HERE. I have a song and flannel set about a tree on the post HERE. Trees are 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.

Picnic time!

One of the first Flannel Friday inspired sets that I made I called 'Picnic Basket'.  I had only begun to follow Flannel Friday posts and came across this one by Ms. Anna @ Future Librarian Superhero. Her's was a Fill the Shopping Cart post. I thought,"This would work as a picnic basket activity!". So, I wrote a rhyme and laminated some Google images and found a basket and we had a great time! I handed out the pics and as I said the rhyme the children would 'help me pack the basket'. I made 4 of each item. This activity also generated a lot of discussion about foods we like!    I just love Flannel Fridays!

Picnic Basket
by Kathryn Roach

Picnic basket, open it wide.
what are some things you see inside?

Chips and pickles, sandwiches, too.
A picnic lunch for me and you.







Apples and strawberries, a hot dog too.
A picnic lunch for me and you.

Watermelon slices, an ice cream cone too,
A picnic lunch for me and you.










Cold lemonade and juicy grapes too,
a picnic lunch for me and you.

A hamburger with ketchup and a soda too,
A picnic lunch for me and you.







* You can continue as long as you can think of things or have flannelboard pieces.





We're Going On a Picnic by Pat Hutchins, The Bunnies' Picnic by Lezlie Evans and Mouse's First Summer by Lauren Thompson are great with this theme.  Picnics are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime.

Watermelon!

It's picnic weather here and time to eat yummy summer picnic food! One of my favorite summer treats is watermelon! Check out this link for National Watermelon Day on August 3.   I made a rhyme to use a few years ago when I taught preschool and we tasted watermelon. I used the watermelon prop at the art table too. Summer food is fun ... and delicious!

Sharing Watermelon
by Kathryn Roach

I have a big red watermelon
A juicy summer treat.
I want to share it with my friends
They'd like a slice to eat!

I'll share one,...
Now another,...
One more slice makes three.
Here's one more for my friend,
And that leaves one for me!


I usually line up the felt watermelon slices and take them off as we 'subtract' until the last one, that I pretend to gobble up! 

Some good watermelon books are...Watermelon Day by Kathi Appelt; One Watermelon Seed by Celia Lottridge; The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli; and a nonfiction book, Watermelon for Everyone by Pat Griffeth. You could sing Raffi's book/song, Down By The Bay (Raffi Songs to Read). Then there's one of my favorites, Lunch by Denise Fleming. There are several wonderful Flannel Friday posts based on Fleming's book. Check out the food Flannel Friday pinterest board! Here are some great previous Flannel Friday posts about watermelons; Miss Mary Liberry has Watermelon contest.  Anne @ So Tomorrow has a link to a cute rhyme Yummy Watermelons.  Wow! Watermelons are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

'Berry' Good Berries!

It's strawberry pickin' time around here! Yummers!  The blueberries will soon be ready too, so I'm thinking it's time for a berry theme.  I have a strawberry rhyme I made up a few years ago that I used when I read, The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood.  I also did a couple of blueberry rhymes and read, Jamberry by Bruce Degen.  I had a craft for the kiddos too. I used the shape of the strawberry and let them paint with strawberry kool-aid paint.  Nobody spilled or drank the paint! LOL!  The whole library (we're a one room branch) smelled wonderful too.  It was a lot of fun.

                               Strawberry Pickin'

by Kathryn Roach

Out in the berry patch in the bright sun,

picking juicy strawberries is so much fun.

Here's a big red berry, I know it will be sweet.

Here's another and one more to make a pie to eat.

I'm looking under the green leaves to find a berry treat.

I'll pick one more, so now there's 5. 

Hooray! Strawberries can't be beat!

The berries are red and green felt and I painted the 'seeds' with shiny yellow fabric paint. They look good enough to eat. I'm so glad it's almost summertime.  Or I should say, "I'm berry glad it's almost summertime!"  Here's some more strawberry ideas from Storytime Katie and I found some really cute ideas at this site too.   Enjoy those juicy berry treats! 

More Berry Goodness!

The blueberries in my yard are almost ready! Yummers! I've kinda got berries on the brain. I'll just mention a few blueberry books; the classic, Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey; Blueberry Mouse by Alice Low; Blueberry Shoe by Ann Dixon; One Little Blueberry by Tammi Salzano; and for older preschoolers there's George Shannon's White Is For Blueberry.  

backside of pieces.

I have a blueberry rhyme that I made up that's a twist on the classic, 1 little, 2 little counting rhyme.  To start this rhyme I have a little clear bucket and 10 medium sized blue pom pom 'blueberries' that we count together as I drop them in the pail.  Then, I finish the rhyme with the flannel pieces that I made.

Bucket of Blueberries

by Kathryn Roach  

(drop pom pom's in bucket as you count)

1 berry, 2 berry, 3 berries 4,

5 blueberries...let's count some more!

6 berry, 7 berry, 8 berry, 9

10 blueberries are mighty fine!

Now, I've got a bucket of blueberries

that I want to eat...

It's time to cook up a great berry treat.

I'll mix up some things

and stir with all my might

        Then I'll have a delicious

         Blueberry delight.

      (I pantomime holding a bowl and 

stirring as fast as I can)

Blueberry pancake (place felt pancake)

           blueberry pie (place felt pie)

           blueberry muffin (place felt muffin)

          My, oh my! (rub tummy and smile big smile)

             I hope you can use the patterns here.  I scanned them from my original patterns but reduced them by 78%.  I cut out a blob pancake shape and added the blueberries to it.  Usually when we talk about foods at Storytime, I ask the children to give a 'thumbs up' if they like the food I name.  I'm trying to teach them that everyone doesn't have to talk at the same time! Ha!

I've also added the pattern that I used to cut out 'buckets' for a thumbprint blueberries craft.  I cutout the handle shape so that the kiddos could carry their bucket of blueberries home. We used blue inkpads for printing. You could just as easily use blue paint and a pencil eraser for stamping 'blueberries' in the buckets.  They really liked this craft. It was quick and easy prep and minimal mess so I really liked this craft too!
Blueberries are so much Fun at Storytime!

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!