What's In My Pocket?

I made a fun Look and See game with Pockets! I used my Mushroom Guessing Game idea and made pockets instead! I wish I had made the pockets bigger though.  They are about 4" by 4" and I'd really like them to be more like 6" by 6". If I get ambitious I'll remake them because they are super easy and quick!  The pics are all Google images that I printed and laminated and cut out. I use double sided tape to keep them flat and secure. It's always fun to hear the kiddos' reactions when they see what's in the pocket. This activity is always a big hit and so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

                                  

Beach Riddle Game

Here's a fun guessing game for Storytime!  I originally posted about this riddle game HERE.  I used it again this week and it was a big hit! 

What I Saw at the Beach Riddle Game

July 2014

I like to go to the beach to swim and play all day.

I dig in the sand and take a walk. I like to stay and stay.

There's so many things to see there. I'll play a game with you.

You guess the thing I saw at the beach when I give you a clue!

1. This shines in the sky at the beach (sun)

2. You wear these on your eyes because it's so sunny at the beach (sunglasses)

3. This is fun to throw and bounce and play with at the beach (beach ball) 

4. You pick these up from the sand at the beach (seashells)

5.This sea creature has flippers and crawls across the sand to go swim in the ocean (sea turtle)

6.This is a round sea creature and has a star shape on the outside (sand dollar)

7. You can make this with sand a a pail and shovel (sand castle)

8. This sea creature has 5 arms and swims in the ocean at the beach. (starfish)

9. This little sea creature has claws and lives in a seashell (hermit crab)

10. You wear these on your feet to walk on the hot sand at the beach. (flip flops)

Riddle games are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

I'm Feeling Boxed In!

Here's a fun rhyme/game that a coworker shared with me. (Thanks Angie!)  I made my boxes have tops that come off. I used 3 shades of each color to get a 3D effect. We hide a laminated picture of something fun inside and put the top on the box and say this little rhyme. There's that wonderful element of peek-a-boo that little children love!
Little *pink box let me look inside and see
Do you have a treat hiding there for me?

We are having so much 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! 

Little Forest Animals revisited!

Last year I posted about a rhyme/activity that I used called Little Forest Animals. When I made it up I hadn't seen any of the other wonderful posts on the Flannel Friday Forest Animal Pinterest board. Since then I found similar rhymes @Falling Flannelboards and @ 1234 More Storytimes. You could do a month of Forest/Woodland animal storytimes with all of these resources!  I usually use the Beanie Baby animals that I have with my rhyme but I also made a set of laminated animals from Google images (just in case) LOL!

This theme would be an excellent opportunity to use or highlight non-fiction titles for little kiddos! Any of these rhyme/activities would be great for the Talking and Playing components of ECRR! Forest Animals 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.

In My Little Red Wagon

We recently did a very fun 'Little Red Wagon' storytime theme.  Our mascot Harvey was the star of the Home Extension/craft that we offered and the first rhyme/activity was about him.  Miss Debbie had found Google images of objects that rhyme and we printed them and laminated them and then cut them out. I had a miniature red wagon that we pretended that Harvey was pulling with the objects in them. We would pull out an object and show it and discuss it and add it to the felt board then bring out the next object and point out that they rhymed! There was a lot of discussion about the different things in Harvey's wagon!


Here's the rhyme that Miss Margaret made up for this activity:

Wagon Flannel Game

(by Margaret Vaughan)

Walking along pulling his wagon behind,  

Look and see. What did Harvey find?

We had :  flower - shower ; log - dog ; book - hook ; pickle -nickle ; rock - sock ; and some random pics of items. Miss Margaret also made a cute flannel set of 5 colored wagons to play a version of the 'Little Mouse hiding in a colored house' game with a Google image of a dragon. Our flannel board has gotten a little bit slick so we added velcro to the back of the wagons. 

We sang Bumping Up and Down by Raffi and we used the parachute to sing and move to Old Brass Wagon (Wee Sing). Playing with a little red wagon is 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.

Guest Post...Five Elephants in the Bathtub!

I'm so happy to have Kelsey guest posting on my blog this week!

Happy 4th Birthday Flannel Friday!

Hi! My name is Kelsey and I’m a librarian in Washington State and am so very excited to be guest posting today on Kathryn’s blog for Flannel Friday’s 4th Anniversary. Flannel Friday is probably the highlight of my week and I was very excited to share something for the first time this month! 

Now I’ll admit, I tried to put together a great birthday flannel to share or something brand new that hadn't been on Flannel Friday before, but sadly my mind went blank and my creativity fled. So instead, I thought it only fitting that I share my own version of a classic and one of the many amazing creations I've seen on Flannel Fridays throughout the years. My version of 5 Elephants in the Bathtub was inspired by Lisa over at Libraryland  and the wonderful Mollie and Leah at SunflowerStorytime .

I’m sure many of you are familiar with the rhyme, but for those who aren't, it goes like this:

One Elephant in the bathtub,

Going for a swim.
Knock, knock (Slap knees twice)
Splash, splash (Clap hands twice)
Come on in! (Motion to come in with both hands)

Continue counting up until 5 …..

Five elephants in the bathtub,
Going for a swim
Knock, knock
Splash, splash
They all fell in!

At one of my coworker’s prompting, I tried pulling all of the pieces to the floor as they all fall in and the kids loved it. It got them wondering about the size of the tub and how many elephants it would take to break it. We've also talked about how many elephants they think could fit our meeting room, what colors elephants are in nature, and whether or not they'd want to take a bath with an elephant (that one always gets some really fun answers)! 

This set is really versatile as well; besides an elephant storytime, I've also used it for a color themed one and a messy/clean storytime. I also use the set to play a really simple guessing game. You can hide an elephant behind the tub and then try and guess which it is. I’ll bring out an elephant not “playing” in the tub one at a time until they can figure out which color is missing.

Thanks for checking out my contribution to Flannel Friday and thanks a million to Kathryn for agreeing to host my guest blog!

Thanks Kelsey for such a fun post! Love the size of your pieces too. It's always great to get ideas for using our sets in more than one theme/activity! 

The rest of this week's Guest a Palooza / 4th anniversary roundup is @ What Happens In Storytime. 

The Luck of the Irish

I really enjoy St. Patrick's Day!  I've posted a few posts before here and here...and here (potatoes). I also found some terrific ideas @ Jen In The Library's blogpost about St. Patrick's Day. I've got a little riddle/rhyme set to use with the flannelboard to go with a St. Patrick's day storytime. It's my Green Guessing Game.  I used some Google images that I printed, laminated, cut out and put a small piece of velcro on the back. I had to add some green sequins to the traffic light for a shiny green 'go'. LOL!  I'm sure this game will lead to a lot of discussion! 

St. Patrick's day and the color green are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime! 

The rest of the Flannel Friday roundup is @heytherelibrary. Be sure to check out the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards for other great ideas!

Little Forest Animals

This post originally went with my camping theme but you could use it with MANY themes. I use my Beanie Baby animals but I also have clipart pictures of the animals.  This is a riddle/rhyme I made up a couple of years ago when our summer theme was Dig Into Reading. It turned out to be a lot of fun and there is a lot of learning/thinking going on too! Here's the link for the rhyme: Little Forest Animals. You could easily add more forest animals to guess; an owl, or beaver, or deer...This theme would be a great time to use my Hedgehog flannel set too! Forest Animals are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

You'll want to see the rest of this week's Flannel Friday Roundup HERE. Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog. Be sure to check out the Flannel Friday Facebook page too!

Inspired Pumpkins

This is my version of Sarah @ Read Rabbit Read's 'Five Giant Pumpkins'. I loved the 2-sided action with her images. I combined felt and images in my set. I made the pumpkins out of felt and, of course, added some glitter. I used laminated Google images with velcro on the back for the items hiding behind the giant pumpkins.  The kiddos really liked this one last year. Then we played, 'Which One's Missing?' with the items after I moved the pumpkins. I love a 2 for 1 set!!

You just can't have too much Fun with Friends (and pumpkins) at Storytime.  Check out the rest of the roundup HERE.  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!

Another Circus Post!

Yes, I have a new circus rhyme/guessing game/ file folder storytime prop to share.  I am doing a set of special storytimes at a preschool that I love and Circus is the theme I'm planning to share.  I have several books to use:  Little Monkey Says Good Night by Ann Whitford Paul, Circus Numbers; a Counting Book by Rodney Peppe, Circus by Lois Ehlert and The Circus by Heidi Goennel. Since I will be presenting several storytimes for ages 2 - 5, I'll be able to use different titles that will work with the different ages.  I shared a couple of other posts last year about circus here and here.  I just wanted something new (I have a short attention span myself LOL!).  Here's the link for the script for the Circus guessing game. You can tweak it for whatever pictures you want to use.  The file folder is in two parts and the pictures came from Google images.  I cut out several circus tents at the same time and then cut them apart and reassembled the pieces on a piece of file folder so that the tent would be striped. I also added 'curtains' to the inside of the cutout space of the file folder and then laminated the two parts. I added a couple of pieces of velcro to the two pieces to make it easier to store.  I stacked my pictures in order to match the script and we're ready for some guessing Circus fun! *update* I used this today and it was a big hit! 

The Circus is a LOT of Fun with Friends at Storytime! The Flannel Friday Roundup is hosted by Meg at Miss Meg's Storytime!  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!