Hickory Dickory Dock!

Nursery rhymes are easy and fun. There are a lot of benefits for preschoolers in hearing and learning nursery rhymes. A wonderful online resource for nursery rhymes is dltk-teach.com.  I found this cute Hickory Dickory Dock that counts from 1-12 (noon). There are printable pieces from this site if you want to print and laminate them.   I made my set a long time ago. It is part Pellon and part felt diecuts and cutouts. I used my basic mouse pattern that I used for the Five Little Mice in this post HERE. I didn't worry that the bee and mouse are as big as the horse and cow! Thank goodness little kiddos don't call me on that! LOL!

Jean Warren has some excellent ideas for using nursery rhymes that I want to share with my prechooler's caregivers from her website, Preschool Express. Her site is a treasure trove of rhymes and activities that can be adapted for storytime! I also found this great song resource at Nancymusic.com. Here's a link for printable pictures to make books that go with the songs, including one for Hickory, Dickory Dock!. Nursery Rhymes 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. 

Hide Little Mice!!

Happy 4th Anniversary to Flannel Friday this week! This week I have books about mice! There are so many cute books to use! I've mentioned some in a couple of posts, here and here. I have several mice flannel rhyme sets that I used. But you know me...I wanted something new! LOL!  I really wanted something interactive too. I made up a little rhyme. Then, I found a cute mouse image from Google images and ran it off on colored paper, laminated and cut them out. I handed them out and said the rhyme and fun happened! There was lots of squeaking and giggling! Here's the link for the document ready for printing and using. Hide, Mice, Hide!

Hide, Mice, Hide!

by Kathryn Roach

"Meow!" says the cat. Mice better hide!

All the ________ mice, quick, run inside!

  green, yellow, blue, orange, purple, pink, red, brown, grey, hite

For our Home Extension we offered a cute little finger puppet mouse that was inspired by this post at Paper Crafts for Children. We tweaked it a little and it was a big hit!.

We prepped the pieces into the cone shape with the pipe cleaner nose and tail already done. We had Sharpies and a glue stick available to add the eyes and attach the ears. Easy Peasy!! It's a shame real mice are not so appealing!! But these little mice are a lot of Fun With Friends at Storytime!!
Be sure to check out the rest of the 'Guest Post / 4th Anniversary' roundup @ What Happens In Storytime...

Shape Up!

I like Ellen Stoll Walsh's books! Check out this post at Read, Rhyme and Sing for some other Walsh inspired sets. I especially like Mouse Shapes. Our copy of the book is not as big as I like so I enhanced it a little.  I made some felt pieces to use as I read the book to my kiddos at storytime. I enlarged the pictures about 129% and used them as my patterns. I did use my sizzix diecut for the circles because they are just so hard to cut out. The pieces are glued to the white felt 'pages' on both sides. My coworker suggested that it would be easier to handle these pieces that way as I held the book too! I'm looking forward to the discussion we'll have as we see what these little mice can make out of shapes! Here's another way to make this set @ Read Rabbit Read. 

Mice and Shapes are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime! 

Mice!

Last week's book, Run Home, Little Mouse reminded me that I have not posted any mice posts. What's up with that???  There are a lot of really cute books that feature mice; not to mention the many posts about the 'Little Mouse, Little Mouse' guessing game that we all have. I do have a Five Little Mice rhyme that I've used for 10 years below to share. Here's my easy-to-make set of mice and the rhyme. Here's a link for a second 5 Little Mice rhyme/song that's fun to sing with LOTS of expression when Mama mouse does her squeaking! She gets quite agitated by the end of the song..the way I do it. LOL!  

Five Little Mice

Five little mice scampered through the door.

This little mouse said, “It’s time to sweep the floor.”

This little mouse said, “Look, I baked a cake.”

This little mouse not a sound did make.

This little mouse said, “Why don’t we have some cheese?”

This little mouse heard a kitten sneeze.

“ah-choo!” sneezed the kitten.

“Squeeeeek!” the mice cried.

And they all scampered back to their hole to hide.

Lauren Thompson has an adorable series about a little Mouse. They are seasonal or for special occasions and perfect for toddlers.  Whose Mouse Are You is one of my favorite mouse/family/being brave/funny books ever!! 
I did offer a Home Extension with this theme. It is lots of fun and easy to prep and assemble. The child can either, tear bits of the large triangle to make it Swiss cheese, or use a hole puncher. Either way they are exercising those small muscles needed for holding a pencil!

You could adapt the craft to a Christmas mouse by adding slits in the body to hold a candy cane 'tail'. You could always color on some holly leaves and berries, or cut out and glue on a Santa hat shape. Then, by adding a piece of tape to the back to hold the candy cane on, it becomes an ornament like this one I saw  @ Little Giraffes Teaching Ideas.

Here's another cute Mice theme idea @ Mel's Desk. Mice are an abundance of cuteness and Fun with Friends at Storytime! The rest of the Flannel Friday Roundup is HERE.  Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog. Be sure to check out the Flannel Friday Facebook page too!

A Gift for Mommy

I am looking forward to Mother's day next week!  I always like to do a Mother's Day theme for preschool storytime. It's a BIG hit with the mommys and grandmothers that come to storytime!  I have two books that I ALWAYS use;  My Mom by Anthony Browne and My Mommy Is Magic by Carl Norac. I loved this CUTE felt set and song at Storytime ABC's, so I made my own!  For laughs and so much fun, we sing 'Mama Don't Allow'.  I wanted one more flannelboard rhyme and couldn't find one I wanted to use so...I made up my own.  I found Google pictures for each item and of a child kissing his mom. The color words are links to a Google page.  I printed and mounted each picture on bright green paper and laminated them.  I flip the papers as I say the rhyme.  I think it will lead to some discussion about what gifts we'd like to give to our mother for Mother's Day. Here you go:

                                                                A Gift for Mommy

By Kathryn Roach

I want to get a gift for Mommy

For this Mother’s day

Let me think, what could I find?

I don’t have money to pay!

I know she likes some fancy shoes

I bet she’d like them blue!

Maybe a fancy, party ring?

A lovely purple one could be the thing!

A mug for the coffee she likes to drink?

I know she likes the color pink!

Or a purse to carry all her stuff

A red one might be big enough!

An orange scarf, fresh and light,

With white polka dots, could be right!

I know what I can give to Mommy

I know that this won’t miss!

I’ll tell her, “Mommy, I love you”
With a great big hug and kiss!

I have adapted Jane's (Piper Loves the Library) adorable version of the Little Mouse hiding game to be a Mother's Day version.  I already had 3 felt houses for the original version of the game, so, I just made two more color houses,  a mother mouse and felt cheese. In my game little boy mouse is looking for a piece of cheese to give to his Mother mouse for Mother's day. I hid other small things behind each house and he even finds one piece of cheese.  He's so hungry and it smells sooo good that...he eats it! Oh no!  But, he finds another piece of cheese (in the last house) to give to his mother. (We all know, don't go grocery shopping on an empty stomach! LOL!)    I call my version, 'Where's the cheese for Mother Mouse?'  I have a purple house that I forgot at work.  The pattern for the mice came from Feltboard Fingerplays by Liz and Dick Wilmes.  The mice are made out of pellon and the houses and cheese are felt.  Notice that Mother mouse has shiny gold earrings? ...little things... LOL! 
I have as much fun as the kiddos that come to Storytime!

Happy Mother's Day!!