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!

Let's Find a Pearl for the Pail

I saw this cute shell game at Storytime in the Stacks and wanted to tweak it a little and use it this summer with our kiddos at Storytime! We have a lot of really young kiddos so we need to keep it fairly simple but they love to interact with the felt board. This kind of game helps them learn to wait for their turn, follow instructions and enjoy the anticipation and fun of discovery!  Plus...I love watching them play these games 😍.  My plan is to call them by name to come choose a shell. When they discover the 'pearl' they put it in my beach pail! If they can I'll ask them to tell me the color too. I'll take the shell shape down as it's chosen just to speed up the process.  I made 21 shells so we should be good! I did add a piece of velcro to the back of the grey back to hold it on the board as we try to lift the colored front shape.  I did make an alternate rhyme instead of my naming the color shell, I changed it to "Little Clam, Little Clam"  Here's a link to my doc.   Little Shell, Little Shell.

Going to the beach at storytime is so much Fun with Friends!

                         

Five Little Jellyfish

For our beach/ocean creature theme we recently did, I made a set of 5 Little Jellyfish. You'd think I had plenty of ocean/beach/sea creature/fishy flannels but I needed another! HA! These are super easy. I folded my flannel to cut 2 identical pieces of each color to sandwich the ribbons between. I decided on these colors because I had sequins for their mouths. I used the cheap ribbon that you can get at Michael's for a $1 a roll. When they put it on sale I always just buy a lot! I used my rhyme, '5 Little Jellyfish'  and then we played 'Which One is Missing?'  We also offered the pieces for a jellyfish Home Extension. This was easy quick prep! Jellyfish are a lot of wiggly 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!

Shark!

 So there were 5 little fish with bad attitudes and sassy manners that teased Mr. Shark...They barely hid in time to not be a shark snack! I really liked the version of 5 Little Fish Teasing Mr. Shark that I found @ Storytime ABC's with a happy ending. I made my coral and sea anemones and glued on some real shells and the smartypants little fishes hide there from Mr. Shark. Whew! Hope they learn a lesson!!  I used a Google image that I deconstructed for my shark pattern. My little fish are a Google image also. I just freehand cut out the coral and sea anemones. The kiddos really enjoyed this one!! Even sharks 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! 

Numbers in Nature

This is a beautiful picture book that we used with all ages in Storytime. It has large beautiful pictures with minimal text. It features on two separate pages pictures of sea stars. It was the perfect chance to use my 10 Starfish flannel pieces and the matching game I mentioned in another post, HERE.









We played a matching game with a lot of talking about the colors and shapes of the different starfish. I printed Google images of real starfish and glued them to a piece of colored paper or construction paper and then laminated them.   I showed the large picture and added it to the flannelboard (velcro on back) and the kiddos would bring their matching picture and I tucked it behind the large picture on the flannelboard. This turned out to be a LOT of fun and very interesting to see that there are so many different starfish in the sea! LOL! Nature 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. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more info!

2 by 2 Sea Creatures

Back during Shark Week, I saw the cutest variation of 2 Little Blackbirds @ sunflowerstorytime.com!
Her 2 little sharks were adorable. I made me a set and then I saw a really cute octopus @ storytime ABC's and I wanted 2 of them! After I had them I decided I needed, at least, 5 different creatures so I'd have a total of 10 (the magic preschool number!). After some research and fiddling with several pictures to make patterns, here are my Jellyfish, Seahorse and Crab.  Now, I need to make up rhymes for all but the sharks and I'm set!! I decided that I can use these as finger puppets or on the flannel board. I used combinations of Google images to design my patterns and then I used ribbons, sequins and glitter glue or glitter fabric paint to embellish them. I especially love the little crowns on the seahorses. I cut up a fancy sequin to get the parts for those and the cheeks for the jellyfish. They all turned out better than I had hoped! It's funny how that works sometimes! *Update: Here's the link for the rhymes for each set of sea creatures Two Little Sharks.

Any and/or all of these would go well with some of the other sea creature posts I've already done; Seahorses, Fish or with this song, 'Old Man Skipper'.

Sea creatures 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.

Fun at the Beach!

I know it's the middle of winter but I need some sand and sun and warm weather. I'm longing for summer. This is my mid-winter virtual beach trip. To The Beach by Thomas Docherty has a little boy that utilizes any way he can to get to the beach! I totally agree with his single-minded focus! This is a great read for preschool storytime. I've also used Going to the Beach by scanning and enlarging the pages. I mounted each page on yellow construction paper and laminated them. I have the text on the back of each laminated sheet to make it easier to read. The pictures are clear and uncluttered and there is minimal text.  I was inspired to make a set of sandcastles after seeing this post @Story Time Secrets. Her rhyme is great with a cute ending!  I made my sandcastles out of felt with added shell sequins for some shine! Each of my sandcastles has a different colored flag on a toothpick pole. I cut the shapes out freehand after looking at some Google images. 
Easy peasy!

I use a beach version of the Little Mouse game but it's with a little whale and colored pails.  The rhyme is: 
Little Whale, Little Whale 
Are you hiding in the ___ pail? 
I had to stiffen the felt handle pieces with white glue on the back and of course add some shiny sequins.  The little whale (now that's a contradiction in terms!) is made of Pellon that I colored with color pencils and outlined with a black Sharpie. I think he's adorable! Going to the beach (even in the winter) is so much Fun with Friends at Storytime.
The rest of the Flannel Friday roundup is @ What Is Bridget Reading?. Be sure to check out the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards for other great ideas!

Beach Time!

I'm so tired of winter!! This will be my virtual beach vacation, LOL! Here's a link for some great beach books @ No Time for Flashcards.  There are some good posts on the Flannel Friday Pinterest boards too! I have a counting-to-10 seashell rhyme to add to your beach theme. I used an Ellison diecut for the shells and then added the glitter glue/fabric paint outlines. (By the way, the word green is supposed to rhyme with 10.) 

Picking up Seashells

by Kathryn Roach

I went to the beach with my bucket in my hand.

As I walked along I looked down at the sand.

I saw some pretty seashells; yellow, orange and green,

I counted as I picked them up

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10!

I also have a link for a riddle game that I made up. It's called What I Saw at the Beach Riddle Game.  I used Google images that I cut out and mounted on blue construction paper and then laminated. I sized the images to be about 4 or 5 inches and put a dot of velcro on the back of the laminated images so they'd go on the flannelboard. This leads to a LOT of discussion! Playing and Talking are 2 of our ECRR components. Well, at least this beach trip didn't involve sandy laundry or pesky sharks! The beach is a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime. The rest of the Flannel Friday roundup is @ Storytime Katie. Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog. Be sure to join us on the Flannel Friday Facebook page too!

Old Man Skipper Went to Sea

Yikes!! It's Shark Week and I don't have any shark flannelboard sets to post. My Old Man Skipper song/activity is the closest thing I have. A coworker shared this song with me many years ago. I love a different take on a tune I know. 'Old MacDonald Had a Farm' is now, 'Old Man Skipper Went to Sea'.  I have a duffle bag with a LOT of sea/beach type Beanie Babies that match the song. I tell the kiddos that I'm sharing these stuffed creatures for the game so they can't take them home. I need them back so that I can play this game with other children that come to storytime! Then, I hand out a sea creature to each kiddo before we start to sing. I instruct them to listen and when they hear the name of the creature that they are holding they can bring it up and put it in my bag. We identify each one and get ready to sing. I put the Skipper on the flannelboard and hold open the duffle bag and we have a great time! Here's the link to the doc. for the song, Old Man Skipper. This is always a big hit! (And I've never had a child not put their creature in the bag.) Since I have soooo many Beanie Babies that match the song (I added a few too) I never got around to making felt pieces. My skipper is made of pellon with a black sharpie outline and I used colored pencils to color him. I know that Burt Dow Deep-Water Man is not about sharks but it is about a skipper and I have always loved this story! Sea creatures, including sharks, are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Sharon @ Rain Makes Applesauce has the rest of this week's roundup. 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!

Summer Sailboats

We've been playing in the water sprinkler a lot now that it's warm! Hooray! The water and the warm sun reminded me of the beach and seeing beautiful sailboats on the water. I have a set of sailboats with a rhyme I made up a few years ago for a summer beach theme series.  This rhyme lends itself to being a guessing game too.  I would first do the rhyme and then play, "Which one is missing?" with the sailboats.  We all name the colors together and then I have the children close their eyes and I remove a sailboat. They open their eyes and guess which color is missing. They never get tired of this game. Thanks goodness! Here are some books that would be good with this theme: 

Sailboats

By Kathryn Roach

Sailboats are quietly floating by,

Beautiful sails are flying high!

Red and yellow,

Green and blue

Can you see the colors too?

Floating on the waterway,

See more colorful sails today.

Orange and pink,

Purple and brown

Beautiful sailboats don’t make a sound.

Sailing on the water under the sun,

Riding on a sailboat is so much fun!

Summer sailboats are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime. 

Check with Linda @ Notes from the Story Room for the rest of this week's Roundup!  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!