Transportation Activity: Where Does it Go?

 

Here's a fun activity with a new rhyme for our next Transportation theme for Storytime.  You can use any flannelboard transportation pieces that you have to sort them by where they Go.  This is a fun and educational activity.  Here's a couple of articles that explains all the benefits of sorting.  From Especially Education, "Sorting-Why Children Need This Skill" or from Education.com, "Preschool Math: All Sorts of Sorting".    Here's my rhyme and instructions for Where Does it Go?  Sorting and Playing are so much Fun With Friends at Storytime! 

Wheels on the Bus several ways.

I recently made a set of 10 colorful buses for a fun activity/song for The Wheels on the Bus.  My grandson loves to watch videos of this song and we saw a really cute one that I wanted to make for Storytime.  So I found a Google image that I deconstructed for my pattern.  I first made a bus with the little children riding in it. I have a diecut for the paint splashes and children. Then I made 10 colorful buses that can be counted or used with the kiddos.  This can be a match the wheels to the color bus or match the wheels to the color splash or count the color buses activity.  I'm super happy with how it turned out. 

Singing and playing the Wheels on the Bus at Storytime is so much Fun with Friends at Storytime! 

Airplanes Flying Away!

Up, up and away with Five Little Airplanes! We played 'Which One Flew Away?' after we did the rhyme. I had one little guy that exclaimed when I put the airplanes on the board, "There's a honey mustard plane!"  That's why I love doing preschool storytime. Airplanes are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime.

Choo Choo! Here comes the Train!

We're starting the year with a preschool favorite theme...Trains! I had a couple of things from before when we did this theme HERE but I wanted something new! I found some great resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Transportation board. I made my version of Melissa's train set. Check out her blogpost HERE.  Now, we're ready to Choo Choo and Clickety Clack for Storytime!
Be sure to see the other ideas on this week's  Flannel Friday Roundup!

Traffic Light - Stop and Go!

Beep Beep, STOP! now, GO! Cars and Transportation is always a fun and easy theme with the kiddos in storytime. They spend so much time in the car it's a theme that really resonates with them, LOL! I have posted my file folder rhyme HERE and there are many fun flannel sets on the Flannel Friday Pinterest boards. I found this one at Libraryland and wanted to make a set for our kiddos...of course, I added lots of glitter to mine. I made my own glitter felt with white glue, a layer of glitter, and then another layer of glue. I let each piece dry before I added the second layer of glue. Now, the glitter doesn't continually shed as I handle the pieces!  Here is a link for the printable rhyme, 'The Crazy Traffic Light' We also did a fun active rhyme with just the regular three colors...'Green Says Go' from Leah @Toddler Storytime: Stories, Songs and Rhymes.

We offered an easy Home Extension too. We cut 4 in. by 9 in. strips of black construction paper and put a point at one end. We had sheets of large circle stickers that we cut into strips with 3 circles for each child. The kiddos color the circles and stick them on the black strip to make their own traffic light.  Transportation and traffic lights are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime! There are other ideas this week @ 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! 

My Little Red Car

Here's another car post for your driving pleasure! LOL! This is a file folder rhyme that changes colors. It could be an interactive rhyme if you had car cutouts that the kiddos 'drive' up to put on the flannelboard as you hold the file folder and say the color rhyme.




My Little *Red Car

Hop right in my little *red car,
Let's drive up and down.
Round and round and round we go
All around the town.

*change the color sheet as you say the rhyme. Use the colors you prefer. I had red, blue, yellow, green and orange.

I used a copy of a map to cover the file folder back. I used a Google image to cut out the car shape.  I cut out 2 black and 2 smaller silver (tinfoil) circles for the tires. I taped the tires and headlight and taillight pieces on with double sided tape and ran the file folder through the laminator. Then I positioned the window pieces and ran it through again. You could skip the last step and just draw on the film with a sharpie all the details. I stacked my papers in the folder and we are ready to go! Cars 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.

Drivin' in my Car!

My grandsons have been obsessed with cars since the Disney movie Cars came out a few years ago. We have cars here and at their home and in their car... I guess it's about time I did a post about cars. Many years ago I made a set of 5 race cars to go with a cute rhyme that I had discovered. I didn't cite it on my copy so I don't know where it came from (I hate when that happens!!) Anyway, I used it and made 10 different colored cars to do the basic, count to 10 rhyme and read some books and we sang a fun song and had a great storytime! I used 'Driving in my Car' from the fun, Ralph's World CD. I've used several of the songs from this CD.

Five Fast Race Cars

Five fast race cars speeding round the track.

The first car said, " I can't look back!"

The second car said, "Oh no! I'm out of gas!"

The third car said, "Beep! Beep! I'm fast!"

The fourth car said, "Watch my tires spin."

The fifth car said, "Vroom vroom! I win!"

Then beep went a horn and flash went the lights,

And five fast race cars sped out of sight!

Here are my 10 little race cars...

1 little 2 little 3 little race cars;  4 little 5 little 6 little race cars;  7 little 8 little 9 little race cars;

10 race cars zoom past!

10 little 9 little 8 little race cars;  7 little 6 little 5 little race cars; 4 little 3 little 2 little race cars;

1 race car is last!  (Feel free to tweak this!! please!!)

You can tell I used a diecut for the car shapes. They've been handled and stretched a bit but they are still lots of Fun with Friends at Storytime!

I did a craft at the time I did this storytime but you could easily adapt the idea for a Home Extension. I had copied a map onto 11 x 17 paper and set out pans with some green paint and small cars. The kiddos 'painted' by dipping the car wheels in the paint and driving them on the map. I had a small paper green car for them to glue to the map after they painted. FUN!! You could hand out the map paper and small car cutout and tell them to take it home to color or 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.

There Was A Bold Lady That Wanted a Star

This week I did a 'Rocket' theme and wanted to use this really fun book! This book could work for several themes. You could use it with a transportation theme or stars or space. The pictures are detailed and a little bit small so I made my felt pieces big and used them as I read the book. I found this pattern set to download from The ALA website from the great resource book,  Storytime Magic.  I tweaked them a little and used the set this week and it was a BIG hit! I heard ooohhhs and aaahhhs when I put the jar with the star in it on the board. I had taken the star off the board and pretended to put it in my pocket. I had the jar piece sitting in my lap and so I just added it to the jar as I was putting it on the flannel board. This turned out better than I had hoped! That's always a win!! I started with the small glittered star in the top corner of the felt board then I lined the pieces up from top to bottom with the rocket and jar at the bottom.  You could just as easily line them up from bottom to top as it is in the book. I just made the pieces that she bought in her quest to get to the star that was so far...away. I made the shoes and skates big! I made my own pattern for the shoes and skates by looking at the pictures in the book. The bicycle was a little tricky! But, it turned out to be my favorite piece of the set. I made my own pattern for the big jar too. Can you tell I like for my pieces to be big? LOL!

I offered  a Home extension so that the kiddos could make a rocket-in-space picture to remember our fun rocket theme. The rockets are diecuts. I taped pieces of Christmas tinsel to the bottom as the 'fire' exhaust. The fireworks foam stickers were leftover from another activity. We also had some SRP stickers leftover that had a rocket on them that I handed out and the kiddos were so happy to get them! 

We sang Laurie Berkner's really fun song, Rocketship Run. I heard one of the little boys singing it as we were checking out books after storytime. Ha! That's why I do what I do! I can't believe I get paid to have this much fun! 

Rockets 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.

Hot Air Balloons take 2

This is technically not-a-flannel post. LOL! Last year I posted my Hot Air Balloons and promised a riddle game that goes with that theme. Finally, I am posting the riddle rhyme link here; Hot Air Balloon Ride. I used Google images that I mounted on colored construction paper and laminated for each verse of the riddle. You can add a piece of velcro to the back of each picture and put them on the flannelboard as you say the riddle rhyme. My memory of using this is that it generated a good bit of discussion about the places we like to play or go.

I prepped the craft by punching the holes in the small paper plates and cutting the tissue paper into strips. You could easily just have the kiddos color the plate with markers and even add some stickers before trimming to hot air balloon shape. They threaded the yarn through the holes and glued them to the 'basket' (cut up old file folders).  When I did it, I had the kids glue the tissue to the plate with glue stick and then the parents trimmed the plates but you don't really even have to trim the plates. This craft could lend itself to talking about shapes too!

Hot Air Balloons are a lot of Fun With Friends at Storytime!
Hannah @ Lovin' The Library 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!

Airplanes are Flying High!

My grandsons have become obsessed with Peppa Pig and going on holiday. LOL! Peppa's family travels by airplane to go to Italy for their holiday. She sings a made-up song about flying in the airplane that has a tune that sticks in your head, arghhhh! They also LOVE the Disney movie, PLANES. We have a lot of those airplanes flying around the playroom! They have inspired this post this week. I have an airplane counting rhyme to share and my 10 airplanes with a little bling and glitter. I still like to use the classic airplane book by Crews with this theme. But there are lots of newer airplane or flight books that would be great!                          

Here's the link to the rhyme, 10 Airplanes. My airplanes are Ellison diecuts to speed up the process. I cut a sequin in half for the cockpit window and used glitter for the stripes on the wings.

 Airplanes are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!
Check with Katie @ Storytime Katie 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!