Rainbow Rain Felt board Activity

 

April Showers are supposed to bring May flowers. Right?! I needed a felt board interactive rhyme that included a rainbow concept for our theme. I made up a rhyme; Rainbow Raindrops and cut out a bunch of colored raindrop shapes.  I will hand out the colored shapes and the kiddos will bring up the matching color raindrop as I put a glittery raindrop above the big umbrella. The giant umbrella will make another appearance later with my set of children when we do an umbrella theme in June. I have some other posts from past years with some cute Rain and umbrellas themes HERE!   Rain and Rainbows are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Babies in a Stroller going for a Ride!

Oh my! I just love my sweet babies riding in the giant stroller! These little cuties make me smile. I have a rhyme I made up to justify making this set and we will be using them this month at storytime.

  5 Babies in the Stroller.

I have several different posts about babies HERE,but this is the first time having them in a stroller with different weather conditions! They turned out better than I had hoped which is always a good thing.  I used a Google image that I deconstructed and tweaked a little for the babies and I loosely adapted a stroller image to make my own pattern (free hand cut out) stroller with diecut circle wheels. Babies are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Sunny Days!

I saw this post by Amy @one little librarian and remembered the sunflower post I shared a few years ago. I mentioned that I had done a Sunshine storytime that was so much fun. I just had to make a set of those cute little suns and clouds to add to my plan. I used my Sizzix sun and circle diecuts and glued on google eyes and a crescent piece cut from a large sequin. I just freehand cut out the cloud shapes and added a little white glittery fabric paint. I'm kinda pleased with how these turned out. I'm so happy to have the great resources from Flannel Friday! 

Amy has the rhyme for the 10 little suns that I made into a printable doc HERE and the lyrics for Raffi's song Mr. Sun.  Here's a youtube clip of Raffi singing, Mr. Sun.  We offered a Home Extension using my Sizzix sunshine diecut and some pipe cleaners to make 'sun'glasses! Ha! We enjoyed playing rhythm sticks with 'You Are My Sunshine'. We had so much Sunshiney 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!

Umbrellas

Umbrellas are so much fun for preschoolers! There's something cozy and safe about being under an umbrella that preschoolers really love. This is such a fun and easy theme for storytime. Using a real umbrella as a prop is always a big hit. I have an activity/rhyme that I like to use called 'It's Raining'. I've used it so long that I don't remember where I got it originally! I have noticed that this set has no glitter or shine?! *gasp* I will certainly fix that before I use it again! I put the big umbrella on the board and the kiddos with that color little umbrella bring it up to the board.  I say the rhyme slowly and pause after each color to give the kiddos time to bring their umbrella up. My little umbrellas are an Ellison diecut. This is always a big hit as we recognize colors and play together! I also have a song we sing to the tune of 'Ring around the Rosie'. It's called 'Listen to the Raindrops'. We pretend we're holding an umbrella over our heads as we sing and do the actions to the song. Big Fun!!

I also offered a Home Extension/craft with this theme that is a lot of fun. I cut out the umbrella and handle shapes and then used 2 primary color washable markers to make stripes on the umbrella part. A piece of tape or a dab of glue make it an umbrella and then the fun really starts! The kiddos 'paint' with water and watch the 2 colors blend to make a new color... Magic! Rainy days and umbrellas 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.

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head!

April showers are here! We've had a lot of rain and even bad storms lately. This is a chance to do some fun Rainy Weather themes. I have used several really fun 'rain' books. I'm sure you can find many others! Check out the Flannel Friday Weather Pinterest board.


I like to use a fingerplay, Five Little Raindrops go Bye-Bye, as well as my raindrop felt set. There's a fun, sweet song by Dr. Jean that I like to sing too. I like her version the best, The African Village Song (storyteller's perogative LOL!)  I found a pretty version of When the Rain Comes Down by Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer. Here's the link for the rhyme, Five Little Raindrops Jump, that I've used for years. 

I also offered a craft. This is an easy prep. I did have an Ellison diecut for the raindrop shapes but if you don't they are a quick easy shape to cut several at a time. I used shiny curling ribbon but you could use mono filament  or even thread and tape or a dab of glue. I had the paper plates cut, the holes punched and the curling ribbon threaded through, including the hanging one. The kids could tape or glue on the raindrop shapes and color the rainbow with markers. Ta da! Now they have a mobile to hang in the window or on the doorknob of their room! 
Rainy Weather is a lot of Fun With Friends at Storytime!! 
Check out the other great ideas at this week's Flannel Friday Roundup! There are more 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.

More Kite Flying

This is a repost for the Roundup at Flannel Board Fun for June 24th, 2016

By the end of the week of our kite theme, a book that we had requested finally came in to the library. Kite Flying by Grace Lin is perfect for older toddlers, 2 and young 3 year olds. There is minimal text and clear, uncluttered illustrations! I loved it so much that I have bought my own copy and made a felt set to match it that is an activity.  My plan is that after we read the book I 'make' the kite on the flannel board, except for the colorful streamers around the edge. I hand out the streamers and call for a color streamer and they bring it up and add it to the kite on the board. I had thought of calling for kids whose name begins with ..."name a letter". This would only work with older 2's or 3's. You could call for kids wearing socks or kids wearing a skirt or kids wearing a belt, kids that have a dog...you get the idea. If the group is small you could call for the boys to come up and then the girls to come up and add their color streamer to the kite.  It always takes longer than you would think to do these activities with the young kiddos, but it's worth the effort for all the learning happening!
Here's my felt set:

I cut out the center of the big yellow circle and filled it with purple glitter. I added orange glitter (non-metallic) to the edge of the yellow circle.

I edged several pieces with blue/green glitter glue and used purple shiny glitter for the 'eyebrow' and eyeballs of the dragon kite.  Walmart sells some colored glitter that is not metallic that is really pretty that I used for the yellow whiskers and the edging of the big octagon kite shape. I made up my own patterns by looking at the book's illustrations.  To get the nose even on both sides I drew and cut out my pattern folded in half and then opened it and placed it on the felt. The red kite is a 9x12 sheet of felt with the edges trimmed. I'm so pleased with how it turned out and the kiddos that played this activity at storytime seemed to really enjoy it!

Kites are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Check out the other Flannel Friday posts at the roundup hosted by Bridget @ What's Bridget Reading?. .  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!

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

Hooray, it's March and almost spring! It still doesn't feel like spring here but we know it's coming. We are doing some typical March themes at storytime including Kites.  I know there are several great Kite links on the Flannel Friday Pinterest boards like the one here. Two great kite theme books are, Someone Bigger by Jonathan Emmett and Kite Day; a Bear and Mole Story by Will Hillenbrand.  We have several kite flannels but I really wanted something interactive for the toddlers.  So, here's a rhyme and set of small felt kites that the kiddos can add to the board as we talk about colors and kites.

Color Kites

by Kathryn Roach

On a breezy spring day

Way up in the sky,

See the many *red kites

Flying high!

orange, yellow, green, blue, purple,

  

On a breezy spring day

Way up in the sky

   See the lovely rainbow color kites flying high!!

It's hard to see the red kite against the red felt of our board.  Anyway, I cut out 5 of each color and used the primary color variegated yarn (Walmart) cut into small lengths the same color as the kite for the tails. (It's the small things HA!) I usually stack the kites in the color sequence to be sure that every color is handed out. Then as I say the rhyme the kiddos bring their color kite up to the board.  They really enjoy this type of active rhyme. There are a lot of cognitive and social skills involved in this type of storytime activity; active listening, waiting for a turn, and a sense of collaborative pride when the board is full of the different color kites to make a 'rainbow'. Wow! I'm tired just thinking about it LOL!   

Kites are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime! 

Check out the other Flannel Friday posts at the roundup hosted by Amy at Catch the Possiblities. 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!