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!

Camping Out!

Going camping is a really fun theme and really resonates with children. The idea of sleeping in a tent and being outside all the time is very appealing! I've got a not-a-flannel rhyme/activity that I used with my preschoolers and they really enjoyed it.  I saw this technique originally @ Mel's desk with farm animals and tweaked it to a tent shape with items you'd see out camping.  I set it up by showing and talking about the matching big pictures first.  Talking is one of our ECRR components! It's easier to manage these big pictures with a dot of velcro on the back and add them to the flannelboard as you talk and then as you say the rhyme. We did this twice so that the kiddos could get a sense of mastery and for the fine motor practice. Here's the link for the rhyme; Camping Song.   My pictures below make the tent shape look yellow, but it's really orange. I found some Google images that I scaled small for the tent and large for me. Making multiples is easy if you program a sheet with four rows of the small pictures. I used my little laminator, cut them out and we were ready for FUN!!  This also gave the caregivers an idea for some fun at home/preschool that would strengthen those fine motor muscles. I suggested paper plates programmed with shapes or colors or numbers...the possibilities are almost endless.         
Camping is a lot of 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!

Flannel Friday Roundup for 10/10/14

I'm glad to be hosting the Flannel Friday Roundup for October 10th. The generous spirit of these bloggers inspires me and affirms my impulse to collaborate and share with my fellow storytime presenting-preschooler loving- picture book reading-flannelboard enthusiasts! 
Woo-hoo! Happy Friday ya'll!!

Nikki @heytherelibrary has a beautiful set for Caps for Sale to share; including how-to's!

Oh My Goodness!! Miss Tara @Storytime with Miss Tara and Friends has got a post chock-full of Halloween fun including an adorable song!

Fresh from presenting at the Ohio Library Council's Convention and Expo comes a great post on using one felt set in more than one way from Library Village. 

Anne @itsybitsymom reminds us of a great game to play with the kiddos at storytime! This is an excellent way to get those little brains working!

In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, Jane @Piper Loves the Library has a song and some resources to share! Muy Bueno!

Bridget @What is Bridget Reading? has a fun game with adorable crocheted pieces. Great minds must think alike! (see above, Library Village)  Bridget uses pieces from other sets to make this game.

 Storytime Katie has a fun matching activity with fancy, cute socks inspired by Miss Mary Liberry!

Hooray for Katie @Felt Board Magic! She is posting about a wonderful resource...Her Feltboard Song eBook! 

I'm continuing the theme of this roundup of games and activities and how-to's with my post about Candy @Fun With Friends at Storytime! 

Thanks everyone for sharing your great ideas! Next week's host will be Lisa from Thrive after Three. Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check the official blog for answers! Be sure to join us on the Flannel Friday Facebook page!

Trick or Treat Candy

I was looking at the Halloween blogposts, and I looked through all my Halloween sets and found very few, almost no, rhymes about candy! Oh My! That's one of the main reasons for Halloween for children. The dressing up is fun but the free candy is the best! I found a cute candy song video HERE. Mr. Al has a song about candy on his CD, Kids Wanna Rock. Well, I did some thinking and rhyming and came up with an interactive rhyme I called, Trick or Treat Candy.
You can do this two different ways. 
You can tell the kiddos that we are pretending that the board is our Trick or Treat bag and they can bring their colored candy piece to stick on the flannelboard. Or you could have a Halloween treat bag or plastic pumpkin and have the kiddos drop their colored candy piece in it. The kiddos that come to my storytime like to see the flannelboard full with all the pieces that they brought up. You could instruct them to line up the colored pieces and essentially make a graph. Then you could count the different colors and see which is the most or least. I can slightly control where the pieces go by placing the first piece as I say the color and then I 'help' the kiddos find a place on the board for their piece. I say, "Let's make a line with our pieces." Sometimes, a child that brings up their piece will realign another piece that isn't quite straight in the line. LOL!  Usually once they see the first color in a row, they add their piece after mine right in the row. 

I used a Google image to program a sheet of paper to make copies on colored cardstock and bright paper. I laminated them with my small laminator and cut them out and added a small piece of velcro (hook side) to the back. Now we're ready for some candy Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Check out the rest of the blogposts for Flannel Friday 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!

Morning on the Farm

 

There are so many fun books about Farm that you could use it for the overall theme for a month! Actually, I've done that before. The first week I did general Farm books. The second week I did Chicken books. That was an excuse to use Laurie Berkner's song, ' I Know a Chicken' and use the shaky eggs! The third week I did Pig books and the fourth week I did Sheep books.  I guess I could have continued with Cow or Tractor or Seeds or Veggies.  There are so many great books to choose from. Also, there are so many great songs to use too! There's the classic 'Old MacDonald had a Farm'. It's not technically about a farm but 'Cat Goes Fiddle-i-fee' has all the farm animals. I have a new favorite song now from Nancy Stewart. It's her song, 'When Ducks Get Up in the Morning'.  I think I first saw it mentioned on one of the Flannel Friday blogposts...but I can't remember which?! Anyway, since I have access to some great Ellison farm animal diecuts I decided to make the song an interactive activity. So I cut out about 5 or 6 of 6 different farm animals and handed them out to the kiddos. As we sang about that animal the children holding the matching animal diecut brought it up to the board. I tried a different way to do this with a small group of 2's and young 3's. I was able to give them all the same animal and they had to wait for me to say the sound that the animal makes to bring up their diecut. Waiting and listening for the sound before they could get up was challenging for one of the little kiddos. It didn't take long though, he got the hang of it and could sit on the edge of his chair and wait for the animal sound! I had as much fun as they did!! Playing is one of the ECRR components that we model in our storytimes. Now, I'm thinking a set of jungle/zoo animals might be next on my to-do list. The song is really easy to learn so that you don't have to have the music and you can improvise as you like. Be sure to check out some of the other great Farm/farm animal ideas on the Flannel Friday Pinterest boards.

Farm animals are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime! Check out the rest of the roundup  @ Library Village. Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog.  Be sure to  join us on the Flannel Friday Facebook page too.

How Does Your Pumpkin Grow?

As I was going through my fall theme tub, I found a cute pumpkin prop that I got a few years ago from a guest presenter from the Farm Bureau. I tweaked it a little and added the Jack-o-lantern to mine. Since then I found a cute set HERE.  

Here's mine: 

                 'Life Cycle of a Pumpkin'

A seed is planted in the ground. 
(pull out seed shape)

A leaf appears. (keep pulling until leaf shows)

Next comes a blossom...   

Then a small, green pumpkin...               

Which grows and grows and turns orange.  

Here's an orange pumpkin that we can pick and carve into ... 

(After you show the orange pumpkin, flip the brown paper plate over and show the Jack-o-lantern) 

A funny Jack-o-lantern!

I painted one paper plate brown for the 'ground' and taped a long piece of green curling ribbon in the center of it. I stapled another paper plate to the back of the brown plate with the ribbon sandwiched between the two. I taped the shapes at intervals on the ribbon and then stacked them on top of each other and tucked them into the paper plates with a small piece of ribbon showing to pull the pieces out. I used Google images for a Jack-o-lantern for the back side. There was a lot of 'oooing' and 'ahhhhing' as the pieces magically appeared from the paper plates. Way fun!!

The Pumpkins Are Here                                                      

The pumpkins are here. The pumpkins are there.

The pumpkins, the pumpkins are everywhere.

The pumpkins are up. The pumpkins are down.
The pumpkins, the pumpkins are all around.

The pumpkins are in. The pumpkins are out.
The pumpkins, the pumpkins are all about.

The pumpkins are low. The pumpkins are high.
The pumpkins, the pumpkins all say,  "Goodbye!"

This classic rhyme sung to the tune of the 'Farmer In the Dell' is fun. Give each child a pumpkin cutout on a popsicle stick to move as you sing the song.  I usually sing the song very slowly when I do it with toddlers.  If you make enough props, you could let the kiddos take one home as their home extension. I have offered a craft with my pumpkin/ Jack-o-lantern storytimes also. Here is a fun easy one that was very popular.  I printed the Jack-o-lantern pattern  on construction paper. Then I cut it out, including the facial features and covered the front with a piece of contact paper cut to fit. I put the paper piece on the back until we were ready for the craft time. Then the caregiver or older preschooler peeled the paper off and added glitter to the features. I do it 2 different ways. I usually use a pie pan or paper plate with glitter in it that the kiddos can either, pat their Jack-o-lantern on; or 'pinch' the glitter and sprinkle it over the features. The pinching of the glitter is a good fine motor exercise. I have wet wipes or wet paper towels for the glittery fingers. The kiddos really like this craft!

Pumpkins and Jack-o-lanterns are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime! Check out the rest of the roundup @ Mel's Desk .  Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog.  Be sure to  join us on the Flannel Friday Facebook page.

Pie!..."it's pretty tasty!"

My first ever Flannel Friday contribution was 2 years ago when I was a guest of Amanda @ Trails & Tales. I shared a couple of my pie sets and since then I have made another pie set inspired by Sarah @ Read Rabbit Read. I'm already thinking about the holidays coming and all the good food we cook around Thanksgiving and Christmas time. But you could use these pie rhymes anytime of the year! I thought I'd put my pie sets all together on my blog and share them again! Here's the picture of my "Five Pumpkin Pies in the Bakery Shop". I couldn't resist adding some shiny glitter 'sugar' to the tops of my pies. LOL!

ONE WHOLE PIE

One whole pie set by the door,

Cut into pieces, I count four.

Four pieces of pie all for me,

I ate one piece, now there are three.

Three pieces of pie for me too, 

I ate another piece, now there are two.

Two pieces of pie; oh what fun!

I ate another piece, now there is one.

One piece of pie; I can’t wait! 

I ate that last piece, empty plate! 

Yummy Pies

Tune: "Three Blind Mice"

By Jean Warren - 

(adapted by Kathryn Roach)

Pies, pies, pies,

Pies, pies, pies.

Yummy pies,

Yummy pies.

Strawberry, blueberry, and cherry, too.

Apple and Key lime to name a few.

Chocolate, lemon, how about you?

I love pie!

That's no lie!

After I sing ‘Yummy Pies’ and put up the flannel pieces, we talk about the different colors of the pies. Then we play “Which Pie  Did Miss Kathy Eat?”  The children close their eyes, I remove one piece and they guess.  When they guess correctly, I show them the piece and pretend to gobble it up! They always think this is hilarious! Of course, they have to talk about their favorite flavor! 
Pie is delicious and Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Check out the rest of the roundup @ Storytime Katie's blog.  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!