Up, Up and Away Storytime

I only had one storytime this week as I am off on Thursday for my oldest daughter’s spring concert at school.  But it was a perfect day to do this theme since it was SUPER windy all day.  We read stories about balloons and kites.

We started with the poem “5 Little Kites” originally shared by storytimekatie.com

Five Little Kites
One little kite in the sky so blue,
Along came another, then there were two.

Two little kites flying high above me,
Along came another, then there were three.

Three little kites, just watch them soar,
Along came another, then there were four.

Four little kites, so high and alive
Along came another, then there were five.

Five little kites dancing across the sky,
What a sight to see, way up high!
From ~  Step By Step — Kite Theme

I had two felt stories for this theme.  The first is the typical felt board and the second is more of a string story.

We read Balloons, Balloons, Balloons by Dee Lillegard and I had the children bring up the correct color balloon as we read the story.  I also made some extra colors for larger groups.  There is also a repeating phrase throughout the book
“Snap Snap, Clap Clap, Balloons Balloons Balloons.”  For the “Snap” I just had them slap their legs, since it’s hard for little ones to snap.

Then we read a really cute book called Someone Bigger by Jonathan Emmett.  This is a cute story about a little boy who wants to fly a kite but his dad thinks he’s too small.  The dad, however, gets pulled up by the kite and all sorts of people and animals from the town grab on to the string to help pull him down and they are all pulled up as well.  At the end it is only the little boy who is able to hold on to the kite without being pulled up!

I decided to make this into a kind of string story.  I made a kite out of construction paper, laminated it, put some thin dowel rods on the back and a small ring so I could hang it up to use.  Then I glued on a super long ribbon.  I traced the images from the book onto paper, colored them in, and laminated them and then glued on a clothespin so the kids could come up and clip their character to the string.  Some of the younger ones need help with this part.  They loved how it was different and while some did try the old stick your piece to the felt board method, most of them were attempting to clip the clothespin to the ribbon.  🙂

Kay from librarystorytimeabcs is hosting the Flannel Friday roundup today.

Color Theme Storytime

This week my storytime theme was colors and we used the following feltboards for my storytimes.

To begin storytime I started with a simple counting poem.  You can have the children counting off on their fingers along with you as you do the poem.

I hot glued string to the backs of the balloons.

Five Little Balloons

5 little balloons, I wish I had more!
The red one floats away, and then there are 4.
4 little balloons, pretty as can be.
The blue one floats away, and then there are 3.
3 little balloons, only a few.
the yellow one floats away, and then there are 2.
2 little balloons, they are so much fun.
the green one floats away, and then there is 1.
1 little balloons, the last one for me.
The purple one floats away. Now I’m as sad as can be.

–from a postcard in our library collection of rhymes and fingerplays

I also made a felt board for one of my new favorite books.  Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin.

Recently, a couple of us read this book at the local elementary school to promote library card week.  We played the audio version of the book (we also used Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes– which we made up movements for) and the kids LOVED it.

The second picture of shoes shows colors that were not in the original story.  I thought it would be fun to make shoes in different colors and have the kids suggest ideas as to what Pete might have stepped in to turn his shoes yellow, pink or green.

I also used the book Mary Wore Her Red Dress adapted by Merle Peek.

The patterns for this story came from the book 2’s Experience Stories by Liz and Dick Wilmes.  All details were added with fabric paint and I used a cute pompom on the party hat.