Planting a Rainbow ~ Flannel Friday

It’s been a long time since I’ve shared a Flannel Friday idea.  But I’m back with a beautiful felt version of Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert and I have a fun felt board about socks in the works that I plan to share just as soon as my family finishes up a square box of tissues that I want to use to make a washing machine which would be used with the socks. Fortunatley we haven’t had runny noses lately!

I looked online for coloring pages of many of the flowers mentioned in this story to use as patterns to make my felt pieces. I wanted the feltboard to really look like a beautiful and colorful garden once all the pieces were in place.

You can find the rest of the Flannel Friday roundup for today at Courtney’s blog “Miss Courtney Meets Bobo”

Flannel Friday ~ Baking

This past week, my storytime theme was baking, which is one I like to do around this time of year when everyone is busy baking delicious treats for the holidays.  I have several fun activities to share with you that I love doing at this program.  It’s such a magical storytime and the kids always enjoy it so much.

I made a cute little oven out of a shoe box covered in stainless steel looking contact paper.  I added construction paper burners and oven door.  Stored inside, and ready for any storytime, are all the supplies you need to make some delicious pretend cookies (I can’t fit the mixing bowl and spoon, however).

In the box is a recipe card, pretend flour (I just printed off a flour box and stuffed it with cotton), a sugar bowl, cup of milk, salt (old film canister), ginger, a plastic egg, tub of pretend butter, measuring cups and spoons, cookie cutters, piece of felt to be the batter after mixing, rolling pin, baking pan, oven mitt, timer, sprinkles, and pretend frosting bag, flat cookies, stuffed cookies that are decorated on one side.

We discuss why a recipe card is important and what usefull info you can find there.  Before class, I make sure to have the square of tan felt (the cookie dough batter) already in the mixing bowl, so when after the ingredients are added all you have to do is dump the felt batter out, I put our felt board on my lap to act as a table for the kids to roll out the dough on.  Each kid takes turns adding ingredients, stirring, rolling out the dough and making the shapes with the cookie cutters.

Then I put the flat cookies on the pan and put it in the oven and set the timer for 2 minutes.  (secretly dump off the flat cookies at this time and put the stuffed ones on the pan-the stuffed ones should be hidden in the oven before class starts)  I’ve found that with practice you can time this perfectly so that the timer ends as soon as you are done reading Maisy Makes Gingerbread by Lucy Cousins.

When the timer goes off, I grab my oven mitt and pull out the cookies! Mmmm, they are so yummy and puffy now!  But before we are all done we have to make them look beautiful.  I have the kids take turns adding frosting and sprinkles.  This activity never fails to delight both children and adults alike at storytime.  It works great for all size groups, with larger groups each child takes a turn doing one thing, with small groups kids can have multiple turns adding ingredients, stirring, rolling, cutting out cookies, and decorating them.

Super fun!

The other felt board I want to share with you today is a brand new one I added this past week based on the book Cupcake by Charise Mericle Harper.

This story is so cute and funny and fit in perfectly with my yummy baked goods themed storytime.  The story is about a cupcake who thinks he is too plain and boring with just a white frosting top.  So with the help of his candle friend they try all sorts of different toppings, including pickles, an egg, peas, pancakes, a squirrel  and even spaghetti!  Definitely worth checking this book out 🙂

You can find the rest of the Flannel Friday round up at Courtney’s blog Miss Courtney Meets Bobo

Flannel Friday ~ Clothing

I’m so excited to be back to Flannel Friday again! After a long summer off from storytimes, and a fal that’s been too busy to post my latest flannel boards, I am ready to jump in again!

This week we did clothing stories. Mostly because I was really excited about two new books. The first of course is Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin:

I just loved this book, as well as all the Pete the Cat books, and was so excited to make it into a felt board. I found the felt board pattern from Making Learning Fun.

The other new book I was excited about was Dog in Boots by Greg Gormley.

My daughters both love the movie Puss in Boots so this book was right up their alley.  Especially for my 3 year old who LOVES dogs more than anything.  This year she is going to be Lady from Lady and the Tramp for Halloween!

And the third felt board story I shared this past week was an older one I made a few years ago based on the book How Do I Put it On by Shigeo Watanabe.  This is a really cute book that is perfect for my toddler group!  It’s about a bear who is learning how to dress himself.  First when he tries to put his shirt on over his legs, then when he puts his pants on he puts them on like a shirt (I make him wear his pants like a hat, becuase I don’t know how someone could manage to make pants work like a shirt in the first place), he puts his hat on his foot, and his shoes on each ear.  Each time he puts on an article of clothing he says, “Do I put my pants on like this.”  And all the kids shout “NO!” followed by lots of giggling.  I have the kids tell me how bear really should wear each article of clothing and at the end he puts everything on correctly 🙂

Lisa of Libraryland has the Flannel Friday Round up today 🙂

Very Hungry Caterpillar Sock Puppet for Flannel Board

This is my last week of storytime until the fall.  I’ll be busy doing mostly school age programs during the summer, but will post about those as well.  But I’ll see all the Flannel Fridayers in September!!

This week for storytime my theme was bugs.  I didn’t have a felt board story for this week, instead I used a cute little caterpillar sock puppet who eats his way through pieces of felt food to go with the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

I took a plain green and plain brown sock and put them together.  the brown sock goes on the inside of the green sock, so when the caterpillar goes into his chrysalis (cocoon in the book) I just turn him inside out and it’s a brown ball of sock. 

Also before storytime I make sure to hide the butterfly inside the set of socks, when I turn it inside out I make sure that the butterfly is still hidden somewhere in the socks.  When he emerges as a butterfly at the end I pull out the felt butterfly to a lot of ooooing and aahhhing!

I made the food really large so that the kids can easily slide the pieces over my arm as the caterpillar eats his way through the pieces.

After the story I had the children act out turning from a caterpillar into a butterfly using cues from musical instruments.  First I played each instrument, and explained the movements they would be doing.

~When I hit the rhythm sticks together the kids were supposed to crawl around pretending to be caterpillars looking for food.

~When I played the piano keys going down the scale (notes getting lower) they were supposed to curl up in their chrysalis.  I used a piano keyboard app on my android for this part.  A small xylophone would work as well, but unfortunately I gave away my personal kid xylophone in a frantic house cleaning incident.

~When I played the piano keys going up (notes getting higher) the kids were supposed to come out of their chrysalis and stand up, getting their wings ready to fly, just as real butterflies let their wings dry for a while before they can fly.

~When I play quick notes on the triangle they were to fly around like beautiful butterflies.

After I explained what they should do with each musical cue, I had them act out the parts while I still gave verbal cues when playing the instruments.  The next time I only played the instruments and they had to remember what to do.  They did pretty well, I gave some hints when they got stuck at the going into the chrysalis part, but other than that they did a fantastic job!

Mollie at What Happens in Storytime has the rest of the Flannel Friday roundup this week.

 

This post is also part of a fun Bugs Blog Hop, you can find more related storytime ideas at Storytime ABC’s

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.

Flannel Friday ~ Quiet Bunny’s Many Colors

I did Spring stories this week for story time and made this new flannel story to go with the book Quiet Bunny’s Many Colors by Lisa McCue.  I also did a cute little flower poem with a silk scarf that I learned from when one of my girls used to go to Gymboree classes.

Ball a scarf inside your cupped hands and put them together.

This is a leaf, and this is a leaf
That you see makes two.
This is the bud that holds the flower
Watch it bloom for you.  (Slowly open up fingers while keeping base of palms still touching.  The silk scarf will bilow out and look like a flower opening up)

In this book Quiet Bunny is admiring all the colors he sees around him and wants to be those colors too.  He wishes he could be a sunny yellow color like the daffodils or bright blue like the blueberries.  As he is enjoying the many colors around him he keeps being covered by flowers or berry juice.  In the end he realizes (with the help of a wise old owl-of course!) that the reason the forrest around him is so beautiful is because there are so many different colors.

This book would also work well with colors and rabbits of course as well as liking yourself for who you are
All the peices, I made one white bunny and then a daffodil and lily pad coat for him to wear, the blue and red bunnies were just painted.

The bunny wears yellow daffodils after admering all the yellow around him (thanks to Miss Elizabeth for making the pretty dandelions as I was going crazy trying to make them look decent with paint, and in the end  since they were so small just cutting jagged edges worked the best!)

The bunny wears green lily pads when he wants to be gree.

The bunny covered in blueberry juice to be blue

the bunny covered in mud to be red

My Five Senses Storytime

This is one of my favorite storytime themes to do each year, but this time was extra special becuase I finally found a story I thought would work well as a feltboard to match the theme.
I always have my 5 senses storytime this time of year when lilys are avaliable. 

I always start storytime with some felt pieces on the board and ask the chidlren to try to guess what our theme of the day will be, so for today I just printed out a simple nose, mouth, eye, hand, and ear and glued felt to the back.  We talked about what each one does.

My flannelboard story was Baby Bear Sees Blue by Ashley Wolff. 
In the story Baby Bear wakes up in  the spring and is amazed by all the colors he sees, the soudns he hears and the butterflies that tickle him.   This story would work well for colors, spring, babies, bears, etc.  Lots of great concepts here!  I’m especially excited about how the lightning turned out!

The last book I read was My Cat Tuna by Lynn Reiser.
This book is fantastic for 5 senses themes.  The first part of the book, Tuna is outside and hears a robin, sees a ladybug, smells, a lily, tastes a strawberry, and feels the grass.  Then it rains, and Tuna exeriences new stimuli, gets wet, and decides to go inside where he experiences 5 more senses. 
I use this book at the end of the storytime because after we read it we all experience the same things Tuna did when he was first outside.  So I brought in one of those birds that tweet when you squeeze them (a robin), a stuffed ladybug (it’s actually a magnet), a real lily that smelled great, some real strawberries for the kids to eat (I made sure to ask the parents if there were any strawberry allergies last week and again this week), and some fantastic fabric I found in the remnants at Jo-Ann’s a few years back that looks just like grass.  We always use it at home in the winter to pretend to play outside when we are desperate for spring!  The kids always love this story because the props bring the book to life.  And I think the best way to learn about anything is to actually experience it.

You can find the rest of the Flannel Friday roundup at Erin’s blog Falling Flannelboards

Wind, Rain, and Clouds Storytime

Our library decided not to participate in the SRP collab “Dream Big Read” this summer, usually we do, but this year we got all excited about superheroes.  Partially because superheroes are cool and partially because a portion of the movie the Avengers was filmed in Cleveland, which is not too far from us.  So instead of feltboards to match the summer reading theme collab, I have our bulletin board teaser to show you that I and a coworker put together to get all the kids excited for summer-so far it’s working (YAY!)  I also just have to say that I’m so proud of how my Superman-type logos on the capes turned out.  Everyone liked the capes so much that we decided we all need one to wear in local the parade we do each summer, as well as occasionally throughout the summer just for fun 🙂

I do have some super felt boards to share  as well, but not related to superheroes as you probably already figured out by the title of this post! 🙂

So this week, we talked about rainy spring weather and gazing at puffy spring clouds, and blustery spring days.

For our movement activities in between books we shook some egg shakers to the song ‘Rain Rain go Away” and once the song was over we made a rain storm with the eggs by starting quietly and getting louder and louder for a full blown thunderstorm and then got quiet again as the rain faded away.
Later in storytime we listened to the song “I Can Sing a Rainbow” on the Wiggleworms “Love You” CD and danced around with colorful silk scarves.  Because rainbows sometimes follow rain storms.

The feltboard stories I shared today were, “Little Cloud” by Eric Carle and “It Looked Liked Spilt Milk” by Charles Shaw.

I made a special feltboard for this story to represent the scene in the book and also because I wanted to be able to tape some waxed paper to the back of the feltboard and not ruin our usual one.  In this story a little cloud changes in to many different shapes, as clouds tend to do.  At the end he and his cloud friends form one big cloud and rain on the village.  To make this rain possible I taped wax paper to the back of the felt board and drew rain on it.  Then when it’s time to rain in the story you can simply flip the wax paper over the front.  I also printed out the story and taped it to the back so you don’t ahve to try to hold the book and the feltboard to do the story.

Little Cloud as a sheep

The rain coming down

All the pieces

For this felt board I did something a little different.  One of the librarians at my library went to a workshop once where they suggested doing this different method with this story.  Instead of putting the felt pieces on the board, stick little pieces of velcro on  the pages and have the kids stick their matching felt piece in the book as you read the story.  In essences, the book becomes the feltboard and it’s kind of a matching/puzzle type experience as well.  It sounds so simple, and slightly weird, but the kids were captivated.  It’s so different to add your picture too the book, they had a great time and some of them worked so hard to make sure their piece lined up perfectly!
I used small squares of white velcro on the book (obviously this is a staff only copy)
with the matching felt piece in place

All the pieces for the book.

At the end of storytime we had our own cloud gazing activity.  I made a huge sky from some bulletin board paper and glued on shapes that I wanted to suggest different animals, foods, etc.  I had shapes in mind but tried to make them so that they could be more than one thing.  Like one that looks like a hand but could also be an elephant.

After storytime I had all the kids lie down and look up to see these clouds.  They loved it!  I honestly didn’t think they were going to leave 🙂  We talked about how now that it’s getting nicer out that they could do this with real clouds outside and see so many new shapes.

Overall this turned out to be one of the best storytimes themes, the kids were great and super enthusiastic about everything.  We all had a great time!

You can check out the rest of the flannel friday ideas at Sharon’s blog The Reading Chick were you will find a ton of great felt ideas for the summer reading collab.

Flannel Friday – Splash!

I’m ready for summer and bathing suits and water and sun. So this week I want to share a fun story called Splash! by Ann Jonas about a litle girl who has a pond in her backyard and all the animals that come and go (some not by choice!) into the pond.  It’s a fun counting story as well.  With my younger kids I just had them make louder and quiter “Splash!” sounds depending on the size of the animal that goes (or falls) into the pond.  With the older crowd you can have them also answer the repeating question on each page, “How many are in my pond?”  For the really astute listeners, you can also ask them to watch for which animal goes into the pond and stays there (besides the fish) all the rest of the animals come and go during the course of the book.  It’s a very busy pond 🙂  You can also ask them which animal, that is shown in the book, never goes into the pond.

You can find the rest of the Flannel Friday roundup  at Notes from the Story Room.

 

Flannel Friday ~ Dog’s Noisy Day

This week for Flannel Friday I have a feltboard version of Emma Dodd’s book Dog’s Noisy Day.  I love the Dog books, and have also made a version of Dog’s Colorful Day as well. 🙂

I did a farm themed storytime this week, but this book is also great for storytimes about sounds, or dogs, or the 5 senses (hearing).

Katie will be hosting the round up this week at storytimekatie.com