Flannel Friday - Caps for Sale Flash Mob

This is the UNflannel Flannel Friday post!  I do a flannel every week of story time, but for my Monkey Story Time, I wanted to try something new - PROPS!  I say this all of the time, but I am really big on retelling.  I will often 'teach' a story to my group and then retell it or make a take-home craft to prompt the kids to tell the story at home.  It's part of Every Child Ready to Read, but also a natural part of my story times.

I read the story Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina to my story timers which, in itself, was a big hit.

After reading the book, I put on my checked cap and the kids smiled.  I was very slow and deliberate as  I pulled out 20 little finger sized 'caps' that one of my story time moms made for me (Shout Out to Jocelyn)!!  I stacked them up carefully, talking about the colors, and starting to retell the story.  The kids got really excited and caught onto what I was doing.  Then I 'fell asleep' under the 'tree' and voila!  The caps were gone!!!  We were able to do the entire story just like the book. FLASH PLAY!!!

"You Monkeys give me back my caps!!"  

"Tsz, Tsz, Tsz."  

The kids were all SO excited to be the Monkeys and really got into our 'play' by imitating me just like the monkeys in the book imitate the peddler.  Even several moms talked to me after and told me how great this addition to story time was today!  How fun!

Now I have to admit that the initial idea was to stack the hats on my fingers but that wasn't stable enough, so I stacked them on the book.  Also, the second day of story time, I had a cheeky little girl who decided to take ALL of the hats while my eyes were closed.  So it's probably best to state the rules as you are setting up the story.  And as a disclaimer, I used small hats because I am a bug-o-phobe and worried about lice!  Finally, the book isn't difficult, but you will want to make sure you know it well enough to play your role and ham it up!

The best part for me, was hearing moms come back to me to say that their child was retelling Caps For Sale at home, playing all of the parts and adding the 'tsz, tsz, tsz.'  As a librarian, what is better than that?  I'm already thinking about a Hats story time so I can use this one again soon.

For more on my Monkey Themed Story Time, Click HERE.  Thanks for stopping by!  A shout out and many thanks to Shawn at Read, Rhyme, and Sing for hosting this week's Flannel Friday!!!