Imagination Station - Let's Play "Veterinarian"!

Wow, it has been a busy summer! Our apologies for the lack of posts lately!

This summer Miss Kristie and I launched an exciting new play center called the "Imagination Station." In June the theme was a pretend 'library' - see our post about that here.

In July we shook things up a bit with a new theme - a Veterinarian's office!

Yes, those are felt letters, and yes, we were unscrambling them at the end of every day. Why is felt so tempting to little fingers?

This was surprisingly easy to throw together - we had a lot of the materials we needed already, and made the rest.  Here are some of the things we included:

-a lab coat and pretend glasses

-animal puppets and stuffed animals

-a pretend doctor's kit (I brought this in from home)

-animal x-rays (printed from Google Images and laminated)

-bandages

-a doctor's "prescription pad"

Here was our set-up. You can see we've only dedicated a small space to this play center, but it really works!

The table:

And the "waiting room," complete with magazines :o)

Why, hello, little Chipmunk. May I have the blood pressure cuff, please?

Miss Kristie made these "band-aids" out of - you guessed it - felt! They were perfect for sticking to our stuffed animals without the sticky mess of real band-aids.

X-rays are easy to find online, and are actually really interesting to look at:

And our laminator turned them green. No one seemed to notice.

Another felt creation - our doctor's bag actually got ripped apart after a week or two, but the kids continued to play with it. We were just too busy to fix it!

Doctor name tags and prescriptions (we went through a lot of these):

A little inspiration for the kids which they did NOT need! They went to town playing without any suggestions from us boring adults!

Here are some families checking out the new play center:

(and someone's big sister is wearing the lab coat!)

I found these prescriptions after some kids left one day:

1) Snowflake - eat lots of carrots

2) Mr. Owl - take medicine

3) Captain Jumpsalot - Take medicine twice a day,

before bed and after breakfast

Kids have such awesome imaginations! It has been so much fun to watch them play, especially when their parents and older siblings join in! Several times now I have heard a parent say, "Let's go play at the Imagination Station" [instead of playing on the computers], and their children excitedly say, "Okay!!" How great is that? Not only are we bringing ECRR2 more directly into our patrons' lives (one of the five practices is "play"), but we have really opened a door here. We have created a safe place for families to play together and to communicate with one another. And all it took was some felt, some toys, and a little imagination. :o)

Flannel Friday - I Took My Frog to the Library

This week's Flannel Friday is inspired by another Flannel Friday post from the blog, Narrating Tales of Preschool Storytime.  I loved the finger puppets she used to tell the book I Took My Frog to the Library by Eric A. Kimmel.  I decided immediately that I needed my own flannel version of this super cute story.  I also decided to change up the wording just a little bit to make it more toddler friendly.

I Took My Frog to the Library

By Eric A. Kimmel

I took my frog to the library, but he jumped on the checkout desk and scared the librarian!

I took my chicken to the library, but she laid an egg by the computers.

I took my pelican to the library, but he hid a book in his beak!

I took my snake to the library, but she shed her skin all over the picture books!

I took my giraffe to the library, but he tried to read over everybody's shoulder.

I took my hyena to the library, but he laughed so hard during story time that nobody could hear the story!

I took my elephant to the library.  She was very well behaved.  She stacked her books neatly.  She asked the librarian questions.  She listened to the story and laughed in all the right places.

But my elephant is very big!  SO BIG!

She wrecked the library!  The bookshelves fell over!

The librarian said, "You are always welcome at the library, but please leave your animals at home."

So whenever I go to the library...

my frog stays home,

my chicken stays home,

my pelican stays home,

my snake stays home,

my giraffe stays home,

my hyena stays home,

and my elephant reads to them!

This flannel set was really easy to make.  I traced clip art from the Internet and drew in the faces and other features.  To save time, I used a combination of permanent markers and paint to add details.  I think I may make a library to add to this set at a later date.  I also plan on telling this story not reading it from the book (especially since I made changes to the wording).  I am really excited to use it in story time.  I hope the little ones like it!

Thank you to Storytime Katie for hosting Flannel Friday this week!  Please check out her blog HERE.  If you would like more information on Flannel Friday or how you can participate, click HERE!  Thanks for stopping by!