Flannel Friday - Maisy, the Weather-Mouse

This summer I came across the book Maisy Goes Swimming by Lucy Cousins:

It's kind of an odd little book where you undress Maisy from her warm clothes and put on her bathing suit so she can go swimming.  I decided not to use it because it kind of weirded me out, but it gave me an idea.  What if I made a game out of dressing Maisy in weather-appropriate clothing?

This flannel doubles for winter and summer!  You would just ask the children which item is better for Maisy to wear.

Here's what I came up with:

Does Maisy need her bathing suit or her snow suit?

Should Maisy wear her sunglasses or her warm woolly hat?

Does Maisy want to cool off with an ice cream cone or warm up with some hot chocolate?

Will Maisy play with her beach ball or go sledding?

Here is Maisy all ready for Winter!

And here she is all ready for Summer!

I drew all of these items by hand, and outlined them with black fabric paint.

I could see this set being used in many ways - maybe you could make several Halloween costumes for Maisy and let the kids dress her up.  Once you've made the base, you could keep adding to her wardrobe as you come up with new ideas. 

I will definitely be using Maisy this coming winter!  This will make a nice game to play during story time!  Happy Flannel Friday!

Preschool Story Time - Frogs!

What a great theme this is!  I had no trouble with this theme because books are plentiful, rhymes are easy to find, and craft ideas abound.  If you need a story time in a hurry, this is a great theme to grab!  Remember to see my story time flow under my Preschool Story Time tab to see the dances and other activities we do weekly!

Books we used:

Stick by Steve Breen
If you haven't seen this book, its quite adorable.  Stick is a frog who seems to get stuck to a bunch of different things as he explores his world.  There are so few words in this book, but there are a lot of pages with multiple panels with no words at all.  We read this book so slowly so everyone in the room could see all of the pictures.  This was probably my mistake of story time.  My room was full and it took quite a while to get through this book because everyone was spread out.  For the second and third readings, it was much easier because my crowds were smaller.  Not a great book for large story times, but the kids really liked the funny situations of the book.
 

 

 The Big Wide-Mouthed Frog - Ana Martin Larranaga

One of my favorite stories to tell, I decided to make felts based on Ana Martin Larranaga's book of the same name.  Click to see my Flannel Friday post on this flannel set.  This was the highlight of my story time.  I taught the Frog's refrain before we started: "I'm a Big Wide Mouthed Frog and I eat flies!" I also slowed this story down so the kids could participate.  One of my goals of story time is to show the kids how to retell stories at home with their own expression and props.  I gave them copies of the text, had LOTS of copies of the book on hand for borrowing, and our craft was their prop.  The kids adored this story and so did the moms.  I even got a hearty applause for my efforts.

 

Too Many Frogs by Ann and John Hasset

Nana Quimby is trying to bake a cake, but she keeps hearing a thump thump on her cellar door!  When she opens it, she is overrun with TOO MANY FROGS!  What will Nana Quimby do?  And will she ever finish that cake?  Any book with a repetitive refrain will have the kids joining in, and that is just what happened with this book.   The kids loved it!

 

The Croaky Pokey- By Ethan Long 

This was my wildcard book - the extra one I always have on hand if the kids are really enjoying story time.  Well, in three story times this week, I did the book each time.  They loved singing it, they loved dancing it, and they loved the surprise ending!  It's the Croaky Pokey!  Enough said!

Finger Plays and Songs this week:

We sang only one verse of 5 Green and Speckled Frogs, because we were getting short on time.  I gave a handout to the kids with the 5 frogs and a log for them to use as flannel boards, coloring, or singing at home.

A fingerplay I used is used from www.prekinders.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/frog-fingerplay.pdf‎

Croak Said the Frog (make croaking sound)

With his golden eyes (put fists up to eyes)

Sitting on a lily pad

Catching Flies (grab air with hand)

I have a sticky tongue (with index finger, make a darting motion)

It's as FAST as can be!

I catch mosquitoes

1-2-3 (count with fingers).

Craft:

I was so happy to find this PDF from Teacher's friend with 46 different paper bag puppets!

cbolding.wikispaces.com/file/view/Alphabet+puppets.pdf

 As I have mentioned, I like to give kids the tools to retell stories at home using props.  This was probably not as creative as a craft as I would have liked to use, but hearing the kids walk out of the room with their puppets and saying "I am the WIDE MOUTHED FROG and I EAT FLIES" absolutely made my whole week. 

Last thoughts:

One book I maybe should have used in place of Stick was A Frog Thing by Eric Drachman.  I went back and forth between the two books.  I know I will do this theme again and when I do, I will be trying out A Frog Thing for sure.

I could not have been happier with this theme overall.  In story time today, the kids were shouting "READ IT AGAIN!" which was really heartwarming.  Its true that kids can tell when you are comfortable and love what you are reading.  It shines through to them, so keep picking books and themes that you love and are excited about, and the kids will want you to 'read it again' too!

Toddler Story Time - Let's Go on a Picnic!

A great summertime theme for story time is picnics!  This theme was fun to plan and super fun to do!  The little ones loved it! 

 

Books I read…

 

Biscuit’s Picnic by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

I love to use Biscuit books!  The stories are just the right length for toddlers.  Biscuit never disappoints with his crazy dog adventures and I think the little ones like to hear me woof.  

 

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audry Wood

This book is one of my son’s favorites, so I was super excited to find an opportunity to use it in story time.  The interactive qualities and great illustrations made it a winner for both the little ones and the grownups.

 

One, Two, Three, Picnic! By Susan Schade and Jon Buller

This board book was from my personal collection, belonging to my sons when they were young.  It is a simple counting book about a group of animals that collect so much food for their picnic that they can no longer pick up their picnic basket.

   

 

How it went…

 

To start things off right, we sang the song Summer Time is Picnic Time (to the tune of “Mary had a little lamb” from Perry Public Library Storytime.(Thanks:http://www.perrypubliclibrary.org/webfm_send/76). 

This was a great little song to get the kids excited about our picnic.

Summertime is picnic time, picnic time, picnic time.

Summertime is picnic time, time to have some fun.
We will eat our picnic lunch, picnic lunch, picnic lunch.
We will eat our picnic lunch, and play when we are done.

After reading our first book, I passed out small teddy bears to each child.  We danced to Teddy Bears’ Picnic from Anne Murray’s cd There’s a hippo in my tub!.  And we did the action rhyme, Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear. 

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Turn around
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Touch the ground
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Jump up now
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Take a bow
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Find your nose
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Touch your toes
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Arms up high
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Wave good-bye!

The kids were so excited to hold their own teddy bears!  Their eyes lit up when I passed them out.  Luckily, the rhyme ends with putting the bears to bed, so it was easy for the little ones to quietly return their teddy bears.  Shh..  We didn’t want to wake them!

To complement the book The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear, I used the Strawberries flannel I found from Storytime Katie.  (Thanks:http://storytimekatie.com/2012/08/24/flannel-friday-strawberries/) 

I added a bear puppet to the fun and with the assistance of a helper, the bear gobbled up each flannel strawberry.

Five red strawberries, sweet to the core.
Bear came and ate one and then there were four.
Four red strawberries, growing near a tree.
Bear came and ate one and then there were three.
Three red strawberries, for you and you and you.
Bear came and ate one and then there were two.
Two red strawberries, sitting in the sun.
Bear came and ate one and then there was one.
One red strawberry, left all alone.
Bear came and ate it and then there were none.

 

And what picnic would be complete without a line of marching ants!  Using the ant clipart from the Internet, (Thanks: http://www.clker.com/clipart-ant-13.html)  I made small ant puppets for each child with cardstock and a popsicle stick (I do this quite often.  I let them take them home!).  We marched around with our ants to the song The Ants Go Marching on the cd Here is Thumbkin!. 

We finished story time with our very own picnic!  I brought in a picnic basket full of pretend food.  Everyone sat on the floor around the basket.   I started the activity with the song Picnic Packing (To the tune of “A Tisket-A Tasket”) from Perry Public Library Storytime.  (Thanks: http://www.perrypubliclibrary.org/webfm_send/76)
A-tisket, A-tasket,
Let’s pack a picnic basket.
We’ll fill it up with food to munch.
What is in our picnic lunch?

After a couple rounds, I let them free play with the food.  The grownups got served lots of pretend picnic meals!  They loved it!  I will definitely do this story time again in the future. 

Preschool Story Time - Fireflies

There comes a time in every librarian's summertime themes when the topic of fireflies comes up.  I love this theme because fireflies are fascinating!   This was one of those story times where the craft was easy to find, the finger plays and songs were easy to find, but I struggled a little to find books I liked.  Here's what we did:

The Little Squeegy Bug by Bill Martin
This book was recommended by a friend of mine who's son deemed a favorite.  It is a darling old (circa 1945) book about a little bug with no name who discovers what is special about him with the help of good friends.  It is a LONG book for preschool, but I did the right thing by reading it FIRST and letting the room know that it was a little longer than usual, but a very sweet story.  I even got a little gentle applause after reading it!

Ten Flashing Fireflies by Philemon Sturges
A good counting book, the children catch fireflies one by one and put them in a jar. Then, of course, they set them free.  The kids caught on quickly and liked the counting.  This opened a discussion about catching bugs, looking at them for a while, but making sure to set them free when you're done.  I noted the nodding moms in the room.  I had found a little rhyme to accompany this book too thanks to http://ladybugbook.tripod.com/id28.html

Catching Bugs

Sung to: "Mary had a little lamb"

Catch some bugs
and look at them,
Watch them,
feed them.
Catch some bugs
and look at them,
Then please let them go.

The kids were still excited after HALFTIME (see my tab above for more), so I threw in another song which they really enjoyed  thanks to http://www.thelearningpad.net/id26.html :

Insect Song

Tune: The Wheels on the Bus

The firefly at night goes blink, blink, blink,

Blink, blink, blink. . blink, blink, blink.

The firefly at night goes blink, blink, blink,

All around the town!

(Other Verses)

The bees in the flowers go buzz, buzz, buzz...

The ants in the grass go march, march, march...

The crickets in the leaves go chirp, chirp, chirp...

The caterpillar in the field goes creep, creep, creep... 

I did not choose a wild card book (the book that get's read before the last book if the kids are REALLY into story time) because I just didn't have that fourth book I loved.  Instead, I pulled out a felt story of a Mother Goose Rhyme I had (Jack and Jill this time) so we could review this rhyme.  I leave these felts up so the kids can explore them and retell the poems after story time ends.  I also had a poetry book on hand with a firefly poem in it.  I would tell you the book, but it got snatched up after story time!

The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle
Well, who doesn't love Eric Carle?  This was a favorite because of the blinking fireflies in the back!  I always choose my last book based on a certain criteria - shortest, loudest, funniest, or most participatory.  This was the shortest one, but also allowed me to point out the books on display which went flying off the shelves.  Warms my heart!!



I loved my craft this week!  In summer the crafts are take-home because we just get too crowded, so I made kits with instructions to make this great firefly thanks to http://tippytoecrafts.blogspot.com/2012/06/fireflies-ii.html

They look GREAT in the windows!

And after our closing number, announcements, and hand stamping, we got to do one activity inspired by this clip art I spotted on Royalty Free Clipart www.picturesof.net/

I drew a jar on card stock and put it on the bulletin board.  Then I drew a bunch of the cute little fireflies and taped them all over the room.  I invited the kids to 'catch' the fireflies and put them in the jar.  They had a great time going on the hunt!

Summer Story Times have extra challenges for sure, but this crowd seemed to really like this theme and sat very attentively throughout!