Flannel Friday - Halloween Extravaganza 2014

We could not be more excited to share this Halloween edition of Flannel Friday.  Everyone has been working so hard!  This post is LOADED with amazing felts, songs, draw & tells, dancing, and just about everything you need for a great Halloween Story Time!  You all deserve a round of applause!  Let's start this Halloween Party!

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Lisa at Thrive After Three couldn't WAIT to show you her Ten Little Goblins!  Based on the book by Pamela Jane, this one could very easily become a staple in your Halloween story time!

Kathryn at Fun with Friends at Storytime is sharing her post from last year called Going Batty!  I remember these adorable bats from last year and loved the poem it came with. So cute!

Kathryn was SO excited to participate this week, she added a second post!  Not Halloween themed, but very versatile and could be used all year, check out her Morning on the Farm!  Thanks, Kathryn!

SQUEE!!  Scott at Walls Became the World shares a story I have never seen before called Humbug Witch!  I love when felts can support a story with so many layers and surprises.  I might have to make this one for my collection!

Kelly at Practice Makes Perfect shows a different approach to the Five Little Monsters Poem. She shows that to have a great flannel story, you do not need to use all felt.  These pop sticks will be sturdy (and not too scary) for many story times to come. Great idea!

Bridget at What is Bridget Reading shares not one, but SEVEN ideas for Halloween! Seriously! Just check out her owls!  Owls are perfect for Halloween! 

Lisa at Librayland tells me "Not Halloween, but still Fall"....well, Lisa, I think fall leaves are perfect for October as a break from all of the witches and goblins.  Check out her counting and matching activities!

Monica at Ram Sam Storytime also says "not Halloween" but good golly would you look at this beautiful Apple Tree set?  I can see so many story times that can use this set.  And check out the detail.  Just beautiful!

Linda at Notes From the Story Room has a Draw and Tell!  These add a great new dimension to your story time and can be used in a wide range of age groups too.  Here's The Halloween Hike! 

Carol at Program Palooza brings us a Plethora of Perfect Posts.  Her Halloween Hootenany has more ideas than I can count, with songs, fingerplays, books and more.

And just when you thought that was it, Carol has ANOTHER post on the theme of Monsters!  Enjoy! 

Jane at Piper Loves the Library brings us a fantastic HOW TO on Tunes for Tots.  Have you heard of Tunes for Tots before?  No?  Well, go check it out!  See their "recipe for success!"

And Jane has one more!  As she says, "No such thing as Halloween without this book."  I agree.  This is a great book for Halloween, and it works very well as a story board.  Jane uses sandpaper backing here....fascinating!   Here's The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything.

As for me, I am reposting my last year's Halloween Flannel Friday for any newbies.  I had a pretty shy story time group and was worried about a lot of the books I was finding at the time, so I wrote this poem and created felts to show the little ones that a costume is just fantasy play and not really scary.  Check out my "That's a Costume" set.  I do not have a story time this year for Halloween, but Miss Kristen is using my set for hers.

WHEW I am exhausted!  You guys are AWESOME!  I am so proud of you all.  It's a Halloween Celebration.  Thanks to everyone who participated.  If you would like more information on how YOU can take part in Flannel Friday, make sure you visit the Blog or Facebook page.  Thanks to all of the hosts, fairy godmother's, pinners, and bloggers.  Happy Halloween!!

Preschool Story Time - Halloween Fun

What's better than a Red Sox World Series win on Halloween???  A Red Sox World Series win BEFORE Halloween so we can focus on having a GREAT Halloween Story Time!  And it was!!  My apologies for posting a Halloween Story Time in November, but I had to post a followup to my Flannel Friday of earlier this month, and I had to wait to see how the kids enjoyed it so I could tell you!
When thinking about the 5 practices of Every Child Ready to Read, we talked about vocabulary, and how there are so many opportunities at holiday time to build your child's vocabulary.  Halloween words like skeleton, spooky, vampire, and creepy are not generally used in everyday language.  By talking about the things a child will see at Halloween, and the emotions of Halloween, you are building vocabulary and getting your child ready to read!

Click, Clack, Boo!  By Doreen Cronin

The animals are planning a wild party in the barn for Halloween, but Farmer Brown doesn't like that idea at all!  How will the animals get Farmer Brown to come?

Just Say Boo! by Susan Hood

I am SO happy I found this book!  I was able to do a few things with it.  We talked about the scary things you might encounter on Halloween and how to deal with it.  We learned how to recognize and 'read' the word BOO.  The kids were able to be a part of the book with the repetitiveness of "what do you say?".  My favorite part though, was that it was a fantastic tie in to my FLANNEL BOARD this week!!!

Did you see my Flannel Friday contribution for Halloween?  If not, click HERE.  I created a new rhyme and original felt pieces to talk about how costumes can be scary, but we always need to remember that costumes are just pretend, especially on Halloween night.

That's a Costume (by Miss Sue)
Over there I see a Ghost, my oh my a scary Ghost!
Mom says "no, its all OK.  That's a costume.  Take it away...
and you'll see it's your good friend Sheep!
Out on Halloween night!

The rhyme continues with the other costumes and characters.  My Flannel Friday Post has a lot more information on this rhyme and the felts.

This went over so well with the families.  Many moms thanked me for them and asked for copies of my templates to make at home.  The kids caught on with the rhyme and were repeating it with me, or just shouting out the animal names as they were revealed.  It was so fun to see something I created be so enjoyed.


After the fingerplay/felts, we did our Halftime dance, and then back to the books!

Creepy Carrots! By Aaron Reynolds

Not a Halloween book per-se, but definitely one of my favorite Halloween reads.  If you have not seen it, PICK UP THIS BOOK!  I use it for outreach, Kindergarten visits, and my story times.  The kids and parents just love it!

Did you see Roving Fiddlehead Kid Lit's Flannel Friday Post about Creepy Carrots??  Here are the ones I made from their templates, but there is a rhyme that goes with it too!  I ran out of time during both story times this week, but I was glad to make a set for us to use whenever we pull out Creepy Carrots.

The Spooky Wheels on the Bus by Elizabeth Mills

Any book that we can sing is going to find its way into my story time at some point!  The kids loved singing along with this book and made up their own hand motions to go with it!  Fun!

 

Pumpkin Trouble by Jan Thomas

I love Jan Thomas's books!  This is the latest one and great for fall.  Its very short, and really takes some delivery skills, but everyone in the room was silently anticipating what will happen.  Its always awesome to see an entire room rapt with a book, and always fun for a story teller to see everyone smiling with anticipation.

And our craft this week!  I used wax paper to draw the candy corn outline (I used a coloring page as a template).  The kids put tissue paper squares in each of the three sections.  When the glue dries, they carefully cut out the candy corn so the outline of the candy stays defined.  Then they can put their candy corn in the window to catch the light!  It is an easy craft and the kids loved working on it.  It also helps fine motor skills.

YAY Halloween!  The kids loved being in costume, they loved seeing Miss Sue as The Cat in the Hat, and everyone had a great time as this year's "Boo To You" Story Time!  Onward to Thanksgiving! 

Preschool Story Time - Going Batty!

There are so many great theme possibilities in October.  Bats are one of those curious animals that kids hardly ever see or learn about, but are fun to see.

The Bat in the Boot - by Annie Cannon

Based on a true story, this book reveals some interesting facts about bats and how mom bats care for their young.  I do not love the illustrations, but it sparked a discussion about how the mommy bat takes care of her babies.  Many kids had cowboy boots on too - so that was fun to talk about.

Bat Jamboree - by Kathi Applet

Counting by bats has never been so fun!  Shake it!

We paused to do this 5 little bat song (to the tune of 6 little ducks) from naturallyeducational.com which was a big hit with the kids and the moms.  We performed it with fingers so they could learn it and use the song at home, and when we got to 5 little bats came back, I let some of them put the bats back on the board.

5 little bats went on a flight

by the light of the moon one night

Mama bat said squeek squeek squeek squack

But only 4 little bats came back!

Continue with 4,3,2,1,none (and the 5 little bats come back)

**See more about my Halloween Felt Sets from a recent Flannel Friday Post.

Daft bat by Jeanne Willis

Take a look at the world as a bat sees it, and bats wont look so daft after all!  This one may have gotten away from the little ones.  It was funny for the moms and older kids, but some of  the three and four year olds didn't seem to get it.

5 Little Bats Flying in the Night - by Steve Metzer

Very short and sweet and a good closer to our bat story time!

Here is our craft this week! We had our volunteers paint 40 toilet paper rolls and cut out wings.  Fold the top of the roll to make ears, add eyes and feet and voila!  My craft sample is prepared pretty basically because I want the kids to express themselves, so we had other materials set out so the children could add any embellishments to the bats that they would like.

Seems like October is busier than ever.  It's a good thing that themes come naturally this month.  Next up is Monsters!

Flannel Friday - Halloween Surprise!

Everyone at the library loves a great Halloween Story Time!  I have two flannel boards to share today!  To see the story time post that uses these flannel boards, click HERE.


I wrote a BRAND NEW POEM, and designed brand new felts based on my experience with my son at a young age, who was very afraid of anyone in costume.  I thought there may be other preschool children who also need a reminder that 'it's just a costume' at this time of year.

That's a Costume - by Miss Sue

Over there I see a ghost!  My, oh my, a scary ghost!!

Mom says "No, it’s all OK.  That’s a costume! Take it away-

And you’ll see it’s your good friend sheep!

Out on Halloween night!

When you get to the part of the poem that says "Take it away", you remove the costume to reveal the cute recognizable animal underneath!  I chose animals so the children could shout out what the animal is at the reveal (if it were felts of children, the kids wouldn't know what to say).  I hope to get the kids to chant along with me.

Repeat the poem 4 more times, inserting these characters and animals into the rhyme:

Bat - Cat
Vampire - Pig
Monster - Cow

Skeleton - Dog

Here are close ups of each of the animals and their costumes:

The artwork is my daughter, Sarah's.  She is a great partner.  My job is to try to make the felts look like her adorable drawings. (I tried!)  The poem is mine.  If you would like to use it, please do so for personal use only and credit this blog.

Also here are my BATS!  This month I'll doing a bat themed story time, but these could be used at Halloween too.  And they are so cute!  The bats are hand drawn from a coloring page.

The idea is to use these felts with this poem from Www.Naturallyeducational.com I think it would work really well sung to the tune of the Six Little Ducks!

5 Little Bats(to the tune of 6 little ducks)

5 little bats went on a flight
by the light of the moon one night
Mama bat said squeak squeak squeak swack!
but only 4 little bats came back.

Repeat for 4,3,2,1

No little bats went on a flight
by the light of the moon one night
Mama bat said squeak squeak squeak swack!
and 5 little bats came flying back!

Thanks for visiting our blog.  Also thanks to Kay for hosting this week's Flannel Friday!  You can find her blog at: Librarystorytimeabcs.blogspot.com