Preschool Story Time - Sheep Shenanigans

I love books with sheep in them, and there are TONS!  Last year I did an entire theme of counting sheep - all books referring to sleeping and sheep.  Except for my last book, each of these books talk about wool and sweaters.  Keeping Every Child Ready to Read in mind, these books are all written in rhyme, and the last book reinforced the 'ee' sound and rhyming.  I explained to the parents that children can recognize rhyme before they can make a rhyme, so they should start with asking if something rhymes before they have the child create a rhyme.

The Plan-

I have a new opening rhyme I tried!  This rhyme is by an unknown author.  When I read this rhyme for the first time, I sang it in my head loosely to the tune of Merry Old Land of Oz (Wizard of Oz) and it stuck, so that's my tune.

Touch Your Nose
Touch your nose. Touch your chin. That's the way this game begins.
Touch your eyes. Touch your knees. Now pretend you're going to sneeze (A-choo!).
Touch your hair.  Touch one ear.  Touch your two red lips right here.
Touch your elbow where it ends.  That's the way this touch game ends.

Woolbur- Leslie Helakoski

Woolbur is a free spirited lamb who cannot follow the flock.  "But isn't it GREAT?" Woolbur tells his parents.  This book is longish for preschool story time, but the kids really loved the refrain. A comical way to look at wool and the process of making yarn.

The Great Sheep Shenanigans - Peter Bentley

Wolf has a plan to have lamb for dinner, but Red's Gran and Rambo the Ram have other ideas.  Anytime you can say the word 'poo' or 'stinky' in story time, the kids are going to like it!


Peppered in between the books were our nursery rhyme felts.  If you missed my Flannel Friday post, click here for more about my Nursery Rhyme Sheep
With this set, I was able to do Mary Had a Little Lamb, Little Bo Peep, and Baa Baa Black Sheep.

I was really surprised that some of the kids didn't know Mary Had a Little Lamb!  Usually my group knows nursery rhymes but I either had shy ones or they just don't get these rhymes at home.  I guess the lesson is to not assume that nursery rhymes are old news for the preschool kids.

Farmer Brown Shears His Sheep - Teri Sloat

It's spring and time for the sheep to be shorn, but the sheep want their wool back!  This book cleverly explains the process from shearing through sweaters.  The naked sheep really distracted the kids, but this book is hysterical.

Sheep in a Jeep- Nancy Shaw

This is very short and sweet but reinforces rhyming, and our craft was based on this book!  I had two kids tell me that this book was too short.  I guess after the last three books, it is, but I like to end on a quick one.

My craft was based on Shannon's Book Nook Blog.  She did something very similar, but I used A to Z Teacher Stuff Tools to create the bottom line of the sheet.  I left out the 'ee' in both words so the preschoolers could write that in and practice that sound with their parent.  My craft has little detail because I do not want the children to copy me.

Overall SUCCESS!  The kids loved the theme and sat perfectly for all 4 stories.  We ran almost 10 minutes over but they still wanted more.  Now I am ready to launch into our fall, then holiday story times.  It's going to be a busy fall!

Flannel Friday - Nursery Rhyme Sheep

If you follow my story times, you know I love creating flannel boards.  I really enjoy going off-book and just telling a story using flannel props.  I also love crafting sets which I can leave on the board for 'Free Exploration' after story time.  Lately I have been focusing on nursery rhymes and songs.  According to Every Child Ready to Read, singing and talking are two strong components of early literacy.  By learning and reciting poems and singing songs, children learn rhyming, patterns, how words are formed, sequence, etc.  I try to incorporate one of these rhymes at least once a month.  The children who know it feel successful, the children who don't can learn it and take home tools to be able to try it at home.

This set I have created is for an upcoming sheep story time.  I decided to immortalize three nursery rhymes in flannel in one multi-use set.  I'm sure I'll be adding pieces to it later.  Here are all of the pieces in the kit:

The sheep are cut from a coloring sheet I found at http://www.coloringan.com/2013/03/sheep-coloring-pages-1612/.

**Shout out to my daughter, Sarah, who designed the people in her artistic style.  I used her drawings for the template for the Master, Dame, and Little Boy.

The rest of the items, the school, staff, bags, bushes, are free hand.

First: Baa Baa Black Sheep:
Baa Baa Black Sheep have you any wool?
Yes sir, Yes sir, three bags full!
One for the Master, one for the Dame, 
and one for the little boy who lives down the lane.

Next: Little Bo Peep:
Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep
and doesn't know where to find them!
Leave them alone and they'll come home
Wagging their tails behind them!

Finally: Mary had a Little Lamb
Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb.
Mary had a little lamb with fleece as white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went,
Everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.
It followed her to school one day, school one day, school one day.
It followed her to school one day which was against the rules.
It made the children laugh and play, laugh and play, laugh and play.
It made the children laugh and play to see a lamb at school.  
(there is more to this story but this is generally long enough for preschool)

My flannel stories are generally created by making a template from a photocopy of a book, drawing, or coloring page.  I will first cut out the piece which will be out front (for example the dress), then do the hands and head but adding a 'tail' so there is more surface area to glue in back. T-shirt paint (also called puffy paint) is used for detail.  This paint does come in a sharpie like pen as well, but is for a softer line.  I have flesh tone markers to softly color in the skin.

Thanks to Kathryn for hosting Flannel Friday this week!  If you are new to Flannel Friday, visit her blog at: http://kdr4xmom.blogspot.com/ and see what Flannel Friday is all about!