Flannel Friday - Mama and Baby Matching Game

A "Bears" theme is perfect for a winter story time. Here's a simple matching game for babies and toddlers - can you help Baby Bear find his Mama?

I borrowed this idea from Mel's Desk, see her version here.  The idea is to place several "mommy" animals, including a bear, on the flannel board, and then help the babies to find their mommies.

To save time, I actually borrowed premade "mommies" from a Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? storytelling kit that we purchased years ago from Lakeshore.  I just chose the largest pieces, and then made felt babies to match.

Baby Bear, where is your Mama?

There she is!

And here is a close-up of my babies.  I just drew them freehand, based on clipart I found using Google images.  They are outlined in black Sharpie marker, and I added googly eyes.  And voila!

 

 

Big thanks to Future Librarian Superhero for hosting Flannel Friday this week!



Baby Story Time - Goodnight, Moon!

We twinkled and shone like the night sky at this Baby Story Time!

Wake-up Song: "Open, Shut Them"
Open, shut them, open, shut them,
     (bring arms out and in)
Give them both a clap, clap, clap.
     (clap)
Open, shut them, open, shut them,
     (bring arms out and in)
Put them in your lap, lap, lap.
     (pat lap)

Walk them, walk them, walk them, walk them,
     (walk fingers up baby's arm)
Right up to your chinny, chin, chin.
     (tap baby's chin)
Circle around your little mouth, but...
     (circle mouth, pause)
Do not let them in!
     (tickle!)

*note: The second verse traditionally starts with "Creep them, creep them," but I don't like it! So I say "Walk them, walk them!"

1st Book: Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

"Goodnight room; Goodnight moon; Goodnight cow jumping over the moon..."

Action Rhyme: "When the Moon Comes Up" (borrowed from a coworker)

The moon comes up when the night begins.
     (make circle over head)

Sometimes it's full,

     (arms far apart)

Sometimes it's thin.

     (arms close together)

It shines on the houses, its shines on the trees.

     (flutter fingers down)

It shines on you, and it shines on me.

     (point out, point to self)

Action Song: "Skinnamarink" (from cd "Sing Along with Bob #1," although we sang it a cappella)

Skinnamarinky-dinky-dink,

     (right elbow in left hand, wiggle fingers)

Skinnamarinky-do,

     (left elbow in right hand, wiggle fingers)

I love you!

     (point to self, hug self, point out)

(Repeat)

I love you in the morning,

     (make circle over head)

And in the afternoon.

     (start lowering circle)

I love you in the evening,

     (arms form circle under tummy)

Underneath the moon.

     (bring circle back up over head)

Oh, skinnamarinky-dinky-dink,

Skinnamarinky-do,

I love you!

     (repeat beginning motions)

2nd Book: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star by Jane Cabrera

It was too long to read the whole thing (actually, I sang it), but Cabrera's illustrations are so beautiful, I had to share it.

Next I passed out these fun star wands (simple die-cut paper stars on craft sticks):

And we waved them while we sang:
Nursery Rhyme: "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" (I played along on my guitar)
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
How I wonder what you are.

*side note: this is my two year old's favorite song right now! :)

They kept their stars while I did a simple counting rhyme with these felt stars:

Counting Rhyme: "Five Little Stars" (borrowed from a coworker)

Five little stars - look at them soar!

One shoots off, and then there are four.

Four little stars winking at me.

One shoots off, and then there are three.

Three little star with nothing to do.

One shoots off, and then there are two.

Two little stars waiting for the sun.

One shoots off, and then there is one.

One little star, alone is no fun.

It shoots off, and then there are none.

3rd Book: Hey Diddle Diddle by Heather Collins

We own a class set of these little board books, so everyone got to hold their own copy and read along with me!

We finished up with our usual songs and rhyme and it was playtime!  This was a new theme for me, and it was a lot of fun to do! Until next time!

You can find my opening and closing songs and rhymes here.

Looking for a Toddler Story Time about Nighttime?  See Miss Kristie's post here.
Looking for a Preschool take on this theme?  See Miss Sue's Space-themed Story Time here.

Baby Story Time - Yummy Food!

Babies love food, and so do I! So why not do a story time on one of their favorite subjects?

Turkey nametags, anyone?
(confession time - this was actually my Thanksgiving story time, just now posting it!)

Wake-up Rhyme: "Roll, Roll, Sugar Babies"
Lots of story time bloggers use this one!  And it makes me think of sugar cookies :)

Roll, roll, sugar babies
Roll, roll, sugar babies
     (rolling baby's arms)
*Up, Down
     (arms up, then down)
Clap, clap, clap!

Repeat with other commands, such as "Out, In" (arms out and in), "Right, Left" (lean baby side to side), and "Front, Back" (tilt baby front and back).

1st Book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Who doesn't love Eric Carle?



Counting Rhyme: "Five Little Cookies"
I borrowed this from Mel's Desk last year, but this year I made up my own rhyme to go with it.

Five yummy cookies, pretty as can be.

Someone ate the blue one! How many do you see? 1, 2, 3, 4!

Four yummy cookies, pretty as can be.

Someone ate the green one! How many do you see? 1, 2, 3!

Etc., etc.

Ok, so my plan was to bring my son's Cookie Monster toy (his mouth opens!!) to eat the cookies off of the board, but I forgot it at home.  Sigh, oh well.  There's always next year!

Action Song: "Go Bananas!"
You guys all learned the Banana Cheer in Girl Scouts, right??

Bananas unite!
     (put hands together over head)
Peel bananas, peel peel bananas!
     (peel one arm down)
Peel bananas, peel peel bananas!
     (peel other arm down)
Eat bananas, eat eat bananas!
     (sign "eat" at mouth)
Eat bananas, eat eat bananas!
     (repeat)
Go bananas! Go go bananas!
     (dance!)
Go bananas! Go go bananas!
     (repeat)
Bananas to the left,
     (lean left)
Bananas to the right,
     (lean right)
Peel your banana and take a bite!
     (mime these actions)
Mmmmmm!!
     (rub tummy)

This was a hit!  The first line had everyone laughing, including me!

2nd Book: How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jane Yolen

I only read about half of this one because the babies were getting super wiggly!

(Bonus Song! - I threw this in to get us back on track!)

Action Song: "Baby's Hokey Pokey" (adapted from the cd Baby Face by Georgiana Stewart)
Arms up, arms down,
Arms up, and wave them all around!
Then tickle, tickle, wiggle, wiggle, everybody knows,
That's how baby's hokey-pokey goes!
(Repeat with legs)

Action Rhyme: "Mix a Pancake"

This is a classic children's poem by Christina Rossetti.  I'm not sure where I saw the idea to use it as a lap bounce, but I like it!

Mix a pancake, stir a pancake,

     (draw big circles on baby's tummy)

Pop it in the pan.

     ("pop" baby in your lap)

Fry the pancake,

     (rock baby)

Toss the pancake,

     (lift baby in the air!)
Catch it if you can!
     (give baby a big hug!)

Nursery Rhyme: "Patty-Cake"

Patty-cake, patty-cake, baker's man.

     (clap hands)

Bake me a cake as fast as you can.

     (clap hands)

Roll it, and pat it, and mark it with a "B,"

     (roll hands, pat tummy, draw a "B" on tummy)

And put it in the oven for baby and me!

     (clap hands)

3rd Book: Yummy Yucky by Leslie Patricelli

Baby compares yummy and yucky foods.  My favorite page reads, "Burgers are yummy. Boogers are yucky."

 We finished up with our usual songs and rhyme, and it was playtime.  This was a simple story time without a lot of extras (rhythm instruments, etc.), but it flowed smoothly and we had a lot of fun!



Flannel Friday - Grumpy Cat

Grumpy Cat was all the rage in 2013.  If you haven't seen the memes of this cute cat named Tarder Sauce here is one:

You can see more about Grumpy Cat at their official website or on Facebook.

I decided to do a theme called Grumpy to talk about those negative emotions that we all feel but not all know how to deal with.  Grumpy Cat is also the name of a children's book I used in story time.  I found a great illustration of grumpy cat by Erin Hunting which I chose to base my flannels on.

Isn't he GREAT???  I also wrote a quick little song to accompany the flannel as well.  It is to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell:

The Grumpy Little Cat (by Miss Sue)
The Grumpy Little Cat
The Grumpy Little Cat
How do you think he got that way?
The Grumpy Little Cat

"NO" says the cat
"NO" says the cat
What do you think that cat will say?
"NO" says the cat

Let's hug that little cat
Let's hug that little cat
A hug a day keeps the grumps away
Let's hug that little cat

(Now the best part - the mouth/nose piece of the felt flips over for this last verse)

The happy little cat
The happy little cat
Turned that frown upside down
The happy little cat!

The cat was made using the technique of printing the photo to size and using it as a template. I cut out the cream color part first and traced it onto felt with puffy paint.  Then I cut out the brown parts and traced those.  I keep cutting from the template the next smallest pieces to trace. The mouth piece was my own creation just cut to fit the space. After the puffy paint dries, I can cut it out and add detail.  A little black and white puffy paint gives the cat a little more life.

My Grumpy story time is next week!  Stay tuned for how it went and thanks for stopping by!!  A HUGE shout out and thank you to Lisa at Libraryland for hosting Flannel Friday this week!  If you'd like to learn more about Flannel Friday, check out the Flannel Friday website!

New Year - New Look

A big Happy New Year to all of our subscribers!!

We wanted to thank you all for following us over these past 6 months as we built our blog - and wanted to let you know about some exciting things happening here at the Library Village!!

What do you think of our new look?  You should definitely notice the new color scheme, but did you notice that we are formally called Library Village?  When I set up the blog in late July, I had no idea that "Let the Wild Rumpus Start" would be the name people called our blog!  I just thought was putting a fun children's book quote on the top of our page.  I also discovered that we are completely unsearchable by Let the Wild Rumpus Start so I changed it to Library Village to match our URL.  Perfect!

Stay tuned as we will start to add our school age and youth programming and book clubs to our page.  Story time is only one small piece of our library day.  Miss Kristen has some great book clubs and a brand new Wonderful Ones story time, Miss Kristie is starting two Lego Clubs and a Dr. Who club, and I am stretching over to another library village where I will have a new TAG group, Lunch with the Librarian, and after-school programs.  We also have a few little secrets up our sleeve which you'll just have to wait to see more about!

In the meantime, enjoy our story time posts!  We are really passionate about our story times and can't wait to share our new ideas in 2014!

Happy New Year!

Toddler Story Time - Jingle Bells

Jingle bells..  Jingle bells.. Jingle all the way!

We had a great time jingling bells and sharing wonderful Christmas stories this week in toddler story time.  The holiday spirit was definitely in the air and the little ones were full of Christmas cheer!  Fortunately, I had lots planned to keep us moving and shaking our sillies throughout the morning.

Book I read..

Bear Stay Up for Christmas By Karma Wilson

Lovely Christmas story, but there were a few bumps in the road while I read this story.  Lets just say that some little ones heard it (and enjoyed it!) and the rest of the room did not.  It was a little longer than I usually read, but worked okay as the first book.

Merry Christmas, Big Hungry Bear By Don and Audrey Wood

We loved The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear!  So of course I had to read this Christmas story featuring the same characters. I love the interaction between Mouse and the little ones as I read the story.

Jingle-Jingle By Nicola Smee

I was so excited to use this book because I was already planning to use jingle bells.  It fit so nicely into my story time.  The little ones did a wonderful job jingling the bells with Mr. Horse and his sleigh!

How it went..

We started our Jingle Bell story time off with a couple great Christmas action rhymes to get us in a holly jolly mood.  The first was Santa's Workshop.  The little ones did a great job following the simple hand movements!  If you love it too, you can find the rhyme here! 

Santa's Workshop

Here is a great big Christmas tree, (Put tips of fingers of both hands together)
Trimmed with lights and balls
Here are Santa's little elves, (Hold up ten fingers and wiggle them)
They run when Santa calls.
This is Santa's workshop, (Use both hands to form a house over your head)
Filled with gifts and toys
The elves and helpers fill the sleigh,
For all good girls and boys.

I love rhymes that are cute and helpful!  Santa's Spectacles fit that description perfectly.  THe rhyme and movements were simple and easy for little ones and they (hopefully) ended up with their hands in their laps and ready to listen to the first book.  Christmas shout out to Perry Public Library Storytime and their wonderful story time ideas!

Santa's Spectacles

These are Santa's spectacles (circle eyes with fingers)
And this is Santa's hat (make pointed shape on head with hands)
This is the way he folds his hands
And puts them in his lap! (place hands in lap)

After our first book, we had fun with the finger play Five Little Candy Canes.  The little ones got the giggles at the end when we pretended to eat the last candy cane!  Thank you Susan Dailey for such a sweet finger play!

Five Little Candy Canes

Five little candy canes
Hanging on the door.
Santa ate one.
Then there were four.
Four little candy canes
Hanging on the tree.
Mrs. Claus ate one.
Then there were three.
Three little candy canes
Lying by a shoe.
An elf ate one.
Then there were two.
Two little candy canes
Lying in the dun.
A reindeer ate one.
Then there was one.
One little candy cane
By the chimney.
Santa put it in his bag
And brought it to me. (Yum, yum, yum!)

Time to get up and move a bit with the song Let's All Do a Little Clapping from Storytime Katie.  This song is sung to the tune of We Wish You a Merry Christmas.  My favorite verse was the twirling!

Let's All Do a Little Clapping

Let's all do a little clapping
Let's all do a little clapping
Let's all do a little clapping
And spread Christmas cheer.
...Jumping...bending...twirling...

Onto one more rhyme before the second book!  (I told you this story time was full of excitement!)  This time we pretended to be pine trees.  I'm a Little Pine Tree, is, of course, to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot.  This and other great rhymes can be found here.  The little ones did a great job growing up to be beautiful Christmas trees!

I'm a Little Pine Tree
I'm a little pine tree - as you can see, (crouch down with hands over head like a tree)
All the other pine tree are bigger than me.
Maybe when I grow up - then I'll be
A great big merry Christmas tree! (stand up and be a big tree!)

Flannel Friday this week featured Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  What would happen if his nose wasn't red?  Well, we found out this week!  Thanks to Storytime Katie for the fantastic idea!  Check out our Flannel Friday post with more holiday flannels like this one!

Rudolph, Rudolph

Rudolph, Rudolph, what will you do?
You can't guide the sleigh if your nose is blue.
Rudolph, Rudolph, you're such a silly fellow
Who will know it's you if your nose is yellow.
Rudolph, Rudolph, your way cannot be seen,
Through the wintry weather if your nose is green.
Rudolph, Rudolph, it's time to fly at night
But you can't get through the snow if your nose is white.
Rudolph, Rudolph, it's time to go to town
But you can't help Santa if your nose is brown.
Rudolph, Rudolph, what a groovy glow
Your nose looks a little like a rainbow.
Rudolph, Rudolph, the children are in bed
And now we an get on our way because your nose is red.

Jingle.. Jingle.. Jingle..
It's finally time for some jingling!  I passed out jingle bells to all the little ones for some musical fun.  After reading our last book, it was time for a song or two.  We began with the song, Bells on the Sleigh.  This fun song is to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus.  Another awesome idea from Susan Dailey!

Bells on the Sleigh

The bells on the sleigh go ring, ring, ring (ring bells)
Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring
The bells on the sleigh go ring, ring, ring
All through the sky.
(More verses!)
The toys on the sleigh say "Let's have fun!"... (throw hands into air)
The reindeer on the sleigh fly way up high... (hands upward in diagonal direction)
The snow on the sleigh falls gently down... (flutter fingers and move downward)
The driver on the sleigh says "Ho, ho, ho!"... (pretend to drive sleigh, say "ho, ho, ho" in deep voice)

We ended our Jingle Bells story time with (you guessed it!) Jingle Bells!

Jingle Bells

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh - hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh!

And with on last giant shake of the bells, our story time was a wrap!  What a great morning celebrating the holidays!

For those brave moms that wanted to craft with their toddler, we made Christmas tree "stained glass" ornaments.  This craft was so cute and easy to do that several moms were excited about making more at home with their little ones!  How cool is that?!

To Make:
Trace a design on a piece of wax paper.  Ours was a Christmas tree.  Spread glue stick all over the design.  Let your little ones place small squares of tissue paper on the glue.  You could be finished there, but I had the moms spread more glue over the tissue paper and place a plain piece of wax paper on top.  This helps to seal down any loose pieces.  Why dry, cut out the design and punch a hole for some yarn.  Many thanks to Miss Sue for the idea!

Looking forward to 2014 and many more awesome story times!

Preschool Story Time - Jingle Jingle Jingle

There is excitement in the air at the Library Village!  The busy librarians are all crafting their finest story times to bring the children tidings of good cheer.  My preschool story time this week takes flight in a sleigh full of joy and laughter.  Off we go!

Llama Llama Holiday Drama - by Anna Dewdney

Oh dear, the holidays are stressful aren't they?  Everyone loves Llama Llama so I decided to use this book as the ONLY book that I read during this story time.  No really!  The kids are very squirrely at this time of year, so I opened with a book, and then pulled out my huge bag of tricks for the rest of story time.  And as always, I needed to be ready with more material than I actually used!

The Night Before Christmas by Clement C Moore

When I became a children's librarian, a friend gifted me a huge box of professionally made story boards.  It was the equivalent of my mom getting me my first briefcase after I graduated college.  I usually make my own sets now, but look how great these are!  I don't think I could do better, so I was very excited to use them.

Preschoolers are definitely old enough for this poem.  Use your story telling skills and the kids will be rapt!


For Halftime (cue the music - I normally do 'Popcorn' by Greg and Steve so we can stretch and get the wiggles out), I decided to use a Christmas song.  I thought Jingle Bells would be a great choice and it was. We got out the instruments and shook it!

Pete the Cat Saves Christmas  - by James Dean and Eric Litwin

So yes, I read this book, technically, but I also sang it!  After the first verse, the kids were singing too!  I love interactive books.

Did you catch our awesome Flannel Friday Holiday Blog Post???
All three of us posted great flannel board ideas for the holidays.  Check it out!  Mine was this tree that we used to the tune of Old MacDonald.

Old St. Nicholas had a tree
Ho, ho ho ho ho!
And on that tree he had some lights
Ho ho ho ho ho
With a blink, blink here and a blink, blink there
Here a blink, there a blink
Every where a blink blink
Old St. Nicholas had a tree
Ho, ho ho ho ho! 

Then the song continues with the rest of the verses:
Ornaments - glow
Drums - boom 
Bells - ring
Candy Canes - Yum
Star - Shine

Click HERE for more information on how I made this board and how I used it.

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell - Lucille Colandro

If you follow our blog, you know I do an Old Lady book pretty regularly.  The kids get excited to see what the Old Lady swallows and what will happen at the end.  I have flannelized almost all of Lucille Colandro's books.  I did NOT flannel this story, however, because I already had two for this story time, but I do sing this book, and prompt the kids to sing along with me.  Another interactive book!

Well, we had to finish story time with a bang, so instead of doing the Freeze Dance, by Hap Palmer, we danced "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" with alternate lyrics:
We wish you a Merry Christmas (x3)
and a Happy New Year.
Let's all do a little clapping (x3)
and spread Christmas cheer!
Let's all do a little stomping (x3)
and spread Christmas cheer!
Let's all do a little twirling (x3)
and spread Christmas cheer!
We wish you a Merry Christmas (x3)
and a Happy New Year!

My craft was pretty simple, but I have found that preschoolers love to place things on paper - so anything with stickers, bling, tissue paper squares, or even cotton (as shown here), keeps them happy and focused, and really helps with fine motor skills.  I found this image online (if you Google 'Santa Craft Preschool', you will see a dozen examples of this craft so I am unsure who to credit) and created a template for the face and hat.  Knowing the kids would be excited, I had everything cut out for them so I didn't have scissors in the room.

Happy Holidays from Miss Sue and everyone at the Library Village.  
See you next year!