Baby Story Time - On the Farm!

Welcome back to Baby Story Time! I did story times all summer, but didn't really have a chance to write about them, so I've got a lot of catching up to do! Let's jump right in with a fun Farm theme!

OPENING SONG: "The Hello Song" *

GREETING SONG: "Hello" (Name Song) *

WAKE-UP RHYME: "Mother and Father and Farmer John"
(traditional lap bounce; it's supposed to be "Uncle John," but I changed it to "Farmer John" to match the theme)
Mother and Father and Farmer John went to town, one by one.
     (bounce baby)
Mother fell off,
     (tip baby to one side)
And Father fell off,
     (tip baby to the other side)
But Farmer John went on and on and on and on...
     (bounce slowly and then get faster and faster!)

1st Book: Giant Pop-Out Farm from Chronicle Books

Simple nonfiction with wonderful, truly giant pop-up images! This book was perfect!

ACTION SONG: "Old MacDonald Had a Farm"

Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.

And on that farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O.
With a "moo-moo" here, and a "moo-moo" there,
Here a "moo," there a "moo," everywhere a "moo-moo."
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.

I love using puppets with this song. These are the animals I used this week:

I love that beautiful chicken!

BABY PARADE: "Walkin' Old Joe" (from the cd Songs for Wiggleworms by Old Town School of Folk Music)

Old Joe, the horse, moseys, walks, and gallops! It's fun for parents to dance and bounce with their babies to this quick, energetic little song!

NURSERY RHYME: "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe"

(A classic, and one of my favorites! It's so important to pass classic nursery rhymes along to the next generation!)

One, two, buckle my shoe.
Three, four, shut the door.
Five, six, pick up sticks.
Seven, eight, lay them straight.
Nine, ten, a big fat hen!

I found this template in a book. I photocopied it onto card stock, colored it in, and stuck Velcro on the back! Voila!

2nd Book: Where Is My Baby? by Harriet Ziefert

Turn the flaps to find each baby animal. Great for making animal sounds, and Taback's illustrations are so engaging. We are lucky to have a class set of this book, so everyone could read along together.

ACTION RHYME: "Ten Fluffy Chickens" (borrowed from Mel's Desk - thank you!)

Five eggs and five eggs, that makes ten.

     (hold up both hands)
Sitting on top is Mother Hen.
Crack, crack, crack, crack! What do you see?

     (clap hands to "crack" eggs)

Ten fluffy chickens, yellow as can be!

This was 100% stolen from Mel's Desk. Her's are actually much more clever - they are eggs on one side and chicks on the other! I was in a super hurry so I just stuck tape on the backs of mine. I may remake this later in felt, though. It is super cute!

ACTION SONG: "Los Pollitos" (from the cd You Are My Little Bird by Elizabeth Mitchell)

(This is a traditional Spanish children's song. You could play the cd, or just sing it a capella.)

All the little chicks say, "Pio, pio, pio!"

When they are hungry, when they are cold.
Mama Chicken looks for corn and some wheat.
That will give them dinner, that will give them heat.
Under her wing, her chicks she'll keep,
Until the morning, the little chickies sleep.

We waved little chicks on craft sticks during this song. The tune is very simple, so a lot of the parents picked up on it and sang it with me the second time through.

3rd Book: Baby at the Farm by Karen Katz

We had to skip this one on Wednesday, they were a wild group! The Friday group heard it, though. There's not a lot to it, just another good opportunity to reinforce animal sounds.

CLOSING SONG: "If You're Happy and You Know It" *

GOODBYE SONG: "Babies, Bye-Bye" *

CLOSING RHYME: "Thank You" *



*Check out my Baby Story Time page for the words to all of my weekly songs and rhymes.

We had a great time on the farm! See you next time!

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 Roundup - August 1, 2014

Flannel Friday Roundup - August 1, 2014

Thanks to everyone who participated in Flannel Friday this week!  You guys rock!  And congrats on (hopefully) making it through your summer reading programs!  

Now on to the roundup!

Nikki at heytherelibrary has made the cutest felt sloths ever!  Seriously.  Cute.  
She even wrote her own rhyme to go with them!  


Jennifer at Storytime Extras was inspired by a Flannel Friday post from So Tomorrow  and created her own wonderful fruits and veggies for Denise Fleming's book Lunch.  A must have for any flannel collection!


Speaking of So Tomorrow...  Anne has shared with us the cutest Little Pet in a Box activity!  A big shout out to Jbrary for the idea!  We love using puppets in our story times!


Mrs. Todd at A Librarian Less Ordinary has made an amazing felt version of Lois Ehlert's book Color Zoo.  She also includes several great links to information about the author!  This would be a great activity to use for a book club!
 

Anne at itsybitsymom shared with us her absolutely adorable versions of The Three Little Pigs and Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  We love how she told these original stories through felt before reading the fractured tales.  A great way to story tell!  


Storytime ABC's has made the best Pin the Nose on Olaf game.  Do you want to build a snowman?  We think you do!  What child doesn't love the movie Frozen?  Seriously.  We will definitely need to make one of these.

And last but not least, our contribution to this week's Flannel Friday is Miss Kristie's The Many Uses of an Ice Cream Cone.  Sometimes you just don't have time to make a whole new flannel set.  So use the pieces you have already created!

Thanks everyone for stopping by!

You can find out about Flannel Friday on Facebook, Pinterest, and at the Flannel Friday Blog!

Flannel Friday - The Many Uses of an Ice Cream Cone

I LOVE making flannel sets!  But what I love even more are versatile flannel sets!  If you are lucky, some flannel pieces can be used for more than one rhyme or story.  For Flannel Friday this week, I thought it would be fun to give an example of how my simple ice cream cone set gets a lot of use!

#1 Ice Cream Rhyme

The ice cream cone set was originally made for this rhyme.  I found this great rhyme here at Perry Public Library Storytime.  As soon as I read it, I knew it needed to be felted!

Ice Cream Rhyme
First we need a cone,
Nice and crunchy.

Then we need some ice cream,
Sweet and yummy.
Scoop 'em on,
Stack 'em on,
Up to the sky.
We love ice cream, my oh my!

First comes vanilla,
Cold and sweet.

Then comes chocolate,
A delicious treat.

Here comes strawberry,

Orange sherbet too.

A super-duper ice cream cone
Just for you!

One scoop, two scoops,
three scoops, four.
We love ice cream,
Who wants more? 

#2 Hippity Hop to the Ice Cream Shop

After making the set, I stumbled upon this video from the King County Library System.  I knew that my ice cream flannel set would work perfect with this short little rhyme/activity.

Hippity Hop to the Ice Cream Shop
Hippity hop to the ice cream shop
To buy an ice cream come!
What flavor would you like?

The toddlers loved coming up and putting the different ice cream flavors on the cone!

#3 I Am Hungry

This last set is not all about ice cream, but the last verse needed an ice cream cone.  I knew just where to find one!  It is an echo rhyme to the tune of "Are You Sleeping?".  I found this rhyme here at King County Library System.

I Am Hungry
I am hungry!  (I am hungry!)
What should I eat?  (What should I eat?)
Think I'll have some pizza  (Think I'll have some pizza)
Without any meat!  (Without any meat!)

I am hungry!  (I am hungry)
What should I eat?  (What should I eat?)
Think I'll have tomato soup  (Think I'll have tomato soup)
With lots of heat!  (With lots of heat!)

I am hungry!  (I am hungry!)
What should I eat?  (What should I eat?)
Think I'll have some ice cream  (Think I'll have some ice cream)
Cold and sweet!  (Cold and sweet!)

It is lots of fun to make new flannel sets, but it is also nice to have go to pieces to use in a pinch!  We don't always have an infinite amount of time to create new flannel pieces each week for story time (Wouldn't that be awesome?!).  So look through your flannel collection once in a while and see what new stories you can create with what you already have!  It might surprise you!

Flannel Friday Placeholder for August 1, 2014

Time for another Flannel Friday Placeholder! Link your posts in the comments below - you have until Friday night at 10pm.

We're happy to be hosting for the second time! And we're THRILLED that August 1 is the last day of our SRC and we can all take a deep breath!!

gify.com

Flannel Friday - Five Little Monkeys (Jumping on the Bed!)

 Everybody loves Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed - the book, the rhyme, however you choose to use it!

A while back Miss Sue made us a quick set, but they monkeys seemed to have disappeared! No worries, I made us a cute new set, wearing pajamas, no less!

Miss Sue gets credit for the bed, which could be used for a variety of rhymes, including her ADORABLE Five Little Monsters Sleeping in My Bed!

Here's a close-up of the monkeys:

I just used two different monkey clipart designs from Google Images, and then designed simple pajamas for go over top.  This was a pretty quick and easy set to assemble, but one I know we'll use over and over again!

Happy Flannel Friday!

Thanks so much to Lisa at Libraryland for hosting this week! Flannel Friday is for anyone interested in finding and sharing great flannelboard ideas!  You can learn more about Flannel Friday and how to participate here.

Toddler Story Time - Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!

Is there anything better than a fun bug themed story time in the summer?  I don't think so!  This week I had the toddlers up and marching to a buggy beat! 

We started off with the book I Love Bugs! by Emma Dodd.  The little ones especially loved the last few pages describing creepy crawly bugs.  This book definitely got us talking about all types of bugs!

Next came the short but cute fingerplay, Beehive.  A great find from the Perry County Library Storytime page!

Beehive
Here is a beehive  (make a fist)
But where are the bees?  (shrug shoulders)
Hiding inside where nobody sees  (point to fist)
Soon they'll come out of their hives
1,2,3,4,5  (open fingers one at a time)
BUZZZZZZZ!  (wiggle fingers in the air!)
(credit: Perry County Library Storytime)

My original plan was to sing The Ants Go Marching, but at the last minute decided I really needed some cd help with that long of a song.  (I must admit, I am not a great singer but the little ones don't usually seem to mind!)  I am so glad that I made this decision because once the music started playing and I had everyone marching in place, it just seemed like the perfect opportunity to march around the room!  There are lots of children's cds with this song, but I chose the version from the cd Bugs, Bugs, Bugs. 

I used the action rhyme 1, 2, 3  directly after our dance break.  (A,B,Cs and my new favorite song, Clap Your Hands from the They Might Be Giants cd, No!)  This short little rhyme worked great to get their attention back after moving around for a few minutes!

1, 2, 3
1, 2, 3
There's a bug on me!  (pretend to knock it off)
Where did it go?  (look around)
I don't know!  (shrug shoulders)
(credit: Perry County Library Storytime)

Our second book was Look Out, Ladybug! by Jack Tickle.  Ladybug is trying to learn to fly.  She meets several animals along the way and it has a super funny ending!

Sticking with ladybugs, we did the fingerplay Five Little Ladybugs.  Instead of inserting kids names in this rhyme, I used family members.  I have been having larger than normal groups during story time recently and didn't want to leave anyone out (or have to repeat the rhyme four times!).

Five Little Ladybugs
Five little ladybugs on our front door,  (Hold up five fingers)
One flew to Daddy, and that left four.
Four little ladybugs, oh so wee,  (Hold up four fingers)
One flew to Mommy,, and that left three.
Three little ladybugs saying "howdy-do,"  (Hold up three fingers)
One flew to Sister, and that left two.
Two little ladybugs snoozing in the sun,  (Hold up two fingers)
One flew to Brother, and that left one.
One little ladybug alone on the door,  (Hold up one finger)
It flew to Baby, then there were no more.
(credit: Perry County Library Storytime)

Can't have a bug themed story time without The Itsy Bitsy Spider!  We sang along with my flannel set to add a fun visual to the words.  So much fun we did it twice!

Our last book was Butterfly, Butterfly: A Book of Colors by Petr Horacek.  I have used this book before in story time.  The little ones love the pop-up butterfly on the last page!

As a special treat, I made all the little ones butterflies to take home with them.  They were very easy to make.  I just printed the outline of a butterfly on card stock, cut it out, and taped it to a popsicle stick.  We waved out butterflies to the the song Flutter, Flutter, Butterfly.  It is tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."  I changed the wording a little bit to fit summer instead of spring.

Flutter, Flutter, Butterfly
Flutter, flutter, butterfly,
Floating in the summer sky.
Floating by for all to see,
Floating by so merrily.
Flutter, flutter, butterfly,
Floating in the summer sky.
(Credit: Storytime Katie)

I decided to try a fun, new activity to end story time this week.  We played Bug in a Rug!  I got the idea from the blog Falling Flannelboards.  I made a set of flannel bugs (different colored ladybugs) and a little rug.  I lined all the bugs up with the rug underneath.  Then I told them to close their eyes.  I moved one of the bugs under the rug and let them open their eyes.  They all did a great job guessing which bug was in the rug.  To make it more interactive, I chose volunteers to come up and lift the rug.  I also left this activity up on the board so they could continue to play with it after story time.  Several little ones had fun hiding bugs and making Miss Kristie guess!

And just in case you are not familiar with the They Might Be Giants song Clap Your Hands, here it is..

Isn't it wonderful?!?!

Miss Kristen also used a bug themed story time recently with the babies!  Check it out here.

I hope everyone is having a great summer!