Flannel Friday Round-Up

Welcome to this week’s Flannel Friday Round-Up!  I am proud to host the contributions of all of these fabulous storytellers who inspire me on a weekly basis. 

Lisa at Libraryland came up with four different felt monsters to use as props for the song “We Will Stomp”. 

Story Time Katie posted her “Ten Flashing Fireflies” based on the book by Philemon Sturges that she used in her Animals at Night story time. 

For her manners story time, Read,Sarah, Read put together a fun and colorful flannel set of “Bears on Chairs” by Shirley Parenteau. 

On her Story Time Secrets blog, Katie shared how she used her flannel board to guide her circle time through all the continents and their different cultures. 

The classic “BINGO” because “DINGO” during What’s Bridget Reading’s Australia story time this week.

In a double feature this week, Lucy shows us how to dress a colorful cowboy and give a horse an apple at In the Children’s Room. 

Kristine shares a folder version of Baa, Baa Black Sheep and the surprisingly logical way she knows what color is coming up next.  Kristine is a guest blogger at Rain Makes Applesauce. 

Ahoy, Matey!  Get ready for a swash bucklin’ good time as Kay shares her version of “Pirate Pete” on Story Time ABCs. 

It’s all about dinosaurs for the slightly older summertime groups at Monica’s Ram Sam Storytime.

Julie shares a flannel board game “Who Am I?” that has children to guess an animal based on the home in which it lives.  Julie is a guest blogger at Story Time ABCs. 

Mollie at What Happens in Storytime shows us her incredible felt artistry with her version of “Foxy” by Emma Todd. 

“Tip Tip Dig Dig” by Emma Garcia comes to life with the help of musical instruments representing the different machinery at Storytiming. 

Mary brings Jan Thomas’ adorable characters to life in a felt version of “What Will Fat Cat Sit On?” at Miss Mary Liberry. 

Linda drew a hedgehog while telling a story this week.  She show us how at Notes from the Story Room. 

That's it for this week!  Happy storytelling! 

Flannel Friday Submission

I am proud to host this week's Flannel Friday Round Up!  Being I am new to doing story times, Flannel Friday has been an inspiration to me and the support of the participants and their wonderful ideas make my story times amazing!  Please leave your submissions below! 

Learn more about Flannel Friday. 

Deer

December 9, 2011

The holiday season is officially here and that means all things festive, even in nature class.  What a perfect time to learn about deer!

We enjoyed reading about all types of deer, reindeer and otherwise, and also enjoyed some festive songs and rhymes.

I used the flannel board to help tell this rhyme that we did at our local library's storytime earlier in the week:


Santa's Reindeer

One, two, three, four, five little reindeer,
(Point to one finger at a time.)
Stood by the North Pole gate.
"Hurry, Santa," called the reindeer,
(Put hands around mouth to call.)
"Or we will all be late."
(Look at "watch.")
One, two, three, four, five little reindeer,
(Point to one finger at a time.)
Santa said, "Please wait!"
(Put hand to ear, listening.)
"Wait for three more little reindeer,
(Hold up three fingers.)
"Then we will have eight."
(Hold up eight fingers.)


We had so much fun doing the Turkey Pokey a few weeks earlier, this week we did the Reindeer Pokey.  As they say, "That's What It's All About!" 


The Reindeer Pokey
(tune: The Hokey Pokey)

You put your antlers in. You put your antlers out.
You put your antlers in and you shake them all about.
You do the Reindeer Pokey and you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

Other verses: You put your hooves in...; You put your red nose in...; You put your fluffy tail in...; You put your reindeer body in...


Sources: 

http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/preindeer.html

NO CLASS November 24 or 26

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkeys

Inside the touch box this week was a turkey feather.  Then I showed the kids some pictures of wild and domestic turkeys and told them facts about the birds such as wild turkeys can fly, the males are called toms, the females are called hens and the babies called poults. 

We then read the story “Gobble, Gobble” by Cathryn Falwell.  This charming story takes you through a year of having a turkey flock living in a girl’s backyard. 

Then it was time to get moving with a little “The Turkey Pokey”!

You put your right wing in, you put your right wing out,
You put your right wing in, and you flap it all about,
You do the Turkey Pokey and your waddle all around,
That’s what it’s all about, GOBBLE, GOBBLE!
(Continue with left wing, right/left feet, beak, & tail feathers)

The next activity allowed the kids to help my felt turkey get his tail feathers back.  We had a small group so each kid chose two felt feathers to add to my turkey.  The feather were several different colors:  red, yellow, blue, purple and green.  We sang the below song and as their color was called, they brought up their feather.
Turkey Feathers (Tune: Frere Jacques)

Turkey feathers, turkey feathers.
Colored bright, colored bright.
If you have a ___________ feather. If you have a __________feather.
Add it now! Add it now!

When the turkey had all his feathers we reviewed our colors once more with this verse:

See the turkey, see the turkey
Spread the tail, oh so wide
Tell me all colors
Pretty pretty colors
Tell me now, tell me now.

Lastly, we counted all the feathers the turkey had by signing this verse:

See the turkey, see the turkey
Spread his tail, oh so wide
Let’s count all the feathers
pretty, pretty feathers
Count them now, count them now
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10…

We ended the story time by reading “TurkeyTrouble” by Wendi Silvano.  This is a cute story about a turkey who dresses up like his fellow barnyard animals to avoid ending up as Thanksgiving dinner.  He eventually comes up with a more vegetarian plan for the family’s dinner. 

This week’s craft was an adorable little turkey made from part of a paper tube and colorful paper feathers. 

Sources:http://rovingfiddlehead.com/kidlit/?p=1078

http://www.sotomorrowblog.com/2011/11/flannel-friday-turkey-feathers.html

http://misssarahsstorytime.blogspot.com/2011/11/flannel-friday-did-you-ever-see-turkey.html?showComment=1321066653900#c7320952854839337261

Native Americans

This is a tough subject to teach to young children.  My aim for this lesson was to be as honest as possible while still being consistent with Native American culture and positive.  There are lots of not-so-great “Indian” activities, songs and games out there for young children.  I avoided all of that and as a result I had to come up with some of my own activities and stories. 

In the touch box this week I had dried Indian corn kernels.  Corn was a staple food for the Native Americans that the Pilgrims met in their new homeland and those Native Americans, the Wampanoag, taught the settlers how to grow, store and prepare this food that they had never encountered before. 

Our first story was “One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims” by B.G. Hennessey.  I discovered this one in my local library last fall and fell in love with it.  It is a wonderful picture book that shows the lives of both Pilgrim and Wampanoag children at the time. 

We then did the following rhyme together: 

“Pilgrims and Wampanoag”
Pilgrims and Wampanoag on three special days,
            (hold up three fingers)
Came together in friendship to eat, dance and play,
            (pretend to eat and dance)
The Wampanoag went hunting and brought lots of meat.
            (Shade eyes with hand on forehead and look around)
The Pilgrims picked berries and cooked many treats.
            (pretend to pick berries)
They sat down together and each began to say,
            (sit down)
That they were very thankful, each in their own way.

Next I did a flannel board story for the kids based on a traditional Native American story.  The Tale of theThree Sisters teaches not only how to garden, but also how to respect differences in one another and how to work together. 

I read another beautiful picture book called “The First ThanksgivingDay:  A Counting Story” by Laura Krauss Melmed.  Similar to the first book, the beautiful picture books also shows the lives of both Pilgrims and Wampanoag while counting from one to 12. 

At the end of the story time I invited the children to play a traditional Native American game.  Using the left over cobs from the corn cuff bracelets craft they were able to play a type of lawn darts and toss the cobs into the hoop.  It was a big hit with the kids. 

Our craft was a corn cuff bracelet which I developed with the help of my friendly neighborhood librarian and a friend of mine who is Native American.  It wasreally fun and turned out great. 

Sources:  Little Hands Finger Plays and Action Songs by Emily Stetson and Vicky Congdon.

Corn cuff bracelets

Our craft was a simple one for the Native American theme, but worked to teach the kids the importance corn had in the lives of the early settlers.  The Native Americans who lived in the area taught them how to grow, store and prepare the corn which was essential to them surviving the harsh winters of their new home. 

Materials needed:

Paper towel or toilet paper tubes cut lengthwise and cut into two inch sections

Various colors of Indian corn taken off the cob (I took the kernels off three ears and that was MORE than enough for 20 kids). 

Glue-school glue is fine, glue-all is better, tacky glue better yet, hot glue the best!

Your imagination!

Directions:

Put some glue onto the top of the cuff.  Arrange different colors of kernels onto the glue into a pattern of your choice.  Options include flowers, lines or other geometrical designs, letters or FREE FORM! 

Put another layer of glue over top of the kernels to help them stay put.  Allow to dry before wearing.