Flannel Friday-- A Good Day For a Hat

I don't make many flannels these days, but when I saw "A Good Day for a Hat" by T. Nat Fuller, illustrated by Rob Hodgson I knew it would be a perfect choice to extend with flannel. I don't have a template to share this time--I just cut everything freehand!

First off, who doesn't love a good hat storytime? So fun. (Head over to EverydayDiversity.com to find some inclusive books to add to your theme!)

For this one, I read the book and did the flannel at the same time. The book follows a simple pattern--Mr. Brown goes outside, but the hat he's wearing isn't right for the occasion.

"I have just the hat for that" Mr. Brown said.

But when he stepped outside...

...it was raining!

And the page turn reveals the next dilemma. So I have everyone chorus, "I have just the hat for that" while putting their finger up like they have an idea. Then I lower the book and put on the new hat. This allowed a natural place to add discussion. I would say things like, "And he put on a yellow rain hat! What else do you wear in the rain?"

 I didn't ask extra questions on every spread, but it still encouraged dialogic reading as kids saw the additional elements in the pictures and pointed them out, "He needs a trumpet!" called out one little storytimer when we got to the marching band spread.

At the end, everyone loved it when he wore all the hats at once. After Mr. Brown is surprised, I tumbled all the hats to the floor--always a crowd pleaser. I love this flannel!

Flannel Friday is hosted this week by Jessica of Storytime in the Stacks. You can find out more about Flannel Friday, including archives, Pinterest boards, and a Facebook group over at the Flannel Friday website.

Missing/Search and Find Storytime

 

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I usually choose 5-6 books, and read 3-4 during any given storytime.
These are in order of most used across all sessions:
Where's Tumpty by Polly Dunbar
I Miss You Mouse by Greg Foley
Babyberry Pie by
Where's Catkin by Lord
What's the Matter Bunny Blue by Nicola Smee
Camouflage Clues

Opening Song: 1,2,3 I Love the Library
Where's Tumpty. I love this series of books by Polly Dunbar. I find the illustrations charming and the stories are simple and sweet. The kids enjoyed the repetition of this one, and thought Tumpty's attempts to hide were very funny.

Next we got some wiggles out with "I Can Jump Jump Jump"
When we sat back down, I asked the kids if they wanted to meet my friend who came to storytime, and brought out my baby bear puppet. Baby Bear is a A-DOR-able little puppet in a sleeping bag. we sing his wake up song because he's so shy:
(Frere Jacques)
"Are you sleeping?
Are you sleeping?
Baby Bear
Baby Bear
Will you please wake up now?
Will you please wake up now?
Come and play
Come and play"

Baby Bear helps us with the letter of the day, "M," and pulls a variety of items out of his sleeping bag, to great effect. I bought this set of "Alphabet Soup" cans from S&S Worldwide, and they're great for this sort of thing. Each soup can includes an upper and lowercase letter and at least five well-known items that begin with that letter. The last item that Baby Bear pulled out was his best friend, a stuffed animal mouse (one of the Mouse Count mice, actually), which led us to, "Oh! We have a book about a Bear and a Mouse! Should we read it to Baby Bear?" Of course the kids say yes to that, and we read, "I Miss You Mouse." After that we said good night to Baby Bear and he went away.

Next I asked the kids to show me a turtle (fist with thumb sticking out) and we sang, "I Had a Little Turtle" a few times.

Depending on which session I was in, and my reading of the group dynamic, I chose the next book on the fly.

Flannel Activity: I used a bunch of different animals from a commercial set that I have, and we talked about the differences/similarities between the different pieces. Then we played a few rounds of "What's Missing" where I would remove one and the kids would try to figure out which animal was gone. If they had trouble, then I started giving clues, "It eats bamboo" or "It has long ears."

After that we did the fingerplay, "My Hands"
If there was still a little time left in the session, we sang "Wheels on the Bus."

Closing Song: "Storytime is Over Now"
Hand Stamp

This week we did my favorite activity: Watercolor painting. I LOVE this activity and the kids do too. I just put out blank paper and have someone wet the paint as storytime is ending. I do have some smocks I put out, but it's just watercolor so most people don't use them.

Storytime--Stuffed Animal Theme for Teddy Bear Sleepover

Had my first Teddy Bear Sleepover at the library! It was amazing, and I can't wait to do another one.  For storytime we--of course--did a stuffed animal theme.

Opening song: 1 2 3, I Love the Library

We started out with Mo Willem's Knuffle Bunny. It was, of course, lovely. I have to admit, I was never a huge Mo fan until he started writing Elephant and Piggie.  I mean, I liked him, but I wasn't totally on the Mo train until those two came along. And yeah, Knuffle Bunny Free made me tear up earlier this year.

Puppet: Baby Bear! It was the first time I'd used Baby Bear since last spring, so it was nice to see him. He was so shy we had to sing his wake up song twice! But he had the letter of the day tucked away in his sleeping bag--it was T! Then he started pulling out pictures of things that started with T--the kids were amazed at how many things he had in his bag. Finally, when we couldn't believe that there was anything else in there, he pulled out a tiny teddy bear of his own! Well after that we just had to read, Where's My Teddy? by Jez Alborough 

I love that book! Next I got out my big lap-sized bear puppet. My arms go inside his arms, so I can make him do motions. We sang, "I Had a Little Turtle" but changed it to "I Had a Little Teddy."

After that we did a fingerplay/action activity that I modified from the old "Five Little..." standby (I was still using the puppet)
Five Little Teddy Bears

Five little teddy bears standing side by side.

The first one said, "I’m shy, so I will hide" (hide face)

The second one said, "Put your hand up, gimme five!" (high five)

The third one said, "Give me some honey from the hive!" (rub belly)

The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run" (running motion)

The fifth one said, "I’m having so much fun" (victory arms)

I wanted it to be very action-oriented so the kids would get involved.

H. M. Ehrlich's lovely little book, Louie's Goose was next on the agenda. This is a sweet little book that I really like--Rosie the goose gets loved to pieces, and mom and dad can only do so much to save her. Then Louie has to take matters into his own hands.

Then we got rid of wiggles and giggles with the Watermelon Song.
Brought everybody back together with A is for Alligator, which I learned from a colleague:
A is for Alligator, chomp chomp chomp
B is for Bounce, hop hop hop
C is for circle, round and round and round
and D is for Don't sit down/is when we all sit Down.
(We sign A, B, C, D as we do this).

Finally, we finished up by reading Emily Gravett's Monkey and Me. I just love this author, and this book in particular. The kids love joining in on the rhythmic refrain and guessing what animal the girl and her toy are impersonating.

Closing song: Storytime is Over Now.

Hand stamp!

Flannel Friday--How do I put it on?

So, I jettisoned my to-do list and made a flannel today. It felt good. I've really missed actually working on things for storytime.  The simple yet delightful, "How Do I Put It On?" by Shigeo Watanabe just begged me to turn it into felt.

Little Bear photographed really dark--sorry!

First I looked at the illustrations in the book, and did a Google image search for bears to figure out how I wanted him to look.  I knew he'd need long legs and arms to put the cloths on.  Then I did a small sketch (on the green paper) to test out some ideas.  Once I had it how I wanted it, I sketched him onto a clean sheet.  then I lightly outlined the clothes shapes so that they would be the right size. 

All my felt-making tools.

Next I enlarged my drawing on the photocopier so it would be better for group viewing, and made two copies (one for the bear shape, and one for the clothes).





Then I used my paper scissors (the orange ones) to cut out my pattern for just the bear. I taped that to the felt and then cut the felt with my cloth scissors.  Taping the pattern on works wonderfully--I just cut through the tape.  Paper dulls scissors very quickly, and cutting cloth with dull scissors is a nightmare, so I'm very careful to use different pairs for different materials.




I did the same thing for the clothes, and then I added details with markers using the dabbing approach rather than a dragging/writing motion.

Can't turn it without starting over.

I gave him a Green Bay Packer shirt because I know my audience, and it will delight many of the little boys in my storytimes.  I printed the logo on paper and glued it on.





I'd be happy to share my template if anyone wanted it. 

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