Flannel Friday--Waiting by Henkes

As soon as I read "Waiting" by Henkes I started thinking about those adorable nested kitties. I knew there had to be a way to do that with flannel! I knew it would be tricky, because it would be creating something that was nine layers of flannel deep, but after some tinkering I came up with a design that worked.

Once, there was a cat with patches.

What was the kitty in the story waiting for?

POP! Out came another spotted cat!

The whole family

Here they all are, with some perspective on size.

The teeniest kitty revealed--Just one spot!

I used this in my weather storytime recently when I read Waiting by Kevin Henkes. There were lots of delighted oohs and ahhs when I pulled out this flannel.

"Look! It’s a cat with patches. In the story she was waiting for something, do you remember what it was?

POP! Out came a kitty with green spots! Is she waiting for something? 

 

POP! etc."

We talked about the colors of each cat, and I used different vocabulary words like spots, patches, circles, and dots. After all were revealed, I took them down and put up two at a time so we could talk about size. "Which one is bigger? Yes, the one with purple spots!" or "Is the cat with green spots bigger or smaller than the cat with pink spots?"

I will use this one with our without reading Waiting, and it's a good fit for storytimes about size, families, colors, cats, or weather, so I will have a lot of chances to use it. 

You can see it in action here: https://vine.co/v/iQxgLLbMxDT

And, finally (best of all), I have a template to share in case you'd like to make your own. I'd love to see your version if you make one!

Flannel Friday is hosted this week at Adventures in Storytime. Make sure to check out the other awesome flannels this week! To participate in upcoming roundups, or just find out what's what, check out the Flannel Friday Blog. 

Saving an Unruly Storytime

Immediately upon starting the first book today, I knew this Storytime was in trouble. LOTS of squirrely kids, a few criers—This group was NOT WITH ME. It was glaringly obvious that the kids have been cooped up for days with our subzero temperatures. So I decided to blog the process of how I kept it together! 

Source

Here was my plan: (Yes, I color code. It gives me a quick visual on the balance of storytime activities. I also normally only read three of four planned books).

Theme: Night

(Opening Song) 1, 2, 3

(Book) When Sheep Sleep by Numeroff

Letter of the day with Fergus (LINK)

Count People--Parent message about counting higher than three five or ten

(Song/chant) Twinkle Twinkle Little Star—twinkle fingers for first part, wave arms overhead for second part

(Action activity/fingerplay) Here is a cup (LINK)

(Book) Shhhhhh! Everybody’s Sleeping by Markes

(Flannel Story) Five in the Bed (LINK)

(Fingerplay) This is my right hand (LINK)

(Book) Cornelius P. Mud, Are You Ready for Bed by Saltzberg

(Action activity/fingerplay) Oliver Twist-stick out not touch tongue  (LINK) 

(Book) Who Said Coo? by Ruddell

Sleeping Sleeping All the Children Sleeping Learned from this page on Perpetual Preschool, and you can see Mel's version here. 

(Closing Song) Storytime is over now/See you later (tune of London Bridge)

Hand Stamp

And here’s what I did. The red indicates all the decisions I made on the fly.

(Opening Song) 1, 2, 3—

(Book) When Sheep Sleep by Numeroff

I tried to make the book more interactive by adding animal sounds or motions on each page, but that wasn’t enough. So I skipped a few pages to get to the end. 

Next, I knew that we’d have to get some serious wiggles out for this storytime to work. I needed to convince the kids that I was super fun and worth listening to for the next 25 minutes! I decided to just do directed movements so I could get a good gauge on the group. “Ok everybody stand up and reach waaaaay up high. Wiggle those fingers. Now stretch your arms way out to the side. Now clap them together in front of you. Now stretch them out to the side annnnnnnnd...CLAP. Stretch them out to the side annnnnnnnnnd…CLAP. Clap fast! Clap slooooow. Great. Now let your hands fall to the side and clap over your head. Again! I did lots of repeating here and different commands to get them focused on me and following along. I made it suspenseful and pretty soon they were giggling and listening well. 

Once I had them with me I did started the “Show me five” game I like to play before starting a fingerplay. “Show me five (hold out hand with fingers out). Hide them! (ball fist). Fiiiiiiiiive—hide them! FIVE! THREE! Did I fool you? Five!” I do this several times, varying fast and slow and how many fingers I want to see. They love it. I most often use this to move into “Five Fat Peas” which I do as a full body motion fingerplay. We did Five Fat Peas three times before moving on to the Letter of the Day. 

Letter of the day with Fergus

Count People—Parent message about counting higher than three five or ten

(Song/chant) Twinkle Twinkle—twinkle fingers for first part, wave arms overhead for second part

(Action activity/fingerplay) Here is a cup

(Book) Shhhhhh! Everybody’s Sleeping (On each spread we put our finger to our lips and said shhhhhh)

(Flannel Story) Five in the Bed

(Fingerplay) This is my right hand

We went as planned for a while, but by the time we finished the fingerplay above many of them were spontaneously standing, and I realized they had been sitting for a while and were definitely not ready for a book. So I added one of our regular action activities, “I Can Jump Jump Jump” but I expanded it this time to include fast/slow versions of each movement to expend more energy. THEN we were ready to listen to our next book.

(Book) Cornelius P. Mud  Who Said Coo?

I switched the book here to Who Said Coo? Since Cornelius is more of a ‘list’ type story similar to Shhhhhhhh! Everybody’s Sleeping and I knew that Who Said Coo’s more cohesive plot and repetitive refrain would draw the kids in more.

(Action activity/fingerplay) Oliver Twist

(Book) Who Said Coo? At this point we only had two minutes left so we went right into the imagination game I had planned.

Sleeping Sleeping: All the Children Sleeping—bumblebees, snowflakes, dogs, pigs, horses          

(Closing Song) Storytime is over now/See you later We are still practicing our skills at lining up, so we skipped the goodbye song.

Hand Stamps!

 And there it is. It turned out to be a very successful storytime with 58 attendees.

Reforming the Storytime Mob

Storytime Mob!

 At the end of storytime, I stamp the kids hands/arms. I hold a flannelboard flat on my lap and have the kids place their hand on the flat surface so I don't have to touch them as much (germy!). It's...very popular. I often feel like the cat in the above GIF. I hate it because it's chaotic--the kids knock over my stuff and step on it, they push and shove, and there's no time to acknowledge any of them because I have six other hands in my face. And, worst of all, sometimes the littlest storytimers get knocked over in the mob. So, I decided to try and reform them. Today was my first attempt, and it went surprisingly well! Here's what I did:

1. I bought blue masking tape, and put a line down the middle of the room from where I sit (here's a picture of my normal storytime set up).

Magic Blue Line!

2. Mid-storytime, (NOT at stamp time) I explained to parents that I wanted to begin teaching the concept of lining up since it's so useful for when they start school, and also because I've had little kids get knocked over by the stamp mob. I also said that I knew that this would be a process and it would take a while for all the kids to understand the concept, and that that was ok, we would practice and learn it together.

3. Then I got up, and demonstrated walking to the end of the line and following the line all the way to the front. Kids immediately started following me, so we went around a few times, emphasizing, "You start at the end of the line, and follow it all the way to the front--keep your feet on the blue line! That's how you line up."

4. Then I sat back down, and had the kid right in front of me stop, "Now you're all in a line!" Then I brought out my puppet and let each kid touch/hug the puppet and go sit back down. Kids who ran up to the front were gently told that they needed go to the beginning of the blue line--and most of them did!

5. Finally, at the end of storytime, I cut out our closing song (I'll add it back again eventually) since it's a trigger for the mob to surge forward. Instead, I just said, "Ok, now I need everybody to go to the end of the blue line and follow it all the way to the front" and when the first kid arrived at the front I said, "Great job lining up! Now you get a stamp!" I actually got to see every kids' face and say hello to them!

The adults were super responsive to this activity; many were actively involved with helping their kids wait/follow through. I think the adults liked having a concrete expectation to help them regulate their child's behavior, rather than just sending their kids with the mob.

I think once I have the majority of the kids under a routine, I can make the line go wherever I want or change directions--edges of the room etc, as long as it's always clear where it starts.

I only had about 50 people total in storytime today, so it helped a lot that it was a smaller number of kids than normal. But still, I think this will stick and in a few weeks I'll be able to say goodbye to the storytime stamp mob forever!

Apple BINGO--Inspired by Flannel Friday

I was inspired by posts I saw both at Falling Flannelboards (she includes PDF's, which I didn't notice until now, doh) and Roving Fiddlehead Kidlit to create my own version of Apple BINGO. I made mine with paper, and constructed it to work like a lift the flap book on the magnet side of my easel. It worked great!


This word says, 'apple.' A-P-P-L-E, apple. How many letters are in this word? Let's count them, 1-2-3-4-5. Five letters work together to make one word, 'apple.'  Let's sing a song about apples.

I know a fruit that's good to eat
And apple is its name-o
A-P-P-L-E
A-P-P-L-E
A-P-P-L-E and apple is its name-o

Uh oh, I'm hungry! Gobble gobble munch (open up the first flap to show the bitten apple instead of the letter).

I know a fruit that's good to eat
And apple is its name-o
*crunch*-P-P-L-E
*crunch*-P-P-L-E
*crunch*-P-P-L-E and apple is its name-o

And so on!

Inspired by Flannel Friday--Five Green and Speckled Frogs

I have been wanting to make this storytime prop for YEARS--ever since I first saw it on Mel's Desk in April 2011 (Holy moly time flies!).

I loved Mel's adorable frogs and their little log, but first I had to learn how to sing the song (that explains why it took so long).

Also, I knew that in order to use it in my family storytimes, I would have to make it bigger! Enter the mailing tube! Each frog photo is four inches wide, and it's shown sitting on the top shelf of a book cart, to give you an idea of the scale.

I added numbers for a little extra literacy punch. And yes, the waves do line up, because I'm fancy like that.

Next, I plan to steal another one of Mel's ideas, and hand out pipe-cleaner flies for the kids to wave around while we sing.

Letter of the Day without Puppets

Image by mconnors via MorgueFile

I was brainstorming with @lizpatanders on Twitter about ways to do a "Letter of the Day" in storytime. I normally use a puppet for the letter of the day (Fergus the Letter Monster), but Liz was looking for ideas without using puppets and we came up with this idea:

"Letter" of the day. Decorate a box like a mailbox, or just use a manila envelope addressed to storytime.

"Letter B went on vacation and sent us back some pictures of things that start with 'B'!

Here's an uppercase letter 'B', and a lowercase letter 'b'. When we see the letter B we make the sound, Buh. Let's see what letter B sent us."

Then you could have pictures of things that start with B (and maybe even one that doesn't start with the right letter).

For doing this with a toddler group, eliminate the pictures, and just show the letter B and talk about its shape using words like straight, tall, round--maybe with some directed movement. Throw in some vocabulary stretching B words and you're set!

What other ways do you use to share a letter of the day--with or without puppets?

Storytime Set Up

Speaking of things I've been sitting on for a while, today I'm sharing my Storytime set-up routine. I have already posted about choosing books for storytime, and I have another post coming about how I put everything together. Anne at So Tomorrow provides the kick-in-the-pants I needed to actually share this post, due to her fab post on how SHE sets up her storytime. Lisa also accepted the gauntlet Anne threw down and posted her process.

Once I have my storytime mapped out, I load up all my books and supplies on my Storytime Cart.

Yes, this is a cart that I spray-painted. No, this is not a project that I recommend.

I wheel it into the program room and get set up about a half hour before storytime begins. I do not have a storage area in my program room, so the cart is crucial.

 Top shelf left to right:

• Books for this week's storytime.
• My storytime outline.
• Alphabet Soup Can with the letter of the day.
• Hand stamp and ink--usually ties in with theme, but might be "I love to read" type stamp.
• CD of the month--I highlight one CD in our collection by playing it before storytime for a few weeks at a time.
• CD player that stays on the cart permanently.

Middle shelf left to right:

•  Magnetic upper and lower case foam letters, which are stuck all over the cart in order.
• Today's letter of the day--Qq
• Tape which I use to stick up the prompts for the letter of the day, hang signs, etc. 
• Not pictured: masking tape I used to create the 'magic tape line' so kids don't sit in my lap.
• Felt pieces, which I will use on the easel (Five in the Bed).
• Storytime signs.
• Fergus the letter monster.

Bottom shelf:

• Circle Mats 

I use masking tape now--MUCH better than yarn

This is how I normally set everything up. I invite families to take the books after storytime, so I usually have quite a few extras. The easel is magnetic on one side, and that's the side we mainly use. I make posters of song lyrics and tape them up on the easel for those who can read. Often if I'm doing a flannel story I use a lap board, but if we're doing a larger flannel activity I just turn the whole easel around after the letter of the day.

This is what people see upon entering the room. I play music 15-20 minutes before storytime starts, which makes the room nice and welcoming as people get settled. Stopping the music once I'm ready to start storytime also creates a noticeable 'break' in the noise of the room--everyone notices when the music stops, so I don't have to work as hard to capture everyone's attention to begin.

I change the message on the white board to whatever is relevant that week. The kids love choosing their circle mats, and it encourages families to sit together on the floor (in the front!). There are about 15-20 chairs lining the wall to the right, and I don't move or set up any additional chairs.

After we sing our closing song, I invite kids to come forward and get a stamp and tell families they are welcome to take the books. Most everyone puts away their circle mat and it only takes me a few minutes to completely clean up.

Who else wants to share their storytime process?

You can read about how I choose books for storytime here. 

Flannel Friday--10 Little Babies

One little, two little, three little babies...

Four little, five little, six little babies...

Seven little, eight little, nine little babies...

Ten little darling babies! *kisses*

The babies are quite large; each face is four inches round. I used them in baby storytime this week, and all the babies (and adults) LOVED them. We sang the song three times, and the first time I put the babies up on the board as we sang, and then pointed to each face on the repeats.

These are HEAVILY influenced by the artwork of Karen Katz, so all credit for their adorableness goes to her!

Children's Book Week: David LaRochelle Visits!

I highly recommend getting David LaRochelle to visit your school or library. He's great!

He talked a little about being an author, and read "The Best Pet of All." Then he told us about how a theater company had done a puppet show of "Best Pet of All" and sent him the puppets! 

He even got the kids moving by playing follow the leader with the puppets. It was a hit!

After that he drew us a hilarious story that he wrote, based on the numbers 1-10. Everyone was cracking up. Finally, he read "It's a Tiger" and talked about the process of making that story. It was such a treat to have him visit us. Not every author can do a great job with preschool age kids, but David's got it!

I even got a sneak peek of his new book coming out this fall with illustrator Mike Wohnoutka. It looks AMAZING and I'm sooooooo excited to read it in storytime.

Guess Who is Coming to Storytime This Week

 You get three clues to try and guess who is coming to storytime for Children's Book Week. Who could it be?

1. An amazing pumpkin carver
2. Minnesota author
3. Latest book has a cowboy hat on the cover

4. I read one of this author's stories during "Pet" themed storytime.
5. This author has a book that goes backwards
 

Make you best guess and stay tuned for more information!

Marching Band Storytime

 I had a special guest star at storytime recently: a Marching Band!

Warming Up Before Storytime

I contacted members of a local high school marching band, and coordinated a visit to storytime. We did it on a day where there was no school, and the teens were able to get extra credit for visiting. I had about 15 band members visit with their instruments, and it was fantastic!

The parents LOVED it. The kids ended up loving it too, but many of them were very apprehensive at the beginning of storytime. Since the marchers were warming up, the room was very noisy before storytime, and there were a lot of unfamiliar faces at the front of the room. I offset this by

• Asking my band to stop playing five minutes before storytime started so people could get settled.
• Playing one of the familiar music cds I usually play before storytime.
• Making sure that I was visible, welcoming, and reassuring as families arrived.

I did my normal opening song and our letter of the day with Fergus, then introduced the band. I had each of the teens say their name, what their instrument was called. Then the played a quick scale or rhythm to show what their instrument sounds like. Then I read Wynton Marsalis' "Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!" Each time I came to an instrument that was in the room, I paused and prompted the teen with that instrument to give us the 'real' sound. I talked about sounds a lot with the kids, specifically high and low sounds, and we practiced a lot of sounds as a group.

The trombone was particularly popular! But we did have to adjust our tape line to accommodate the reach of the trombone and make sure no littles were sitting right in the way.

Normally during storytime kids are sitting ON my tape line, lol

After that, the band played their school fight song, and "Happy and You Know It" and "ABC's" while we sang along.

Then, with the help of the drum we used our voices to make beats with the book "Tanka Tanka Skunk" by Steve Webb (a new favorite of mine).

 Then we added a new twist to our favorite storytime song of all, "The Watermelon Song" by singing it with musical accompaniment (I told the teens that if they didn't know Frere Jacques/couldn't play it they had to sing and dance with me).

And finally, we finished by reading, "Soon Baboon, Soon" by Dave Horowitz

Then I sang our closing song, we clapped for the band, and I invited kids up for hand stamps (every member of the band also lined up for hand stamps).

You may want to put up noise-level warning signs for patrons if you do this! My colleague also did a kazoo parade through the library when she did this, but that wasn't a great fit for my library (though it would have been fun).

Flannel Friday--Alligator Pie

 The very first storytime I ever did was Alligator themed. Why alligators? No idea. Unfortunately, I don't remember where I found the rhyme Alligator Pie, but it was part of that very first storytime outline.

When I did it in storytime way back when, it went ok, but it felt kind of awkward and didn't really go over well.

Now that I've been doing this for a few years, I've been revisiting some of those old outlines and decided to give Alligator Pie another chance. Because of all I've learned with Flannel Friday, I thought that some visual cues for my audience might make a big difference.

I used clip art and made these--the main rhyme is the size of four 8.5x11 sheets, and each verse is on legal sized paper. I leave the main rhyme up, and switch out the other pages for each verse (I laminated these and use them on the magnetic whiteboard side of my easel).

      

It was a great success! I do a clap rhythm (hand clap knee slap) while we recite it, and with the visual cues everyone participated with me--Hurrah! I will be adding Alligator Pie into my regular rotation.

 Email me if you'd like to share--they are Microsoft Publisher files.

Learn more about Flannel Friday here, and see the rest of this week's round up on Andrea's blog, Roving Fiddlehead Kidlit

Storytime Scarf Love

I love using scarves in storytime; they are definitely in my top three favorite ST props. I would say I probably incorporate them into storytime once or twice a month on average.

Photo Credit: FaP ;-) via Compfight cc

I'm sure to bring them out for any dancing or music themed storytime, but what I really love about them is their capacity for imaginative movement and play. I'm not too fussy about tying them to a theme (no surprise there). I've used them for:

--Butterfly theme (Flying! Changing them from 'long' skinny caterpillars into hidden fist-cocoons and transforming them to flowing butterflies).
--'Get Well storytime' and 'bathtime' theme where we pretend to wash and talk about body parts.
--I LOVE using them for a work-machine themed storytime. We read "I am a Backhoe" by Hines and "Tip Tip Dig Dig" by Garcia. Then we used the scarves to act out the motions of the different vehicles. My favorite is the dump truck, where we hold the scarf behind our heads while bending at the waist then stand up and, "Tip, tip--Let it go!" and drop the scarf down our backs behind us.

I'm usually working with a group of 50 people, so one thing I try to make sure of is that if I take all the time to pass out the scarves, that we play with them long enough to make it worthwhile! 

This is my standard "playlist" for using the scarves:
--We Sail song (listen here). The MacPhail Center for Music is local, so I love using their music for ST
--Two Little Black Birds action activity (below)
--Popcorn song (below)
--any thematic tie-in that I want to make, or just directed actions, eg: "Throw your scarves up in the air and let them fall to the ground--there they go! Can you try and catch it? Ok, make your scarf disappear into your hands. Now let's throw them one, two, THREE!"

Using scarves in storytime is pretty much limited only by your imagination!

Have you written about using scarves in storytime? Leave me a comment and I'll link to your post!

Two Little Blackbirds sitting on a hill. (Wave scarves)
One named Jack, and one named Jill
Fly away Jack (hide one behind back)
Fly away Jill (hide both)
Come back Jack, Come back Jill

Two little blackbirds sitting on a cloud
One was quiet, and the other was loud
fly away quiet, fly away loud
come back quiet, come back loud

...sitting on my hat
one was round (wave scarf in circle)
the other was flat (pull scarf taut)

...sitting on my toe
high, low (wave high, wave low)

...sitting on a stick
slow, quick (you get the idea)


Popcorn Song (tune of Frere Jacques, so sing each line twice)
Popcorn Kernels (wave scarves overhead)
In the pot (I pause and tell the kids to make their scarves 'disappear' by bunching them up in their fists)
Shake them shake them shake them (shake)
'til they POP (Toss scarves up into the air)

Hi, Pizza Man

This book is out of print, and I don't actually even know it (!!! Bad librarian!). But I know it's a favorite of several people in the FF universe, so when I discovered this flannel in my storage cabinet I knew I had to share it. I don't know who created it, but the pieces are GOR-GE-OUS. I'm guessing it's the same coworker who made the Chinese Dragons, but I'm not sure yet.

Look at that eager young deliver man!

This groovy duo cracks me up--look at those socks!

The crocodile (alligator?) alone is a work of art--so intricate.

The round up is hosted today at Mel's Desk and you can have all your Flannel Friday dreams come true (or questions answered, or archives accessed) by visiting the Flannel Friday Blog.

 

The dog is my favorite of all, I think

Flannel Friday--Puppet Edition

Meet Fergus! Fergus is a very large, very animated puppet. I named him with the help of the Flannel Friday Facebook group. Unfortunately, I can't remember who it was who suggested the name Fergus (Linda, was it you? or was it Lisa?!), but I want to give credit to whomever it was. There were lots of great suggestions, but Fergus just stuck.


So, this qualifies as a Flannel Friday because I'm sharing my method for using Fergus in storytime. Fergus is our letter monster! He loooooooooves eating delicious letters, but he's very hungry, so after he eats them we have to think of some delicious words that start with that letter.


I know I've mentioned them before, but I'm a big fan of this set of Alphabet Soup Starters from S&S Worldwide. There's a 'soup can' for every letter. Inside are cardboard upper and lowercase letters, and a variety of images that start with that letter. On the back of each image the word is printed and the letter is highlighted in a second color. For the vowels there are images for both long and short vowel sounds. I usually tape the images up on my storytime easel to prompt the kids with ideas, especially since many of my storytime kids are on the younger side of things.

I ask the kids if they can think of any words that start with our letter of the day, and as they throw out suggestions I pick one, "OOoh, ball is a GREAT "b" word. Buh, buh, BALL listen to that 'b' sound. Ok, let's feed it to Fergus-he's so hungry!" And then we count, "One, two, three, BALL" and 'throw' the word towards Fergus, who gobbles up words being thrown at him from all corners of the room (Think Cookie Monster).

It's a really fun shtick, and the kids find it delightful. I think it's a great way of making the letter of the day a truly fun part of storytime!

**update** if you are looking for ideas to do a letter of the day, but puppets just aren't your thing, check out this post. 

Here's an idea of how big they are.

Choosing Books for Storytime

Creative Commons photo by Ozyman

I love love love reading other people's posts on how they put storytime together. In the spirit of fairness, I thought I'd share my process.

I use themes in storytime, but I don't start by choosing a theme. I'm sort of ridiculously picky about books I'll use in storytime. If I'm not feeling it, I just can't fake it--and that goes for some classics that just don't resonate for me.* I got burned a few times early on in my career by picking a theme first and trying to fit books to match it, but doing that made me miserable, so I came up with my own method.

I read all the picture books I can get my hands on. When I find books I like, I think about what themes they would fit well, and brainstorm if there are any other awesome ST books I could team them with.

Once I have an idea, I start a ST outline for that theme/idea. I do this digitally. I have a Storytime folder, and in that folder there are folders for finished storytimes and one for work-in-progress storytimes. Sometimes a theme/idea will sit in the work-in-progress folder for months and months before I find enough books to create a whole storytime. Often, once I have a book or idea, I will order a bunch of options using the library catalog, and fast-forward the process. Sometimes I don't find enough books I like and I scrap that idea or theme (Camping ST, I'm looking at you). Once in a while I'll do a no-theme storytime to catch all the orphan books I've wanted to read in ST, but couldn't build a whole program around.

What do I look for in a storytime book choice?

1. Do I like it? 
2. Will it suit my audience? As much as I L-O-V-E books with off-the-wall humor or abrupt jokey endings, many of those books are more suited to class visits than my particular storytime crowd. I look at length, storyline, and amount of dialogue as key factors here.
3. Can I make it interactive? Is there room in the story to add sounds or actions? This is a big factor in adjusting a book to work with a wide age range. I can read a longer, more complicated book in family storytime if I can make it interactive for both the older kids AND the younger kids.
4. If it won't work 'as is' but I really like it, what can I do to make it work (and is it worth the time)? Here's where I look to see if the book is too long (if it's repetitive, maybe I can cut out a few verses) or if the pictures are too small (can I project it? Flannelize it? Puppetize it?).

For any given storytime I will identify at least six books that would work with my group. I make sure I have a variety of lengths and storylines.  It's amazing how many good books I will find on a theme, but they all tell the same basic story. Unfortunately that makes for a boring storytime, so I have to make some tough decisions, sometimes!

Once I have my books chosen it's time to write a storytime outline.

To be continued...


*for example, I know lots of people love "Brown Bear Brown Bear" and all its iterations, but that one just doesn't work for me. On the other hand, "When Sophie Gets Angry, Really Really Angry" by Molly Bang is like magic for me; every time I've read that book to a group of kids you could hear a pin drop--but I know some other storytime bloggers just don't connect with that one. It's so personal!

Here is a House--using the iPad in Storytime

I've had this post in the draft stage for a while now, but with all the chatter on the Flannel Friday Facebook page on what to do with the (Awesome!) Folkmanis Sequoia finger puppet stage and some posts by Sharon and Erin I see that it's past due!

A while ago, I shared the house-shaped finger puppet stage that I made.

 

In case you forgot

I used it in a new way this summer that was absolutely delightful and wanted to share it with you.

I did extensive downloading and testing with my iPad to find which 'animal noise' app would be the most useful in storytime, and I was really pleased with "Music Animals," which I believe has changed its name. You can find it in the app store under the name, "Musical Flashcards" by Kids Place. It's a free app for iPhone and iPad--well, the first 12 animals are free, and then there's a small fee to get the total of 65 animals (at this point I don't recall the price, but just a few dollars). Compared with other animal apps I evaluated (many of which I bought) this was far and away the best value and best format for how I wanted to use it.

I liked it because:
--many animals on one screen.
--easy to choose which animal noise you wanted to play
--great selection; lots of useful animals and fewer of the weird ones like 'goldfish' (with the noise of bubbles (?))
--photographs of real animals
--very easy to use while also manipulating puppets

I buy Oriental Trading's plush mini bean bag animal assortment for SRP prizes, and digging through the box I was amazed that I could find over a dozen cute little stuffies to correspond with the animal noises in my app:

Combine those little cuties (or any finger puppets) with the house stage, add a cute rhyme and you've got a surefire recipe for success!

During a discussion about 'surprise' storytimes on the Flannel Friday Facebook page, someone mentioned the poem, "Here is a box." I loosely adapted the poem for my own purposes. My version is below, and you can see the original here on Katie's page.

"Here is a house
Where someone can hide
Let's knock on the door
to see who's inside (knock knock)
[use iPad for animal noise]
Yes! It's a __________!
There is no doubt
Let's look at the (window/door)
And see it pop out."