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. 

Flannel Friday--Naptime Chickens

I am SO excited to share this one. Last fall I asked my colleague Tami to share some of her flannels for a presentation I was working on, and she shared her Naptime Chicken with me. IT'S SOOOO CUTE. I finally made my own version, and here it is:

It's a full hand puppet, with a set of finger puppets that attach with velcro. Tami found the pattern online a few years ago, and saved the image, but no amount of Googling or reverse image searching led us to the original source. I'm afraid the blog she found it on was taken down. We searched diligently for the original source, but this is too cute not to share!

“Come little chickens,” calls Mother Hen (beckoning motion)

“It’s time to take your nap again.”

And under her feathers the small chicks creep. (velcro chick onto palm part of hen puppet)

And she clucks a song til they fall asleep (fold fingers to cover chicks, and make rocking motion while clucking a lullaby).

My favorite part about this is clucking the lullaby at the end. I made a Vine to give you the idea, but since there's sound I will link to it instead of embedding it. Check it out here. I love songs and rhymes like this that give us a good opportunity to be silly. I like clucking, "Rock a Bye Baby" or "Brahms Lullaby" for maximum silliness. For some reason, this is one that parents really get into too--score!

Themes: Farm, sleep/night, dinosaurs (closest living relative!), birds, singing. 

I took the liberty of creating a template for this flannel set. If you'd like it, please email me and I will send you a PDF.  My gmail address is opinionsbyanna.

And finally, if you know where this came from originally, please let me know!

This week's Flannel Friday Roundup is hosted by Katie at Storytime Secrets. To participate in upcoming roundups, or just find out what's what, check out the Flannel Friday Blog. 

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.

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!

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)

Flannel Friday: Chinese Dragon Edition

Five Red Dragons

Just in time for Chinese New Year, I have an amazing set of flannels to share with you. One of my new coworkers (who doesn't even work in the children's department!) creates the most A-MAZE-ING flannels for the library system. I feel soooo lucky to have someone on staff who has the time and talent to create pretty much whatever we ask her to make! I've seen her work before, but these dragons just blow me away.


She does such a great job of layering the felt pieces to create a 3D look, and these are large pieces--bigger than my hand. Last year Mollie posted her cute dragons and the rhyme she used them with, make sure to check it out here. 

Those teeth!

Anne is hosting this week's Flannel Friday round-up. To learn more about Flannel Friday or how to participate, check out the Flannel Friday Blog.

The shiny glitter talons!!!

The Hair-Raising Adventure of Shanice Suzanne

Today I’m lucky enough to share my blog space with a coworker who doesn’t blog. I thought this story was too cute not to share!

Look at that adorable face!

The story is adapted from a story on page 181 of the book Glad Rags: Stories and Activities Featuring Clothes for Children by Jan Irving and Robin Currie, and it's about a girl who simply won't take care of her hair--until animals start living in it!  

This version is made using clip art, laminated pieces, and magnets, and yarn. 

I had a copy of that book at my old library and have a long list of ideas to create from it—it’s definitely a book worth getting your hands on (even if some of the stories DO need adapting for cultural awareness).

 

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."

Robot Storytime

One of the most common searches that brings people here is "Robot Storytime." So, by popular demand, I'm posting my robot storytime outline for your edification.

Edit: I *just* read Ame Dyckman's Boy + Bot and it's absolutely perfect for robot storytime! It would be fun to do a movement activity that had the kids doing some robot movement until the adults turned their 'off' buttons. Robot Freeze!

My favorite books are:
Hello Robots by Staake
Rolie Polie Olie by Joyce (also works for Underwear Theme)
Ribbit Rabbit by Ryan
The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot (also works for Space or Alien Theme)
The Birthday Box by Patricelli

Other books that might work for you:
Robobots by Novak
The Robot and the Bluebird by Lucas
Snowbots by Reynolds

 

We sing our opening song and jump right in with Rolie Polie Olie. I like to lead with this one because it sets the stage nicely to talk about robots. I ask them what a robot is, and we talk about machines. Some kids get REALLY excited about robots, so this is always a fun discussion. Then I tell them we're turning into robots today in storytime and we practice saying, "Hello" and "Goodbye" like robots.

This leads us nicely into our second book, Hello Robots.
After we read it, we use my Hello Robots flannel and the kids re-tell the story as I place the pieces. It's a great way to build narrative skills, and at the end we also have a discussion about the shapes and colors involved, "Which robot has a triangle body? What color is he?"

 Now it's time to get some movement going. Depending on how wiggly the group is, I would probably add one or two of our standard every-week wiggle busters like I Can Jump Jump Jump or A is for Alligator before moving on to a themed action activity that I wrote.

I Am a Robot (obviously you'll need your best robot voices and movements here)
I am a robot (march in place with 'robot arms')
I am a robot
Clank Clank (bend forward and back at waist)
Clank Clank (bend side-to-side at waist)
ZZZZZZZrt (Raise arms up while shaking them)
CRASH (Either fall, or 'lose power' or clap--my kids love anything that ends with an anticipated CLAP BANG CRASH)
(feel free to use, but please credit back--thanks!)

At this point I'd read another story. I would choose which one on the fly depending on how the group was doing. If they were antsy or skewed younger, I would read The Birthday Box by Patricelli and that would be the final book of the session. If they were older or still doing really well, I would read Ribbit Rabbit (a little shorter) or Three Little Aliens (need really good listeners for this one).

For this theme, we'll also sing a piggy-back version of "Happy and You Know It" which would obviously by "If You're a Robot and You Know It." You can easily make up your own verses, but here's what I did:

If you're a robot and you know it
Clank your coils (clap hands)
Clunk your gears (stomp feet)
Press your buttons ("Beep beep")

As far as other extension activities--basically any song or fingerplay works since all you have to do is add 'robot voice' and it's on-theme (if that's important to you).

And finally, for craft time we made robot costumes. I used brown paper bags which I prepared ahead of time. Cut straight down the middle of the back of the bag, then cut out the bottom of the bag so that the whole thing lies flat. Then cut armholes in the sides, and a half-moon out of the front for the neck. The idea is that the kids can stick their arms through and wear it--like putting a vest on backwards.

Then I put out glue, tin foil, chenille stems, markers and anything else that they might want to use to decorate their costumes.

Hope that helps!

Flannel Friday--Without Flannel Edition

Way back when, I did a house-themed storytime, and was inspired to create a little finger-puppet stage that looked like a house.

I used an old shoe box, and sheets of adhesive craft foam. I love building with cardboard!

Little House

Who's behind the door?

What color window will Little Chicken pop out of? 

Back view

I've used this with Popsicle stick puppets, to introduce letter of the day items, and for guessing games. I wish that I had made it bigger, because it's really too small for a larger crowd (my smaller storytimes are usually about 15 kids plus adults, but since I don't require registration I don't ever really know when those will be).  But it's perfect for a storytime of 15 or less.

Recently, I was inspired by Flannel Friday (Katie via Smashed Peas and Carrots) to have my student worker create a "Lorax Dice Game." I wanted to use it for my "Lorax Party" storytime during National Library Week, but didn't have a giant die to use. So, I re-worked the game pieces to coordinate with a letter (A=Leg, B=Arm etc.) and put foam letters into the box behind the house. The idea was to have the kids put their hands in through a window or the door and 'randomly' choose a letter and then put the corresponding Lorax piece on the board ('randomly' since I'd be able to nudge the right letter in their direction). My Lorax party ended up being insane attendance-wise,* so I didn't end up using it.

*I don't automatically consider large crowds insane, I LOVE big storytimes, but it depends on whether the majority of the group is new to storytime or not. If I have a lot of new kids, I usually end up substituting less-involved activities on the fly.

posted from Bloggeroid

Keepin' It Real with the Kiddos

I had another Teddy Bear Sleepover this past week, and did a "Cat Mouse Dog" theme. We read Kitten's First Full Moon by Henkes, Bark, George by Pfeffer, and Mouse Count by Walsh. We acted out Mouse Count with the props I made previously, and it was great. I always read the first part of the book, then switch over to the props when it's time for the snake to enter and find the jar.

When I held up the book I said, "This book is called Mouse Count. What do you think it will be about?"

"Mouse!" No, Mice!"

"Yes," I replied and pointed to the cover, "Here are some mice. Who else do you think will be in the story?"

"BROCCOLI!"

Kids are so amazing.

Flannel Friday Valentine (and related!) Extravaganza

Welcome FF'ers! I don't have anything to share myself today, but I'm happy to host. The number of half-finished posts in my drafts file is very frustrating, but other things have had to take priority. I'm restarting programming next week, and between training my new library clerk and planning a staff in-service to start the process of creating customer service standards for the library I haven't had time for much else. The in-service was today, and it went really well! We'll see if things start evening out for me soon.

So without further ado may I present
Flannel Friday for Friday the Thirteenth of January

Alison with Jan Brett's "The Hat"
Anne with "The Little Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings" (I grew up with this old version of the book and I LOVED it even though the part where his Mummy doesn't know him broke.my.heart. every time)
Kari presents a set of matching valentines with multiple uses
K joins us with a magnetic version of "My Heart is like a Zoo"
Meghan's Valentine post isn't quiiiite ready, so here are some winter theme options with snowmen
Cate is submits My Froggy Valentine
Andrea mushy-gushies up a familiar verse with "Two Little Lovebirds" 
Katie presents "H-E-A-R-T" to the tune of BINGO
Tracey shares a whole bunch of great on-theme ideas on her blog 
Sarah with some versatile shoes (and everybody's favorite, Pete the Cat!)
Linda shares a cut and tell version of "Squirrel Gives Her Heart" with suggestions for flannelizing
And Katie presents the sweet family themed poem "Five Little Kisses"
Don't forget to check out Erin's sweet little Candy Hearts rhyme

And finally, Melissa gives us a bunch of simple, easy to adapt ways to use Five Hearts. Melissa is also next week's roundup hostess and her blog is where you can get a Flannel Friday button.

The archived/upcoming hosts are on Anne's blog, here.
For us visual learners, browse all the past Flannel Friday contributions via Pinterest (602 members and counting!)
Join the discussions over at the FF Facebook page. And finally, follow FF on Twitter by searching #flannelfriday (whether or not you have a Twitter account).

See you next week.

Cheers!

Flannel Friday--Fill up the Shopping Cart

Good morning, duckies. Today I am sharing a little ditty inspired by this post from Mollie at What Happens In Storytime. Go take a look, then I'll show you what I did.

Back? Great. I searched a bit for pictures of baskets, but didn't find anything that I really liked.  My other problem was that I wanted to print it very large, so I searched the clipart from within my Microsoft Word program and found several cute shopping carts I liked, including this one:



I used Microsoft Publisher to print the image over several sheets of paper so that it's about the size of a piece of posterboard.  I laminated it and taped magnets to the back, so that I could use it with my chalkboard/easel.

Next was the really fun part--finding all my fruit images! I mainly used the clipart in Word again, and chose all photographs of fruit so it would be consistently realistic. I made sure to include all the fruits mentioned in the Watermelon Song (our favorite!).  The fruit was all cut out, laminated, and magnetized as well.


During ST I handed out a variety of fruit, and we sang, "Pickin' up strawberries, put 'em in the basket. Pickin' up strawberries, put 'em in the cart."  Mollie did hers to the tune of, "The Paw Paw Patch" and she even sent me a link to the song, but I just couldn't pick up on the tune. We sang it more or less to the tune of, "Shortnin' Bread" (Mama's little baby loves shortnin, shortnin. Mama's little baby loves shortnin' bread.)


We talked about the differences and similarities between the different fruits, and of course the kids LOVE to come up and put things on the board.  Normally I have too many kids to let them put things on the board, so I love this one because I have so much fruit everyone can play.

Check Andrea’s Roving Fiddlehead Kidlit blog for the Flannel Friday roundup later today. If you want to participate, leave Andrea a comment (and a link to your post). If you have a great flannel you'd like to share but can't get it posted by the end of the day today, just save it for next week's roundup!  And if you don't have a blog email one of us who does and we'll get you included.

posted from Bloggeroid

Dance Storytime

This one was a bit of a stretch for me, but I'm so glad I pushed myself because we had a blast!

We started by reading If You're Happy and You Know It by Jane Cabrera, which I actually sang. Only the second time I've done that. You would seriously never know it if you attended my ST, but if you had told me five years ago that I would regularly sing in front of people I would have started to cry.

Anyway, love this book and we had a great time with it.

Next I brought out the tub of rhythm instruments that's been mocking me for a couple years now.  It was great! and NOISY! The kids listened to me really well, and we just did different things like fast, slow, quiet loud, up high, down low, etc.

After I collected all the instruments we did one of my favorite fingerplays, Five Fat Peas

Five fat peas in a peapod pressed (crouch, hold up fist)
One grew, two grew, and so did all the rest (pop fingers up)
They grew and grew and grew, and they did not stop (both arms up, slowly stand as you 'grow')
Until one day, the pod went POP! (clap!)

Then we moved into I Can Jump Jump Jump--a great action activity that really gets the wiggles out.

I can jump jump jump
I can hop hop hop (we do one foot)
I can clap clap clap
and I can stomp stomp stomp
I can shake my head yes
I can shake my head no
I can bend my knees a little bit
and do it again for show/sit down slow

The second book that we read was Baby Danced the Polka by Karen Beaumont. I absolutely adore this one, and I really hammed up the refrain, "Did you hear what Mama told you? Did you hear what Papa said? It's naptime little baby so you BETTER STAY IN BED!" And the kids all joined in.

And what dancing storytime could leave out my beloved Watermelon Song? Not this one.

Fingerplay: Three Bubbles
A teeny tiny bubble
A medium sized bubble
a GREAT BIG bubble I see
Let's count them
Are you ready?
One...two...three...POP!

Fingerplay: My Hands
My hands upon my head I'll place
On my shoulders
By my face
At my waist
and by my side
and then behind me they will hide
Then clap clap clap
and 1, 2, 3
I'll show how quiet they can be

Because I planned so many extension activities we only ended up reading three books, and the final one was Dancing Feet by Lindsey Craig. I associated each animal with an action, so this one was boisterous too!

And finally, I did something I've never done before, which was use recorded music in storytime.  I handed out the dancing scarves and played sections of four different pieces of classical music. I told the kids to listen to how the music made them feel and how it made them want to move.

I used the cd, "Beethoven's Wig 2" and chose four very different pieces of music--Light Cavalry Overture by Suppe, In the Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg, Humoresque by Dvorak, and the Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss.

Then we played the opposite game with the scarves, sang our closing song, did hand stamps, and moved on to craft.

For the craft, we made dancing wands using craft sticks. The taped a (precut) star onto the craft stick, colored it and taped ribbon and crepe paper on to twirl and swirl. I played music so they could try them out, and that was all.

No Flannel Friday--Old MacDonald Had a Farm

I got this idea from the amazing puppeteers at Neenah Public Library during the 2009 WLA conference. Take a box (B&T boxes are so great since they have a flat bottom). Paint it to look like a barn door.  Don't worry, you don't even have to do that good of a job--the kids won't care.

Then cut the upper part of the door so that it opens like so:




Now when you sing Old Mac you POP the puppets through the door. "Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O. And on that farm he had a...COW!!!"




Sometimes I put in a big pause and really punch the animals through. Half the kids jump, and then they laugh and laugh. I always tell them when we've seen all the animal friends in the barn, but maybe if we all sing nice and loud one of them will come back for an encore. Usually it's cow who comes back, and he moos with gusto before saying goodbye to the kids.

I use this once a month or so regardless of my theme, but sometimes I'll put in a weird animal who relates to the theme or something to surprise the kids--like at Halloween the sheep 'dressed up' as a ghost when he popped out.

So much fun and easy to do!

posted from Bloggeroid

Five (Six) Little Apples

B & T box covered with construction paper.

Not one but two of my fellow Flannel Fridayers recently posted about this little ditty and how they use it-- Anne at So Tomorrow and Katie at Storytime Secrets--I guess this is an inspiring rhyme, because I've been using it regularly for a while too!

Both Katie and I found the rhyme on this site, and this is the text as written there:

Five Little Apples

Five little apples hung on a tree
The farmer didn't care
So guess who came to eat
A caterpillar... munch, munch
Four little apples hung on a tree
The farmer didn't care
So guess who came to eat
A bird... munch, munch
Three little apples hung on a tree
The farmer didn't care
So guess who came to eat
A pig... munch, munch
Two little apples hung on a tree
The farmer didn't care
So guess who came to eat
A horse... munch, munch
One little apple hung on a tree
The farmer didn't care
So guess who came to eat
A scarecrow... munch, munch
Now the tree is bare
There are no more apples there
But when next fall comes around
Guess who'll be there
The caterpillar
The bird
The pig
The horse
And the scarecrow
Yum, yum.

I thought this was a great opportunity to use some of the many puppets I inherited in this job. So I took a old B&T box with the flaps cut off (book boxes are great because of the flat bottoms). I covered the bottom with construction-paper and then reinforced with book tape.

Next, I used velcro dots, and placed them on the tree. I made six, because I want to free children from the tyranny of the number five...or because I just felt like it.

I spent a dollar on a package of six large pom-poms (oh, that's where the six came from) and attached the grippy side of the velcro dots to the pom-poms.

Crow, bee, bunny, raccoon, mouse, bear

When I use it in storytime I grab whatever six puppets I feel like using that day--sometimes I'll choose a silly one like the dragon or octopus if I can tie it into my theme, but these are the ones I have that make the most 'sense' (except maybe the bunny--I don't really think they eat apples, but I can imagine one taking a nibble).

When I use it in storytime, I put the box up on my lap or table and all the puppets are inside the back of the box mostly out of sight.  We say the rhyme with actions. When we get to "Guess who came to eat?" I pause, and then peek part of the puppet out or make a noise/action so the kids can actually guess. The puppet takes an apple, I make a munching noise/motion, and then say, "Bye rabbit!" and make the rabbit wave--the kids all wave/respond and then we go on.

I don't use the second part of the rhyme because I never memorized it, but I bring the animals back and we talk about them--which ones fly, which has long ears, etc. I should memorize it though! Next time.

Crow Puppet

The crow puppet steals the show. There's a squeaker in the beak that really does sound like a crow!--he's always the last one to come out and he flies and swoops cawing madly. I don't know where this puppet came from, but he's great!

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