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. 

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-Cupcake: a Journey to Special by Charise Harper

This book is so funny to me. I love Harper's wonky drawings and bright colors. I always love the sense of humor she uses in her books, but sometimes they are best for one-on-one reading rather than storytime. I mean, we've all been there, reading the book with the punchline ending and getting a reaction of deafening silence as you chuckle awkwardly and try to transition onwards while the kids look at you like this 0_o

ANYway.

Love this book.

The first half reads quite well, with a pretty linear text about a plain vanilla cupcake who wants to be special like his (his!) family. He meets a candle who relates to his feelings, and decides to help. At this point the book kind of loses its large-group oomph. It becomes very dialogue heavy with lots of little asides and small pictures. I knew that reading it to the group would make it lose the impact of the humor. So I turned to flannel as a way to expand the story. Basically the candle suggests a whole bunch of gross/inappropriate toppings for the cupcake, which are summarily rejected.

How 'bout pickes? Or spaghetti?

Pancakes, egg, peas (which the kids think are sprinkles at first), and STINKY CHEESE

Yes, that's a squirrel

Funniest option, per the 50 or so kids who've seen it

Finally, the squirrel is rejected as too furry, and both candle and cupcake are discouraged. Then the candle sees a nut left behind on the cupcake's head, and climbs up to remove it. Obviously everyone is predicting the candle/cupcake partnership ending at this point. And sure enough, ssuddenly candle has an AMAZING idea!... turn the page... "Tomorrow, let's try a potato." The End. 

The flannel pieces helped kids engage with the humor of the story and added anticipation which made them pay attention more. They loved it!

I read the first half of the story from the book, and told the second half using flannel. I think it worked really well, and turned a book that would have been a storytime flop (for me) into a hilarious success.

This week's Flannel Friday round up is hosted by Libray Quine!

posted from Bloggeroid

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!

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.

Farm Storytime

Today was my first regular storytime since I started this blog. I can barely believe it. I did storytime over the summer, but they were kind of 'greatest hits' storytimes thrown together in a rush.  I would normally have started fall storytime a few weeks ago, but our staffing changes took up all my time. But we're back in business now!

I usually do 1-3 outreach storytimes a week, plus regular storytime Wednesdays at 10:30.  Woe betide any attempts to offer storytime at other days/times in this community!

I will be writing up a few posts on my storytime process later, but for now here's what we did this week:

Opening Song: 1,2,3, I Love the Library (lyrics I wrote to tune I learned as a child).

Barnyard Banter by Denise Fleming

I read this one for three of my four sessions and it was a huge hit every time. I am trying to be better about saying the titles of the books, and I defined 'banter' for them. When we looked at the title page most of them thought the goose was a duck so we talked about geese and how they have long necks. The kids LOVED spotting the Goose on every page--more than saying the animal noises with me.

Song: Old MacDonald (with puppets and barn prop) This is one of my most popular storytime activities, and it deserves its own post--coming soon.

Action Activity: I can Jump Jump Jump. It was rainy here this week, so for the daycares and school groups we did this a few times and varied speed to really get those wiggles out (the source is here, but I've adapted it--we stomp stomp stomp and at the end do it again for show. Repeat all, then sit down slow).

Book: Stuck in the Mud by Jan Clarke or Hungry Hen by Richard Waring

 Hungry Hen was a big hit with my my school and daycare groups, but I opted out of reading it for regular storytime. The group skewed young and quiet and I didn't think they'd appreciate the twist at the end. Stuck in the Mud is fun--we all chimed in (more or less) on the refrain he/she pushed and pulled again and again.

Song: There's a Little Chicken (To the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know it"). I do this song with whatever little stuffed animal or fingerpuppet fits my theme or transition best. It's a good way to build body part vocabulary. "There's a little chicken sitting on my...nose! OH NO! I don't know what to say and then he runs away. Now there's no little chicken on my nose." After each verse I have the little chicken pop out from behind my back and pretend that I'm nervous about where he'll go next, which makes the kids laugh and join in. 

Fingerplay: Here is a Cup. I learned this one from last year's Collaborative Summer Reading Program manual, and it's a new favorite.

"Here is a cup (cup hand) and here is a cup (other hand)

and here is a pot of tea (fist with index finger out for spout)

Pour a cup, and pour a cup (you got this).

And have a sip with me"

We start slow and get very fast, ending with a nice looooong drink of tea and rubbing of the belly--YUM!

Book: Clip Clop by Nicola Smee or Moo, Moo, Brown Cow! Have you Any Milk? by Phillis Gershator.

Flannel Story: Make a Pig. I LOVE this flannel. So much.  It's so much fun--the kids just roll with laughter.

  

Fingerplay: My Hands. The version I use is closest to this one here.

We read one more book--one of the ones I didn't choose above. For each group I decide on the fly depending on how they're reacting and what I'd like to read.  My back up books that I didn't use at all were Margaret Wise Brown's Big Red Barn and Lucy Cousin's Maisy's Morning on the Farm.

Closing Song: Storytime is Over Now (Mary had a Little Lamb).

Hand Stamps (There would be riots if I forgot this).

Craft: I printed a b&w clip art barn onto legal sized paper and there were six animals for the kids to color and glue (precut by my student worker). Easy!