The Little Red House

I love seeing everyone's flannel stories that they post, but I don't use them a ton myself. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but I find that I don't have a lot of time to create them (well, who does really! Not a very good excuse, I suppose). I have gotten burned a couple times where I've spent a ton of time creating an awesome flannel story and then during storytime it kinda fell flat or the kids didn't care and now it just sits in my drawer. I try to focus on creating flannel stories that I can use often rather than really specific to a book or theme. The other reason I don't use flannel as much as I'd otherwise be inclined to is because of an offhand comment I heard at a workshop--something about kids being bored with the predictable book/flannel/fingerplay/book routine. At first I felt stricken--but I love flannel!  And then I got the point.

ANYWAY

Thought I'd share my newest non-flannel storytime activity! A few years ago I attended a workshop with amazing storytime librarian Kim Faurot and she shared the book, "The Little Red House" by Norma Jean Sawicki. It's out of print, but many many libraries still seem to have copies. Sawicki notes that her book is based on a Mother Goose rhyme from Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales by James O. Halliwell (very old and also out of print, but our friends at SurLaLune seem to have a copy).
Kim talked about how easy it would be to do a flannel of this story, but instead she MADE a series of houses out of cardboard boxes and it's a major crowd-pleaser. It was so cool and easy to see that kids would LOVE it.  I've had my eye out for the right kind of boxes ever since. Well, I got sick of waiting and used this origami tutorial to make my own! (I started with 11x17 paper and reduced each square by 1.5" then glued on a roof and doors--easy!)


Once there was a little red house...



And inside the little red house there was...



A little green house!  Once there was a little green house...


And repeat until you get to a teeny little yellow house!  And what do you think was inside the little yellow house?

It was you! Kiss kiss!

I've found all the little 'surprises' in vending machines and I got a bunch from Michael's in the dollar section.  I usually go through it twice, and the kids are hilarious the second time because they are SURE they know who's inside that little yellow house--but through simple slight of hand I surprise them every time.  I love this because it can relate to a variety of themes depending on what's hiding in the last house.  As far as concepts and you can talk about colors and size, and also work on memory and reasoning.  What do you think is in the NEXT house?  Sometimes they say, "Another house!"  and sometimes they say, "A giant!"

It's fun every time  

Cupcake Love!

Just had to share some more pictures from our Dr. Seuss Extravaganza--these AMAZING cupcakes were handmade and donated by the mom of one of our Library Clerks.  We had them hidden under a plastic tablecloth during storytime and everyone's jaw dropped when we unveiled them.

Horton Hears a Who and Green Eggs and Ham

Cat In the Hat & One Fish Two Fish 

It was funny because every kid who chose the hat cupcake immediately took a big chomp off the top of the hat--which was made from homemade modeling chocolate, yum.

They were scrumptious AND adorable and I was so lucky to have them for the party!



Fire Safety Storytime

Our second storytime during National Library Week was a special Fire Safety Storytime where we had a real firefighter visit.  This kids were very excited about this.  We started the "Night Owl Storytime" on Thursday nights as part of the school district's new four-year-old-kindergarten program.  I collaborate with the local Family Resource Center to offer storytime and crafts.  It's nice to work with someone else on things, so I enjoy it but attendance has been pretty spotty.  This was our final week for this year, and I think we'll try something different next year since attendance was so poor overall. 
I was a little nervous about sharing storytime with a guest since I'd never done it before and didn't really know how it would go.  It was great--I guess I need to work on my sharing!  I was also concerned about attendance, but the good news is we had a nice crowd this week of 20 kids and 11 adults. 

I started out our normal storytime routine, and after the opening song we read Fire Engine Man by Andrea Zimmerman.  I wanted to get some energy expelled before I introduced our guest, so we sang "Dr. Seuss is on the Loose" from last week's Dr. Suess Party. From there we went right into the fingerplay, "Five Little Firemen" which can be seen here.  The kids enjoy that one, although I have a hard time settling on what actions go with what part of the rhyme--I probably just need to do it more often. 

Then our firefighter spoke to the kids and read one of the books I suggested to him,
Firefighters! Speeding! Spraying! Saving! by Hubbel.  He started telling the kids about the other part of his job (besides putting out fires), which is working on the ambulance when people get sick.  Hearing the word, "sick" prompted one little girl to shout out that she had gotten sick and puked in a bucket.  Our brave fireman responded that his daughter had been sick that day and threw up outside.  Anyone who works with kids knows where this story is going--suddenly every kid in the room was earnestly sharing his or her best puke story!   With a little redirection we transitioned into playing, "Firefighter says" which was a major hit, and a good lesson since you should always listen to what a firefighter tells you.

After that we sang, "I Had a Little Turtle" and "Jonny Taps With One Hammer" before ending storytime and heading over to the craft area.   

For Night Owl Storytimes, I'm not in charge of crafts so I gave the kids their hand stamps and sent them on their way!