Flannel Friday: Bedtime for Monsters

The final week of our summer story times brought the theme of Things that go bump in the night.  What goes bump in the night?  Monsters!  I wanted some fresh ideas for this one since I did a friendly monster theme around Halloween.  Not that I don't love Big Green Monster, but new things are fun too.

I found a Flannel Friday post by Cate at Storytiming for a book called Bedtime little monsters by Emma Harris.  Cate gave the overall idea of the book, all of the monsters run and hide at bedtime and so a monster hunt ensues.  Unfortunately, we do not own a copy of the book and I had to request it from another library knowing there was a good chance it would not arrive by my story time.  (Have I mentioned I enjoy last minute planning?)  So, I went with the idea anyway and made it my own.

For my version of the story I placed an empty bed on the board and had several objects with monsters hidden behind them.  I told the kids that for our next story we had some monsters that were ready to go to bed, but they needed to hear a lullaby first.  We talked for a minute about good bedtime songs and settled on Twinkle, twinkle, little star.  Then, I turned to the board to sing the monsters to sleep only to discover that they were all missing!

I told the kids that the monsters were all hiding and we had to find them and put them in bed.  They would shout out an object that they saw a monster behind, I pulled the object away, and the kids would tell me what color the monster was.  Then, I said:

Time for monsters to rest their head,
Let's put the PURPLE monster to bed!

And we continued finding all of the monsters and repeating the rhyme according to the monster color until they were all in bed.  Then, we sang Twinkle, twinkle, little star and those rascally monsters finally fell asleep!

Ironically, the book arrived the morning of story time.  They gist of the story was the same, yet still rather different.  I had the monsters hiding in some of the same places.  I used many of the same places that Cate had.  I loved her shower curtain, so I made my own.  She had also asked for suggestions for more places and a cookie jar and trash can were brought up and I liked those ideas.  The dog, car, and couch are all pieces from other flannel boards.  I figured that my extensive collection gives the added bonus of reusing pieces for other stories.  Why make more if you don't really need to?

All of the pieces are craft foam except for the bed which is a foam frame with a flannel mattress and blanket so that the monsters would stick once inside.  The shower curtain was cut from a sandwich bag and decorated with Sharpies.  The dog, cookie jar, trash can, and monsters were all free handed and I used clip art as templates for the other shapes.

You can find this week's complete round-up with Kay at Storytime ABC's.  All things Flannel Friday can be found at the blog, or see all post visually arranged on the Pinterest boards.

Flannel Friday: Silly Super Hero

Week five brought super heroes flying into our library.  It is a very exciting theme, but posed a bit of a problem when it came to story time planning.  Books tend to be for older children and not great for reading to a crowd and flannel stories were few.  So....I made up my own.  This is a rather simple story.  You can modify it to meet your needs or style.  The story it a bit like Keiko Kasza's The pigs' picnic.  I call it:
The Best Super Hero Suit.

This is Ben.  Ben's favorite thing to do is play super hero.  He has lots of costumes, but today, Ben has a problem.  All of his costumes are in the wash.  What will he do?

Ben decided that he will make up his own costume and he is going to be the best super hero ever.  So, he thought, what makes a great super hero?  First, a super hero needs to be able to hear if someone is in trouble.  Ben found some nice, big ears.  (I had planned to ask the kids where Ben got the ears, but I had a rather enthusiastic little guy who shouted out 'Those are bunny ears!'  So, he got all the kids going and I didn't need to prompt them.  They kept it up the whole story.)

Bunny ears!

Next, Ben decided that a super hero should be able to smell if there is a fire so that he can rescue people from the flames.  Ben found a great, big nose.

Elephant nose!

Now, Ben thought, a good super hero is really, really, strong.  Ben found some very strong arms.

Gorilla arms!

Great super heroes can leap tall buildings thought Ben.  So, he found some extremely hoppy feet.

Frog feet!

Finally, Ben knew that all the best super heroes can fly, so, Ben found a pair of super flappy wings.

Bat wings!

Ben thought he was the greatest, best super hero ever.  He ran out into the living room to save his sister from evil villains.

'AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH a monster!!!!!!!!!'  screamed Ben's sister who ran crying to mommy.  And mommy made Ben take the costume off because his sister was so scared.

Oh well, thought Ben back in his room.  I can always be Captain Underpants instead!

You can find this week's round up with Katie at storytime katie.  All things Flannel Friday can be found at the Flannel Friday blog, or you can see all posts pinned to the Pinterest boards.

Rockets in Space

Our week four summer reading theme was the Night Sky.  Some of my co-workers took this in the direction of lightning bugs and fireworks, but I did lightning bugs last week and my story time was planned for the day after fireworks, so I went with what you may see in the night sky or Things in Outer Space.

The kids did a rather decent job of coming up with various things you may find in space.  The moon, stars, planets, and even aliens were named.  I asked if they knew the names of any planets and Saturn (or Saturen) was a very popular choice.  Mars was another, but I think those rings are a big hit with the preschool group.

The first book we read was Zoom, rocket, zoom by Margaret Mayo.  This book ended up being kind of ho-hum.  It seemed good, there were lots of different space vehicles that I thought would be fun to see.  But, in the end it dragged a little.  When you have both a moon buggy and Mars rover they seem fairly similar.  The book shows astronauts working in space which I thought was neat, but the kids seemed unimpressed.  Perhaps I should have brought back Aliens love underpants.

 Our second book went over much better.  It was Space walk by Salina Yoon.  This book features each of the planets with a lift-the-flap page with a little rhyme about what makes that planet unique.  Very simple with big, planet shaped flaps.  I asked the kids if they knew any of the planets as we went along.  A few required hints like 'this is the planet where we live.'  Guess which one needed no hints?  Saturn!

Instead of doing a third book or flannel story I decided to get out our parachute.  It is only a 6 foot parachute, so it is impossible to use with my regular story time crowds.  But, this summer I have had smaller groups, so the parachute was the perfect size.  Before getting out the parachute I handed out rockets to all of the kids.  I made these out of toilet paper rolls.  There are crepe paper streamers as the bottom and I cut slits at the top and slid in a triangle to be the nose of the rocket.

 First, we did a song with our rockets.  I'm sure there are many similar rocket songs.  I made this one up to be sung to the tune of I'm a little teapot:
I'm a little rocket ready to go,
Turn on my engines and watch me glow.
When I get all revved up I'm ready to fly,
Count me down and shoot me high.
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Blast off!!!

When the countdown began we put our rockets on the floor and then launched them into the sky when it was time to blast off.  The kids loved this so we repeated the song a few times.  Then, we got out the parachute.  They all stood around it and took a spot.  I then told them to put their rockets into the parachute.  Most were hesitant to do this at first because they did not want to give their rocket up, but when they saw we were going to 'blast' them into the air they were happy to comply.  We did a few rounds of putting the rockets in and then shaking them out.  I had planned to throw in a few balls as planets, but in hind sight I should have started with them because the kids were rather enthusiastic shakers and we barely got rockets back in before they were flying out again.  The planets never made it in, but the kids did have a blast!

Not many space songs were suitable for story time, but I managed to relate a few fun songs.  Greg and Steve have an upbeat version of I can hammer.  I explained to the kids that astronauts in space sometimes use tools to fix things.  Then I asked them what tools might be used?  They came up with a hammer (among other things) and we were ready to sing.  You hammer starting with one hammer and work your way up to five, using your feet and head when you run out of hands.  What I like about this version is that after you count up to five you then go back down to one.

Ladybug Music has a fun song called Roly-poly.  It is basically the classic baby ryhme (roly poly, roly, poly, up, up, up, roly poly, roly poly, down, down, down etc) set to funky music.  The kids enjoyed this one and the directions were easy for them to follow.  I told them the rolling hands motion was like how the planets travel around the sun, so see, it does not have to be theme-y for it to relate.

For our video this week I wanted to try and show the kids some fireworks.  It has been very hot and dry where we are and some fireworks displays were temporarily cancelled (we got some rain so they were rescheduled, but that was after my program).  I decided on a Thomas the tank engine short video.  The clip is part of the Thomas and Friends: Songs from the Station dvd.  It is a 10 minute story about the trains bringing in a delivery of fireworks, though their show is nearly cancelled when the trains have trouble getting back.  There weren't many fireworks in the clip, but there were enough and, of course, many of the kids love Thomas, so they were just happy with that.

To end story time I had them get out their rockets.  Some of them had been flying them around during the movie so I left the projector on so that they could see the rocket shadows on our big screen.  I had written a second rhyme to use with the rockets, but we had run low on time so I modified it to use as a good bye rhyme.  We said (and did the motions):

 Rockets up,
Rockets down,
Rockets zooming all around.

Rockets fast,
Rockets slow,
Rockets now it's time to go!

The original rhyme went:

Rockets up, 
Rockets down,
Rockets zooming all around.

To the left,
To the right,
Rockets spinning through the night.

Rockets fast,
Rockets slow,
Rockets stop, then go, go, go!



Finally, of course, they all got to take a rocket home with them.  I had a few extras so I replaced any that had been damaged during the parachute fun (which was very few).

Flannel-ish Friday: Rocket Away

I had every intention of creating a flannel board this week, but I realized I already had more than enough ideas for my story time, so I decided to make rockets for all of the kids instead.  We did an outer space theme and I came up with a few rocket songs to use.  I also decided that it would be fun to get out the parachute as my summer crowd has been much smaller and would fit around the parachute.

I made up rockets out of toilet paper tubes for all of the kids.  They really were not hard to make, just a tube, paper, some decorative tape, and colored crepe paper.  I thought about putting a cone top on all of them, but that seemed to be too much work, so instead I just cut small slits on each side of the tube and slid a triangle in.  The kids loved them!  I passed them out at the time when we usually do our flannel story (toward the end of story time) and we did a song with them.  I'm sure there are many similar versions, I made this one up, it goes to the tune of I'm a little teapot:

I'm a little rocket ready to go,
Turn on my engines and watch me glow.
When I get all revved up I'm ready to fly,
Count me down and shoot me high!
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...Blast off!!!

As we started counting we crouched down with our rocket on the floor and then we shot them up into the air when we got to the 'blast off.'  We did this song a couple of times because they enjoyed it so much.

Next, I pulled out the parachute and had all of the kids throw their rockets in.  This was a bit hard at first because they did not want to part with them, but once they saw that we were going to shake the parachute and shoot them into the sky they were all for it.  We did this a few times.  I had planned to throw in some balls as planets, but there were some very enthusiastic shakers and we could barely get the rockets back in before they were flying out again.  When we were done they got to collect their rockets to take home (I replaced a few that came apart, but overall they held up well).

This summer we have been ending story time with the Teddy bear, teddy bear rhyme, but today we did a rocket rhyme.  I had written a second poem to do with the rockets, but we did not get to it during story time.  You do the appropriate motions as you say:

Rockets up, 
Rockets down,
Rockets zooming all around.


To the left,
To the right,
Rockets spinning through the night.


Rockets fast,
Rockets slow,
Rockets stop, then go, go, go!

I modified it to be a goodbye rhyme and we said:

Rockets up,
Rockets down,
Rockets zooming all around.


Rockets fast,
Rockets slow,
Rockets now it's time to go!


The kids really like this.  I even left the projector on after our movie so that they could see the shadow of their rockets on the screen.

You can find all of this week's round up with Miss Mary Liberry.  Past round ups  and all things Flannel Friday can be found at the website, or you can drool over the Pinterest page.

Creatures of the Night

For summer reading week three we featured Night Creatures.  This was a great opportunity to do a little vocabulary lesson and talk about the word Nocturnal with my story time friends.  We talked about when we sleep and when nocturnal animals sleep and then we had a nocturnal animal scavenger hunt.

This was a really simple scavenger hunt.  I printed off pictures of nocturnal animals such as owls, bats, lightning bugs, hamsters, etc. and hung them around the story time room.  They were up when the kids came in, but none of them really mentioned seeing them there.  Since all of the animals were nocturnal, we had to turn off the lights to get them to come out.  I had a flashlight and walked around the room shining it on the different pictures.  We had already talked about some animals that were nocturnal, so the kids were able to guess most of them fairly quickly.  I think the lightning bugs were the hardest because they were just green specks on a dark page, but I gave them a few clues and they got it.

Our first book was Little Owl's night by Divya Srinivasan.  I went back and forth over whether I wanted to use this book or not.  I like that the pictures are simple and bold and I was drawn to it because the book features lots of nocturnal animals who are out while little Owl is exploring the night.  I did not care for the fact that there really is not much of a plot or story line in this book.  Basically, little Owl flies around, sees his night time friends, then returns home as the sun is rising to go to bed.  I decided to go with it in the end because the language is simple enough, the pictures are great, and since there were so many different animals shown it mostly made up for the lack of story.

The second book we read was Eric Carle's The lonely firefly.  This is a great night creature book because right now there are tons of lightning bugs flying around at dusk.  The pictures are Carle's signature style with a colorful firefly searching the night for other fireflies.  Along the way he finds lanterns, car lights, other animals and even fire works before finally finding other fireflies - that actually light up in the book!  So, with Eric Carle, fireflies, fireworks, and actual flashing lights, this book was a hit.

Recently there were a few Flannel Friday posts featuring lightning bugs that were perfect for our theme this week.  I got ideas from two other Flannel Friday posts this week.  One was Miss Alison at MiSS ALiSSON iS BLOGGiNG with her Five Little Fireflies with disappearing lights that I thought were super cute.  My other inspiration was Amy at catch the possibilites who posted her version ofTen Flashing Fireflies by Philemon Sturges.  You can read more about my flannel story here, or follow the links to the other blogs.

Since lightning bugs were hard to come by, we simply did songs that are fun.  Carole Peterson's Sticky bubblegum is a fun song for a wide range of ages.  It was suggested to me by a 2nd grade teacher, but much younger kids enjoy it as well.  In this song, you get your (pretend) bubble gum stuck all over to things like your knees, your neighbor's had, your foot to your nose (this one is a bit tricky for all ages), and even your head to the floor.  The tune is catchy and the kids have fun with this one.

Laurie Berkner did her own rendition of The lion sleeps tonight.  I passed out shaker eggs to the kids for this one.  We waved eggs over our heads for the slower verses and shook them really fast for the Weem-oh-weh parts.  The kids seemed to like it this one, but what was even more fun was watching all of the parents/grandparents singing along.

Another favorite song of mine is Sue Schnitzer's All the fish.  We use this one a lot because there are so many animal motions for the kids to do.  Plus, we jump up for the 'splash' part, so the kids have lots of movement.

This week's video was Peggy Rathmann's Good night, Gorilla.  Since there are very few words in this book it would not make the best pick for story time, but the animated version is perfect.  As the zookeeper is putting all the animals to bed, sneaky Gorilla is following around letting all of the animals out of their cages.  This is a really cute one and the kids seemed to enjoy it, not as much as they did Pigeon, but that was going to be hard to top no matter what.  Good night, Gorilla fit well with our theme and one grandma was very excited to inform me that the story is a favorite with her family.  I love being able to show kids their favorite story in a new way!