Flannel Friday: It started with a sneeze

This week I am going to combine my Flannel Friday post with my usual storytime post as my storytime featured two flannel stories and a song that could become a (mildly gross) flannel story.  Our theme was Sneezing, but I wanted sneezing for the sake of sneezing, not because you are sick.  So, our letter of the day was S for Sneeze.  After revealing our theme we talked about the proper way to sneeze and practiced a bit so that we would not be spraying our neighbors later during storytime.

Our first story was the flannel board version of Baa-Choo! by Sarah Weeks.  I found the idea for this flannel board with Sharon at Rain Makes Applesauce.  It is a cute story about Sammy Sheep who needs to sneeze, he has the Baa, but not the Choo!  What will he do?  The text of this book is a really cute rhyme, but there was no way I was going to memorize all of that, so I told my own version.  I started the story by showing everyone the book and telling them that since the book was so small we were going to do the flannel board version.  So, our story went like this: 

This is Sammy Sheep.  Sammy has that tickle in his nose that you get when you need to sneeze.  He says Baa-baa-baa - but no Choo!  What will Sammy do?

He met his friend Ms. Hen.  'Sammy, why are you so sad?' she asked him.  Sammy told her, 'I need to sneeze.  I have the Baa, but not the choo!  What will I do?'  So, clever Ms. Hen plucked out a feather and tickled Sammy's nose.  'Baa-baa-baa' still no choo!  So, Sammy went on.
He met another friend, Mr. Pig.  'Sammy,' asked Mr. Pig, 'why are you so sad?'  Sammy told him, 'I really need to sneeze.  I have the Baa, but not the choo!  What will I do?'  'Pepper always makes me sneeze,' Mr. Pig told him and he got out a fan and his pepper shaker.  He pointed the fan at Sammy and shook some pepper into the breeze.  'Baa-baa-baa' still no choo!  So, Sammy kept going.

He met another friend, Nanny Goat and her Kid.  'Sammy, why are you so sad?' Nanny Goat asked.  Sammy told her, 'I really, really need to sneeze.  I have the Baa, but not the choo!  What will I do?'  Well, Nanny and her kid were really good at kicking their feet, so they kicked and kicked and made dust rise up around Sammy's nose.  'Baa-baa-baa...'  No choo yet.

The other animals saw Sammy still needed to sneeze and they came back to help some more.  The goats kicked, Mr. Pig shook his pepper, and Ms. Hen tickled his nose.  'Baa-baa-baa-baa-CHOOOO!!!'  Sammy finally sneezed a sneeze so big (start throwing pieces off the board) that he blew all of the others away.  And do you know what the animals said to Sammy?  'Bless you Sammy!'

The second story that we did was the book One day in the jungle by Colin West.  This is another smaller reader but it involves lots of sneezing that the kids can join in with.  The story starts with a really small butterfly sneeze and the sneeze gets passed among the animals growing a little each time until there is a gigantic elephant sneeze.  The kids really got into the sneezing part.  They even sneezed the proper way, into their elbow!

After sneezing our way through One day in the jungle we sang the Booger Song.  This is a song that I made up one day when watching my 2 year old son picking his nose.  Before introducing the song I let the kids each pull a tissue out of a tissues box.  (This in itself was great fun, except for the one little girl who had apparently been banned from tissues at home and refused to pull one out, even when mom and dad said that it was ok.)  Once they all had their tissue I asked them if anything ever came out of their nose when they sneeze.  At this point the parents figure out what is coming and start laughing while the kids tentatively tell me 'snot, boogies, boogers, etc.'  I jump on the boogers answer and then we sing this song:  (it goes to the tune of 'He's got the whole world in his hands')

I've got 5 boogers in my nose.
I've got 5 boogers in my nose.
I've got 5 boogers in my nose.
I better give it a blow.
Aaah-Aaah-Choo!

Repeat with 4, 3, 2, 1.

We sneezed into our tissues and when the song was over we threw the tissues into the trash can.  I had been a bit worried about this one wondering if it was too gross.  It was more the parents I was worried about, but they loved it.  There were lots of parent giggles and most of them sang along with me.  I pass out a sheet at the beginning of storytime with lyrics to any songs like this that we do and could see parents giggling ahead of time as they read over the sheet.  I am considering making it into a flannel board with some green boogers that you can throw off, but we had so many other flannel stories where we were throwing things off I decided not to go there this week.

Our last story was really more of a rhyme as we did Five Hungry Ants.  I think I originally saw this on Miss Mary Liberry's blog a few years ago and have used it many times since.  The rhyme goes:
5 hungry ant marching in a line,
Came across a picnic where they thought that they could dine.
They marched into the salad, they marched into the cake, they marched into the pepper,
Uh-oh.  That was a mistake.
Aaah-aaah-aaah-Chooooo!!!!!
(Then throw one of the ants off of the flannel board)
Repeat with 4, 3, 2, 1.

One of my groups early in the week thought that it was hilarious when I threw one of the ants so high that he hit the ceiling, so naturally I began to throw them all really high.  Well, after one particularly high throw my ant did not come back down!  This caused much excitement and the attempt to knock him down with the last ant, but he held on.

The songs that we did (aside from the Booger Song) were not really sneeze oriented, but that is ok as my throat needed some breaks.  We sang Greg and Steve's I can work with one hammer.  This version has a great up beat tune and I like that you count up to five and then count back down.

Mr. Eric and Mr. Michael have a great shaker egg song called I can shake my shaker egg that goes to to tune of In the hall of the mountain king (my favorite classical song as a child).  You shake your shaker egg and sneak, walk, then run around the room - or in our case the storytime rug.

We also sang One, two, three, whee! by Mr. Eric and Mr. Michael.  This is a fun song, you count to three and the say Wheee!  The following verses have you jumping, shaking, and whee-ing again.

Our craft this week was super simple.  We used tissue paper to fit in with our theme.  I have seen the idea various places and I know co-workers have done this in the past.  You take a roll of toilet paper (with all the paper still on) and wrap a sheet of orange tissue paper around at stiff the excess tissue paper into the top opening of the t.p. roll.  Then, roll up some green paper for a stem (I gave each kid a half sheet) and add a little twisted pipe cleaner for some vine (half piper cleaner).  That's it!  The parents loved how easy it was.  And it makes a nice, seasonal addition to any home.  You could add a Jack-O-Lantern face, but I figured that a plain pumpkin would last through Thanksgiving.

This week's Flannel Friday round-up can be found with Lisa at Libraryland.  All things related to Flannel Friday are addressed on the Flannel Friday blog, or you can find all posts visually pinned to the Pinterest page.