Nighty-Night

Week 2 of our Summer Reading Program featured Pajamas and a Bedtime theme.  I set the stage by wearing a pajama shirt and some wonderful cow slippers that my coworker had brought in.  Needless to say it did not take the kids long to guess our theme.

All of our books for story time this week were relatively new.  I like using new books in story time, especially for a theme like bedtime that gets played out a lot.  Of course there are lots of great stand by books and I always have those on hand in case, but it is fun to highlight new items to the collection.

The first book we read was My dad is big and strong but : a bedtime story by Coralie Saudo.  I ran across this book on the new shelf just last week and I knew I had to use it for story time.  It was probably more for the parents, but it is a cute book.  Dad does not want to go to bed.  His son has to beg, plead, and cajole him into bed.  Dad plays all the tricks that kids use to delay bed time and tests his son's patience.  The illustrations are a little more subdues than I tend to use.  There are lots of neutral colors with pencil drawings and some black and white detail, but the book is big, so they are not hard for the kids to see.

Our second book was Anne Margaret Lewis' Fly blanky fly!  This is an adorable book about the adventures of Sam and his blanky.  One night he tosses blanky from the top of the steps, and off they fly, zooming through the air like a rocket.  Blanky becomes all sorts of things, like a marching camel, a boat, a train, and even swings from the moon before bed.  Before we read this story I passed around the scarves that we use with songs.  As I read the book we made our scarves act like the blanky did and we marched, zoomed, and whooshed them around.

For our final story I did a flannel version of Pete the cat and his four groovy buttons by Eric Litwin.  I was really excited to use this book.  It is not really a bedtime story, but I changed the first part and said that Pete was putting on his favorite pajamas that had four very groovy buttons.  In the story Pete's buttons pop off one by one until the only button he has left is his belly button.  You can see more of my flannel board, along with Pete's buttons that actually pop off here.  The parents and kids really loved this book.  Many recognized Pete right away from his other books and by the end they were singing along with me.

We had a few sleepy songs this week.  Laurie Berkner's Goldfish take naps several times in between teeth brushing, showering, and bike riding.  Oh, and swimming because they are fish!

After reading Fly blanky fly we used the scarves with Johnette Downing's Flitter flutter where we move our scarves around like birds and bugs.

Hap Palmer's Five little monkeys don't sleep because they are too busy jumping, hopping, and spinning on their bed.  But, going outside to jump is just fine and they do that until they are exhausted.

This week's feature film was Mo Willems' Don't let the pigeon stay up late!  The kids LOVED this movie.  There was so much giggling and laughing (and not just from the kids, those parents were laughing too).  Poor pigeon does not want to go to bed, but he is clearly tired.  He tries to stay up, maybe for a hotdog party?  Mo Willems actually narrates this one along with some children who really enjoy telling the Pigeon 'no!'

Flannel Friday: Pete the Cat and his popping buttons

Pete the Cat has become one of my most favorite book characters.  He just has that special 'it's all good' attitude.  Plus, you can sing his books in story time, and who doesn't like to sing books in story time?  Plus, they have great repetition which is good for those toddlers.  So, I was super excited to see that Pete's (or Mr. Litwin's) newest book was, once again, perfect for story time.

Several other Flannel Friday participants have already flanneled Pete the cat and his four groovy buttons, but I am going to share mine too.  I decided to fit my version into my pajama themed story time because I could not wait to use this story and many pajamas have buttons, right?  So, I made Pete out of craft foam using an image for the shape of his head and free handing the rest.  I gave him some groovy flannel pajamas adorned with real plastic craft buttons.  And he has some yarn whiskers.

I decided that I really wanted my buttons to 'pop' off of Pete, so I rigged them with some fishing line.  I wove the fishing line in and out of the button holes a few times, tied them tight, and left a long tail.  I placed a piece of sticky back velcro on the back of each button, then I wound the end of the fishing line in a complete loop around a small piece of sticky back velcro that I then folded in half so that the stickiness would hold the line in place.

This one is a bit blurry, but you can see the wire going through (actually around) the folded velcro)

To set up the board, I have Pete on front with his buttons and I wrap the fishing line around to the back (my board has felt on each side, otherwise I would have added a soft side of velcro or just taped the wire down).

After taking this picture I cut the wire down so that the velcro reaches just past the back edge of the board. 

Then, as Pete's buttons pop off one by one I pull on the fishing line and POP!  Off fly the buttons!

Until, all the buttons are gone.  That is, all the buttons except his belly button!

The kids and parents really enjoyed this one, there was lots of giggling over his belly button (parents and grandparents included).  Just like the with the other Pete books they were signing along with me and shouting 'goodness no!'

You can find the round-up this week with Shawn over at Read, Rhyme, and Sing.  Past round-ups and everything else Flannel Friday related can be found at the website, or you can visit the Pinterest boards by clicking on the Flannel Friday button on the right.

Flannel Friday: Teddy

This week's Flannel Friday story is an adaptation of Leslie Patricelli's book Binky.  Binky is a cute board book (a favorite of my 2 year old son) about a cute baby who is looking all over for his binky.  My story time theme this week was Bedtime for Prince and Princess, so I changed the book some to fit that.  I turned the baby into a prince (a baby prince) and instead of looking for the binky he is instead looking for his teddy bear.

The little prince.  He flips over to a happy prince.  There is velcro on his diaper to hold him on the board.

Since board books are quick and simple, I was able to sequence this one out on the flannel board.  I put all of the objects/people that baby goes to when looking for his binky on the board.  Then, I just went right down the line asking ... Where is teddy?  Is teddy behind the couch?  No.  In the cereal?  No.  In the potty (hope not)?  No.  Who has teddy?  Fishy? No. etc. until the end.

Here is the couch, cereal bowl, potty chair, fishy, dog, mom, dad, rug, and chair.

But, when we got to the end there were no items on the board and we still had not found teddy!  So, of course, the little prince threw a little fit.  And then...

The teddy bear was actually borrowed from my 5 in the bed flannel set, he is the 'little one.'

I turned the board around and there was teddy, in bed where he belongs!

Happy little prince!

If you wanted, you could do this without going in order.  The kids could suggest where to look and as long as teddy is on the back of the board you will still have a crying fit before flipping it over.  If you do flannels where they look for items a lot it maybe fun to have the surprise of not finding anything until it is flipped around.

This week's Flannel Friday round-up can be found with Katie over at Story Time Secrets, past round-ups with Anne at Sotomorrow, or you can click on the Flannel Friday button at the right to see us on Pinterest.

The Royals at Bedtime

This week the secret title of my story time was 'Royal Pains at Bedtime' but that didn't sound very nice (it is just amusing for those of us with kids).  So, for my story time friends our theme was Bedtime for Prince and Princess.  We featured the letter B for Bedtime for Prince and Princess since we had already used P during Penguin week.  After planning for this theme I realized that I should have saved it since the Summer Reading Program has a night time theme this year, but oh well.  I was really amused how many kids told me that they go right to bed and stay there all night.  I could hear all of the parents muttering about how their child was lying :)

The first book that we read was The prince won't go to bed by Dayle Ann Dodds.  This book is a little longer than I usually read for the 2's and 3's.  I ended up skipping a few pages because the story worked without them.  It was great for my Family Time group that is more of a 4 and 5 crowd.  This is the story of a prince that just will not go to bed.  They try a bath, pudding, extra mattresses, fluffier pillows, a lullaby, but nothing works.  Luckily, his sister is there to realize they were forgetting one specific thing from his routine.  I really like the rhyme and repetition of this book and there is a phrase 'Wah, wah, wah, I will not go to bed!' that the prince repeats a lot.  I had all of the kids do this part, but I made them first promise that they will not repeat it to their parents at bedtime.

Our second book was Naomi Howland's Princess say goodnight.  This is a sweet bedtime story about how a princess gets ready for bed.  She does many of the things typical children do, like take a bath, have a snack, brush her hair, have a lullaby, etc. just in a much fancier manner.  This was good for talking with the kids about bedtime routine and what they do to get ready for bed.  This book also had great rhyme along with fanciful illustrations.

The final story was a flannel board that I adapted from Leslie Patricelli's board book Binky.  I love Leslie Patricelli's board books.  They are a favorite at my house.  The bold, simple illustrations are great for toddlers and her subject matter, style, and language are so easy for the little ones to relate to.  Binky is about a baby who is looking all over for his binky only to discover that it is in his bed, right where it belongs.  Since many of my story time friends are past the binky stage, we had him looking for a teddy instead and I gave him a crown and called him a prince.  You can read more about the flannel board here.

Since lullaby songs are not very exciting to use for story time, I instead used songs that had napping and resting.  We sang Laurie Berkner's We are the dinosaurs since the dinosaurs march, eat, rest, and roar.  We also sang Berkner's version of the Goldfish because the goldfish take lots of naps in between swimming, showering, brushing teeth, and biking.

I threw in Carole Peterson's I like my hat just for fun.  I needed a song to use with our scarves and I figured a hat and crown are similar, not that it really had to go with the theme.

Our craft this week was a pop-up Prince or Princess.  I gave each kid a royal purple card cut to look like a bed.  They accordion folded a strip of card stock and used that to attach the prince or princess inside of the bed.  Then, when the covers are lifted the little royal pops out of bed.  The kids had crayons and stickers to decorate the royals and their beds with.