Flannel Friday: An Ode to Flannel

Oh Flannel Friday, how I love you so!

Fridays were so boring, but not any more.

I had thought flannel was just for clothes,

but I see how well in stories it goes.

Each and every Friday morn, 

Flannel ideas are being born!

Story time's no longer boring.

Kids and parents are not snoring.

I read on Friday with such glee,

Great story time possibilities!

And all the bloggers, oh so wise,

Have moved story time standards up so high!

Sorry for the cheesy poem, but I felt that if this was truly an 'ode' I needed to actually write one :)  In honor of Flannel Friday turning 2 we have been asked to talk about what Flannel Friday means to us, has benefitted our work, etc.

Here is 'Flannel Me'

First off, I will tell you about how I came to Flannel Friday.  I guess it was bout 2 years ago that I ran across a few blogs run by children's librarians.  Ironically, I found them while looking for flannel story ideas to use with my toddler story times.  One of the blogs I found was Miss Mary Liberry, and I just loved her ideas and voice so much that I returned frequently.  I began noticing posts for Flannel Friday so I did some blog hopping and discovered some really wonderful ideas being shared by some wonderfully creative people.  I was hooked.

A picture from my first Flannel Friday post: Five Red Apples

It took me a little while to finally join in, but when I did I was warmly welcomed to the Flannel world.  Everyone is very encouraging and helpful providing not only a great community but also an amazing story time resource.  Many times I have found a great idea that sparked an entire story time plan.  I now make sure that anyone I meet who works with young children hears about the wonderful thing that is Flannel Friday.

My most viewed post to date: Pete the Cat Christmas Extravaganza

Flannel Friday has encouraged me to work to make story time as exciting and innovative as I can.  Even though many times posts are ideas that have been used before there are new twists that help make them current or more interesting than before.

One of my favorite creations based on another blogger's Flannel Friday post

For anyone who is working with young children the Flannel Friday blog and Pinterest page are amazing resources.  I truly applaud the work of all those pinners who have made the pinboards so navigable.

Happy 2nd Birthday Flannel Friday!!!  I hope to see many more years of excellent story time ideas!
  

Flannel Friday: Dig into Reading

So this week Flannel Friday is gearing up for Summer with a special Summer Reading theme - for those of us who use it the theme this year is Dig into Reading.  For the rest of you, lots of worms and dirt this week!

I have a semi-triple post, one rhyme done two ways and a craft possibility.  The first one is a tube-prop story that I first saw used at Mel's Desk with her 5 Green and Speckled Frogs.  Of course, instead of frogs I've got worms (any Dumb and Dumber fans out there?)

I modified the song One elephant went out to play and it goes:

1 little worm went out to play
On a very rainy day.
Splashing in puddles was so much fun
That he called for another little worm to come:
HEEYYYYY WORMYYYYY!!!!!

Repeat until there are 5 worms:

5 little worms went out to play
On a very rainy day.
But then out came the big bright sun

And the 5 little worms had to end their fun.

Then, if you want to send your worms back down into the ground instead of lying bloated in puddles:

5 little worms came out to play
On a very sunny day.
As the bright sun shone all around,
1 little worm squirmed underground.

I took a paper towel roll and cut 5 strips of paper, each 2 inches wide and as tall as a piece of construction paper when turned to a landscape position.  I added grass to one side:

Then I cut worms.  I folded the paper in half before cutting my worms so  that I got 2 of each color.  That way they could hang off of the end a little but be the same shape.  I then gave them to my craft expert to decorate:

That is when I realized, this would be a rather simple, fun craft.  If you pre-cut the paper strips kids could really do most of the rest.  I love crafts that can be played with or used to tell a story or rhyme that we used during story time.  At any rate, my assistant had fun.

To go with the same song or rhymes, I wanted to make a board where the worms could slide up and down. So, I got a foam core board  and cut it to the size that I wanted.  Then, I drew vertical lines every three inches (this was determined by the size of my board and the fact that I wanted 5 slits).  I also drew 2 horizontal lines, each 3 inches in from the edge.  The horizontal lines were to know where to begin and end my slits.

I then used an exacto knife and a ruler to cut my slits.  I had to make 2 passes with the knife to cut through the board.  Thankfully, we have some lovely tile floors in our house that were unaffected by my knife.  I kept the ruler in place for the second pass to ensure a clean, straight cut.

Next, I adhered the flannel to the foam board with an adhesive spray.  I chose a stiff flannel sheet to add a little stiffness to the whole board.  Luckily the craft store put the foam board in a really big bag that I could use to protect the floor.  The spray worked great and made a nice flat bond.

Once the adhesive dried I pushed the knife through the slits so that they went through the flannel as well.

Next i made some worms.  They are rather plain right now, I will probably jazz them up some, but I was looking to get the construction down first.  I attached a brad to a small piece of foam that matched each worm and then glued it to the back of the worm so that the head of the brad was sandwiched between the pieces of foam.

The narrow part of the brad fits nicely into the slits of the board.  I had hoped to glue the flat ends of another brad to the one attached to the worm to give a little more of a handle, but that did not work out.  I was trying to super glue them together, but merely ended up with white paint super glued to my finger.

Regardless, the worms slide up and down on the board, there is just less of a handle to hold.  Hopefully I will find a fix for that, I am thinking maybe I can hot glue the brad to a popsicle stick or something.

 I would also like to add some grass across the middle so that there is not such a harsh dirt/sky.  My plan for that is to use extra foam core to lift a strip about an inch or so across the middle.

You can find the complete round-up this week with Lisa at Libraryland.  All things Flannel Friday are located at the Flannel Friday blog and the Pinterest page has a great visual display of all posts sorted by theme.

Flannel Friday: Have I mentioned that I LOVE Pete the Cat

I will be the first to admit that I am slightly obsessed with Pete the Cat.  And, it seems very appropriate that this, being my 100th post (YAY!!!), is all about Pete!  I was very sad when I had to leave my collection of 3 Petes (yes three, one even had a change of clothes) behind when I changed jobs.  So, I knew that it would not be long before I would be making more Petes.

Earlier this week I offered to do a very last minute story time for my daughter's pre-school Valentine's Party. The room parent needed some activities so I offered up my services.  But, there were not many Valentine books left being that I offered on Monday, the party was Wednesday, and Valentine's Day is Thursday.  I decided to do a Valentine's / Books that I love theme.  Our books were Big Smelly Bear by Britta Teckentrup and Waking Beauty by Leah Wilcox  (this was my Valentines-y book as it involves kissing, kind of).

For my flannel story I decided to adapt the Gingerbread Pete the Cat (based on Pete the Cat and his four groovy buttons by Eric Litwin) that I made at Christmas.  It was really easy to adapt, instead of having gum drop buttons I made candy heart buttons (if I still had the previous Pete I made all that I would have needed to make were new buttons).  You can read the original post here, basically instead of having the buttons pop off like in the book I eat them because they look so delicious!

I did give the 'new Pete' an iced belly to hide the velcro dots.  And he has licorice whiskers this time instead of peppermint.  The kids really enjoyed this story.  I was a bit dismayed when I told them I made a cookie based on my favorite book character Pete and one little boy said 'like from Mickey?'  I guess for the next show and tell day we will be sending a book along!

After I ate the first button the kids all wanted to eat a button too.  So, I would hold it out and they would all pretend to nibble it along with me.  And they all really enjoyed singing with me:

My buttons, my buttons, 
I love my candy buttons! 
My buttons, my buttons,
I love my candy buttons!

And when all of his candy buttons get eaten, we replace them with plastic ones and Pete says:

My buttons, my buttons,
You can't eat my plastic buttons!
My buttons, my buttons,
You can't eat my plastic buttons!

All in all, the new version of Pete was a hit.  You could use it with a cookie or food theme too, he could have chocolate chip buttons, jelly bean buttons, maybe broccoli buttons!  The possibilities could go on and on...

This week's round-up can be found with Katie at storytime katie.  Check Pinterest for a very organized and visual display of all Flannel Friday posts, or visit the Flannel Friday blog for all kinds of Flannel Friday information, tips, and links.

Flannel Friday: Flannel board on the fly

I have been at my new job for about a month now (though I am part time so really it feels like less) and I am still catching on to where things are.  I think when my job-share partner was showing me around she showed me a smaller flannel board to hold easily, but on Monday she was not there and I had no idea where it was.  The only flannel board that I could find was part of a large easel and not really appropriate for my baby time.

So, I decided to just make one.  It really did not take much time at all.  At first I planned to cut a piece of cardboard to the size that I wanted.  But, as I was scrounging around for a good piece of cardboard I came across this kind of old binder.  Since there were several spares in a cupboard and this one had really gunky stuff all over the one side I figured it would be ok to cut apart.  The front was the perfect size for a small flannel board, and BONUS - it has a pocket to store the pieces in!

I took my binder cover and found some felt that would fit.  Ideally I would have used a light blue for a 'sky' background, but there was none on hand so I went with an off white.  One sheet of flannel did not cover the whole binder, so I just cut some green to look hillish.

To stick the flannel to the binder I used some rubber cement.  I had thought about using a glue gun, but the rubber cement will make a smooth binding where as  the glue gun will be bumpy.  I coated both the binder and the flannel with the rubber cement and stuck them together.  After a little drying - voila - quick flannel board.

I did add a little tacky glue under the green where it overlaps the white as the flannels had absorbed a lot of the rubber cement and were not sticking together.  And, were I to do this again I might cut the white to match the green a little better so there is not that ridge, but it is really not that big of a deal.

I would say it took maybe 30 minutes to get this made (and that probably includes rounding up the supplies) and I let it dry for a little while.  But, if needed you could whip one out to be ready in an hour.

I also have an actual flannel to share this week.  We have a monthly program where kids come to play with some toys and we put out a few crafts and activities.  I decided that I would love for the kids to have some flannels to play around with.  I had seen this idea from a blog while browsing Pinterest and decided to make some of my own boards to put out in the library.  The original poster made individual flannel pages for her kids to play with and I thought that would be a great literacy tool.  So, I made a fish flannel.

I have some rhymes and songs to put out with the fish.  All of the pieces come off so they can move them all around and tell a story if they like.  One side of the fish are decorated as fish and the flip side is numbered so they can count them.  And, of course, I can add them to the flannel collection to use in story time as well!

You can find this week's round-up with Courtney at Miss Courtney Meets Bobo.  All things Flannel Friday can be found on the blog and all flannels are shared via Pinterst.

Flannel Friday: Red Wagon Song

Now that I am doing Babytime I have been trying to work flannels into my programs.  I feel like I really have to make it worth my time as before I was doing 4 storytimes (all the same) each week and now I am down to 2 babytimes and some of those flannel boards take some time.  Anyway... I found a way to re-work one I had dome before for the babies.

Little Red Wagon, or Bumping up and Down is probably a standard lapsit song.  I have a transportation theme this week so I decided to add a few more verses with a few different vehicles.  The traditional song goes:

Bumping up and down in my little red wagon.
Bumping up and down in my little red wagon.
Bumping up and down in my little red wagon,
Won't you be my darling.

I think Raffi has a version of it that I have used before, but this week we are just going to sing it.  The babies will bounce up and down for the first three lines and then get a hug on the fourth.

But...

What if we are bumping up and down in a big BLUE truck?  Or in a big ORANGE dump truck?  Or a YELLOW school bus or a GREEN train?

I plan to use this with the babies, but I think that it would work for the older kids too.  They would enjoy calling out the colors and type of vehicle and could 'bounce' themselves as they sang.

I made a similar flannel board last spring to go with a transportation theme.  You can read about it here.  I had to leave that set behind when I moved jobs, but the new one can be used in the same way.  (Luckily I had saved a file with all the clip art images I had used for the shapes.)  I will eventually make a few more of the pieces, but I figured for a babytime song we only needed a few.  Then, for a future story time, we can have Blue truck, blue truck, what do you see?  I love multipurpose flannel boards...

You can find this week's round-up with Anne at sotomorrow.  All flannel boards eventually get pinned to the Pinterest page, and all things Flannel Friday related can be found at the blog.

Mushy Gushy Valentine Round-Up

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this week's Valentine themed round-up.  There are some great Valentine flannel boards as well as non-Valentine submissions.

I have to admit, there was so much 'cuteness' going on this week  that I had to pull up a thesaurus to try and avoid repeating the words 'cute' and 'adorable' along with every entry.  Admittedly the same words are still repeated a lot (a big pet peeve of mine thanks to a wonderful high school English teacher), but I had a hard time using a word like delectable for flannel, makes it sound like I want to eat them.  Although, we do have some flannel eating going on this week so perhaps that would have been appropriate.

Anyway, here is our Mushy-Gushy Round-Up for 2013, complete with mushy and many great non-mushy flannelboards.  They are color coded based on if they are Valentiney or not.  Shades of red are Valentine themed and shades of blue are not.  And there is one purple that is based on a non-Valentine book but could fit great into a Valentine theme.  Enjoy!

Amy from catch the possibilities features her sparkly version of Five little snowflakes and also shares some tips for making the task of cutting out those intricate flakes less daunting.

Andrea at librarianvsstorytime has a very cute Valentine game based off of Sara Weeks' book Be mine, be mine, sweet Valentine.

Anna of Future Librarian Superhero shares with us how she uses her adorable monster puppet Fergus in storytime.  I have to agree with Anna's post, puppets eating things during storytime is HIGHLY entertaining.

Anne at sotomorrow features a fun Circus Elephant cut and tell rhyme.  Not mushy, but you could argue that the elephants are kissing...

Jane and Piper from Piper Loves the Library are sorting their laundry with Valentine mittens!  Jane has also revamped Library Quine's currant buns to dress them up for Valentine's day.

Jen in the library brings us Vincent's Valentine Animals.  This funny story has got to be a hit, how can it not be with animals exchanging heads and mixing up their noises?

Kay at Storytime ABC's is bringing the cold to Florida with her darling Polar Friends.

Lena of sixcranberries felted some charming Finger Puppet Crows to go along with a wintry rhyme that she adapted from the song Three Craws.

Library Quine at Loons and Quines @ Librarytime has a darling Little Green Bug that is helping her share rhyming words in the library.  LQ also shows us her new (possibly faster) method of adding amazing detail to her flannels.

Linda of Notes from the Story Room shows us how to share the story Karen's Valentine's day surprise as either a draw and tell or a flannelboard story.

Lisa from Libraryland shares her version of the rhyme Valentine Race, complete with sparkly heart Valentines.

Lucy at In the Children's Room made her own version of a Valentine tree along with a super cute (and easy!) craft to go along with it.

Madigan from Madigan Reads shows us her adorable Owl Feltboard.  She uses some textured flannel that adds that extra something to some already charming owls.

Mel of Mel's Desk is skipping Valentine's Day all together and heading all the way on into fall.  That's right folks, this lady is really planning ahead with her impressive fall flannel pieces to accompany Lindsay Barrett George's book That pup!

Miss Kristine joins us this week via Loons and Quines (welcome Miss Kristine!) where she shares her delightful hand holding Octopi.

Mrs Shaia at Thrive After Three shares a very cute flannelization of the story Tuck me in.  Each of the adorable animals have a matching blankie, so cute!

Sandy from Storytime Sparks brings us the rhyme Five in the truck as well as several other ideas for a truck themed storytime.  Sandy claims that her flannelboard is not Valentiney but, I have had many storytime friends for whom Trucks = Love.

Sharon of Rain Makes Applesauce shares her fun version of the perfect Valentine story, Matt Novak's My froggy Valentine.

Tara over at Storytime with Miss Tara and friends is Blowing Kisses on her flannelboard  and then out to her storytime friends.  What a wonderful idea to include the audience and kids LOVE stickers!


Hopefully this will provide some inspiration for all of your upcoming storytimes, Valentine's or not.  Be sure to check the Pinterest Page for all of these as well as past submissions wonderfully organized by a wide variety of themes.  For all other Flannel Friday stuff, check the blog.

Next week's host is Anne at sotomorrow.

Also, keep in mind that there are two more extravaganzas coming up, the Dig in to Reading (SRP theme for many of us in the states - bugs and dirt) will be on March 1 and the Flannel Friday Birthday Extravaganza will be on March 15.

That's it for this week, until next week - Happy Flannelling!

Mushy-gushy Round-up for 1.25.13

This week we are kicking off the season of love - flannel style.  So, if you have one, please share a Valentine themed flannel board.  If you do not have one, please feel free to share any other flannel board that you love.  (That would make a good Valentine theme story time - 'Stories I love...')  Don't worry if you aren't going along with our theme, we are equal opportunity idea stealers!