Flannel Round-Up 5.31.13

Happy Friday!  Hopefully most of you are ready for those Summer Reading Programs - ours starts next week!  If you are still looking for some last minute flannel boards (as I often am - or I see a better idea from you wonderful people and scramble to make a new flannel board) there are several options that would work with the Dig into Reading theme and others that are just plain fun.

This week we have:

Bridget from What is Bridget Reading shares with us her beautifully crocheted flowers to go along with the many 5 little flowers rhymes.

Jane at Piper Loves the Library is trying not to stress over sharks in the ocean.  She alleviates some of it with her adorable and not-too-menacing SHARK!

Kathryn of Fun with Friends at Storytime is cooling off and having a hopping good time with her colorful frogs and a pool.

Kay at Storytime ABC's left me wanting more with her unfinished Pigeon post.  What can't Pigoen do?!  The answer to that question is coming  The final version will be up Saturday afternoon (6.1.13) so check back for more fun with Kay and Pigeon.

Leah from Time for Storytime has a colorful version of 5 little rockets.  While most of us are 'digging in' for summer reading, Leah is headed Up, Up and Away.

l.thacker of with kiddos @ the library shares a bright and colorful a version of Down by the bay based on Raffi's rendition of the song.

Lisa in Libraryland is growing a Blooming Garden as she shares her find from the Mailbox, a magazine that is made for teachers and often used by those of us in libraryland.

Lucy from In the Children's Room reminds us that the Cicadas are coming and makes a cicada that is far cuter than the real thing to help explain the upcoming barage our young friends.  Plus, she sends him away, which would be handy when the real ones drop by. 

Meagan at Miss Meg's Storytime is teasing Mr. Alligator this week with her adorably colorful monkeys.

Ms. Shaia from Thrive after Three is singing with the dinosaurs as she asks Red brontosaurus, red brontosaurus, what do you see?

Now that this is done I better get to work on those last minute flannels!  Be sure to check the Pinterest boards for all of these and a gazillion past flannel boards.  If you have questions or are just looking for more information about Flannel Friday you can check the official blog.  And, you can always look for us on facebook (the picture is the colorful Flannel Friday logo) to join in conversations about flannel and other library and early literacy stuff.

Next week's host is Lisa at Storytime with the Library Lady, so be sure to tune in there next Friday.  Have a great week!

Flannel Friday place holder for 5.31

It's almost Friday and that means Flannel Time!  If you have a flannel board or related post to share this week please leave a link in the comments below.  I will compile them and post the final draft either late Friday evening or on Saturday morning.
Enjoy!

Worms re-visited

A few months ago I posted a worm flannel board to go along with the Dig into Reading Summer theme.  You can read about that here and you will see that I still had a few kinks to work out on the last post.  I finally had time to go back to this flannel board and fix the problems so that the worms will easily slide up and down the foam core board.

Originally I was trying to slide the worms along with a brad, but that did not really give a good enough grip to easily move the worms.  I figured out that a unwound paper clip would work.  It slides well and has a nice long 'handle' for moving worms.  So, I made some more exciting worms...

I took a small piece of foam (same color as the worm but smaller that its head) and poked the paper clip through the middle.  I left about a inch sticking out the back and bent that around and down on the top for a better hold.

I glued the foam/paper clip 'handle' to the back of he worm.  I made sure that the little 'hook' where the paper clip wrapped around was at the bottom so that it was less likely to pull out when moving the worms up.

Once all the worms were done I popped them into the board and moved them up and down several times to loosen the grooves.  I may add a little piece of Velcro to ensure they stay where the need to (it should unstick when pushing out on the handle and re- stick when pulling in),but the worms seem to stay put fairly well.  So, now they are just waiting for a story time debut!

Flannel Friday: Two Greedy Ants

This week I have a guest making her Flannel Friday debut.  Here is Kathy Ross King with 2 Greedy Ants:

My sister, Lee Audlin, actually made this up for me because I love her work and I have lots of others to get done. I think it is adorable. I wrote the summer reading chapter with the story, the 2 Greedy Ants so I definitely wanted to do it! It has patterns for the felt board at the end of the chapter and these figures are loosely based on them. I think they may be a bit bigger, because I want the kids to be able to see the pieces. I just draped a very cheap piece of picnic cloth over my magnet board and added a magnet strip to the back of each piece.  The pickle jar and candy dish are made from blister packs. If you do this be sure to make the prop for the sneezing ant in the same section. It is so easy and a real “kid pleaser”! 

-Kathy Ross King

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.