In the garden story time

Right in with the SRP theme of Dig into Reading was our garden story time for week 2.  Luckily, the messiness of mud week had not scared the toddlers (or their mommies and caregivers away) and we had a bigger crowd than we did for the first week.

The first book that we read was Zoe Hall's The surprise garden.  In this story some children are given seeds and plant them without knowing what they are.  They look at how the seeds are different from each other and then plant them in the ground, marking them to know where they are.  Then, they tend their garden and wait for the seeds to pop up.  This book has nice, bold and colorful illustrations and is great for a discussion about gardening.

Our second story was Up, down, and around by Katherine Ayers.  This was a fun book that talked about how different plants grow; some up, some down, and some around and around.  I had the kids do the actions of up (arms up) down (arms down) and around and around (circle hands like when you sing the wheels on the bus).  This made the story more interactive.  There is not much text, but the kids had a good time doing the motions as we read.

The last story we did was the pop-up flannel board that I created.  You can read more about how I made it here.

The rhyme that went with the board goes:

One little seed planted in the ground,
Give it lots of sun, and water all around.
Now we have to wait and see,
For a sprout to pop up,
What will it be?

Then the kids told me what popped up from the seed.  They really liked this one.  At the end the worm popped up so we talked about how worms do not grow from seeds but not all seeds grow into a plant.  We also talked about how worms help the plants to grow.

We sang the song See the sun by The Learning Groove.  We talked about how gardens need the sun to grow.  This song had us walking, skipping, and flying in the sunshine.

Laurie Berkner's Fruit salad salsa fit well into the theme.  We got out the shakers for this song and salsa'd around with the fruit.

Another fun fruit song is Carole Peterson's B-bananas.  This is a fun chant where the kids are bananas, they peel bananas, eat bananas, and go bananas.  Of course it is so much fun that then you do it again!

Our craft for the week was a parts of the flower craft.  I found the idea on Pinterest, and you can see the pin here. I think it is from the blog Mrs. Mayas' Kindergarten, but someone only pinned the main website and I had trouble locating the post.

Flannel Friday: A rainbow horde of dinosaurs

Dinosaurs have been a big part of summer reading this year with the digging theme and all.  So, of course no story time session would be complete without a dinosaur week.  There are so many options for dinosaur books and flannel boards that I had a hard time picking ones to use.

So, as I made my flannel board I tried to keep in mind the multiple possibilities and create pieces that could serve several purposes.  Thus I give you my rainbow horde of dinosaurs!

I made the same dinosaur in all the colors of the rainbow, plus two with rainbow spots just for fun.  (I really had to hold myself back on making some glitter dinos, maybe in the future.)  You can use them with all sorts of dinosaur rhymes and stories.  If you need some ideas just check the Flannel Friday Dinosaur Pinterest Board.

With my Baby Time group we used the dinosaurs for the story 'Dinosaur, dinosaur what do you see?'  (Much like brown bear only the colors of the dinos change so the kids or parents shout out the next color of the dinosaur.  This is a great concept that you can use with many different themes.)

For toddler time we did a story my co-worker passed along from Jean Warren called Dotty the Dinosaur.  I modified the original story some, mostly because I did not want to memorize the rhyme, so my story was a little more like the Chocolate Chip ghost.

So, we have a dinosaur who is green because she eats only green foods:

One day she finds some new food and tries that, but she finds that there is a crazy side effect to eating something not green.  Since turning different colors is fun, she tries a new food each day.

Finally, she decides to eat all of that yummy food a once and...

I have two options for Dotty at the end :)

She likes the fun colors and decides that she is going to keep eating all that yummy (and healthy) food and be a rainbow dinosaur forever.

I had also planned to sing 5 little dinosaurs but we ran out of time.  I found the song that I wanted to use at Recipes for Reading and it goes like 5 little ducks but involves lots of roaring.

You can find this week's round-up with Miss Angie at Mrs. Andre's Library.  All things Flannel Friday can be found at the BLOG and all contributions a pinned to the Pinterest Boards.

Fun in the Mud

We decided to add a new program this summer at our branch - toddler story time!  Yay!  I was worried about it some.  We got rid of a baby time to have a spot for the toddler time which meant that the only baby time is now in the evening.  But, the 'babies' that were coming to the morning baby time we replaced were mostly 2 year olds anyway.

Thankfully, it seems that the toddlers in this area were looking for something to do, we had 12 kids the first week and 22 by the third!

Our first week of toddler time featured Mud to go along with the summer reading program Dig into Reading.

We read Stuck in the mud by Jane Clarke.  This is a cute story about a chick who is 'stuck' in some mud.  Mother hen tries to pull him out to no avail.  Despite the icky mud other animals around the farm jump in to help and they all end up getting stuck as well.  This is a fun rhyming story with a surprise ending.  You could use this with an older group and have then act out some of the parts as the animals are repeatedly pushing and pulling.

The second book that we read was Mud by Wendy Cheyette Lewison.  This book is technically a reader, so it is a smaller size than I prefer to use, but the illustrations are big so they were not hard for the kids to see.  What I really enjoyed about this book is that in the story there is mud on various parts of the kid in the story so the kids could point to themselves to show where mud was.  One phrase 'mud everywhere' was repeated a few times, so when we got to that point we waved our arms around in the air.


Our last story was a flannel version of Emma Dodd's Dog's colorful day.  As dog goes through his day he gets various spots of color on him until he is so dirty that he needs a bath.  This is a good book for both color recognition and counting.  I like to have the kids call out the color as I put it on dog.  Then before his bath we count all of the spots.

Because you can't have mud without a little bit of rain first we sang Carole Peterson's Singing in the rain.  This is a fun song with added motions at each verse.  In between the motions you 'sing in the rain' so we put our hands up and dance.

I found a great idea for a song about mud puddles with Tara of Storytime with Miss Tara and friends.  She gave all the kids yarn to make a mud puddle to dance in as they sang Mud puddle jump by Kindermusik.  This was a lot of fun, though some of the younger 2 year olds just kind of watched the rest of us.  They were really excited when they found out that they got to take the brown yarn circles (aka mud puddles) home with them.

Because I like to use shakers or scarves with every program we sang The Learning Groove's Hip hop body rock.  It really had nothing to do with mud, but has the kids shaking a shaker by various body parts.  It tied in well with the book mud and is great for working on body parts as well as following direction.

Our craft was 'mud painting' where the kids get to finger paint with chocolate pudding.  They LOVED this.  I am not sure the parents were so keen on it (most of the crafts were left behind) but I think this is one of those activities where the experience is more fun than the end result.  Some of the kids were happy to just sit and smear the pudding around.  One little guy kept at it for 30 minutes and was covered up to his elbows.  Luckily we have a sink just off of the program room, so washing up was really easy.

Flannel Friday: Construction Trucks

Next week story times will have a construction theme.  I had lots of ideas for things to do, but I ran a bit short on time, so... for a quick and easy flannel board I made a few extra pieces to go with my vehicles set.  This is the set that I had already:

Last time I used it we sang the song 'Little Red Wagon' and after the first round where we bounced up and down in the wagon I brought out different vehicles to bounce in.  To go better with the construction theme I added a bulldozer and a cement mixer.  So, with the dump truck and pick up truck I could do the song again and have 4 verses.  I could also use it with the 'Brown bear' version (like the book Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? by Bill Martin Jr.) where you say 'blue truck, blue truck, what do you see,' then put up the next one and have the kids yell out the color or type of truck.

If I happen to get ambitious I may try to add a steam roller, bucket truck, or excavator, but we will see what kind of time there is.  I always enjoy when I have something on hand that can be adapted a little to fit a new theme.  And, I like being able to add to sets instead of making whole new ones.  Multi-purpose flannel boards are kind of awesome.

You can find this week's flannel round-up with Jane at Piper Loves the Library.  All things Flannel Friday can be found at the BLOG and you can see all flannel posts past and present on the Pinterest boards.

Flannel Friday: Pop-up Flannel Boards

I am sure that by now you have seen my worm flannel - you know, 'cause I've posted it twice :)  Well, since I did all that work making the foam core board for the wormies to slide along I decided I needed to find other uses for it - and so we have POP-UP flannel boards!  I have actually done something similar before with my butterfly board.  But unlike that one these can be easily changed for whatever you have made to go along with it.

If you want to know how the board itself was made you can read about it here.  To modify the board I made a 'shelf' out of cardboard and toilet paper rolls.  I decorated a cardboard strip with some flannel grass...

I put some grass on the back and the front to add a little 'depth.'

Next I cut some toilet paper rolls in half and taped them on with some heavy duty tape.  I realized after the fact that a paper towel roll would have done nicely, but I did not have one on hand and I am kind of impatient.  Anyway, I line the half rolls up along the back to make a little shelf.

Then I needed something to push it out from the board so I would have room for the flannels in the shelf.  So, more tp rolls were cut and pieces were added to each end.

I added some Velcro dots to each round piece on the end as well as to a few spots along the shelf where it will touch the board.  I forgot to take a picture with the Velcro, but it seems to do its job.

It does wobble a little, I think it will be ok for story time, but I may end up reinforcing it with some binder clips 'just in case.'

In a few weeks I am doing a gardening theme, so I came up with a rhyme about planting seeds and then various things will grow.

One little seed planted in the ground,
Give it lots of sun, and water all around.
Now we have to wait and see,
For a sprout to pop up,
What will it be?

A tree!

We will repeat with 2, 3, 4, and 5 seeds.

Wait a minute... that last guy is a worm (well, looking at it right now he's first, but whatever).  Worms don't grow from seeds!  No, worms do not grow from seeds, but they are very good for the soil and help plants grow by making food that plants can use.  And, sometimes, not all seeds grow.  Every once in awhile you get a dud. 

This week's flannel round-up can be found with Kathryn at Fun with Friends at Storytime.  All things Flannel Friday related can be found at the blog and all Flannel Friday contributions, both past and present can be seen at Pinterest. 

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!