Mary’s Little Lamb

Spring is here!  This season always makes me think of baby animals, especially lambs.  I am holding a Lamb themed story time next week and wanted to share a flannel board/puppet show I created that can be used in a few different ways!

 

Mary has lost her little lamb and needs our help to find it.  In order to find her lamb we need to sing!  Out comes a lamb and we sing…

Mary had a little purple lamb, little purple lamb, little purple lamb
Mary had a little purple lamb, whose fleece was purple as…grapes! 

 

But, of course, that is not the lamb Mary is looking for.  Out comes another lamb that we think may be the right one so we sing again:

Mary had a little pink lamb, little pink lamb, little pink lamb
Mary had a little pink lamb, whose fleece was pink as…bubblegum! 

 

We continue singing for each different colored lamb until we find the right one whose fleece was white as snow.

The perfect lamb template can be found at Making Learning Fun (great website for flannel board ideas and patterns).  That website also shares another rhyme you can use with your lambs.

I created my lambs out of foam to make them more durable–to be used in the puppet theater I have to attach them to sticks/dowels.  I also put velcro pieces on the back so that they may be used on the flannel board if I ever need them later on.  Multi-purpose lambs!

 

Cate at Storytiming is hosting Flannel Friday this week.  For more great ideas check out the archive from Anne at So Tomorrow.

Seven Valentine’s Day Kisses

Flannel Story/Puppet Show

Ok, so it is after Valentine’s Day, but I finally had the time to post this after a very busy week.  Better late than never!  And, kisses are good for other days than just Valentine’s Day, right?

Seven Kisses
I have seven kisses that I want to give away.
Who should I kiss this Valentine’s Day?
I think I’ll kiss my________!

I put my kisses on the flannel board and also used puppets in the puppet theater as I said the rhyme.  Sallie (the best library volunteer!) was in charge of the puppets and I gave the puppets a Valentine’s Day kiss. 

I had to kiss a spider, wolf, bee, duck, Mr. Mouse and then I blew kisses to the kids! This was a great success as the kids got a real kick out of seeing who popped out of the theater next.  I extended my kisses to seven instead of five to make things go a bit longer.

I drew the “kiss” and printed it off of colored stock paper.

 This rhyme came from Storytime Secrets blog.  She put her kisses on a flannel board and put pictures of family members (mommy, daddy, etc.) on the board as she said the rhyme.  Check out her site for more great Valentine’s Day ideas!

Five Little Raindrops

Somehow snow has avoided us this season!  But, we have had our fair share of rain.  I thought I would share a cute action rhyme and  flannel board about Five Little Raindrops.    

 

Five little raindrops
hold up five fingers
Dancing on the walk
dance hand up and down
Pitter patter, pitter patter, that’s the way they talk.
pat hands on legs to make a pitter patter noise
Out comes the yellow sun, shining in the sky
raise arms up like the sun
And away goes one raindrop
hold up one finger
Bye, bye, bye!
wave goodbye

 

We actually did this last year for our rain themed story time and it was a lot of fun.  The kids enjoyed counting down the raindrops as they went bye, bye, bye!  Check back for more ideas as I am planning on posting the entire rain theme!

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!

This week our theme was Snuggles, Cuddles and Bedtime!  We jazzed things up a bit with a Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed flannel board.  As usual the song was a hit with the kids–the flannel board visual really brought it to life!  Hope you enjoy and check out my Snuggles and Cuddles theme for more ideas!

Five Little Monkeys Jumpin’ on the Bed
One fell off and bumped his head
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said…
No more monkeys jumpin’ on the bed! 

I LOVE story time props/flannel boards that I can re-purpose!  This particular flannel board was actually a combination of two others I had created.
Bed:  Originally created for Five Little Monsters Jumping On the Bed.  I cut out the bed  from two large pieces of construction paper.  The quilt was actually a piece of scrap material I had–I simply stapled it to the bed frame to make it look a bit more rumpled!
Monkeys: Were from my Monkeys flannel board titled Red Monkey, Red Monkey (a rhyme that is similar to the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle).   The monkeys were made from clip art that I enlarged and printed on different color paper.  I laminated them since I have used them for several different stories.  I taped the monkeys to the bed and pulled them off one at a time as we sang the song.

I am slowly but surely working on posting my previous story times so at some point I will post both of those flannel boards!

Riding In My Train!

ALL ABOARD!
This is the call for all story timers to take a ride on the wonderful world of trains!  So began this weeks theme for story time.  I created a flannel board that got all the kids involved.  Enjoy your time on the railroad with this fun activity and check out my post Trains…ALL ABOARD!  for more story time ideas.

 

 

“Riding In My Train” (Tune was Ten Little Indians)
I’m riding in my little ______ train
Riding in my little _____ train
Riding in my little _____ train
Chugga-Chugga, Toot, Toot!

We moved our arms like train wheels and raised our arm to sound the train whistle at the end.  I traded out the different color trains on the board as we sang.  I printed out a train pattern on different colored paper, cut it out, put a small piece of velcro on the back so I could use it on the flannel board and…voilà, an easy flannel board activity!  Squidoo.com has great links for train coloring sheets and patterns.

I adapted this song from storytimekatie’s rhyme Drivin’ In My Car.  It is a great action rhyme/song–use it for a Cars theme or for a Colors theme as she did!

Mouse Paint

For my Mice themed story time I flannelized the book Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh and made it into a box story.  Well, actually I made the pieces out of foam which worked nicely on the box as the pieces were sturdy and durable!

Mouse Paint is a story about three white mice who hide on white paper so the cat can’t find them.

The mice find three jars of paint.  They have some fun, jump into the paint and change colors!

They have even more fun when the paint spills and they jump into the puddles.   Their feet change different colors!

The paint gets a little sticky so they wash themselves off in the cat’s bowl while he is sleeping.

The mice decide that painting on paper is much better than painting themselves.  They paint the white paper all different colors…But, they leave a part of the paper white so the cat still can’t find them when he comes sniffing around!

This was such a fun story to tell!  The best part was after I “dunked” the mice into the paint jars and they changed colors…one of the girls kept asking how I did that and of course, I answered…Magic!

I covered a box in white paper to create a background for the mice.  I kept the pieces in the box and as I told the story I pulled the pieces out.  Removable glue dots work nicely or you can tape the pieces ahead of time. 

The template I used can be found on Kidzclub.com.  Check out the website for many other story board templates and ideas.  It is a fantastic resource!

Purple Little Bird

A few weeks ago we decided to have a Purple story time day at the library.  We all dressed in purple (I have very supportive coworkers who also dressed up!) and read purple books and did purple themed activities.  I was trying to find a perfect book to “flannelize” when one of my favorite story time moms suggested Purple Little Bird by Greg Foley.

Purple Little Bird lived in a very purple world.

He had a very purple house with purple steps, a purple fence and even purple flowers.

Purple Little Bird did all that he could to make his house perfect, but something just did not seem right.  So he packed up his purple little bag to go find another place to live.

Purple Little Bird went to visit Gray Goat on the cliff.  It was nice there, but it was much too windy.

He moved on to visit Yellow Camel in the desert.  It was nice, but much too dusty.

Purple Little Bird went on to visit Blue Frog, but the pond was much too wet.

Brown Bear’s cave was much too dark.

 Finally he came across three Pink Possums hanging from a beautiful pink tree.  They told Purple Little Bird to follow them to the perfect house for him.

Purple Little Bird followed the Pink Possums back to…his house!

Purple Little Bird took a look at his house and decided he knew what needed to change…

He painted it Gray like Gray Goat, Yellow like Yellow Camel, Blue like Blue Frog, Brown like Brown Bear, and Pink like the Pink Possums!

His house was finally perfect!

This was a great story that was well received by the kids.  The last page of the book has a great illustration of Purple little bird’s “visits” while looking for the perfect house.  It shows a globe in the middle.  When I told the story, I put up the pieces in a clockwise circular order so by the time Purple little bird meets and follows the Pink Possums, he is back at his house!
Purple Little Bird, houses and Yellow Camel were made from felt.
Gray Goat, Blue Frog, Brown Bear and Pink Possums were made from card stock.  I plan to flannelize those pieces as well.

A New Color for Mr. Penguin

Our theme this week was penguins which was perfect for the cold snap we had!  I really needed a flannel board story and could not find quite the one so…I made up a box story about a color changing Penguin.

I included the summary of the story in this post.  If you like it or find it useful, please let me know!  I found the perfect template for a penguin on Susan M. Dailey’s website (through Roving Fiddlehead Kidlit).  So without further ado…here is my penguin story!

 

Mr. Penguin is getting ready to go out, but he just isn’t happy with his normal black and white suit.  He doesn’t know what he is going to do until he comes upon a school of magic fish swimming by.  They are all different colors!  Mr. Penguin wants to be just like them so he asks them how he can change his color.  The trick, they say, is to dive deep into the sea after the fish whose color he wishes to be.  That is just what Mr. Penguin does.

He sees a beautiful Yellow fish and down he goes into the sea after the fish whose color he wishes to be.  When Mr. Penguin comes up, he is now…

Yellow!

Mr. Penguin takes a good hard look at himself.  Yellow is pretty and he does love bananas, but…yellow is not for him.  So Mr. Penguin sees another magic fish, a pink one, and down he goes into the sea after the fish whose color he wishes to be.  When Mr. Penguin comes up, he is now…

Pink!

The story continues and Mr. Penguin changes many different colors.

 Mr. Penguin finally begins to miss his old suit of black and white.  He searches the ocean to find one more magic fish, a black and white one.  And, down he goes into the sea after the fish whose color he wishes to be.  When Mr. Penguin comes up, he is now…well, he is black and white…but…

Black and white with a little PIZAZZ!

A New Color for Mr. Penguin
Copyright 2012 Kathleen Lawson

 

I wrote this tale/story because I really wanted to do a box story this week and something that involved a bit more action.  The kids really enjoyed watching Mr. Penguin dive down into the sea and come up a different color.  I don’t think I have ever heard them laugh so much.  I needed to make the penguins fast, and I found the perfect template to make Mr. Penguin from Roving Fiddlehead Kidlit (whose penguins were perfect) who got that template originally from Susan M. Dailey’s website.  She was lucky enough to take one of Susan M. Dailey’s storytime workshops.  Ms. Dailey shares her version of a Penguin story along with her template.  I loved the idea of a polka dotted penguin so I had to add that in at the end!

 

**I used 6 different penguins.  All the colored ones were in the box when I started out (where the kids couldn’t see them).  When I presented the story, I kept just the original black and white Mr. Penguin out and the fish were all taped onto the box on all different sides–the black and white fish is on the last side of the box.  To begin, I took the fish whose color Penguin wishes to be first (yellow) and “dove” it into the box, AKA the ocean.  Then I took the black and white Mr. Penguin and “dove” him into the water after the yellow fish.  I then traded him out inside the box for a different color penguin and when he came up out of the box, presto, he had magically changed his color!  The story continued with Mr. Penguin not happy being yellow so he “dove” into the ocean after a pink magic fish.  Once again I traded Mr. Penguin out and this time he comes up pink.  And, the story continues from there with me just trading out Mr. Penguin as he sees the different color fish he wishes to be until he decides to go back to black and white.  The kids had no idea that there were other penguins inside that I was trading out, especially because I kept moving the box back and forth like the waves in the sea and turning it to see the different colored fish.

Santa’s New Suit!

I love the book Santa’s New Suit by by Laura Rader so I have been working on flannelizing it!  This is a work in progress, but I wanted to get my post up in time for the  Winter/Holiday edition of Flannel Friday so here is my flannel board so far. 

 

It is almost Christmas and Santa needs to get dressed.

 

Santa looks in his closet and all he sees are old red suits.  He is ready for a change.  He goes shopping, but can’t find the right suit.   I will be inserting more pictures soon to show you a few outfit options Santa looked at…

 

Santa finally goes  to the store called The Snappy Dude.  That was where he found THE suit.  It was perfect!  Or was it?

Santa showed his outfit to the elves, but they did not like it.  The reindeer did not have very nice things to say about it either.  Even children did not recognize him! 

 

Santa realizes that maybe his red suit was the best suit of all.  He decides to wear a red suit for Christmas, especially after Mrs. Claus buys him a brand new one with a new cap to match!  It fits perfect.  It is his new suit and he loves it!

 

Check back soon for more information on this flannel board as I finish it up!

Five Big Lemons!

In preparation for the Thanksgiving holiday our theme this week was Food!  I created a flannel board based on an action rhyme I found about five big lemons. 

 

 

Five big lemons sitting in the bowl. (hold up five fingers)
One fell out and started to roll. (Hold up finger, and roll hands)
It bumped the table and hit my toe (clap once, and touch toes )
How many lemons in the bowl? 1-2-3-4 (Count fingers)

Repeat rhyme until there are no more lemons left in the bowl!
Rhyme was found at http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/vegetables/songs.htm

 

It is a very simple flannel board and rhyme, but is also very versitile because of all the different foods you can use.  For example, during the fall you could change the rhyme to five big apples.  During the summer months you could change it to five big tomatoes.  The kids really enjoyed the action rhyme and could easily follow along and participate.