Once upon a time, I did a dance themed storytime. I found some clip art, laminated the ballerinas and went with it:
Three years later, I stumbled upon this pin on Pinterest which I immediately pinned and downloaded the template from Ei Menina! (The entire site is in Portuguese, but if you scroll down or search “bailarina” you’ll get to the template.)
And then, the Blackhawks made the playoffs this past spring. And I needed something to do while I “watched” the games since playoffs make me nervous. So I made these felt ballerinas to distract myself.
And I took some close-up, detail pictures too:
This is the rhyme that I used with this flannelboard:
“Five Dancing Ballerinas”
Five dancing ballerinas
Prancing on their toes
They twirl and spin and jump
Then off the stage she goes (count down)
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storytime katie 
I love your blog! I get ideas for my storytime from here constantly! I do have a question though…I’ve noticed that your crafts are always really fun and utilize a lot of different materials. What is your materials budget like? What are your tricks for stretching your dollar? Do you find yourself reaching into your own pockets for certain materials? The library I work at serves well over 150 children a week for storytime and we often have to resort to very simple paper crafts because our budget is super small (we are the second largest branch in a district of 10). Thanks for letting me pick your brain a bit!
At my current library, we do not do crafts at storytimes. All of the crafts were from my previous library.
Our annual budget for programming materials was $3000 for all youth programming, including summer reading. In 2008, we were lucky enough to get an Arts grant from Target (which they no longer offer) that allowed us to buy a lot of fundamentals like: paint, crayons, markers, construction paper, glue, smocks, stamps, etc. It seemed to be me that our patrons enjoyed these hands-on activities more than performers, so that was where I made cuts. Why would I pay a performer $400 dollars for a 40 minute program where I could put out paint and paper and have the kids do fingerpaint with the same level of enjoyment?
I did sometimes buy things out of my own pocket. However, I bought reusable items that I could use again. I also made sure that my administration knew that I had purchased the materials for myself and had no intention of being reimbursed with the understanding that the items belonged to me. These materials were more storytime puppets, books, and accessories rather than craft supplies.
And for my flannelboards, I have always purchased those materials. I never wanted to not be able to take them all with me!
Oh My Goodness!! Absolutely Adorable!! I want a set too!! Baseball season has started and we watch a lot of it at my house! These will be the perfect way for me to watch baseball with my husband! LOL!
It was a great sports watching activity!
I can’t even. Those are so pretty! I really need to break out the sewing supplies and see if I can do this and/or finger puppets.
Thank you. Good luck; I’ve found that sewing is truly therapeutic!
Beautiful!
Thank you!