This is essentially “Little Mouse” just rhyming cat and hat instead. First, the kids and I talked about different kinds of hats and they helped naming them. Then, I told them I had hidden a cat underneath one hat and we had to guess which one. I chanted, “Little cat, little cat, are you under the _________ hat?”

As always, this kind of a flannelboard worked wonders and we played several times before the kids began to guess quicker where I had hidden the cat.

For the clip art, I used Microsoft Office pictures so I unfortunately do not have any files to link up. The cat is from my Old MacDonald set that I borrowed for this flannelboard.

–

Melissa is hosting this week’s Flannel Friday — you can find the round-up at her blog! Visit the new Flannel Friday website to learn more about Flannel Friday!

Books

Do Lions Live on Lily Pads? by Melanie Walsh
Leaves by David Ezra Stein
The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza by Philemon Sturges
Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
Lola at the Library by Anna McQuinn

Flannelboard Song: “Pretty Ladybug”
The ladybug has one black spot,
One black spot, one black spot
The ladybug has one black spot,
Pretty ladybug!

Flannelboard: “Lunch”

Flannelboard Puzzle: “Letter L”

Fingerplay: “The Lamb Went”
The lamb went…
Around the cow in the corn (trace circle in palm)
Under the haystack (go under the hand)
Up the hill and down the hill (go up the arm and down the arm)
Over the fence (go above the hand)
Through the door (slide hands and clap)
And was back in time to meet the teacher (trace circle in palm)
Credit: Hubbard’s Cupboard

Puppet & Song: “Did You Ever See a Llama?”
Did you ever see a llama, a llama, a llama?
Did you ever see a llama go this way and that?
Go this way and that way, go this way and that way?
Did you ever see a llama go this way and that?
Credit: Modified from Childhood

Song: “The Leaves are Falling Down”
The leaves are falling down
The leaves are falling down
Red, yellow, green, and brown
The leaves are falling down
Credit: Preschool Education

Craft

This craft was based on an idea that I saw on KidsSoup. I spiced it up by buying glitter foam stickers, which the kids loved. As with most of my sticker crafts, at least a quarter of the stickers wound up on the kids instead of the paper.

How It Went

Only half of my daycare group made it this week, so it was a much smaller storytime. This was good and bad because the kids got a lot of individualized attention, but it also seemed to make them more restless. Their favorite stories were “Lola at the Library” and “The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza.” And they have a great time when I brought out my llama puppet to sing — most of them had no idea what a llama was!

Books

Charlie the Chick by Nick Denchfield and Ant Parker
First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Is Everyone Ready for Fun? by Jan Thomas
The Little Red Hen by Rebecca and Ed Emberley

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: “Ten Fluffy Chickens”
Five eggs and five eggs
And that makes ten
Sitting on top is mother hen
Cackle, cackle, cackle
And what do I see?
Ten fluffy chicks as yellow as can be
Credit: Mel’s Desk

Puppets: “All Around the Barnyard”
All around the barnyard
The animals are fast asleep
Sleeping cows and horses
Sleeping pigs and sheep
Here comes the cocky rooster
To sound his dairy alarm
“Cock-a-doodle-doo!”
To wake the sleepy farm!
Credit: CanTeach

Song: “I Know a Chicken”
Oh, I know a chicken and she laid an egg
Oh, I know a chicken and she laid an egg
Oh my goodness, it’s a shaky egg!
Shake your eggs!
(Fast, slow, circle, etc.)
Credit: Miss Sarah’s Storytime

Craft

I printed out a coloring page and used the foam eggs I had bought for my failed Easter storytime and put them on the coloring page. I added a brad so the chicken could hide. The kids glued feathers and colored their chickens.

How It Went

This was a high-energy, almost wild storytime. I’m seeing higher and higher numbers each week and this week had quite a few new faces, some with questionable behavior. This is the first time I’ve ever had to stop storytime to prevent a child from falling off something they had climbed on. Yikes. Other than that, we had a lot of fun with this theme, even if I was a little stressed the whole time! Best books were “Is Everyone Ready for Fun?” and “Charlie Chick.” With the amazing pop-up at the end, I wonder why I don’t do that book for every storytime.

I will be using these during Letter Z storytime, to act out this song:

Song & Puppets: “You Can Hear” (Tune: She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain)
You can hear the lions roaring at the zoo, ROAR! ROAR!
You can hear the lions roaring at the zoo, ROAR! ROAR!
You can hear the lions roaring, you can hear the lions roaring
You can hear the lions roaring at the zoo! ROAR! ROAR!
(Elephants trumpeting, zebra braying, monkey eeking)
Credit: Perpetual Preschool

I have a second set of jungle animals that I need to finish up, but I’ve got a while until Letter Z!

–

Linda is hosting this week’s Flannel Friday — you can find the round-up at her blog! Visit our new Flannel Friday website to learn more about Flannel Friday!

Books

Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too? by Eric Carle
I Kissed the Baby by Mary Murphy
Katie Loves the Kittens by John Himmelman
Kitten Red Yellow Blue by Peter Catalanotto
Stuck by Oliver Jeffers

Extension Activities

Flannelboard Puzzle: “Letter K”

Flannelboard: “Kites”

Action: “Different Kinds of Kisses”
Grandma kisses (grab cheeks and squeeze)
Fish kisses (purse lips and move them)
Movie star kisses (blow big ones)
Rabbit kisses (wiggle nose)
Dog kisses (stick out your tongue and lick)
Credit: SurLaLune Storytime

Action Song: “Here We Go Jumping”
Here we go jumping high,
Here we go jumping low.
Here we go jumping around,
That’s how a kangaroo goes.
Here we go jumping fast,
Here we go jumping slow.
Here we go jumping everywhere,
That’s how a kangaroo goes.
Credit: Baraboo Public Library

Fingerplay: “Two Little Kittens”
Two little kittens sitting on a hill
One named Jack, the other named Jill
Run away Jack, run away Jill
Come back Jack, come back Jill
Credit Modified from Childhood

Craft

This was a very simple craft to do. I modeled it after an Oriental Trading craft that I did last year at this time, but just used paper supplies instead of foam since I had thirty crafts to prep for. The kids really enjoyed watching me curl the curling ribbon, they kept saying that I was using magic.

How It Went

I just have to keep writing what a dream group this daycare group is; they are fully engaged in the material, they participate with me, and they retain knowledge from the previous weeks’ storytimes, so I know that these hours are mattering to them! Letter K was an especially fun storytime to do because the kids kept pointing out that my name starts with “K.” In our flannelboard puzzle this week, I put a picture of myself on it and saved it for last. The kids laughed really hard when I pulled my picture out since they have been telling me the whole time that I started with “K.”

Books

Can You Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas
Butterfly, Butterfly by Petr Horacek
I Love Bugs! by Emma Dodd
Ten Little Caterpillars by Bill Martin, Jr.
The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: “Pretty Ladybug”

Flannelboard: “Six Little Bumblebees”

Action Rhyme: “The Ants Go Marching”
Credit: Childhood

Action Rhyme: “Bumblebee, Bumblebee”
Bumblebee, bumblebee, landing on my nose.
Bumblebee, bumblebee, now he’s on my toes.
On my arms, on my legs, on my elbows.
Bumblebee, bumblebee he lands and then he goes.
Credit: Mrs. Jones — Insects

Craft

This was another Oriental Trading purchase; everyone was THRILLED with it. I have to agree, ladybug is super cute!

How It Went

This was the first session of Spring II and I had a FULL house! For whatever reason, the kids were not having any activities this week, other than the flannelboards, which I was glad I had two prepped! This wasn’t a super original storytime — I did it last year too. But it’s a theme that is always a crowd-pleaser, so I’m happy to do it again.

I posted yesterday about being the only adult singing in storytime! Do you have ideas on how to get my parents to join in? Let me know over at the ALSC blog!

I was inspired by Mollie to make this set and will be using the rhyme she suggests:

“Four Little Stars”
Four little stars winking at me.
One shot off and then there were three!
Three little stars with nothing to do.
One shot off, and then there were two!
Two little stars afraid of the sun.
One shot off, and then there was one!
One little star alone is no fun.
It shot off, and then there was none!
Credit: Preschool Education

–

Sharon is hosting this week’s Flannel Friday — you can find the round-up at her blog! Melissa is the founder of Flannel Friday! Anne has the archive and schedule of who is hosting Flannel Friday.

And you can also follow the Flannel Friday Pinterest account. And Flannel Friday has its own Facebook page! If you participate in Flannel Friday, Melissa has a button if you want to link up to us here.

Books

Dinosaur Jokes by Pam Rosenberg
If You’re Happy and You Know It by James Warhola
Jellyfish by Carol K. Lindeen
Joey and Jet by James Yang
Jump! by Scott Fischer

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: “Seals on the Bus”

Flannelboard Puzzle: “Letter J”

Fingerplay: “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed”
Five little monkeys jumping on the bed
One fell off and bumped his head
Mama called the Doctor and the Doctor said,
“No more monkeys jumping on the bed!”
(Countdown)
Credit: Childhood

Song: “Peanut Butter and Jelly”
First you take the peanuts and you crunch ‘em, you crunch ‘em
First you take the peanuts and you crunch ‘em, you crunch ‘em
For your peanut, peanut butter and jelly
Peanut, peanut butter and jelly
(Grapes/Squish ‘em; Bread/Spread it; Sandwich/Eat it)
Credit: Childhood

Craft

This was a super simple craft; I ordered some jungle foam stickers and the kids went to town. The very funniest part was when they discovered dolphins and penguins in the stickers and told me that they didn’t belong! I agreed on the penguin part, but did let them know about the Amazon River dolphin!

How It Went

A super hard letter! I really enjoyed the challenge of trying to find Letter J books and activities. The kids were SO grossed out by the jellyfish; every time I turned a page they screamed “ewwww.” Again, I really like using non-fiction with this group and they like seeing the photos as well. The best book was probably “If You’re Happy and You Know It: Jungle Edition” and you know why — they got to pretend to be jungle animals, which is the very best thing in the world if you’re a kid!

Exciting news for Flannel Friday!

Introducing the Flannel Friday website!

As you know, Anne at So Tomorrow has been an amazing manager and archiver of Flannel Friday information for the past year. Anne and her husband are expecting their first baby in June (congratulations Anne!) so we wanted to give her a break from Flannel Friday during her maternity leave. So this spring, Anne and Mel from Mel’s Desk and a small group of old and new Flannel Friday-ers worked to create a new web home for Flannel Friday.

Here’s the link! http://flannelfridaystorytime.blogspot.com

The new site will be the home of the Round Up Schedule, the archives, FAQs about Flannel Friday, information about how to get involved with Flannel Friday, and links to help new members get started with social networking and blogging. There will also be a link to the week’s Round Up, but the Round Up will continue to be hosted on individual blogs. We’ll just point to each Round Up from the site.

Refining the Round Up Procedure

The Flannel Friday community has grown continuously over the year, with new bloggers, new Round Up Hosts, and new members every week on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. We are building an amazing community and are grateful to each and every one of you for your participation and enthusiasm. As the group has grown, you’ve probably noticed that so have the Round Ups! We’ve seen an inevitable increase in missed links and general confusion as the Round Ups are compiled. We thought that the launch of the new site was a great opportunity to take a page from other round ups in the blogosphere and establish one single method for building the Round Up each week.

This information will be in the FAQs on the new site, but here’s our new strategy in a nutshell:

Every week the Round Up Host will publish a “placeholder” post for the Round Up on the host blog at 10pm EST on Thursday.
Each blogger who wants to participate in the Round Up will make a comment to the Round Up post with the link back to their Flannel Friday post by 10pm EST on Friday.
This will be the only place to post links for the Round Up! This way the Host won’t have to worry about checking Facebook or Twitter as well.
If a blogger can’t make the 10pm EST deadline on Friday, we’ll ask that the post be held for the next week’s Round Up.
The Round Up Host will gather links from the Round Up post comments throughout the day, and publish the Round Up at the end of the day.

We hope this will make the Round Ups easier to create and easier to contribute to! We’ll look forward to your feedback over the next few weeks. Sharon / @ReadingChick at Rain Makes Applesauce has the Round Up this week, 5/11, so she’s going to try out the new procedure with us and see how it goes!

If you have questions or comments, don’t hesitate to share them via the new Flannel Friday email: flannelboardfriday [at] gmail.com.

Thanks for all you do to to make Flannel Friday more than a blog event–but a great community too. Here’s to the next great year of Flannel Friday!