storytime katie

This flannelboard is a few weeks late! I was supposed to have this up in time for the Dream Big — Read! Extravaganza, but camera problems prevented me from posting, so I saved it for today! (Ironically, Sharon is hosting this week again!!)

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

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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.

This week Flannel Friday is brought to you by this amazing blog post from Ikatbag (found via Pinterest) and a fabulous rhyme from Melissa!

I used this in Jobs storytime, and I plan to use it when I do a sweets-themed program. And who knows when else?

First, I did pat-a-cake and rolled out the flannel pieces on the board. Afterwards the kids and I “frosted” our flannel and make-believe cookies to sell in our shop, which led us to our rhyme:

Down around the corner in the bakery shop
Were five little cookies with sprinkles on top…
Along came someone with a nickel to pay
And they bought a little cookie and they took it away.

This was a great rhyme to use and the kids really enjoyed the interactive portion of the flannel. It was a LOT of work, but again it’s something that I really enjoy doing in my spare time, so I’m not bothered at all by a lot of work!

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Mollie 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.

Today’s post was inspired by three Flannel Friday participants: Sarah, Anne, and Sharon! It’s a flannelized version of “Lunch” by Denise Fleming.

Sarah provided the template for these pieces and I made them on the plane back from ALA Midwinter.

I will be using these tasty looking veggies and fruits during Letter L storytime and will also be bringing a mouse puppet to eat them off of my flannelboard. The kids get a HUGE kick out of puppets eating felt pieces (like in “Ouch”) and I knew that I would definitely do it again with this flannelboard.

ALSO! I used these pieces during my clouds/rainbow storytime a la Andrea in a “Magical Rainbow Stew” flannel. All I needed to do was made a separate rainbow piece and I was set to go!

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Cate 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.

Quite a few weeks ago (nearly a month!), I did a Kids’ Art for Dr. Seuss’s birthday. (Kids’ Art is my cleverly disguised storytime with a large art project for ages 3-7.) While we wait for the paint to dry, I read a couple of books, occasionally sing songs/do rhymes, and play games. This month, our game was this amazing flannelboard game:

I originally got this idea from Smashed Peas and Carrots, via Pinterest. We rolled a giant inflatable dice to build our Lorax and this was the runaway hit of the program. Afterwards, I had moms asking me for the pattern to make at home!

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Cate 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.

This flannelboard has been a labor of love. I started working on this in August, during some downtime. After doing one car just plain out of felt, I decided I really wanted to re-learn how to embroider. So, this became my guinea pig. My goal was to have it finished by the new year!

I got this template from KizClub and it’s the pattern for “Freight Train.” I added most, but not all, of the details to the cars. Since I did so much sewing, I wound up backing each piece with a piece of black felt so that the knots were glued down and hidden away if/when the preschoolers handle this one.

While you can substitute these pieces for the book, I wanted to use them as a rhyme and Melissa gave me the perfect opportunity when she posted her rhyme “Clickety Clack.”

Clickety-clack, clickety-clack,
Here comes the train on the railroad track!
Clickety-clunn, clickety-clunn,
Here comes ENGINE number one.
Clickety-clew, clickety-clew,
Here comes COAL CAR number two.
Clickety-clee, clickety-clee,
Here comes BOX CAR number three.
Clickety-clore, clickety-clore,
Here comes TANK CAR number four.
Clickety-clive, clickety-clive,
Here comes COACH CAR number five.
Clickety-clicks, clickety-clicks,
Here’s the CABOOSE, that’s number six.
Clickety-clack, clickety-clack,
There goes the train on the railroad track!
Choo-choooooooo! Goodbye!

And I also found another rhyme that doesn’t use all the cars, but still works on SurLaLune Storytime:

Flannel Board
This Little Train
(Sung to: “This Old Man”)

This little train, painted black
It comes chugging down the track
With a “Choo-choo; Toot-toot”
Hear the whistle blow
This little train goes chugging home.

This little car painted blue
It has seats for me and you
With a “Choo-choo; Toot-toot”
Hear the whistle blow
This little train goes chugging home.

This little car painted yellow
It shimmies and shakes like a bowl of jello
With a “Choo-choo; Toot-toot”
Hear the whistle blow
This little train goes chugging home.

This little car, painted green
It’s the fanciest car you’ve seen,
With a “Choo-choo; Toot-toot”
Hear the whistle blow
This little train goes chugging home.

This caboose; it is red
It will take you home to bed
With a “Choo-choo; Toot-toot”
Hear the whistle blow
This little train goes chugging home.

So there you go — multiple options to use the same pieces for any trains/things that go storytime!

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Linda 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.

This Flannel Friday was inspired by this pin of sweet felt Valentines and Meghan of Busy Crafting Mommy who wrote the wonderful rhyme with her co-worker Elizabeth!

[And I feel like it was brought to you by the letter V. Just so you know.]

I cut apart an envelope from the library and used that as my template. All the stitching was free-hand, as was the stamp cutting from scraps! Inside the envelopes, I opted for laminated animals so that they would slide out of their felt envelopes easier. I plan on sewing snaps to close the envelopes at some point, but my Michaels did not have the size I needed this week.

These were a huge success and here’s the rhyme that I used with them:

Six little Valentines were sent to my house,
The first one said, “I love you, From Mouse.”
Five little Valentines in my mailbox,
The second one said, “Be mine, Love Fox.”
Four little Valentines full of love,
The third one said, “You are sweet, From Dove.”
Three little Valentines just for me,
The fourth one said, “Be my honey, Love Bee.”
Two little Valentine’s mailed with care,
The fifth one said, “Here’s a hug, From Bear.”
The last little Valentine, from my friend Jay,
This one said, “Happy Valentine’s Day!”

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I am hosting this week’s Flannel Friday — you can find the round-up here at Storytime Katie! 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.