Baby Lap Time, 2/15/12 & 2/16/12

Opening Song: Say Hello

Rhyme: Cheek Chin

Rhyme: This is Big, Big, Big

Rhyme: Two Little Penguins
I am trying to vary the activities I do at lap time so that there are more props. For this rhyme, I used two of my flannel board penguins as stick puppets.

Bounce: Mother and Father and Uncle John
It took a long time for my Fall group to at all warm up to this bounce, but both Winter groups get a kick out of it. I've noticed some of the nannies doing it with their charges 

Book: All Kinds of Kisses by Nancy Tafuri (2012)
This book is a new favorite for me. We read it at Baby/Toddler story time on Valentine's Day, and then repeated it at both lap time sessions even though Valentine's day is over. I would consider flannelizing this as well, especially because it focuses so heavily on mothers in the end, and it would be nice to be able to switch that up, especially when I am in a room with a bunch of stay at home dads.

Flannel Board: I Have Five Kisses
I adapted this after Valentine's Day so it can be used year-round.  I also simplified it for the babies.

Song: Tony Chestnut

Song: Head and Shoulders

Songs and Rhymes with Shaker Eggs: 

• Jack and Jill
• Little Miss Muffet
• London Bridge
• Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Book: Hello, Baby by Mem Fox, illustrated by Steve Jenkins (2009)
A baby started crying partway through this book, and one of the adults commented that I was scaring him with the illustrations in this book. I was kind of offended, to be honest, since I think it was totally unrelated to the book, but that's the way it goes.

Song: I'm a Little Monkey
I did this with one puppet on Wednesday, then realized we have two monkey puppets and did it with two on Thursday. It wasn't a huge hit, because it was new, but I think I'll repeat it next week, and probably again this Spring. 

Bounce: All the Little Babies
I needed a new bounce, so I pulled together lines from different versions of this song. It's to the tune of Shortnin' Bread, and it seemed like it was a pretty big hit.  These babies love leaning to the left and right, so there were lots of giggles.

Song: If You're Happy and You Know It

• ...clap your hands
• ...beep your nose
• ...tickle your tummy
• ...shout hooray

Song: Where is Big Toe?

Goodbye Song: Open, Shut Them Goodbye Song

Pre-K Class Visit, 2/16/12

Yesterday (Thursday) was an all-day marathon for me. The day started at 10:00 with yoga story time, where I read stories, and an instructor from the nearby yoga studio performed the corresponding yoga movements. It was a wonderful program, but since it was mostly her content and not mine, I've opted not to write about it in any more detail on my blog. Hopefully, since it looks like this will be an ongoing program for our library, I will be able to write more generally about the benefits of collaborating with a yoga studio in the future. But for now, I'm moving right on to my second story time of the day, a class visit from the Pre-K kids at the Catholic school next door!

I love this group, because they're great listeners, and they love stories. This morning, we shared some of my favorite books, a rhyme, and a few songs.

Hello Song: Hello, how are you?

Book: Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin (2000)
This book is so much fun. The kids picked right up on the "click clack moo" refrain and chanted it with me each time. The ending was a huge hit, especially since most of  them had never read the book before.

Rhyme: Blue is the Lake

Book: Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina (1947)
The kids were completely and utterly silent the entire time I read this book, to the point that I wondered if it was lost on them, but when I finished a little boy's whole face lit up, and he said, "That was so funny!" I love seeing kids react to classic books for the first time.

Song: Rum Sum Sum

Book: Birds by Kevin Henkes, illustrated by Laura Dronzek (2009)
I read this book because I can't wait for Spring. I'm sure this will turn up again throughout the Spring. 

Song: Chickadee (a cappella)

Book: Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley (1993)
It's fun reading this book with big kids who can repeat phrases after me and help me send the monster away!

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This

The marathon continued after this story time with Baby Lap Time and an After School Story Time for Presidents' Day. Stay tuned for posts about those, coming up next...

Flannel Friday Round Up, 2/17/12

Welcome to this week's
Flannel Friday Round-Up!

Listed below are all of the contributions I have received so far via Twitter, email, and Facebook. If you've tried to send me your post and it's not here, please comment to let me know, or try sending it again. If you're still working on your post - fear not! I can still make edits throughout this evening to accommodate last-minute additions.

On to the flannel boards...(Latest additions are at the top of the list.) 

CATE shows off her puppet, Gertie, and her bandaids at Storytiming. 

KARI ANN at My Storytime Life shares the sheep she made for her Mother Goose on the Loose program. 

MARY (@daisycakes) at Miss Mary Liberry shares a set of Feelings Faces including happy, sad, surprised, and confused. 

TRACEY (@tcy28) from 1234 More Storytimes has an adorable set of Valentine's Day finger puppets to use with 5 Little Valentines.

MADIGAN (@madiganreads) from Madigan Reads has a flannel board for When Animals Get Up in the Morning. 

JANE joins Flannel Friday for the first time, with a Flannel Friday inspired set of bandaids at Piper Loves the Library.

SHAWN at Read, Rhyme, Sing shares her version of Five in the Bed made with "a receiving blanket, a few straight pins, and some laminated bears." 

MOLLIE (@molliekay) at What Happens in Storytime shares two great ideas about hats - My Hat It Has Three Corners, and Milo's Hat.

SARAH (@sarah_e_hay) has adapted Leslie Patricelli's board book, Binky, into a flannel board story about a baby prince and his teddy bear over at Read It Again.

At Notes from the Story Room, LINDA (@LMeuse) shares a folktale called The Month Brothers, for which she has created a colorful and detailed cast of flannel characters. 

KATIE (@katietweetsya) of Storytime Katie has a great idea for integrating letter knowledge into story time - letter puzzles! 

KAY (@storytimefun) shares her ideas for a family story time all about penguins at Storytime ABC's.

At So Tomorrow, ANNE (@sotomorrow) provides us with a flannel board adaptation of a favorite childhood song, Alice the Camel. 

LUCY (@LucyMaudM) is celebrating lots of Winter rain with Five Little Raindrops at In the Children's Room.

Inspired by a past Flannel Friday post, ANGELA (@annavalley) presents her set of vehicles - suitable for learning about colors as well as transportation - over at Valley Storytime. 

LISA of Libraryland has flannelized Eric Carle's latest picture book, The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse in her first-ever Flannel Friday contribution. Welcome, Lisa! (And great job!) 

MELISSA shares a flannel board story entitled Grandmother’s Aprons: A Quilt Story at Tickle the Clouds.

At Fussy Hen at the Library, SUSANNE includes two flannel board ideas as part of a write-up about her Coyote and Cowboys story time. 

DANIELLE (@ABadCaseofBooks) at A Bad Case of Books has created a flannel version of Shigeo Watanabe's Where's My Daddy.

In a belated Valentine's Day post, KATIE (@recipe4reading) at Recipe for Reading  shares her interpretation of a rhyme I wrote with Seven Valentine's Day Kisses. 

MEGHAN (@librarymeghan) also has a last-minute holiday post for Groundhog Day at Busy Crafting Mommy, which includes 5 Little Groundhogs and a shadow matching set. 

NICOLE (@nikarella) gets ready for St. Patrick's Day with Five Green Shamrocks at Narrating Tales of Preschool Storytime.

Finally, I'm KATIE, and I'm also looking ahead to Spring story times with a set of birds and a rhyme from Highlights High Five magazine.

Are you a Flannel Friday fan? Connect with us on Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook. Also be sure to check out Mel's Desk, the blog of our Flannel Friday founder, MELISSA, as well as the hosting schedule and archive at ANNE's blog, So Tomorrow.

Flannel Friday: Color Rhymes (with Birds)

My Flannel Friday contribution for this week has a very Spring theme - birds!

A couple of months ago, some parents donated their entire collection of Highlights High Five magazines to my children's room. Since we don't have a lot of shelf space for magazines, and we don't subscribe to Highlights High Five, I opted to use them for their rhymes and activities rather than make them available to the public. Many things in those issues lend themselves well to flannel boards, and I have no doubt there will be other High Five inspired posts in the coming weeks and months. But this one was so perfect, I actually cut up the magazine pages to make the flannel board pieces.

The rhyme is called Color Rhymes, and in the May 2009 issue of High Five, it is written as a guessing game, where the colors are left blank for the kids to fill in.(You can hear the audio version of the rhyme on the digital edition of the magazine here.)

Here's what the pieces look like. (The art is by Judith Moffatt and Bill Hoffman).

And this is the rhyme that accompanies them:

Robin has a very dark head,

but the feathers on his breast are red.

Goldfinch is a happy fellow.

On his breast, he's sunny yellow.

Sparrows hops around the town

in his suit of gray and brown.

Noisy Jay looks fresh and new

as if he'd just been painted blue.

Pigeon is a handsome sight

in blue and gray and sparkling white. 

Text by Marilyn Kratz

This rhyme would pair well with any of the following books/activities:

• Chickadee song by Lisa Monet, from My Best Friend
• Birds by Kevin Henkes, illustrated by Laura Dronzek
• Chickadee Tree action rhyme by Sandy Long, from Highlights High Five, November 2009
• Five Little Birds Flannel Board
• Did You Ever See a Turkey? puppets
• Let's Say Hi to Friends Who Fly! by Mo Willems

I am this week's Flannel Friday host. Click here to read the round-up!