Monday, May 7, 2012

Exciting news for Flannel Friday!

If you follow story time blogs, you might be seeing this information a lot today. Below is the latest news about the future of Flannel Friday, including a link to the new website and an explanation of the new round-up procedure.

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!

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 RainMakes 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!

Friday, May 4, 2012

Baby Lap Time, 5/3/12 and 5/4/12

Opening Song: Say Hello

Rhyme: Cheek Chin

Rhyme: The Baby in the Cradle

Song: Mr. Sun

Song: All the Little Babies

Book: I Know a Rhino by Charles Fuge (2003)
The story is cute, but the text is too much for babies, even though it rhymes. It would be a good toddler choice, though.

Song: Tony Chestnut 


Song: Where is Big Toe?


Book: Freight Train by Donald Crews (1978)

Song: Down by the Station


Rhyme with Puppets:  I'm a Little Bumblebee 


Song: If You're Happy and You Know It

Songs with Shaker Eggs: 
Goodbye Song: Open, Shut Them Goodbye Song 

Pre-K Class Visit, 5/4/12

Opening Song: Hello, how are you?

Discussion: What do we have at the library? What does a librarian do?

Book: I Took My Frog to the Library by Eric A. Kimmel, illustrated by Blanche Sims (1990) 

Song: I'm Going Down to the Library
The kids did a great job recalling the story after we read it, but they seemed most interested in the hyena and kept hoping we'd get to him next.

Book: Otto the Book Bear by Katie Cleminson (2011)Yes, this class also predicted that Otto would find his long-lost book at the library.  They were the only grouped completely stumped when I asked why people might pack boxes.

Action Rhyme: Book Bear, Book Bear
The teacher seemed surprised that I was having the kids get up and move around. I can't imagine reading for 30 minutes straight without some movement.
 
Book: May I Bring a Friend? by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers, illustrated by Beni Montresor (1966)
Almost everyone in the class had read this one. I was really surprised! 

Rhyme: Fierce is the Dragon
I forgot the words towards the end and felt like a dummy, but I recovered and the kids seemed to like it. 

Book: Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin, illustrated by James Dean (2010)
This was such a hit that kids came in after school demanding that I bring it when I come back next month.  (One of them even made me write myself a note!)

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This

Baby/Toddler Lap Time, 5/4/12

What a marathon day! I had to cut this story time slightly short because right afterward, I went to the elementary school to read to a Pre-K class. I also wasn't planning on doing this story time today, so my transitions were not quite as smooth as I would have liked. I'm kind of a perfectionist, though, and I think, overall, it was a fine story time.

Opening Song: Hello, how are you?

Rhyme: Wiggle Fingers
Book: Just Like Jasper! by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen (2008)

Rhyme: Two Little Kittens
Song: Shake My Sillies Out


Book: I Went Walking by Sue Williams, illustrated by Julie Vivas (1990) 

Flannel Board Song: All the Pigs

 Song: I'm a Little Teapot

Song: The Wheels on the Bus

Song: Mr. Sun 

Song: Chickadee

Rhyme: This is Big, Big, Big

Song: Put Your Finger in the Air 

Song: ABC Song

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This
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