Sssss...Snakes!

Lots of slithery, snakey fun with this rhyme:

ONE little snake looking for something to do
He finds another and that makes TWO.
Two little snakes wrapped around a tree,
Another slithers up and that makes THREE.
Three little snakes by the garden door,
They see another and that makes FOUR.
Four little snakes notice one more arrive,
Basking in the sun, the snakes make FIVE.
(rhyme credit: Storytime Magic)

And here's a good song to use, which you could also use various flannel pieces for:

The snake in the grass went ssss, ssss, ssss, the snake in the grass went ssss, all day long.
The turtle on the rock goes snap, snap, snap . . .
The frog in the pond goes ribbit, ribbit, ribbit . . .
The bee in the tree goes buzz, buzz, buzz . . .
The rabbit in the hole goes hop, hop, hop. . .

Today's flannel friday is hosted by Notes from the Story Room, and the Flannel Friday website is always a great place for details!

Pete the Cat

No new ideas here, but I still wanted to share my version of ol' Pete the Cat!  I used the "stiff" felt from Hobby Lobby - they sell it in the most perfect shade of blue for cool Pete.  Can't wait to use it this fall!

Check out Flannel Friday's website for more information on Flannel Friday; Mollie is this week's host!

Manners Storytime

Manners is a fun storytime option, but it kept my wheels turning for a while, particularly on a flannel option.  I decided upon Bears on Chairs, a darling book and good for a range of ages.  My flannel version reminds me of a question I ask myself a lot "does this extend or enhance the book itself?" You know, some books really are best as books!  I don't ever want to make a flannel for the sake of making it - I like to make it if it extends the chance of interaction with the kids, extendes their chance of interacting with the story, or if it might enhance the process (visual or otherwise) of telling it to a large group.

What ended up working for me was to just interact with the bears and their chairs, without using the (great!) rhyming text from the book.  When I tried it with the text, it seemed forced because I was trying to move bears and chairs a bit too much.  The older toddlers responded the best to the bears, counting chairs and then ultimately having them share.  It is an easy and cute story to just talk through, ask open ended questions, and let your kids watch the final resolution and cheer for bears who share.

I brought out my 3 mice friends to sing this adorable song:

3 Nice Mice

3 Nice Mice

See how nice they are

See how nice they are

They're always polite when they nibble their cheese

They never forget to say thank-you or please

They cover their noses whenever they sneeze

ahchoo! ahchoo! ahchoo!

3 Nice Mice

3 Nice Mice

source: http://www.preschooleducation.com/smanners.shtml

Funny mouse stories: the baby group seemed a bit frightened of the mice - something that never crossed my mind!  If the mouse in the middle looks more loved than the others, the middle mouse is a a most-important member of my own family, while the other two are "library mice."

Line-up of great book options:

Flannel Friday: Ocean ideas

This story, Mitch the fish, is from the lovely Storytiming blog.  I made the story prop bigger to suit my audience a bit better.  Mitch the Fish is a fish who changes colors with the swish of his tail.  He has a cute song he sings and he turns the colors of other things he sees in the ocean.  The full story is on the Storytiming blog.  The fish scene is made out of a box lid covered in paper.  The string you see went around my neck, so I could have both of my hands free to change Mitch's color and be more interactive with the kids.  This was a really fun story to tell, and the kids really enjoyed the fish changing colors. A lot! Sweet preschoolers think of you as a magician when you pull your storytime tricks out.

Another popular rhyme was the 5 Little Jellyfish rhyme from Nikarella.  These were so fun to make!  Definitely use wrapping paper ribbon (twirling ribbon) because it gives the jellyfish some great movement.

Five Little Jellyfish
5 little jellyfish swimming by the shore, the yellow one got lost and that left 4.
4 little jellyfish swimming in the sea, the bright blue one swam far away and that left 3.
4 little jellyfish in the ocean bule, the purple one took a seahorse ride and that left 2.
2 little jellyfish swimming in the sun, the oragne one took a dive and that left 1.
1 little jellyfish swimming all alone, it was time for him to go home and that left none!

I had a giant sea shell that I brought out for this song.  I held it to my ear and pretended it was telling me about the creatures in the ocean.  The idea was to pass out the ocean animals and when I called a particular animal, those children would hold them up and show me their animal's "movement."  Well, since the audience is a large daycare, this didn't work out as great as it might in an audience with more parental help.  Sooo, in the subsequent tellings, I kept the props with me and after singing the sea shell's song, I held up the ocean creature and we all did the movement together.

Sea shell, sea shell, sing a song for me
Tell me about the ocean
Tell me about the sea.
In my ocean, there's _______.

In my ocean - there's a seahorse (bob up and down), a whale (make a big "thwack!" with your hands for a tail), a fish (fish face), an octopus (octopus arms), a starfish (arms like a starfish), and a shark (chomp, chomp!)

Fried ham, fried ham

This book is full of fun songs for sing alongs and the fried ham song, in particular, made me want to share and have fun with school age groups.   If you aren't familiar with this song, you sing it in different ways to make it terribly silly.  It goes "next verse same as the first, Texas accent makes it worse (or, underwater makes it worse; or, opera voice makes it worse.)" I gathered images of the items (some Microsoft Word images, some Google images) and turned it into a poster via Microsoft Publisher.  I've done it with a field trip and a class visit and success!  The best part of sharing this silly poster was the kids easily started volunteering their own ideas for singing it - including pirate accent and with dentures.  HA!

Flannel Friday: 5 Ferocious Lions

I made these not-so-ferocious lions to go with a rhyme from Finger Tales by Joan Hilyer Phelps.

Deep in the jungle
What did I hear?
Five ferocious lions
roaring loud and clear.
"ROAR!" said the lions
"SCAT!" said I.
And one ferocious lion
ran away...Good bye!

This lion craft is also from the book above.  These required some prep work for my daycare group, but they really enjoyed them and I think they're cute, cute!  The kids' versions, of course, were colored and WAY better than mine.



Books used for lion storytime:

Roar! A noisy counting book by Pamela Edwards.  A lion tries to find friends, but his roar scares them away before he finds a friend.  I jumbled laminated numbers 1-10 at the bottom of my magnet board.  After each grouping of animals, one child came up, found the number and we put our numbers in order 1 to 10 on the board.  This was a fun way to extend the story and get some number practice in.

Sitting down to eat by Bill Harley. This features a lion and way too many other guests coming over for a party.

We're going on a lion Hunt by Margery Cuyler.  We didn't read this one, but acted it out instead. 

Flannel Friday: Monday the Bullfrog

 Here's a cute little story that I originally got from this cute frog book that my son received when he was a tiny baby: Monday the Bullfrog by Matthew Van Fleet.

In short, Monday is a very hungry bullfrog, and he eats something different on each day of the week. The story gives you clues like "crunchy and red" (a crab) or "furry and white" (mouse). I cheated a teensy bit with the caterpillar and bee - changed those from the book, but for the life of me, I could NOT make a firefly out of flannel on the day I made this set! I think it's fun to have the animal-food-items poking out of their paper pockets, just a bit, so the kids get a small clue of what they'll be. I tell this story with a frog puppet, but you could also use just a flannel frog. The big surprise at the end is that on Saturday, Monday the bullfrog wants something sweet to eat . . . so he eats "you!" In the back of the book itself there is a mirror; I use a little dollar store variety. (Mine is a bit big, but it is easier for the kids to get the idea, I think).