Body Parts (but not zombies ...)

"The head bone's connected to the ... neck bone, the neck bone's connected to the ... shoulder bone"
We shared stories today all about the different parts of the body.
No storytime on body parts would be complete without "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" so that was the active part of storytime today.

Here is what else was shared :

Books We Read :

We've All Got Bellybuttons!  by David Martin
Thank You For Me by Marion Dane Bauer
From Head to Toe by Eric Carle
The Long-Nosed Pig by Keith Faulkner
The Pig's Picnic by Keiko Kasza (book prop)

I shared the silly song "Tony Chestnut" -- here is a cute video from Britain demonstrating how to sing the song. I didn't leave parts of the song out, as demonstrated here, but rather went faster and faster resulting in much hilarity and hitting of nose.

Finally, I shared one of my all-time favorite books about body parts, Head, Body, Legs which is a folktale from Liberia re-told by Won-Ldy Paye. I have always thought this book a bit long for storytime, and have always felt it lended itself better when told as a story rather than read from a book. So, I created a flannel to accompany the story.

Happy Birthday

We celebrated birthdays this morning at storytime -- and had two attendees whose birthdays were just a few days away! Always very cool when that happens ...

This storytime was simple and sweet, just like a classic birthday cake.

Books We Shared :
It's My Birthday  by Heidi Goennel (out of print)
Wolf's Coming  by Joe Kulka (what's a birthday celebration without a little, um, surprise?)
Muriel's Red Sweater  by Dora Dokas
A Birthday For Cow  by Jan Thomas

I also shared the story "The Cake That Mack Ate" using the book prop from Book Props -- I think this one is sadly no longer available. It really is one of their better efforts. Could probably be made into a flannel story with a bit of work.

Finally, I shared this flannel story :

Five little cupcakes at the bakery shop

Round and fat with frosting on top.

Along came _________ (child's name)

With a quarter one day,

Bought a cupcake and ate it right away!

Four little cupcakes ...

Three little cupcakes ...

Two little cupcakes ...

One little cupcake ...

last time :

No little cupcakes at the bakery shop ...

None with sprinkles or frosting on top ...

It was my birthday

And there was no time to bake ...

So I bought myself a birthday cake!

My cupcake template was found here :
birthday cupcake template
My cake template was found here :
birthday cake
But I imagine these two images can be fairly easily produced with freehand drawings.

Pizza!

Who doesn't like pizza? Pepperoni Pizza. Sausage Pizza. Cheese Pizza.
Today's storytime was all pizza, all the time.
Here's how the pie was laid out ...

Books We Read :

The Pizza That We Made  by Joan Holub
The Little Red Hen (Makes a Pizza)  by Philemon Sturges
Pizza at Sally's  by Monica Wellington
"Hi, Pizza Man!"  by Virginia Walter





The flannel story I shared is taken from Carole Spinelli's poem "One More Bite" -- here is the text :
At four o'clock when I came home
So ravenous from school,
I barely got inside
Before my mouth begain to drool

I stormed the kitchen like a thief

Because I craved a treat
I searched through all the cabinets
For something good to eat.

I first consumed a vegetable
For health was on my mind,
And then I chomped a piece of fruit
Right through it's bumpy rind.

Because the hunger didn't quit
I gnawed some homemade bread,
I ate a cherry lollipop
Which made my tongue all red!

I then proceeded to digest
A giant piece of pie,
With dollops of whipped cream on top
So swirly, twirly high.

Then my mother gave to me
A sandwich of baloney,
But I'd rather have a pizza pie
All topped with pepperoni!

Snowmen!

Today's Make-and-Take craft storytime was all about snowmen, snowwomen, snowboys, snowgirls, snowbabies, and naturally snowlibrarians.

I shared this flannel, based on the Jack Prelutsky poem "My Snowman" which can be found here (scroll down to the second poem which is Prelutsky's). It can also be found in the collection "It's Snowing! It's Snowing! : Winter Poems" by Jack Prelutsky.



Here is the flannel :

These are the books we shared :

Winter is the Warmest Season  by Lauren Stringer

Pip & Squeak  by Ian Schoenherr
Everything You Need for a Snowman  by Alice Schertle
Snowballs  by Lois Ehlert



This was my sample Snowgirl



The last book led perfectly into our craft which was making your own snowperson out of construction paper and any odds & ends I had lying around (buttons, sequins, glue-on jewels, stickers, googly eyes, yarn, ribbon) plus pine needles collected from the deck outside for the arms. Here is how some of our snowpeople turned out :



Last-Minute Storytime

I'm sure this has happened to many of you before ... you schedule a 'guest star' or 'special visitor' to your storytime ... and the plans fall through at the last minute. I was to have a special visitor to storytime today to talk about Minnesota Moose. Unfortunately, my visitor had an ill child at home. I found out about this an hour before storytime was to occur.

What to do ... what to do ...

Fortunately, I have an EMERGENCY STORYTIME TUB at my disposal -- hooray!



From this tub I was able to pull out a relatively full-scale storytime for my patrons. Here's what I had at my disposal :

The Bridge is Up!  by Babs Bell
Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing  by Judi Barrett
The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear  by Don Wood
The Wide-Mouthed Frog  by Keith Faulkner

I also had this flannel to share, based on the book "It Looked Like Spilt Milk".
This was just about the easiest flannel I have ever made -- I got the images right from the book. I imagine you could include other ones as well, depending on your mood ...

Bunches of Bears!



My favorite little brown bear puppet
from Fancy Zoo Puppets
(no longer available ... of course)

 It's almost winter ... which means it's time for Bears (and other creatures) to find a nice, warm place to sleep until spring. Our stories today were all about bears and hibernation.

Books We Read :

Every Autumn Comes the Bear 
by Jim Arnosky
Hibernation Station 
by Michelle Meadows
Bear Dreams 
by Elisha Cooper
No 
by Claudia Rueda


Time to Sleep  by Denise Fleming (book prop)
*note to Flannel Friday-ers : this is not a flannel I made!
It was purchased from bookprops.com many years ago (no longer available)
Would make a fantastic handmade flannel, however!
The bear does come out of the cave ...

Ever heard that song about the ants? Where they go marching to get out of the rain?
Well, here is one just like that, but it's about bears getting ready for hibernation time!

The bears go marching one by one,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The bears go marching one by one,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The bears go marching one by one,
The little one knew that autumn was done ...
And they all go marching down
To their den
Because winter
Had set in, bum ... bum ... bum

... two by two ...
little one stopped to sneeze : "ahh-choo!"

... three by three ...
little one stopped to scratch a tree

... four by four ...

little one stopped to eat just a bit more

... five by five ...

little one stopped to whisper : "nighty-night!"

Finally, I turned Lydia Dabcovich's book "Sleepy Bear" into a flannel story :

Shoe Bop

It was all about shoes (and boots and sandals and slippers) at storytime today. We had a dusting of snow so we could talk about wearing boots outside and shoes inside.
Shoe-be-doo-be-doo-wop!

Books We Shared

"Two Shoes, Blue Shoes, New Shoes!" by Fitz-Gibbon

"Shoe Baby" by Dunbar

"Botas Nuevas (New Boots)" by Van Genechten
"Whose Shoes?" by Hines

A Silly Chant We Shared (and I showed photos of different types of shoes) :
Late last night,
When I was asleep,
Someone put funny shoes on my feet!
I walked here,
I walked there,
I walked almost everywhere!
But at the end of the night,
My shoes were too tight,
So I took them off, and wiggled my toes,
And my feet felt all right ...
We ended with a horse shoe, which of course people can't wear ...

Flannel Story
Finally! Pete the Cat made an appearance at the end of storytime with his groovy white shoes ...

For you Flannel Friday-ers out there, this was my first attempt using Puffy Paint (Tulip brand) -- here's how some of the more successful shoes turned out. The smaller the shoes got, the more difficult it became ... you may also notice from the above photo that I modified the story a bit. I changed the story from Pete stepping "into a bucket of water" (what?) to having rain fall down and washing all the colors off to return his shoes to white at the end.