Perfect Partners

Sometimes I come across a book and flannel story that just go perfectly together.
Such is the case of this book-flannel combo.

What do you think???

I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean

by Kevin Sherry

... and the song "Octopus (Slippery Fish)" by Charlotte Diamond

from her CD titled 10 Carrot Diamond

... turned into a flannel!

Family Storytime : Children's Book Week Celebration

Happy Children's Book Week!

Today we had an extra special guest star visit storytime, local illustrator Mike Wohnoutka. Mike was kind enough to read two of his picture books, share drawing techniques with us, and had some kids help him create cool illustrations right at storytime.

Mike read :

Stay Close to Mama

and

Can't Sleep Without Sheep

Here are the cool illustrations he made just for us :

Thanks for visiting storytime, Mike!

Family Storytime : Birds Galore!

First off, I adore doing a bird-themed storytime. Why? Because I get to read one of my all-time favorite picture books ever ... Birds by Kevin Henkes illustrated by Laura Dronzek. This picture book has the best description of birds ever : "sometimes in winter a tree with one bird looks like a red leaf leftover". What a great depiction of a cardinal in winter. Hooray for Kevin Henkes!




In addition to the Henkes book, we also read the following :
Bring on the Birds  by Susan Stockdale
Birdsongs  by Betsy Franco
(and I included a CD with the songs of the birds in the book to play as I read and showed the illustrations)
Whose Chick are You?  by Nancy Tafuri

We also shared a flannel story of Charlotte Voake's
Tweedle-Dee-Dee
I love her take on the song "The green grass grew all around" -- plus, anytime I can sing at storytime makes me a happy camper.

Finally, we did the Rob Reid version of "Two Little Blackbirds" and I used my two raven finger puppets from Folkmanis. My favorite is ending with the two little blackbirds named Early and Late. Waiting around for "Late" to come back always puts the parents (and kids) in stitches.

Make-and-Take : Sheep!

We all hopped on the sheep ba-a-a-a-andwagon today and celebrated those white, wooly creatures. At the end of storytime, everyone was able to take home their own "little lamb-on-a-stick" made from their very own handprint and oodles of cotton balls.

Books we read included :
Sheep in a Jeep (one of the fabulous books by Nancy Shaw starring some very silly sheep)
One Little Lamb by Greenstein
Digby Takes Charge by Church

I got to use the FABULOUS sheep (or rather mutton) puppet that I won at an early literacy event earlier this year.







We shared a flannel story about how (and why!) sheep lose their wool to the farmer's shears in this rhyme borrowed from storytime katie (thank you!) - this is sung to the tune of "Five Green & Speckled Frogs" :

Five white and wooly sheep
In the pasture fast asleep
Their wool kept them cozy all night long
(snore, snore ...)
The farmer slipped away with one
And sheared the wool til it was gone,
Now there are four white, wooly sheep!
(baa! baa!)

Family Storytime - Shaggy Waggy Dogs

Today at storytime we had a guest visitor - therapy dog, Charlie!

We thank Charlie and his owner/handler, Diana, for bringing some doggy joy into our weekly storytime.

There are so many good picture books about dogs that it was hard to select the best and brightest, but here is what we read today :

Shaggy dogs, waggy dogs by Hubbell

Rrrralph by Ehlert
Ivan the terrier by Catalanotto
A dog is a dog by Shaskan

We shared the book prop for Rose Robart's The Cake that Mack Ate


Everyone participated in much tail-wagging during the doggy-version of "If you're happy and you know it ... wag your tail". Lots of barking and tail-chasing took place.

Here is a simple fingerplay that was shared :
     10 little doggies went out one day
     To dig in the yard and play, play, play
     10 were spotted
     And 10 were not,
     And at dinnertime they ate a lot!

And no storytime on dogs would be complete without a rousing sing-along of "B-I-N-G-O"! We did this using flannel letters and pawprints.

Flannel Friday

First post ever!

Here is a flannel made several years ago for the book "Blue Sea" by Robert Kalan, ill. Donald Crews.

 

This is a great story that can be used not only to illustrate color and size but to show kids how sometimes the big and mighty lose and the small are able to escape unharmed and live to swim the blue sea another day! Takes a bit of practice to smoothly pass the fish through their respective holes, but if you have a big blue background it makes a fantastic impression.

Baby Storytime

Farmyard Animals Galore!

Books We Read :
Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton
Noisy Farm by Jane Burton

Flannel Story :
Many parents own a copy of Eric Carle's The Very Busy Spider

but this book is actually a bit too long for most babies and young toddlers. One way to abbreviate this book is to tell it as a story rather than reading verbatim from the pages of the book. We did this today at storytime. No need to use all the farm animals -- just make sure you get to the owl at the end!