Flannel Friday - Pigs wanna fly

A couple years ago when I started doing storytimes, Chris LeMieux taught me the flannel board song, Eight Piggies in a Row.  You can hear the song on Raffi's cd, Everything Grows. Raffi only sings the first verse. Chris learned the song from Sally Chilson, our youth services coordinator, and after adapting it for her needs passed it on to me.

I put up the eight piggies.  These are from Pigs love Pancakes by Anika Denise. I just photocopied a pig that I liked from the book and used it as my outline. Details are drawn with fabric paint.

You have the children count the pigs by ones and twos before you sing the rhyme and between each verse.

Eight Piggies in a Row
  (adapted by Chris LeMieux)
There were eight piggies in a row
There were eight piggies in a row
Did they dance?  No No.  Did they sing? No No.
BUT two of them though they could fly. (Throw the last two pigs behind the flannel board )
That left six piggies in a row.

There were six piggies in a row
There were six piggies in a row
Did they laugh? No No.  Did they Cry? No No.
But two of them thought they could fly. (Throw last two pigs behind the flannel board)
That left four piggies in a row.

There were four piggies in a row
There were four piggies in a row
Did they dance? No No.  Did they sing? No No.
BUT two of them thought they could fly. (throw them)
That left two piggies in a row.

There were two piggies in a row
There were two piggies in a row
Did they laugh? No No.  Did they cry? No No.
But these two piggies thought they could fly. (Throw them)
That left no piggies in a row.

I also have used this song for a guinea pigs storytime.  I just used a guinea pig clip art from the internet, colored them and backed them with felt to make pairs.

The kids love it when I throw the two piggies that think they can fly over the back of the flannel board.

Flannel Friday - Tangrams

We presented an afternoon program on Tangrams last week.  The program was aimed at the kindergarten to third grade group, but we always get a range of ages from toddlers to middle school.  In order to demo the tan shapes to a large group, we needed something larger than our usual flannel board.  My colleague, Christine LeMieux, came up with this.

She ducted taped together three foam core boards and covered them with a large piece of grey flannel, also using duct tape.  She made loops and a base from duct tape at the back of the boards, through which to slide a metal ruler.  This kept the uber-flannel board upright (leaned against our regular flannel board stand). 

She made the tans from cardboard covered with construction paper.  Because of their weight, they needed multiple pieces of Velcro to attach to the flannel board. I thought Chris had made an error because the parallelogram had Velcro on both sides.  Then as I practiced making the tangrams, I realized that that was the only shape that needed to be turned over as well as rotated to form some of the tangrams.

During the presentation,  I read the book Grandfather's Shape Story  by Brian Sargent while my assistant rearranged the tans to form the shape from the story.  Of course, it took longer to arrange the tangram, so I had to flesh out the story a bit. I then paused and announced the finished shape with a flourish to get applause from the audience.  This is the candle.

We had brightly colored tans cut for each child and a number of puzzle shapes available for them to try to solve.  There was a sheet of solutions available.  Here is the source we used.

If you were presenting the program to a small group, you could make the tans out of felt and use a regular sized flannel board. Tangrams are a great way to talk about shapes.

Flannel Friday Inspired - Kitty is her name-o

The last time I did a Dogs storytime, I had great success with the B-I-N-G-O flannels I made following Miss Mary Liberry’s post.  You can find it here. This week my storytime theme was Cats.  I was looking through all my saved cat rhymes and songs and there it was…

I Know A Cat - sung to "Bingo"

I know a cat with perky ears,
And kitty is her name-o.
K-I-T-T-Y, K-I-T-T-Y, K-I-T-T-Y,
And Kitty is her name-o.

She makes a sound and it's "meow,"
And Kitty is her name-o.
K-I-T-T-Y, K-I-T-T-Y, K-I-T-T-Y,
And Kitty is her name-o.

You can find this song on many internet sites, with various attributions. The first time I saw it, it was credited to Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare.

In a flash of inspiration, I knew I was going to make a K-I-T-T-Y flannel.  First I made up a couple of more verses.

When she is happy, she will purrrrrr

And kitty is her name-o

Clap-clap-T-T-Y, clap-clap-T-T-Y, clap-clap-T-T-Y

And Kitty is her name-o

She can chase a mouse or chase her tail

 And Kitty is her name-0

Clap-clap-clap-T-Y, clap-clap-clap-T-Y, clap, clap, clap-T-Y

And Kitty is her Name-0

She laps her milk and jumps on my lap

And Kitty is her name-o

Clap-clap-clap-clap-Y, clap-clap-clap-clap-Y, clap, clap, clap-clap-Y

And Kitty is her name-o

She washes her ears and takes a nap

And Kitty is her name-0

Clap-clap-clap-clap-clap, clap -clap-clap-clap-clap, clap, clap, clap-clap-clap

And Kitty is her name-o

Then I went to my stash of old cat calendars. Some of them were from the 90’s.  I had to reject some cute cat pictures because they were too large.  The hardest part was free-handing the letters.  I ended up adding a couple pieces of Velcro, because the pictures were slick and the flannel that showed around the pictures was not enough to hold the piece up when the pictures were turned to the back.

You just turn over another letter for each verse in the song. Instead of clapping, we “Meow”ed once for each cat showing.  The kids especially liked the cat with the pizza.

The last verse, where we sing fifteen meows in a row, I personally thought was hilarious.  It was another hit.  I love this job.

Flannel Friday - Shoes Storytime

I was inspired by recent Flannel Friday contributions to do a shoe storytime.  Unfortunately our library system doesn't own Pete the Cat, My New White Shoes.  I am definitely going to find a copy to look at.

I made a flannel for One Two Buckle My Shoe.

I got the door and hen patterns from www.kizclub.com/  The door is from Where's Spot and the hen is from Barnyard Banter. The shoe I just freehanded after looking at pictures on the internet. When I was a kid,  I learned the rhyme as "shut the door"  but "knock on the door" is better so you can open the door and see the bear say "Hi."

We did the rhyme as an action rhyme twice, then I put up the flannels as we said the rhyme.  I put the nine on the board upside down and many of the kids knew that was a six and I had to turn it around. I then counted down from Hen to take the flannels off. The kids thought that was hilarious,  hen, ten, nine, sticks, eight....

One two, buckle your shoe (reach down and pretend to tie your shoe)

Three four, knock on the door (knock on the door)

Five six, pick up sticks  (pretend to pick up sticks)

Seven eight, lay them straight (pretend to lay them down in a row)

Nine ten, a big fat hen. (put your hands in your armpits and flap your wings and cluck)
Source: Mother Goose

Toddler Books:
Hello Toes Hello Feet by Ann Whitford Paul
Whose Nose and Toes by John Butler
Whose Shoes by Margaret Miller

Preschool books:
Dog in Boots by Greg Gormly
Holly's Red Boots by Francesca Chessa
Centipede's 100 Shoes by Tony Ross
Which Shoes would you Choose by Rosenthal
Whose Shoes by Margaret Miller



We did the action rhyme: Old Shoes New Shoes. Thanks to Katie at Storytime Katie for the idea!  The kids wondered why I was asking their names and got so excited when I used them in the rhyme. 

I also sang the Charlotte Diamond song: "I Have Shoes and I Can Walk" with the preschoolers. When I heard her in concert last week, she said it was a new song.  I don't see it on her webpage yet, but you can watch for it here. 

Coyote Storytime (and Cowboys)

Sometimes I try too hard to get my storytime books all on a theme.  And it is always a mistake to read a book that I find lukewarm or boring just because it is on topic. This week I had coyotes as my theme and I could only find one toddler level book.  So I renamed my wolf puppet, Cleo the Coyote. After introducing her, I set her behind me on a table. When I bring stuffed animals, I say that they are there to listen to storytime and afterwards everyone will get a chance to pet then. This makes them less of a distraction.

[My very first storytime was Jungle Animals.  I brought a super sized alligator and lion. The kids went berserk and all climbed on the stuffed animals at once. Pandemonium reigned.  My trainer, the Youth Services Coordinator for our library system, let it go on for a few minutes, until I had absorbed the lesson and then put the animals away under the table] 

Cleo in the Snow is a cat who goes sledding. After I read the book,  I turned my head and yipped. Where is that coming from? I turned it the other way and yipped again.  Oh, Cleo is that you? What are you trying to tell us?  Then I let her whisper into my ear and tell the kids that Cleo thinks that was the funniest book she had ever had read to her. A cat named Cleo!

This was my book lineup:

Toddler books :

Way out west lives a coyote named Frank by Jillian Lund

Cleo in the Snow by Caroline Mockford

Wolves by Jim Arnosky. 

Preschool books:

Gingerbread Cowboy by Janet Squires

Little Lost Cowboy by Simon Puttock

Way out west lives a coyote named Frank by Jillian Lund

Many thanks to Cate at Storytiming for sharing her coyote flannels.  You can find them here.  I added an orange moon and sang the Nancy Stewart song, Five Coyotes up on a hill. You can find it here.  The kids all join in with the Awoooo’s and when we got down to two coyotes, I stop after, “One coyote said” And ask the kids  - what did she say? And most of them were able to reply, “I’m gettin' kind of hungry” 

For the preschoolers I also sang the Nancy Stewart song, I am a Cowboy. This is a repeating song, with me singing one line and the kids repeating the line.  I take them through all the motions first.  You can find the song on her Singin' Sidesaddle CD.

I’ve used the song before as a time filler before after school programs and as part of a cowboy storytime.  Here is a flannel I made for the cowboy storytime using Cowboy Small by Lois Lenski for the pattern. I find the book too small in format to read to a group.

I put the cowboy on the flannelboard and ask the kids, What does a cowboy need? As the kids guess horse, rope, etc.  I put up the flannel for the item. If they are having trouble coming up with answers, I ask more questions, What will the cowboy wear on his feet?  What does a cowboy ride around rounding up? to get them thinking.

Here is a picture of poor Cleo. She lost an eye while getting some rough love after my Tuesday storytimes.   Despite my heart palpitations, it doesn't appear that anyone actually consumed her eye. I thought a patch looked better than the empty eye socket for the Thursday storytimes.

Disclaimer:  The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the vies of Spokane Public Library.

Flannel Friday

I do a twenty minute toddler storytime for kids 18 months to three years and a half hour preschool storytime for kids three to five every Tuesday and Thursday.  I wanted to share my recent Lunar New Year storytime.
I was inspired to make some Chinese lanterns from the pictures in the Oriental Trading Company catalog, but I could not find a five Chinese Lanterns rhyme.  I ended up adapting a rhyme I found on Amazon. 
Five Chinese Lanterns (tune: I'm a little tea pot)

One Chinese lantern shining bright
  Use it to light your way at night
If it's really dark, just light one more
  That's what Chinese lanterns are for.

Two Chinese lanterns...
Three Chinese lanterns...
Four Chinese lanterns...

Five Chinese lanterns shining bright
  Use them to light your way at night
Lanterns help celebrate Chinese New Year
  Gung Hay Fat Choy! Gung Hay Fat Choy!
[adapted by Susanne Miller]

I used a 3 oz dixie cup to cut out circles for the lanterns and just eyeballed the hexagonal lanterns. I added little rectangles of felt at the top and bottom with the bottom piece cut into a fringe. Then a small loop of felt at the top and added stripes and Chinese characters with fabric paint. (again from the ads in the Oriental Trading Company catalog)

For the toddlers I read:

Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin

My first Chinese New Year by Karen Katz

For the preschoolers: 

Chinatown by William Low

This Next New Year by Janet Wong

Red is a dragon by Roseanne Thong

We also learned the Nancy Stewart song, Gung Hay Fat Choy. This was difficult for me because I could not get the tune to stay in my head and had to play the music to sing along. The song with words and an instrumental version are on Stewart's cd, Songs of the Month Vols 1 & 2.  I had thought it might be too difficult for the kids, but all they really got into it. Our circ crew let me know that some were actually humming it afterwards while they checked out their books!

Disclaimer:  The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the vies of Spokane Public Library.