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.

Bulletin Board - Spring - Bunnies

Time to change the bulletin boards for another season.  I made some big ( 30 inches high and 40 inches wide) bunnies ala Nancy Tafuri and added some freehand carrots.  I threw in a few purple carrots as well as orange ones.

For my super large wall, I used a couple of drawings from Bunnies Picnic by Lezli Evans, the illustrations are by Kay Chorao.  I had to add books for the bunnies to be reading.

Now I am set until Summer Reading!

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.

Displays - Spring time flowers

There is a little alcove behind our check out desk that the circ staff decorate seasonally.  I wanted to share these great spring flower tins that Angela Richardson made.

She credits Martha Stewart with the idea.  If you want to make your own, here is the link to Martha’s instructions. http://www.marthastewart.com/268927/cupcake-paper-carnations 

We don't do any teen programming at our libraries, but I am keeping this in mind for the future. I think it would be a popular craft program.

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. 

Concert Review - Charlotte Diamond

Friday night I got to see Charlotte Diamond in Concert at Spokane Falls Community College. She was in town to do a workshop the next day. It was a sweet deal for only five dollars.  I regularly sing her - I am a Pizza - before afterschool programs during that figgetty time after everyone  is seated and the program still won't start for six minutes. I haven't used any other of her songs yet.

There were at least 400 in the audience, in a mix of parents, educators, and kids, ranging from infants to tweens. And they were very enthusiastic.

Charlotte did a fantastic job of keeping everyone involved. And she had great crowd control.  She periodically sent a mob of little ones from the base of the stage with a "Go back to your seats, go back to your seats", and then into the next number. To acheive quiet when she needed it, she had everyone go "Shhhh", again "Shhhh" and then into the next number.

Charlotte signs (American Sign Language) many of her songs and teaches the sign before she begins. She had parents take out their keys and shake them to make the sound of rain. She donned not only a banana hat but also a fish hat and dog ears.  Apparently folks in the workshop the next day were going to get to make their own dog ears.  I was very envious.

She did a new song, "I have shoes and I can walk", which will fit into this week's storytime perfectly.  She also did a fish song that I had never heard. She did this with cutouts of the fish, octopus, shark etc. As each animal is eaten it is put in a pocket at the back of the larger anima. I am definitely going to investigate this one further. She also sang "I am a bubble" to the tune of "I am a Pizza"

The audience knew her songs and loved them. She had the parents and kids hugging to "Four Hugs a Day" and had them dancing in the aisles to a rousing rendition of "La Bamba". 

Here is Charlotte's website: http://www.charlottediamond.com/   And you can probably find many of her cd's at your library. And if you ever get the chance to see her in person, go for it.