What a Hoot

For toddler storytime next week, we'll have an owl theme.  We'll read Little Owl's Night by Divya Srinivasan, Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton, and Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood.

I found our flannel rhyme at Sunflower Storytime .

Five Hoot Owls

Five hoot owls sitting in a tree.
One flew away! How many do you see?
One, two, three, four.

Four hoot owls sitting in a tree.
One flew away! How many do you see?
One, two, three.

Three hoot owls...etc.

And our flannel song also comes from Sunflower Storytime.  I really liked the look of the birds from A House for Birdie from Miss Merry Liberry, so I made my birds like those.

Owl in the Tree (sung to the tune of Skip to my Lou)

Owl in the tree goes, "Hoo, hoo, hoo,"
Owl in the tree goes, "Hoo, hoo, hoo,"
Owl in the tree goes, "Hoo, hoo, hoo,"
Hoo, hoo, hoo, my darling.

Robin in the nest goes, "Tweet, tweet, tweet..."
Duck in the pond goes, "Quack, quack, quack..."
Rooster in the yard goes, "Cock a doodle doo..."

Our craft will be paper bag owls.  We used this craft at our Diagon Alley event in December at our Eeylops Owl Emporium, but I've adapted it for toddlers by having the pieces already cut out.  They'll just have to stuff the bag, fold and staple the top with the help of their grown-ups, and glue on the eyes, beak and tummy feathers.  Instead of cutting the bag for the tummy feathers, I've cut out bigger circles that they can use markers to dot for the feathers.  We found this idea on Pinterest, but the link no longer exists or I would post it.

Snow!

When I planned this toddler storytime way back in October, I was assuming we'd have the kind of winter we usually have in Iowa--snowy and cold!  But this year has been unusual and February feels more like March or April.  There's very little snow left on the ground, so this storytime would have been better titled "Do You Remember Snow?"

We read No by Claudia Rueda, Snow by Manya Stojic, and Snowflakes: A Pop-up Book by Jennifer Preston Chushcoff.

Our flannel story was One Snowy Day by Tammi Salzano.

This is a flannel story I haven't seen posted anywhere else yet, but when I saw the book, I knew it would make a fun flannel board.  Because there are so many pieces, I set it up ahead of time so I could just flip it around and lead children in counting the objects from each page in the book.

Between stories, we did a snowflake dance with the song "Snowflake, Snowflake" from H.U.M. (Highly Usable Music) by Carole Peterson.  I gave children squares of white tissue paper to use as snowflakes and we followed the actions in the song.  It was a big hit, especially when we had to try to keep our snowflakes in the air with our breath.  H.U.M. is my absolute favorite CD for storytime songs.  We always begin each toddler storytime with "Hello, Everybody, Yes Indeed" and end each storytime with "Goodbye Rap."

Our craft this week was making snowflake designs.  I spread a thin layer of white, kid-friendly (washable) paint on some paint trays and put 5 or 6 snowflake stamps I bought from Oriental Trading on each tray. I gave each child a piece of colored construction paper and they stamped snowflake designs on their papers.

Next year if we do this craft again, I think I'll add glitter!

Love and Kisses

Our toddler Valentine's Day storytime was the week before, since toddler time is on Wednesdays and Fridays at one of my libraries. We read I Love You, Mouse by John Graham, How About a Kiss for Me? by Todd Tarpley, and Zero Kisses for Me by Virginie Soumagnac.

We did Five Pretty Valentines as a flannel poem--another one that has been done by Flannel Friday folks:
Five pretty valentines sitting in the store,
I bought one, and then there were four.
Four pretty valentines waiting just for me,
Mom bought one, and then there were three.
Three pretty valentines--one is bright blue.
Dad bought one, and then there were two.
Two pretty valentines sitting in the sun,
Sister bought a valentine, and then there was one.
One pretty valentine standing all alone,
Brother bought that valentine, and now there are none.

I realized after I'd made these that one was supposed to be blue, so I stuck a blue construction paper heart on one of them temporarily, and I'll make a fancy blue one for the next time I use this one.

We also did a flannel song called Which Hearts Are the Same? sung to the tune of Happy Birthday.  This is another idea I got from one of my storytime resources, and I'll add the citation this week.  I and one my assistants cut out hearts of various colors--we kept one set and distributed the rest.  Children were asked to put their hearts on the board when they saw one of the same color there.  I put one of the colored hearts on a small flannel board, sang the song, and circulated through the crowd so children with the matching color could add theirs.  We repeated the song until everyone had a chance to add their hearts.  Simple, but fun.

Which hearts are the same?
Which hearts are the same?
Please tell me, please tell me,
Which hearts are the same?

Colors

My favorite flannel story to date is Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd, also posted on Flannel Friday by a few folks.  For this storytime for two and three-year-olds, we read Kid Tea by Elizabeth Ficocelli (the parents laughed during this one!), Knock! Knock! by Anna-Clara Tidholm, and Red, Yellow, Blue and You by CynthiaVance:

And here's my Dog's Colorful Day flannel:

The only spot permanently attached is the black one on his ear.  The others I added as I told the story so that when dog takes, I take off the other spots and he's clean again!

We also did a flannel song--Bluebird.  I kept one of each of the colored birds and distributed the rest to children.  Each child brought her/his bird to the flannel board when we sang the verse about the color he/she had.  I've done similar color-themed flannel songs since then, and my two and three-year olds are getting the hang of waiting for their turn and putting their flannel object on the board--the process gets smoother each time we do it.  I know I got this version and the idea from one of the books I have with storytime ideas, but I'm going to have to go through them to find the reference and I'll add it this week when I find it.

Bluebird, bluebird, through my window.
Bluebird, bluebird, through my window.
Bluebird, bluebird, through my window.
Hey diddle dum a day-day.
(Repeat with other colors.)

Three Little Pigs

My second flannel board was part of a Piggies storytime for 2 and 3 year-olds.  We read:
Oink, Oink Benny by Barbro Lindgren, Pig Takes a Bath by Michael Dahl, and Busy Piggies by John Schindel.

I told the story of the Three Little Pigs with this flannel board:

We ended storytime by singing, with puppets, "Night Night to the Animals" from Michele Valeri's CD Little Ditties for Itty Bitties--of course, there's a pig in the song. I absolutely love that album and have frequently used a song or two in storytimes.  Our craft was a simple pig finger puppet.

Welcome to Storytime!

Inspired by the folks of Flannel Friday, I've been incorporating some of their flannel stories and songs into my storytimes for the last couple of months.  It has become a weekend routine to create a flannel board--one that I look forward to and find relaxing.  But now that I'm venturing into flannel stories I haven't seen posted anywhere else, I thought I'd join the blogging world and share some of my own.  I have appreciated the ideas that others have shared--there are some very creative librarians doing wonderful things with their patrons.

I'm starting my blog with the flannel stories I've done already, and then my plan is to post weekly or bi-weekly with new ones as I add them to my collection.

The first one I did in December was Five Little Snowmen--several Flannel Friday folks have done it.  Check out their Seasons folder.

Five little snowmen riding on a sled.
One fell off and bumped his head.
Frosty called the doctor and the doctor said,
No more snowmen riding on the sled.

Four little snowmen riding on a sled...