Flannel Friday: Sleeping Bag Chant

One of my favorite storytime CDs is H.U.M.: Highly Usable Music by Carole Peterson, and this summer in toddler storytime, we’re doing her “Sleeping Bag Chant” every week during the summer library program.    This week’s flannel figures are visual cues to help us remember the critters in this cumulative chant.  

The chant on the CD has verses for owl, bat, ghost, and add-your-own animal, but we’re going to do it without the CD and I’ve added several of my own.  Here are the lyrics:

Sleeping Bag Chant

I was lying in my sleeping bag—I couldn’t get to sleep

When the wind began to howl and the bugs began to creep.

So I rolled to the left and I rolled to the right

And I heard every sound that you hear at night—

Owl.  Hoo hoo.

Repeat the chant with:

bat (flap, flap)

ghost (whooooooooo)

and add-your-own, but I’m adding …

coyote (aroooooo, aroooo)

cat (meow, meow)

mouse (squeak, squeak)

bunny (hop hop)

and cricket (chirp, chirp)

Each time a new creature/sound is added, we will repeat the previous ones, too. I can’t wait!  The chant has been stuck in my head all week!  If I had smaller groups for storytime, I would pass out drums and we would drum to the chant, but our toddler groups are already huge and get even bigger during the summer, so we’ll just keep time by patting our legs. 

The owl is a miniature version of Sunflower Storytime's template, and for the rest, I used clip art from a database to which my library subscribes.  

At my other library, we're doing the chant as part of our shadow puppet show on June 13th, but we're still working on the puppets, so I'll post a pic when they're done.

This week the Flannel Friday roundup is being hosted by Lisa at Libraryland.

Flannel Song: Little Sandman

Our summer library program starts in just over a week, and this week’s flannel song is for storytime that week.  We’re using the national theme, Dream Big: Read, and our subthemes are Asleep and Dreaming, Night Owls,  Space Adventures, Night Shivers, and Dreams and Wishes.  My flannel for week 1, Asleep and Dreaming, is “Little Sandman,” the Brahms lullaby.  I’ve seen at least two different versions of the lyrics, but I took my favorite bits from each and combined them into this version.  During the last verse, I'll sprinkle a little clear glitter onto the flannel child's face.

Little Sandman

Beneath the silvery moonlight

Like tiny sparkling gems

The flowers all are sleeping

Upon their slender stems.

The trees wave gently to and fro

And whisper soft and low

Slumber, slumber,

Oh, sleep my little one.

The birds you heard this morning

Have long since gone to rest

And now are close together

Safe in their downy nest

And there they lie so still and warm

Secure from every harm.

Slumber, slumber,

Oh, sleep my little one.

Now comes the little sandman

In every house he’ll peep

To find the wakeful children

Who will not go to sleep

And then a little sand he tries

To sprinkle in their eyes.

Slumber, slumber

Oh, sleep my little one.

I’m going to be brave and try this a cappella…we’ll see how it goes. This is the most subdued flannel song I’ve tried, so I hope my storytime children will enjoy it. 

Check out all of this week's Flannel Friday posts here.

Boo Hoo Bird Flannel Story

This week's creation is Boo Hoo Bird by Jeremy Tankard, for a bird-themed storytime in two weeks.  I tried to make my felt figures look just like characters in the book.  I can't wait to tell the story in storytime! I love Mr. Tankard's books!

This is my first contribution to Flannel Friday!  You can check out all of this week's Flannel Friday creations here.

Cows in the Kitchen flannel story

I love making flannel stories...it's relaxing, and I got to use for the first time the pretty scissors my mom gave me this week.  Here are my flannel figures for Cows in the Kitchen by June Crebbin, to be used during storytime sometime in the near future.

Cats!

One of my colleagues brought to my attention the book Cat Secrets by Jef Czekaj just after we added it to our collection, and I'm finally getting around to building a cat-themed storytime for toddlers for next week. I love books like this that invite interaction with the audience, and this one goes way up on my list of favorites along with Can You Make a Scary Face and Is Everyone Ready for Fun? by Jan Thomas, and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems.  The books I'm reading this week are:

Cat Secrets by Jef Czekaj

Sleepy Kittens by  Jill and Martin Leman

and Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat illustrated by Annie Kubler for Child's Play.

Between stories, we'll do an action rhyme:

"Five Little Kittens" from Storytimes for Two-Year-Olds by Judy Nichols, p. 58.
One, two, three, four, five, (count fingers on one hand)
Five little kittens standing in a row. (stand up straight)
They nod their heads to the children so. (nod head)
The run to the left, they run to the right (run in place facing left, then turn and run in place facing right)
They stand up and stretch in the bright sunlight. (stretch arms overhead)
Along comes a dog, looking for some fun. (hunch shoulders)
Meow, meow, (make scratching motions)
See that doggie run! (clap hands quickly)

and a flannel rhyme:

"Rainbow Kittens" from Early Literacy Storytimes @ Your Library by Saroj Nadkarni Ghoting and Pamela Martin-Diaz, p. 111
Six little kittens found a box of paint.
They jumped right in...their mother will faint!
The first little kitten came out all red.
"I'll be orange," the second kitten said.
The third little kitten turned bright yellow.
"I'll be green," said the next little fellow.
The fifth kitten said, "My favorite is blue."
"Purple for me," said the sixth with a mew.
Dancing home the kittens go
To show their mother a KITTEN RAINBOW!

We'll also sing "There's a Dog in School" (there's a cat in the second verse) from H.U.M. by Carole Peterson, and we'll repeat that song over the next few weeks when storytimes focus on the other animals in the song--dog, rabbit, and we just had a duck storytime last month.

Our craft, a paper bag cat, comes from http://www.freepreschoolcrafts.com.  We will use markers to add stripes or spots instead of painting the bags, though.