Flannel Friday: Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash

After taking a long break from FF during which I just copied flannels that I've admired by other Flannel Fridayers, my offering this week was made by my colleague Lou to tell the story Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash by Sarah Weeks with a clothesline. I love Lou's detailed pieces!  Many of them are even double-sided to make them sturdier to last through multiple uses by children.

And here's what part of it looks like on the line:

Of course, we passed out the flannel pieces and asked children to come and hang their items on the line when they were mentioned in the story.  It was a hit!  We found a few pics of flannelized or photocopy-and-laminate clothesline versions of the book on various blogs, so we don't know who to credit with the original idea. And although we chose not to use them, there are some Mrs. McNosh activities and printables available here.

When we someday do Mrs. McNosh again, we'll figure out a way to stabilize our line--we just tied it between two chairs, but as pieces were added, some twisted up and around so that they weren't all hanging straight down.  There are so many pieces that it might work better with a few smaller lines rather than one long one.

Since Halloween is over now and there's no rush, next week I'll post the flannel song I used for the two weeks leading up to Halloween.

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

Happy Friday!

Mrs. McNosh

Because two of our weekly storytimes this week are after Halloween, we decided to do our Halloween storytime last week, so this week we did Mrs. McNosh stories by Sarah Weeks.  We read:

Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash

Oh My Gosh, Mrs. McNosh!

and Mrs. McNosh and the Great Big Squash

My colleague Lou created the most wonderful flannel set to use as a washline and clothespin story.  You can see that here.

Between stories we did an action rhyme called "Washing Clothes" by Susan Dailey that can be found here and "Early in the Morning" by Judy Nichols from v. 1, n. 6 of Children's Programming Monthly, the My Clothes issue.

Our craft was to bedazzle some of the wash from Mrs. McNosh's line with foam stickers, plastic jewels, buttons, sequins, and markers.  Here's a sample:



Flannel Friday: Five Little Rockets

This week’s flannel is for toddler storytime during our Space Adventures week of the summer library program.  The rhyme comes from a link to teaching materials on NASA’s web page at: http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/147266main_3.2.1.Liftoff_Activity11.pdf.  I’ve changed the last verse so it makes sense for one rocket, and I’ve added a countdown to blast off.  We can’t possibly have a rocket rhyme without a countdown!

Five Little Rockets

Five little rockets ready to zoom,

This one says, “There’s not enough room.”

It starts its engine;

Ready to fly,

Looks at the others and waves good-bye.

Four little rockets…[continue counting down to one rocket]

One little rocket ready to zoom,

This one says, “Everyone’s gone!”

It starts its engine;

Ready to fly,

Looks at us and waves good-bye.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, blast off!

We’ll also do a song from the same NASA page, sung to the tune of “I’m a Little Teapot”:

I’m a Little Rocket

I’m a little rocket, tall and thin.  [stand with arms stretched overhead]

Here is my nose cone.  [fingertips meet overhead to form cone]

Here is my fin. [hold arms from sides pointing down like fins]

When I get all fired up,

Launch begins.

Watch me rise  [jump up]

And see me spin! [spin in place]

The Flannel Friday roundup this week is at Recipe for Reading!

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.