Flannel Friday: I Have a Little Turtle

I learned some great new rhymes and songs at the Guerrilla Storytimes that took place at ALA Annual in Las Vegas, including a few that immediately struck me as fun fodder for felt versions. And thus today's felt story was born.

Rebecca Dunn shared this excellent, simple rhyme with the guerrillas:

I have a little turtle

His name is Tiny Tim

I put him in the bathtub

To see if he could swim.

He drank up all the water

He ate up all the soap

And when he woke up the next morning

He had bubbles in his throat! 

When I put the felt rhyme to use in storytimes, I first ask questions to help the kiddos identify the felt objects before I tell them what they are. Then we'll do the rhyme a few times, making exaggerated slurping and chewing noises when Tiny Tim ingests rid of the bath water and soap. We'll do the rhyme a few times, and on the last time, I blow bubbles using a small bubble container I've concealed behind my lap-size flannel board. What a surprise!

Check out this week's full Flannel Friday roundup on Lisa's blog Lisa's Libraryland.

Flannel Friday: Toads & Diamonds

One of my favorite lesser-known folk tales is "Toads & Diamonds," a Cinderella variant in which our good and deserving heroine ends up with plenty of lovely things and kind friends while her toad of a mean sister ends up with, well, toads, among other things. If you're unfamiliar with this story, allow me to recommend Charlotte Huck's version, illustrated by Anita Lobel.

When I adapted this story for a flannel board, I created flannel pieces to give a visual to the jewels and slimy creatures with which the fairy in the story "gifts" the two girls. That means that I'm doing straight oral storytelling for the setup of the story, with the flannel pieces starting about halfway in. I've found that this story is plenty captivating for most audiences preschool and older--a good story keeps you interested regardless of what there is to look at.

I will say, when I tell this story, I modify the ending a bit. Instead of the kind sister ending up getting married to a prince, the jewels her dowry, I tell a version in which she ends up venturing out on her own and finding true friends--people who respect her for who she is, not what she has. Let's call it my feminist re-envisioning.

 

Check out this week's full Flannel Friday roundup on Hannah's blog Lovin' the Library.

Flannel Friday: Little Red Hen Finger Puppets

I have been thoroughly enjoying myself with my 2014 challenge to make monthly felt stories and activities for my storytimes. In fact, I'll find myself at work, flipping through picture books, and suddenly I'll see how a story might translate to a felt version. I must say, that's not something that ever just popped into my head before.

I was particularly surprised, then, when I woke up one day on my morning off thinking, "I'm going to make finger puppets today!" And, reader, that's what I did.

Since lots of my storytimes are outreach events for classrooms of up to 60 preschoolers, I chose the story of The Little Red Hen for my puppets. The story is repetitive, which I find works well with groups, and because the characters are all different animals, I knew the finger puppets would still be easily differentiable from the back of the storytime room.

I created my own freehand patterns for these puppets, although I spent about 20 minutes on Pinterest looking at what other folks have done for hen, cow, pig, and cat finger puppets--I wanted to get a sense of how I thought my puppets might best look. After hand-drawing my pattern, I used felt, embroidery floss, some small buttons, and puffy paint to get the final products.

These puppets have been making the outreach storytime rounds with me, much to the delight of many a local preschooler. Finger puppets, accomplished!

Check out this week's full Flannel Friday roundup on Lisa's blog Lisa's Libraryland.

Flannel Friday: Pizza!

When I was putting together my preschool science program on the topics of counting and measuring, I knew I wanted to share a story dealing with pizza. Then it hit me--a felt story would add just enough extra oomph! So that's what I did.

My felt pizza story involves some of the base ingredients of pizza--flour for dough, tomato for sauce, and cheese for topping. I also made some slices of onion, green pepper, and pepperoni (all some of my favorite pizza toppings, not coincidentally).

I've found that this simple felt activity can be used in so many different ways. It can be a story, narrating the process of building a pizza from start to finish, with all the great cooking vocabulary. It can be a counting activity, doling out the toppings. It can be used as a cumulative tale, too. Not bad for a pretty quick flannel project.

Check out this week's full Flannel Friday roundup on Lisa's blog Lisa's Libraryland.

Flannel Friday: Little Mouse, Little Mouse

When I first announced my 2014 goal to create a felt story or activity each month, I got a lot of encouragement from Flannel Friday-ers. I also got a fair number of recommendations for simple felt stories that really pack a punch with kids. One of the most recommended was "Little Mouse, Little Mouse."

Readers, I was skeptical. You see, the entirety of "Little Mouse, Little Mouse" is a felt mouse hiding behind one of several differently-colored felt houses. When the mouse is successfully hiding, the entire group chants together: "Little mouse, little mouse; are you in the *color* house?" The person leading the story then pulls back the appropriately-colored house to reveal whether the mouse was hiding there or not. Simple.

But, oh. The excitement! The cheers! The absolute disbelief when the mouse was not to be found inside a particular colored house, and then the absolute joy when it was discovered!

The moral of this story is: Make this felt board. It is simple and straightforward from the creator's perspective, it reinforces color knowledge and ideas of object permanence, and kids completely adore it. I can still hear them chanting: "Little mouse! Little mouse!"

Check out this week's full Flannel Friday round-up on Katie's blog Story Time Secrets.

Flannel Friday: Dog's Colorful Day

In continuing my 2014 story time resolution to begin creating felt stories, I decided to focus this month on creating a story using a book pattern. In choosing a story for this challenge, I looked to the box of books to consider for withdrawal on my desk. Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd was in the box thanks to a few too many tears on the well-read pages. Srince I had to get rid of the book and wouldn't have a replacement for a while, I figured the tale would make a great felt story.

Turns out that Dog's Colorful Day is something of a felt story staple. Search Flannel Friday and you'll see many a variation, which was incredibly helpful as I planned making my own pieces. In the end, I used this great printable pattern from MakingLearningFun.com. After printing and cutting out the pattern for Dog, I cut out my felt Dog using a somewhat freestyle manner (I had forgotten where I'd put my sewing kit and straight pins). I then cut out circular spots freehand. I was quite pleased with my final product, which involved my first foray into puffy paint. And every time I've used this felt story in outreach story times, it's been a crowd-pleaser. Month two of felt story goal: complete!

Check out this week's full Flannel Friday round-up on K Leigh's blog Storytime ABC's.

My First Flannel Friday: The Elves and the Shoemaker

Well, I've done it. I've made my first ever from-scratch felt story, which means I am participating in Flannel Friday for the first time this week!

My first endeavor into creating a felt story is a traditional folk story: The Elves and the Shoemaker. After reading and rereading the story and thinking about how I would tell it out loud to a group of preschoolers, I started making some drawings of shapes that I could use as felt patterns.

After quite a bit of experimentation, I assembled two elves with removable outfits (as per the story); one shoemaker (who looks something like a Jedi master); and four sets of boots. My pieces were created with hand-drawn patterns, and they are made of felt with some tacky glue to hold bits together. I used black permanent marker to add fine details.

Check out this week's full Flannel Friday round-up on Kathryn's blog Fun with Friends at Storytime.

Story Time Goals for 2014

I've been giving some thought to my goals for library services in this new year. Last year was all about STEAM in so many ways, and I'll continue to spend considerable time on my own STEAM initiatives as well as promoting STEAM at conferences in 2014. What I decided, though, as I reflected on the fact that 2013 birthed the Storytime Underground movement, is that my story time skills could use some expansion.

I gave that general goal some thought, keeping in mind that the heavy majority of the story times I provide happen at large outreach locations and thus have few story time "extras" (i.e., parachute, shakers, bells). What I came up with were two monthly tasks for myself to both spruce up my story times and push my librarian skills, as well as a goal to better use the plethora of resources out there in libraryland.

My 2014 story time goals:

1) Share a new (to me and my kiddos) ukulele song every month. That'll be a total of 12 new songs added to my repertoire by the end of the year. Since I'm the sort of person who needs a chord sheet in front of me in case my mind fizzles out come story time, I'll be putting together simple lyrics-and-chords sheets and sharing them here on the blog (copyright permitting, of course).

2) Create and use a new felt story every month. My personal felt story collection currently consists of a store-bought Little Red Hen. It's an okay, generic set. With plenty of encouragement and tutelage from the fantastic folks at Flannel Friday, however, I am embarking on a journey to create 12 felt story sets that work with the way I tell stories.

3) Pay better attention to the resources being shared by outstanding story time librarians, and go beyond just bookmarking them "for later." I'll keep a close eye on Anne's Instant Professional Development series, for example. And I'm ALWAYS grateful to see the storytime badassery that Cory links to at Storytime Underground.

With some thought and hard work, I'm going to make my 2014 story times even better than their 2013 cousins. If you've got tips to help me achieve these goals, I'd love to hear them in the comments or on Twitter. And love and support to you as you aim still higher for your own library services this year!