Tag Archives: words

Fill ‘er Up!

1 Aug

Here’s another blast from the Revolution Read Aloud past…:

Over the past couple of weekends I’ve been training, with a colleague, future library volunteers on how to perform a successful storytime. Included in that training is some basic early literacy information, so that volunteers will understand the importance of what they’re doing and what children are getting out of it (and why we do the things we do – fingerplays, flannelboards, age-appropriate stories, etc.).

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My colleague used an analogy that I really like, and I thought I’d share it with you.  She said that children hearing stories are filling up their “word reservoirs” – so that they’ll have all those words to use in the future. We often talk about the idea of young children as sponges, soaking up experiences to learn about the world around them. Well, to continue her analogy, some of what they’re soaking up is getting wrung out into their word reservoir.

Let’s help our kids fill their reservoirs to the brim by reading lots of stories and talking to them all the time!

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Flannel Friday: My Hat It Has Three Corners

28 Jun

This week I read John Rocco’s Super Hair-o and the Barber of Doom and was inspired to create a hair-themed storytime. But when I wasn’t able to find as many stories as I liked, I expanded the theme to include hats. Ah. NOW we’ve got a good storytime!

I poked around (with a very long stick) the Flannel Friday pinterest page and saw Mollie’s version of “My Hat it Has Three Corners” and was immediately inspired.  See, when I was very little, my family lived in Germany while my father was on an exchange scientist program through the USAF. And this song was one of the ones I learned to sing in German (and one of the few that I remember): Mein Hut, der hat drei Ecken, Drei Ecken hat mein hut. Und hätt er nicht drei Ecken, so wär es nicht mein Hut. So I HAD to make a flannelboard!

hat

(the word corners going around the corner was unintentional. I ran out of space. But I like it!)

My hat, it has three corners

Three corners has my hat.

If my hat had not three corners,

It would not be my hat!

(Tune)

Now here’s the extra fun part: When you sing it, you do actions when you say these words: Hat (tap head), Three (hold up 3 fingers), Corners (tap elbow). Sing it once, doing all the motions and saying all the words. Then turn over the hat picture and sing again, but DO NOT say hat. Just tap your head. Sing a third time with hat and three turned over, and do not say those words but keep doing the actions. For the final time, turn over hat, three, and corners, and sing without saying those words. FUN!

Today’s roundup is hosted by Bridget.  To see all the flannels, check out our pinterest page by clicking the icon to the right!

Happy flanneling!

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Flannel Friday: What Will Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas

27 Jul

I think many of us in library-storytimeland LOVE Jan Thomas’s books. They’re so simple, yet HILARIOUS. Who decides to write a book about dust bunnies who rhyme? Jan Thomas. Who decides to write about a fat cat deciding where to sit? Jan Thomas.

It’s the latter story that I decided to flannelize (yes, we decided that’s a word). I wanted my flannel pieces to look cartoonish, just like Thomas’s fun illustrations.

Here’s Fat Cat:

He enjoys his tuna.

Will Fat Cat sit on… THE COW!?

MOO!?

Will Fat Cat sit on the CHICKEN!?

SIT ON THE PIG! SIT ON THE PIG!

Will Fat Cat sit on the DOG?

GRRRRR….

Then what WILL Fat Cat sit on?

Oh boy…

Perhaps he could sit on…

…the CHAIR!?

OF COURSE!

And, you’ll just have to read the book to find out what happens next.

The pieces are all cut from felt and painted with Scribbles 3D Fabric Paint.  The cat, dog, and mouse  (I deleted the knickers) are from Marktoon.co.uk, a new site I found this week. Here are the cow,  chicken and pig. For the chair I photocopied a page in the book.

I’m considering adding some words to this (at least the word NO!) as that’s one thing I love about the book – the print awareness it reinforces.

The Flannel Friday roundup will be hosted by Amanda at Toddler Tales. To learn more about Flannel Friday (and how you can participate) visit our blog. Click the link to the right to see all the flannels (over a year’s worth) on Pinterest.

Happy Flanneling!

 

 

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Flannel Friday: Bug Board

16 Mar

After a week’s hiatus, I’m glad to be back with a VERY simple board idea for y’all.

A few weeks ago, I found myself browsing the $1 bins at Target (as I am wont to do ) and I discovered bags of plastic bugs. This was fortuitous, as the timing coincided perfectly with my annual bug storytime. I picked up a couple (each had different bugs) and decided what to do with them.

I put a small piece of velcro on the back of each:

I made a felt/paint label for each bug.

I told the kids we were going to figure out what the bugs are, and then put their names with them. I keep the bugs hidden and give them clues to guess what they are:

  • Likes to visit picnics. Is small, sometimes black, and sometimes red (ANT)
  • Makes honey (BEE)
  • Hops; is long and green (GRASSHOPPER)
  • Flies around our houses in summer, bothers us, and lands on our food (FLY)
  • Is long and green and arms sometimes go together like this [praying motion] (PRAYING MANTIS)
  • Flies around the water; has long skinny body and wide wings. Sometimes blue. (DRAGONFLY)
  • Has eight legs (SPIDER)
  • Red with black spots (LADYBUG)
  • Lives where it’s hot; has pinchers and a long tail with a stinger on it (SCORPION)

They don’t always guess all of them, but they guessed many. I did have a few kids who were able to guess the harder ones, even!

When we’ve guessed, we put the bug on the board and add it’s name. This was a great print recognition/awareness activity as we talked about which names were longer, which had only 3 letters (Bee, Fly, Ant) and how Praying Mantis has two words in its name. I run my finger under the words from left to right. Several kids commented on first letters (“Hey! That B is my name!”).

In short, this was a fun, easy-to-make activity that the kids really seemed to enjoy. The moral of the story? ALWAYS check the Target dollar bins.

Today’s Flannel Friday roundup is being hosted by Angela at Valley Storytime. Check it out for all the flannel-y goodness! All past flannels are pinned on pinterest (click the felt words to the right) and all of MY past posts can be found under the tab above.

Happy flanneling!

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Flannel Friday: Moo! Tweet! Meow! Animal Sounds

19 Aug

One of my go-to storytimes for the new school year is an animal sounds theme. There are a plethora of good books (I’ll post my storytime plan soon – can’t believe I haven’t done it yet!), and it’s a good topic for new preschoolers (who are on the younger, closer-to-3-years-old side). So when planning my storytimes for September, I naturally gravitated toward this tried-and-true theme. For flannelboards, I got out a set of felt animals I made several years ago. Thinking about how I could use them, I decided to incorporate some print awareness and make a “sign” with each animal’s sound on it. The kids could then help me figure out each animal’s sound, and I could show them how that sound is written in print:

This was super easy, obviously, but incorporates an extra element that just adds to the early literacy experience the kids are getting in storytime. I think that perhaps, later in the year, I will show them the words again, ask them about the first letter, make the letter sound, and then have them figure out the sound. It might work really well!

The question mark, by the way, is for the fish.

Visit Tracey at 1234 More Storytimes later today for the full Flannel Friday roundup!

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Your incredibly awesome word for today

30 Nov

I was telling (with flannelboard) the story of “Barnaby Bear’s Batter Bowl,” in which our hero, Barnaby, falls into his birthday cake batter bowl and is unable to get out. One by one, his friends join him and try and pull him out; to no avail. Finally, Mouse arrives, and wants to help too. The other animals tease him, saying he can’t possibly help because he’s too small. Mouse thinks, and comes up with the perfect solution: he crawls into the bowl, tickles Bear on the nose with his whiskers, and causes Bear to sneeze, thus blowing himself out of the bowl.

I asked the kids what they thought happened.

One young man answered: “He blesshooed!”

I do believe that word is a combination of “Bless You” and “Ah-choo.” And I’m going to begin using it in my daily conversation.

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Kids today. Really.

4 Dec

Kids today.  They’re so down with the current lingo.  My nose is pierced by a little sparkly stud.  A preschooler asked me what it was.  Not being able to come up with the right term (piercing? ring?) that she might understand, I said it was my nose…. um……  Before I could finish my sentence, she asked: “is it your bling?”

Oh yeah, THAT’S the word I was looking for!  My nose bling!

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