The Napping House - Memory Activity

The Napping House by Audrey Wood is fun to read aloud. It is a cumulative story that will work well for a memory activity I would like to try with my family storytime group. I have played a version of "Memory" with second graders to promote summer reading but I have not done it in a storytime. There aren't too many characters to remember so playing the game should not be too difficult for the younger ones.

After reading the book, I will put it down out of sight and put the napping house on the board. Then I will ask the children who was napping in the napping house. As the characters are named I will put the figures randomly on the board. Next I will put the bed on the board and pile on the sleepers in the wrong order. Since children love it when a grown-up gets it wrong, I expect to be corrected immediately. I will probably get it wrong a couple of times before the figures are in the correct order.

This was an easy activity to prepare. The figures can be found at Make Learning Fun. They can be printed in black and white or in color here. Other activities that go along with the book can be found here. All I had to do was make a napping house.

I am looking forward to doing this activity with my family storytime group. Now I just have to plan the rest of the program.

This week's Flannel Friday is hosted by Kristen, Kristie and Sue of the blog, Let the Wild Rumpus Start. 

Birthday Guessing Game

In honor of Flannel Friday turning two, I have a birthday guessing game. I made up "clues." I then printed out the clues and answers. I made my own pictures and numbers though they can easily be done using clip art. I cut the pieces out and glued them to card stock. The photos below show how I put them together.

Front

Back

Inside

You are welcome to use the clues I used, making any changes you wish:

Baby Tommy turns 1 today.

Can you guess his present?

It's soft and cuddly, and for a hug is always ready.

Though it's a bear, we often call it.....TEDDY.

Sally turns 2 today.

Can you guess her present?

It's round and can roll down the hall.

It's a brand new, bright blue.....BALL.

Kathy turns 3 today.

Can you guess her present?

She can pile them high or build what she wants.

There are many shapes and sizes of her new wooden.....BLOCKS.

Michael turns 4 today.

Can you guess his present?

It has four doors and four wheels which make it go far.

It's a shiny new toy.....CAR.

Sam turns 5 today.

Can you guess his present?

With words and pictures, it's fun to take a look.

Sam likes to turn the pages of his brand new.....BOOK.

This week's Flannel Friday Round-Up is hosted by the one who started it all - Melissa of Mel's Desk. Also, take a look at her post about Flannel Friday's 2nd anniversary.

Changing and Extending Stories and Rhymes

Often I will change a story to make it more suitable to my storytelling style. I will do that with other storytime activities as well. Often I find a great idea but it doesn't quite fit in with what I want to do. In this case, I not only made some changes but extended the activity as well.

In this year's CSLP manual there is a guessing game called "I Wish I Were." It is a flannelboard rhyme for toddlers. Children have to guess an animal from the clues given in a simple rhyme. Animal motions are also given. There are only four verses. The first three describe a monkey, fish, and bird. The answer to the fourth is "Me!"

Since the theme for my storytime was "Dreams" I decided to change the rhyme to "I Dreamt I Was Someone." Since the storytime was for ages 4 to 7, I decided to extend the activity by adding more animals to guess. I did not use the last verse at all. I also did not use the animal movements for I wanted the children to focus on getting the clues from the words. The animals I added are cat, cow, spider, rabbit, snake, and elephant. I printed out the rhymes along with clip art of the animals using Microsoft Publisher. I then pasted them on construction paper and made "cards" out of them. I read the rhyme and then opened the card to show the animal when the children guessed. The children really enjoyed this activity.

Rhyme

Microsoft Clip Art Animal

Guessing Cards

When I find stories and rhymes that don't quite fit what I want to do, I look at them to see if they can be tweaked. Often I end up with something that I will be able to use over and over.

This week's Flannel Friday Roundup is hosted by Liz of Putting Smiles on Faces.