Five Little Valentines

Last week while I was working on a draw and tell story for Valentine's Day, I also wrote this rhyme. I was going to save it for next year's Valentine's Day Flannel Friday but knowing me I will totally forget about it. I decided to use it for this week's Flannel Friday contribution.

 

Five Little Valentines

Linda Meuse

Notes from the Story Room Blog

1/31/14

 

Five little valentines waiting to be given.

One is silver, tied with a purple ribbon.

One is gold, shining like a light.

One is red, bold and bright.

One is white, with lace all around.

The last one is pink, and plays a musical sound.

 

Joe took the silver one to give to his mother.

Mary took the gold one to give to her teacher.

Tom took the red one to give to his dad.

Kate took the white one to make her sister glad.

Scott took the pink one for little baby Sue,

For the music that it played would make her laugh and coo.

 

 

I used the shapes function in Microsoft Publisher to draw a heart template. I made mine about 6 inches high and about 6 inches across. The "lace" one is slightly larger. I used materials that I had on hand. I used markers on card stock for three of the hearts. I do not have silver or gold markers so I used silver paint and a purple marker for one heart and cut the other heart out of gold paper from a pad of metallic paper that I had. (The paper was a bit too small so I had to glue on another piece for the tip of the heart). You can also make them out of felt. I would use metallic paint on white felt to make the gold and silver hearts.

 

This week's Flannel Friday Round-Up is hosted by Lisa of Thrive After Three.

Haunted Houses, Courtesy of Flannel Friday

I'm planning a Halloween Preschool Storytime. Two years ago, I did a Halloween Family Storytime. (Last year we did a Monster Family Storytime in October.) I wanted to do another family program but due to a bump in my personal life, it was not to be. However, since our regular preschool storytime takes place on the 31st, I will be doing that program instead. Since I don't want to repeat everything that I did before (at least one of my family storytime regulars will be attending), I decided to look for some new ideas. Of course the first place I went to was the Flannel Friday Halloween Pinterest board.

I found several haunted house props. Amanda of Trails & Tails created an amazing haunted house play mat with removable finger puppets. It goes with her "Jack Lantern, Jack Lantern, What Do You See?" rhyme. Sarah of Read, Sarah, Read made a great haunted house to go with Ten Timid Ghosts by Jennifer O'Connell. She also added a rhyme, "Five Little Ghosts" that could be adapted for use with the haunted house. Andrea of RovingFiddlehead KidLit has a simple but very effective haunted house for the song, "The Haunted House." Another haunted house prop has also been added to the Halloween board from this year's Halloween Round-Up. Sarah inspired Lisa of Thrive After Three to create her fantastic haunted house for Ten Timid Ghosts.

Since our story room is quite small, I did not need a large prop. I decided to go with the "Five Little Ghosts" rhyme found on Sarah's blog. Of course I adapted the rhyme to suit the characters I wanted to use. I drew my own figures. For me it was quicker than trying to size clip art to fit the "windows." I did use clip art for inspiration.

The haunted house is made from orange card stock. The roof and chimney are made from construction paper. I used leftover laminating film to cover the windows. I made pockets by taping a piece of card stock to the back of each window to hold the figures.

The figures are glued onto card stock pieces that fit in the pockets with a ghost on one side and the one who chases it away on the other side. As I say the rhyme, I simply turn the piece to the other side and return it to the pocket. At the end, the piece is turned again to have the ghosts return. I numbered and labeled the pockets so that I would have the figures in the correct order for the rhyme.

This is my adaptation of the rhyme:

                                    "Five Little Ghosts"

                    Five little ghosts in a haunted house at play,
                    Along came a witch who chased one ghost away.
                    Four little ghosts in a haunted house at play,
                    Along came a monster who chased one ghost away.
                    Three little ghosts in a haunted house at play,
                    Along came a vampire who chased one ghost away.
                    Two little ghosts in a haunted house at play,
                    Along came a mummy who chased one ghost away.
                    One little ghost in a haunted house at play,
                    Along came a bat who chased that ghost away.
                    Let's find the ghosts and say:
                    1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ghosts come back and play!

 

There Was a Little Penguin

While searching for penguin ideas for my upcoming family story time program, I came across a penguin version of the well-known "There Was a Little Turtle" rhyme on the Storytime ABC's blog (1/27/12). I loved the idea but decided to change some of the animals. Thank you Storytime ABC's for a great idea.

There was a little penguin

Who waddled when she walked.

She swam in the ocean,

And climbed on the rocks.

She snapped at an albatross.

She snapped at a seal.

She snapped at an orca,

Giving out a squeal.

But they were all much too big

To make a penguin meal,

So she jumped into the ocean

To catch some tasty krill.

The penguin, seal and orca figures are from Microsoft Publisher. The albatross is from Arthur's Clip Art. All of the clip art was put into Microsoft Publisher where I flipped some of the images and made them all the size I wanted. I drew my own krill after looking at several drawings. It is obviously much larger than it should be but I needed to make it big enough for everyone to see.

This week's Flannel Friday Round-up is hosted by Lisa of the Libraryland blog. Complete information about Flannel Friday can be found here.

Five Little Monsters - Finger Puppets

The Family Story Time about monsters is starting to come together. I have a cut and tell story, a possible board story, and a prop story. I also have several books which I will have to pare down to three or four. I spent some time looking at monster rhymes. Several were variations of "Five Little Monkeys." I liked the idea of jumping monsters but didn't feel that they should be confined to a bed so I wrote my own rhyme.

Five Little Monsters

Linda Meuse

Notes from the Story Room

Five little monsters jumping with glee,

The silly one said, "Hey, look at me!

I jumped so high that I landed in a tree!"

Four little monsters jumping up and down,

The slimy one said, "Soon I won't be around

Because I can jump so far that I'm jumping into town."

Three little monsters jumping high and low,

The scaly one said, "I just want you to know

That I can jump so fast that you'll never see me go."

Two little monsters jumping with each other,

The smelly one said, "I can jump higher than my brother

So now I'm jumping home to show my monster mother."

One furry little monster was left jumping all alone.

"I miss all the others," he said with a monster moan.

"But we'll jump again tomorrow!" and he jumped on home.

Even though I made my own monsters, clip art of cute monsters can be easily found online for those who don't want to draw their own. (Monsters are easy to draw - give it a try!) My post, "Finger Puppets for Five Colorful Birds" shows how I make my finger puppets.

This week's Flannel Friday Roundup is hosted by Kay Leigh of Storytime ABC's. All things Flannel Friday can be found here.

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.

Pretty Flowers

I recently purchased some felt flower stickers for my puppet glove.  Since I needed a rhyme to go with them, I came up with this:

Five Pretty Flowers

One pretty flower popped up to feel the sun,

It called for another to come and join the fun.

Two pretty flowers enjoying the warm day,

When up popped another wanting to play.

Three pretty flowers growing by the door,

Then out popped another so now there are four.

Four pretty flowers attracting bees from a hive,

When out popped another,

And that makes five!

1,2,3,4,5!

(I couldn't resist the sparkly flowers.)

 

This week's Flannel Friday Round-Up is hosted by Mollie of What Happens in Storytime.

 

 

Paper Finger Puppets for "Five Colorful Birds"

Paper finger puppets are easy to make.  They are great to use when you find a new "five little something" rhyme you want to use.  They can be customized to go with any such rhyme.   The best part is that they cost little or nothing to make.  Paper, markers and a glue stick are the basic materials.  The biggest expense will be your time. 

Finger puppets for Five Colorful Birds



Step one:  Find a simple bird image that you like and reduce it to finger puppet size or draw your own.  I drew my own this time.  Make five.  I drew one, cut it out, and used it as a template to make five birds.

Step two:  Draw an upside down "T" five times, adjusting the length of the "T" to fit your finger.  Again I drew one, cut it out and used it as a template.

Step three:  Color the birds.  I like to outline in black marker as well.  I chose specific colors to go with my rhyme.

Step four:  Cut out the birds and "T" pieces.

Step five: Make the back pieces.

Glue sides together.

Glue top down.

Step six:  Glue a back piece to each bird.

Finger Puppet!

Step seven:  Find a counting rhyme about birds or write your own.  I wrote my own:

Five Colorful Birds

The cardinal is a bird that is colored bright red,
He has a crest of feathers on his head.

A squawking jay's feathers are blue,
She calls out loudly to protect her babies so new.

A hummingbird has feathers that are green,
He moves his wings so fast they can hardly be seen.

The finch has feathers that are bright yellow,
Indeed he thinks he's a handsome fellow.

Bright orange are the feathers of the oriole,
She sings a song telling winter to go.

(A scanned version with the puppets and rhyme can be found here.  When converted to a Google document it was reduced so you will have to enlarge it a bit.)

Angela of ValleyStorytime is hosting this week's Flannel Friday Round-Up.  For everything you need to know about Flannel Friday go to Anne of So Tomorrow's Flannel Friday Page.



In Springtime

I have no idea what I am doing for my April Family Story Time so I figured I'd better start coming up with ideas. (Actually I'm not completely sure what I'm doing for March either.)  I'll probably do a general "Spring" program in April.  I wrote the following rhyme to use with stick puppets but it would also work with flannel/magnet board figures.  Move the pieces to follow the rhyme. 

Since in springtime little ones are often quite wiggly, another option is to make this an action rhyme.  Have the children stand reasonably far apart (we need room for the rainbows).  Have them make a circle over their heads with their arms for the sun.  Have them hold their arms up in front of them and then have them wiggle their fingers while bringing them down to make the rain.  For the rainbow, have them start with their arms together over their heads and then bring them down to their sides. (My directions are probably as clear as mud but I'm confident you'll figure something out.)

In Springtime

In Springtime both Rain and Sun like to play.
One or the other comes every day.

Sun like to warm growing things
With the gentle rays that sunshine brings.

Rain sends raindrops down to the ground
To tickle the flowers and dance around.

Sun and Rain rarely see each other
So something special happens when they come together.

For that’s when a rainbow can be found
Reaching across the sky and down to the ground.

Sun, Rain, & Rainbow Stick Puppets

Clip Art Sources:  The sun is from Microsoft Publisher.  The rain and rainbow are from Open Clip Art Library.  I drew a face on the rain to go with the one on the sun.

Notes:  On Writing (& Drawing) One's Own Storytime Material

I don't worry about writing a piece of literature. I'm perfectly aware that my rhymes are doggerel but they serve a purpose. Having this attitude has freed me to write my own stories and rhymes. If I need something to go with my "theme," I am no longer restricted to what is available. I'm also able to use different storytelling formats in a program. My themes can be very general or very specific depending on what strikes my fancy as I am planning a program. For years I have changed around stories and rhymes to suit my needs. It's just been in the past two years that I have been writing my own rhymes and stories and adapting folktales for programs on a regular basis. I wish I had started earlier. Seeing what others have created through Flannel Friday has also encouraged me. Now if I want to add a certain type of story to a program, such as a paper cutting or board story, and I can't find one that I like, I seriously consider making one of my own and often I do. Also, if I need "art" to go with a story and I can't find suitable clip art, I now draw my own.  Children are interested in the story, not how perfectly it's presented.  After all, we're not going for a Newbery or Caldecott here, just storytelling fun.

This week's Flannel Friday Roundup is hosted by Meghan on her Busy Crafting Mommy blog.