Flannel Friday Means -

Last year I wrote about "How I Got Mixed-Up with That Flannel Friday Crowd."

This week's special Flannel Friday Round-Up is hosted by Sharon of Rain Makes Applesauce.

Everything about Flannel Friday can be found here.

Mole's New Hole

This week's Flannel Friday post was written to go along with this summer's CSLP theme, "Dig Into Reading." The story was inspired by the folktale "The Big Turnip" and Elephant in a Well by Marie Hall Ets.

Mole’s New Hole

Linda Meuse

3/1/13

Notes from the Story Room

Mole popped out the ground. He had just made a new entrance to his underground home. He had a nice new mole-sized hole. Just then Possum came ambling by and saw Mole. “Hello, Mole,” said Possum. “How are you today?” “Fine, thank you,” replied Mole. “I just made a brand new hole for my underground home.” “Oh, may I take a look?” asked Possum. “Certainly,” said Mole, “but be careful. It’s a mole-sized hole not a possum-sized hole.” Possum had never seen Mole’s underground home so he was very curious. He stuck his head in the hole but couldn’t see much. “I’ll just go down a little further,” thought Possum, pushing his front into the hole. “Be careful!” said Mole but it was too late. Possum was stuck. He couldn’t get himself out of the hole. “Help!” yelled Possum. “My feet are up and my head is down. I have nothing to grab on to. Please pull me out!”

Mole tried to pull Possum out. He pulled and pulled but he could not get Possum out. “I’ll get help,” said Mole. Mole found Raccoon who came to help. Raccoon pulled on Mole and Mole pulled on Possum. They pulled and they pulled but Possum did not come out. Rabbit came over to help. Rabbit pulled on Raccoon and Raccoon pulled on Mole and Mole pulled on Possum. They pulled and they pulled but Possum stayed stuck. Squirrel saw what was happening and offered to help. Squirrel pulled on Rabbit and Rabbit pulled on Raccoon and Raccoon pulled on Mole and Mole pulled on Possum. They pulled and pulled but Possum did not move an inch. Skunk came to help. Skunk pulled on Squirrel and Squirrel pulled on Rabbit and Rabbit pulled on Raccoon and Raccoon pulled on Mole and Mole pulled on Possum but Possum was still stuck in the hole. “What are we going to do?” asked Mole. “We can’t pull Possum out.” “I think we are going to have to dig Possum out,” said Raccoon. “But that will ruin my hole and my home below!” wailed Mole. “Let me help too,” said a teeny, tiny voice. It was Mouse who was so small she could barely be seen above the grass. “I would like to help pull Possum out of Mole’s hole,” said Mouse. “We already tried. One little mouse won’t make a difference,” said Raccoon. Mole really didn’t want his nice new hole ruined so he said, “Let’s give it one more try.” Mouse pulled on Skunk and Skunk pulled on Squirrel and Squirrel pulled on Rabbit and Rabbit pulled on Raccoon and Raccoon pulled on Mole and Mole pulled on Possum. They pulled and pulled and Possum finally came up out of the hole. “Thank you,” said Possum. “I am really happy to be out of that hole.” “Not nearly as happy as I am,” replied Mole looking at his nice new mole-sized hole.

Note: This story was written to be told with flannel/magnet board figures. When making the figures make sure that Possum's back half is bigger than the front so that he gets "stuck" in the hole.

The cast of characters ready to be laminated:

Squirrel, Rabbit, Mouse

Raccoon and Skunk

Hole, Mole and Possum

This week's Flannel Friday is hosted by Lisa of Libraryland.

Penguins - Evening Family Story Time

Family Story Time - Penguins!
Monday, February 25, 2013, 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Attendance - 28 (15 children, 13 adults)

Book:  If you Were a Penguin by Wendall and Florence Minor

Board Story:  "Porter Penguin's Adventure"

Board Rhyme:  "There Was a Little Penguin"

Prop Story:  "Penny Penguin's Magical Meal"

Guessing Game:  "Baby Penguin, Baby Penguin"

Crafts:  Penguin Mask and Penguin ABC Dot to Dot

Notes:  There were several new families at this program. The ages ranged from infant to age 5. This was a younger than usual group. They were a bit more wiggly than usual as well but settled down when asked. When I talked about the North and South Poles, the five-year-old had no problem informing me that polar bears lived at the North Pole and that penguins lived at the South Pole. "Penny Penguin's Magical Meal" was the most liked story which made making the prop worth the effort. The children also enjoyed the guessing game. The penguin mask was also a big hit. It was fun to see one little guy go waddling out of the room holding up his mask.

Penny Penguin's Magical Meal

Originally I was going to use "Pippa's Penguin" by Susan Daily for my penguin program. Then I decided to use a similiar concept but a different story. I wanted the story to go with "Porter Penguin's Adventure" so I wrote my own. Rather than penguins in a zoo, I wanted them in a more natural habitat. I used a prop for this story but it can easily be used with flannel/magnet board pieces instead.

Penny Penguin’s Magical Meal

by Linda Meuse

Notes from the Story Room

(http://meusenotes.blogspot.com/)

February 19, 2013

Penny Penguin lived on an island almost always covered in snow. Only during two months of the year is there no snow. It was that time of year now. The snow was gone leaving behind a hilly, rocky landscape. Penny decided to explore to see if she could find something new. Last year she found tiny flowers blooming in wind-protected crags in the hillside. Penny started climbing over the rocks. It took her a while and she was starting to get hungry. Just then she spied a small pond hidden among the rocks. It was something new that she had never seen before. She looked into the crystal clear water and couldn’t believe what she saw. It was full of colorful fish. Just then Penny’s tummy started to rumble and grumble. Those fish looked mighty tasty. Penny grabbed one and ate it. It was delicious. Then something strange happened. Her tummy felt funny. She looked down and her white front had turned blue – the same color as the fish she had just eaten! “Wow!” said Penny. “That fish has turned my tummy blue! I wonder what would happen if I ate a green fish.” She decided to find out. She ate a green fish and sure enough her tummy felt funny again and this time when she looked down her tummy had turned green. “This is fun,” said Penny and she promptly ate a purple fish. Sure enough she had that funny tummy feeling and when she looked down her front had turned purple. Then she saw a fish with lovely spots. “I have to eat that one,” said Penny. “Then I’ll have the fanciest front on the island.” Penny ate the spotted fish and sure enough when she looked down she had a fancy spotted front. After a while Penny became a bit dizzy looking at all those spots. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all,” said Penny. “I think I would rather be my plain old self.” She looked at the remaining fish in the pond. It took a while but she finally saw a plain white fish. Well, it was almost plain. It had one black spot on it. “One spot won’t matter,” said Penny. She ate the plain fish and soon her front became white again though it did have one black spot right in the middle of her tummy. So now there is a penguin waddling around the island that looks like she has a bellybutton!

Note: This story was written to be used with a penguin prop or flannel/magnet board pieces.

This is the prop that I made to go along with the story:

Penny - front

It is similiar to the one I made for Drakestail only smaller. I drew a penguin on card stock. After I cut out the penguin, I cut out the white front and glued a piece of clear plastic on the back so that the different colored pieces will show. I used a scrap piece of laminating film. I cut around the beak so she could "eat" each fish. When telling the story I pull out each front piece to reveal the new color.

Penny - back

The "pocket" stapled on the back holds the different fronts. I also stapled on a handle so I could hold Penny. I colored the parts of the staples showing on the front with black marker to make them less noticable.

Penny - eating a fish

I cut the fronts from various colors of cardstock. The dotted front is from an inexpensive booklet of textured and patterned paper that I purchased at a craft store.

Penguin fronts and fish

This week's Flannel Friday Round-Up is hosted by Storytime ABC's. Click on Flannel Friday for complete information.

Not Quite There Yet

I feel like the tortoise - slow and steady. I'm making progress but it is slow. I hope to post something useful next week.

This week's Flannel Friday Round-Up is being hosted by the Storytime Katie blog.

Round-up Redirected

This week's Flannel Friday Round-Up is hosted by Miss Courtney Meets Bobo. Miss Courtney graciously stepped in to host the round-up for me. (The damage to my knee was greater than expected so my recovery from what I thought was going to be a simple surgery has turned out to be more difficult than expected. Time and physical therapy will help.) I hope to start posting to Flannel Friday next week. I still have another penguin story in the works. As always, everything Flannel Friday can be found here.

Karen's Valentine's Day Surprise

This story can be told two ways, either as a draw and tell story or as a board story.

Karen’s Valentine’s Day Surprise

Linda Meuse

1/25/13

Notes from the Story Room: http://meusenotes.blogspot.com/

Note: This story can be told two ways. Draw hearts following the placement sequence for a draw and tell story. Use precut heart figures for a board story. Make sure to use material that will allow the figures to stick on top of each other. Another option is to simply glue the figures onto each other with a glue stick.

“Oops,” said Karen. She had been in such a hurry that she had dropped her bag of Valentines and it landed upside down spilling all her valentines onto the floor. (1) She quickly scooped them all up and put them back in the bag. She went downstairs, had her breakfast, and started out the door to catch her bus. Her mom called after her, “Have a good day, Karen. When you get home there will be a special Valentine’s Day surprise waiting for you.” All the way to school, Karen wondered what the surprise could be. She had no idea. When she got to school, Karen had to wait until it was time to give out her valentines. Finally the time came when she could give out valentines to all of her classmates. Not all of the valentines were for her classmates. She had a special one for her teacher. (2) She even had valentines for the school nurse and the school librarian. (3) Then she gave out her valentines to her classmates. (4) Karen got lots of valentines from her friends. (5) Her friend Mary gave her a pretty one that she had made just for Karen. (6) Karen had a great day at school but was happy to go home to see her Valentine’s Day surprise. Can you guess what it was? It was a cute little puppy for Karen to love. She named it Val for it was her own special Valentine.

Drawing/Placement Sequence
(1) Draw/place largest heart upside down.
(2) Draw/place next largest heart on top of the first heart
(3) Draw/place hearts for ears
(4) Draw/place hearts for inside ears and paws
(5) Draw/place hearts for eyes and nose
(6) Draw/place heart for tail

Pattern for Draw and Tell Version

Board Version

(I would use colors with a greater contrast. I'm stuck at home awaiting knee surgery so I had to use what I have at home.)

Template for Heart Figures

(I used "Autoshapes" in Microsoft Publisher to make the hearts.)

This week's Flannel Friday Round-Up is hosted by Sarah of Read It Again! Everything about Flannel Friday can be found here.