Flannel Friday: Dr. Seuss

I used these flannels in March for Dr. Seuss's birthday, but am just getting around to posting it now. Which means you have lots of time to make it for next year! Or you could, you know, use it not on Dr. Seuss's birthday. (Whaaaa....?)

These are different kinds of flannels for me in that I usually use the flannel in place of the book, but in these cases, I read the book while using the flannel simultaneously (except for the balloon one).

First up: I wish that I had Duck Feet. 

The character in this story wishes for a variety of animal parts (duck feet, a long long tail, antlers, a long nose) before deciding that he's happy just being himself. Here's my blank character. 

And here he is in all his glory. 

It's a cute story, even though it's a little long. I often cut a page from the description of every animal part because I tend to be reading to preschoolers. They find this one very funny and can usually supply the last word of the story ("ME!"), which I always find endearing. 

I like to read A Great Day for Up, too, and though I don't have a flannel for it per se, I do have a balloon race as an extension activity. 

I made six balloons that start at the bottom of my flannelboard. 

I originally made a colored cube from a kleenex box, but when that one got crushed (PSA: make sure you stuff your kleenex box with newspaper before making it into a thing the kids will be handling) I miraculously received a donation of this amazing soft cube: 

I then give the children a chance to roll the cube and move the corresponding balloon up the flannelboard. Whichever balloon makes it to the top of the flannelboard first wins! 

Finally, I do the classic: Green Eggs and Ham. 

I made pieces for all the repeated words.  

   

 

I put the pieces up as they come up in the story and then I stop saying the words altogether and simply point to each piece as the children shout it out. They are usually familiar with this story, and I find that using the flannels makes it new again.

This week's Flannel Friday is being hosted by Ms. Kelly at the Library. Make sure you check it out for more flannel ideas!

Flannel Friday: Five Monkeys and the Crocodile

I was putting together a blog post of sure-fire-never-fail books that I use in Storytimes and beyond, and I ran across this flannelboard that I made nine years ago - my first flannel ever, in fact! And not only has it stood the test of time, but it's definitely a sure-fire-never-fail-will-get-everyone-involved-and-excited flannel.

And here it is.

The five little monkeys....

... and the crocodile. 

There are several versions out there (and when I originally did this one, I had the crocodile burp out the monkeys, but now I just go for it with the snapping and the chomping), but this is the one I use: 

Five little monkeys swinging in a tree
Teasing Mr. Crocodile "you can't catch me!"
Along comes Mr. Crocodile, quiet as can be
And he SNAPPED that monkey right out of that tree!

Keep going till you have no monkeys left. I always ask the kids how many monkeys we have after each verse and when we have no more (they either say zero or I supply the word when they say "none!" - yay vocabulary building), I say "well then I guess we'll have to do something else!" And we do.

I've occasionally used the monkeys without the crocodile to do the monkeys on the bed rhyme, but I find it far less fun. This is also a great transition rhyme between Caps for Sale (it has monkeys) and Snip Snap, What's That? (it has a crocodile).

Happy Friday!

Preschool Science: Color

Preschool Explorers (my weekly preschool program that alternates between art and science each week) started up again this week and we began with a mix of art and science: color. 

First, I read Baby Bear Sees Blue by Ashley Wolff. I decided to start here so that the kids would have a chance to identify each color. 

After we had talked about each individual color, I brought out Mix it up! by Herve Tullet.

This gave us a chance to talk about how colors mix. The kids loved it (of course). 

I gave a brief explanation of the stations and then they were off. 

The Stations: 

1 - Color Wheels (Color Identification)

Take some printed or colored color wheels (preferably on cardstock or glued to cardboard). Add some clothespins with the colors written on them (in the appropriate color, of course) and you have a matching plus fine motor activity. One little boy liked this one so much, he wanted to take a color wheel home with him. 

2 - Paint in a bag (Color Mixing)

The kids squirted washable tempera paint into sandwich baggies and then squished the bag to mix the color. I showed them how to "paint" with their fingers by laying the bag flat and drawing on it with their fingers. 

3 - Color Books (Color Identification) 

I put out index cards, magazines, and crayons and the kids made their own color books. Shower curtain rings provided a way to keep it all together. 

4 - Watercolor Mixing (Color Mixing)

Three bowls with red, blue, and yellow, a bowl for mixing, and an eyedropper or pipette are all you need to make some color mixing fun! 

I provided coffee filters for the kids to see what color they had made (it's sometimes hard to tell with watercolors when they are in the bowl). 

Color most frequently made? Brown. 

5 - Pom Pom Matching (Color Identification)

I wrapped paper towel tubes with colored paper and added velcro to one side to make them stick to my flannel board. The kids would take pom poms and drop them down the chute of the same color. One little girl dropped with one hand and caught with the other. Others just liked the watch the pom poms shoot out. 

At the same station, I had muffin tins with circles of colored construction paper in them. The idea was to put the pom poms in the space with the same color. I found some scoops at Lakeshore Learning  that were used to pick up the pom poms. 

I find this particular program works well at the beginning of the year when some kids are just aging into the program and others have left for kindergarten. There is a range of levels of activity here and my barely three year old was just as interested as my four-going-on-ten year old. 

Preschool Science: Water

For this preschool lab, we tackled water. Well, not literally; that would be difficult. But we did spend the better part of an hour exploring different aspects of water (which, frankly, is fascinating. It's all around us yet defies most rules of physics). I was inspired by this and this.

I started out by reading Heather Fell in the Water by Doug MacLeod and Craig Smith.

Then we did a floating egg experiment, which not only allowed us to talk about "sink" and "float", but also set them up to experiment on their own when we went to the stations. 

I got the idea from here, though I simplified it to just be about an egg (click the link for other fun ideas!). We tried an egg in fresh water and then added salt bit by bit until the egg floated. While I poured and mixed, we talked about density and how much salt it might take to make the egg float. 

Once we got the egg to float, it was off to the stations!

Stations: 

To prep the stations, I put plastic tablecloths over each table and then layered a beach towel (from home) on top of that. (Hence the colorful pictures...). This kept the mess - or, in this case, the wetness - from going everywhere. Just remember to bring a bag to hold all the wet towels you'll be taking home to wash. 

1 - Swimming Raisins

Unfortunately for our first station, this one was a bust. Supposedly, a raisin will sink in regular water, but will rise and fall with the bubbles in sparkling water. We tried it a few different ways, but this one never quite took off. I'm gonna go with: it's the "learning about the scientific method" station...

2 - The Volume of Water

I put out a dozen plastic containers of different sizes and heights and capacities and asked the children to pour the water from one container to another. Even though the shape of the water changed, the volume remained the same. Also, pouring water is fun.

3 - Water Absorption

One of my co-workers donated a bunch of Talenti gelato containers and they are awesome! (Both the jars and the co-worker). I've used them for all sorts of things, but this time I put out sponges in different sizes and asked the children to put a sponge and a little water into a container, seal the container, and see if their sponge could absorb the water as they shook the container. 

4 - Sink or Float

This station was the most fascinating to the kids. I had bowls of water, a worksheet, and a ton of objects for the children to test. I also put out salt in case they wanted to try to make something float. This station got the best conversations between caregivers and children as they tried to guess what would happen and then tested it out. Also, as you probably already know, dropping things in water is fun.

5 - Water-resist Painting

I pulled out my white crayons for this one. The kids drew something with the white crayon on white paper and then painted over it in watercolor paint. Above, you can see the fish emerging through the paint. A lot of kids really liked this one, though they sometimes had their parents draw the first part because the white on white was too complex.

This was one of my favorite labs - simple concepts but all fun to play with (except the raisins) and minimal mess. I'll be repeating this one.

Flannel Friday Round-up!

Are you planning your fall storytimes? Well, strap yourself in because this week's round-up is going to make at least one of those storytimes a breeze. Ready? Ok, here we go.

First off, we have Danielle at Library Danielle who has ducks, frogs, and a lovely flannel to go along with Little White Duck. (Why do good books go out of print? This is the question we all ask ourselves when we see a super-cute flannel that we now want to make...)

Mel, over at Mel's Desk also has ponds on the brain with a flannel about a lily pond. The tune is familiar, and I do love reversible flannel pieces, I do, I do.

Kathryn, from Fun with Friends at Storytime, has some colorful ducks for a fun "what's missing?" game - always a good time with the kids - and bonus! a paper plate duck that's simple and adorable. Perfect storytime craft.

Speaking of games, Lindsey from Jbrary has a version of the Little Mouse game with ladybugs and fancy fringed rugs (could her next career be as a decorator...?) and an easy and helpful early literacy tip to boot.

And just like that: your fall "Pond" storytime is planned. Thank goodness for Flannel Friday!

Thank you to everyone who participated!

Learn more about Flannel Friday at our Facebook Page or on the blog.

Superhero Training for Preschoolers

The summer reading theme is superheroes? Of COURSE I have to do a superhero training course. It's practically mandatory (and super fun!).

I decided to split the groups into preschool (under 5s) and elementary (5 and up). I could probably have done them at the same time, but I wanted to make some division, especially because I had a training course in mind and what a 7 year old can do is vastly different from what a 3 year old can do and I didn't want anyone to be too challenged or too bored. 

Here's what I did with my littles (the preschoolers). 

Craft Stations

1 - Superhero Capes

I cut plastic tablecloths from our local party store into cape shapes (I got six capes out of each tablecloth) and printed out some emblems for the kids to color. These were then taped onto the capes, strings were added to tie the capes on the kids, and stickers were added (if they wanted them). Simple and oh so fun. Everyone is allowed to choose which stations to do and in what order to do them, but everybody chose to do this particular craft. 

2 - Masks

I bought bear and butterfly masks from Michaels (I really like the ties that come with them) and the kids decorated the masks with markers and stickers. I cut the sample mask (in the photo below) to have cat ears, hoping to encourage the kids to create different shapes (or cut the ears off entirely for the classic mask look).

 3 - Superhero Cuffs

This was a last minute addition when I panicked that maybe I didn't have enough activities (well documented case of "must have 43 things to do or else we all fail!!", see also the block party). The kids really liked it, though, and I ended up having to cut more cuffs because they were getting used so quickly.

I put out Slick Stix for the kids to color - I find they make the best decorating tools for cardboard.

4 - Coloring Sheets

Self-explanatory and surprisingly popular.

Superhero Training Course

The second part of the program was the training course. I spent a great deal of time trying to figure out which obstacles I could do with the materials that I already had and which obstacles I had done recently that might a) be boring or alternatively, b) be squished into the superhero theme.

These are the ones I ended up with:

1 - X-ray Vision

I put a different object into each wipes container and had the kids stick their hands in the top to guess what was inside. They could then open the container to see if they were right.

2 - Bowling for Villains

Someone donated a bowling set (yay!) so I printed out pictures of Disney villains, taped the suckers on the pins and had the kids knock them over with the bowling ball. Very satisfying.

3 - Mighty Muscles

Can you lift a bean bag over your head? Not as easy as it sounds. :-)

4 - Rescue the Animals

The kids walked along the tape line (without touching the lava!) to the stranded animals on the stool. They picked one and brought it with them the rest of the way to the purple land of safety. 

5 - Leaping Over Buildings

Can you leap over the buildings in a single bound? (Or four single bounds?) I wrapped cardboard bricks from our building set in black paper and then added small post-its for windows. 

6 - The Laser Maze

The kids navigated the maze without getting stuck in the tape. Note: have them take their capes off before they go through. The tape not only caught on the capes, but it stretched them, too. 

7 - Test of Courage: the dark tunnel

Crawl through it. This was made with chairs and sheets and was lots of fun to crawl through. I make shorter, lighter, easier to escape tunnels for the littles, in case of panic moments. 

8 - The Wall

The kids knocked down the bricks - either punching or kicking. Some of them really got in to it and we had lots of flourishes as they punched (and sound effects!). My favorite part of this wall, though, was the set of instructions immediately following it on the course: The Test of Kindness - can you rebuild the wall?

I had about 40 preschoolers and their parents come to this activity and it turned out that I had the perfect number of things to do. 

Thinking ahead, I may modify this training course for next year's health and fitness theme.

 p.s. Radio silence on here due to my severely misunderestimating (yup, made that word up, it describes my feelings perfectly) how much of a drain Summer Reading was going to be. I've only been doing this for like ten years.... Excuse: I block the bad parts and remember the good. Hmm... maybe that's not entirely a bad thing. What have we learned? Scheduling posts is a good thing. 

Preschool Art: Keith Haring

For this session of Preschool Explorers, we talked about Keith Haring and his artwork. Caveat: you need big big paper. I happened to have some rolls that someone donated, so I was set, but without those rolls this would not have been possible. 

First, we read books by Keith Haring. I read Ten and Big. We talked about the dancing figures and what they might be doing and we tried to twist our bodies into the same positions (hilarity ensued). 

We also looked at some of the drawings in I Wish I Didn't have to Sleep. 

This book is fascinating and asking the kids what they think the painting means is a treat. 

Then it was our turn! 

I rolled out the big paper so each kid could have a piece. They lay down and their grown-up companion traced their outline. Then the kids decorated themselves with all sorts of crafty odds and ends that I provided.  

I had hoped more of them would choose interested positions, but most of them just lay down and used that shape. 

Here are some of the results (in varying stages of done-ness):

The parents particularly loved this session and there was talk about hanging the results on bedroom walls. I saw some parents write the date on the sheet so they could compare the size as their preschooler grew (and we all know that happens way too fast....).