Flannel Friday: Rabbit Finger Puppets

I made these finger puppets back in graduate school when I was just starting to do storytime. The pattern I used is not available on the web anymore, but here's a collection of free finger puppet crochet patterns.I like to pull these out for the rabbit storytime I usually do every April. Rabbits are one of my favorite animals.

Jenna has the round up this week.

Important Links:
Flannel Friday Blog
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Follow Flannel Friday on Twitter with the hashtag #FlannelFriday.
Our Flannel Friday Fairy Godmother is Amy (@choosejoytoday).

Jonathan & Martha by Petr Horacek

Two lonely worms plus one juicy pear equals one love story.

What I thought: cute book! This was a nice addition to my underground insects storytime last summer. The illustrations are good...vibrant colors and good use of white space.

Storytime Themes: Worms, Bugs/Insects, Fruit, Love, Valentine's Day

Flannel Friday: Goldfish

Yet another inspired by Flannel Friday. Library Quine and Lisa both inspired my goldfish. I enjoyed using different shades of yellow and orange felt as well as metallic glittery puff paint to make these fish.

Kay has the round up this week.

Important Links:

Flannel Friday Blog
Flannel Friday on Pinterest
Flannel Friday on Facebook
Follow Flannel Friday on Twitter with the hashtag #FlannelFriday.
Our Flannel Friday Fairy Godmother is Amy (@choosejoytoday).

Stuffed Animal Sleepover...Take 3

The idea of a stuffed animal sleepover is one I ran across on PUBYAC while still in graduate school. This is the third time I've planned one and the ninth time I hosted one. For the first two, I held them at each of my four branches, ergo I hosted eight times.




Here's the way a stuffed animal sleepover works for me and my branches: kids bring a stuffed animal friend to a special storytime and then leave the animal for a sleepover. We hold our sleepovers on the nights when the branches are open late. After the kids leave, I (and hopefully a volunteer or two) pose the animals getting into mischief around the library. I share the photos with parents in a variety of ways. I've used Flickr, Photobucket, and now the library system's Facebook page.

When planning this sleepover, I looked back at what I'd done in the past. A few things I kept, but others I changed. Here's what I did:

Movement Song: “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed”

Book: Hugless Douglas and the Big Sleep-Over by David Melling

Poem with Flannel Board: “Goodnight Mummy” by Roger Stevens from Switching on the Moon: A Very First Book of Bedtime Poems collected by Jane Yolen & Andrew Fusek Peters

Book: Let’s Sing a Lullaby with the Brave Cowboy by Jan Thomas

Rhyme with Flannel Board: “Blue Ted Said”

Book: Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! by Mo Willems

Action Song: “Rockabye Your Bear” by The Wiggles

Book: Dream Animals: A Bedtime Journey by Emily Winfield Martin 

After storytime, the kids tucked their animals in and we sang them a lullaby (Twinkle, Twinkle, LIttle Star). 

All of the books, flannels, and songs I did were well received with the except of Dream Animals. The kids were just too wiggly to appreciate such a quiet book, but I do plan on trying it in storytime again.  

And here are a few photos from the sleepover. To view the entire album, you can visit our Facebook page. 

#Flannel Friday: What's In an Egg?

I used this set for my Eggs storytime theme in the spring. I made the eggs, but pulled the animals from other sets: the turtle from "I Made My Dog a Valentine;" the fish from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish; the spider from "Goodnight Mummy;" the duck from the pumpkin game, and the chick from Chook, Chook, Chook, Chook, Chook.

Meg has the round up this week.

Important Links:
Flannel Friday Blog
Flannel Friday on Pinterest
Flannel Friday on Facebook
Follow Flannel Friday on Twitter with the hashtag #FlannelFriday.
Our Flannel Friday Fairy Godmother is Amy (@choosejoytoday).

#FlannelFriday: Bird Houses

This is another inspired by Flannel Friday post. I was inspired to make this set by Erin at Falling Flannelboards. She even provided a template! I look forward to using this set with various storytime themes including houses, birds, colors, and shapes. And I just realized I didn't give my birds any wings...oh well!

Christine has the round up this week.

Important Links:

Flannel Friday Blog

Flannel Friday on Pinterest
Flannel Friday on Facebook
Follow Flannel Friday on Twitter with the hashtag #FlannelFriday.
Our Flannel Friday Fairy Godmother is Amy (@choosejoytoday).

Winnie-the-Pooh Party

I held this event at two of my branch libraries in January around the 18th (Winnie-the-Pooh Day/A. A. Milne's Birthday). The event last about an hour and a half and was for children age three and up. Children were invited to wear their favorite scarf and celebrate Winnie-the-Pooh.

We started off with a little quiz about the characters. I found questions online, in an event kit, and just made some up.

Using my crocheted bear and beehive hand puppets, I told chapter 1 of Winnie-the-Pooh, "In Which We Are Introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh  and Some Bees and the Stories Begin." 

We did a couple of activities with the flannel board: bees,beehive, bear & band-aids, and Find the honey Pot. I reused these from my Teddy Bear Picnic.

After that we moved onto other games. I found several fun game ideas on the Birthday Party in a Box website. We had a bouncing Tigger race (sack race), put bees in the garden (egg toss), a honey pot drop (gummy bears into a pot). We also played Pin the Bee on the Bear (another idea I reused from the Teddy Bear Picnic).

For the craft, we made Pooh stick puppets using yellow construction paper. I put out a request the Storytime Underground Facebook page and Lisa Mulvenna suggested this.

We had a simple snack and I sent the kids home with a coloring sheet and a book list (Books Similar to Winnie-the-Pooh...Animal Fantasy, Toys, etc.) I also used the book list to create a book display in the meeting room.

 I had planned to use Winnie-the-Pooh's ABC, but didn't. I also found a fun idea from Tracey on 1234 More Storytimes...a character version of " If You're Happy and You Know It," but didn't get to use it. You can also check out my Winnie-the-Pooh Party Pinterest Board.