In a Dark Dark Wood

I told the classic make-you-jump story "In a Dark Dark Wood" in story time this morning using a Folkmanis puppet set I haven't used in years. In case you have one of these, or something similar, this is a good use for it--not nearly as scary as yelling "Boo!" to a group of preschoolers.

Puppet:
Three Little Pigs finger puppet set from Folkmanis.

The Story:
I add a lot of movement when I tell this one.

Once there was a dark dark wood (pretend to be trees)
And in that dark dark wood there was a dark dark path (let's walk together)
Down that dark dark path there was a dark dark house (fingertips together, make a roof for a house)
And on that dark dark house there was a dark dark door (let's open it . . . SQUEEEAK . . .)
And behind that dark dark door there was a dark dark room (squint, hand above your eyes)
And in that dark dark room there was a dark dark closet (open another squeaky door)
And in that dark dark closet there was a dark dark shelf (arms folded in front of you)
(I have the Folkmanis box hidden and bring it out.)

And on that dark dark shelf there was a dark dark box
And  in  that  dark  dark  dark box  there  were . . . .

THREE LITTLE PIGS!

The children (and grown-ups) really got a laugh. We told the story of The Three Little Pigs
after this on the flannel board.

Super simple.


Happy Day,
Miss Lisa

POUCH! David Ezra Stein

I wanted to do a Mother's Day story time theme this week in preschool story time, but not an in-your-face Mother's Day theme. Pouch! is one of my favorite stories to tell with our Folkmanis kangaroo puppet and her joey, so I thought it may be fun to change it up a bit and add a felt element to my storytelling.

The Set-Up:

 

Puppets: 

In addition to the felt kangaroos and joeys, I used my small puppets to help tell the story. For this story: a cardinal finger puppet, a baby rabbit finger puppet, and a bumblebee glove puppet.  

 

 

I hand sewed a little contrasting fabric pouch on each kangaroo mommy with just enough room to fit the joeys.

 

 

 

 

 

Throughout the story, Joey yells "Pouch!" and jumps back into his pouch each time he's frightened. I needed the ability to quickly pull Joey out and then put him back into his pouch, so I decided to attach each joey to a craft stick. This made the joeys sturdy enough to push and pull and gave me a handle to make Joey jump.

 

 

All in all, a simple and effective way to re-tell a beloved story.

This week's Flannel Friday round-up is hosted by Kathryn over at Fun With Friends at Storytime.  For more information about Flannel Friday, check out the official blog. 

 

 

 

Happy day,

Miss Lisa

 

 

 

 

Sandy the Clam

This is a super-simple puppet skit using a clam (or scallop) puppet, though just about any puppet you wanted to use would work as well. Reminding children to use inside voices after story time is an important part of socialization and learning. This is intended for a preschool audience.

Puppet:
clam



Props:

Sand bucket

(but you could just use your story time bag)

 

I told children I'd dug up a little sea friend for story time and asked them to guess what it could be. After some good guessing, I introduced Sandy the clam.

 

Keeping my fingers together so that her shell stayed closed, I explained to children that clams dig down into the sand and stay there. They are safest when the water is high. (I didn't get delve into high tide/low tide too much, since this was a preschool audience.) 

 

I wondered aloud how to get her shell open, and tickled her where I thought her chin might be. Sure enough, her shell opened and she laughed. (It was a loud laugh.) Immediately, I clamped her shell shut with the fingers of my other hand.

 

I did this a few times:  removing my fingers, then having Sandy open her shell and laugh--louder each time. Then I explained to children that Sandy had never been out of the water before, that she's never been indoors. So I asked them if they knew the difference between inside and outside voices. They sure did! So we practiced what our inside versus outside voices might sound like, so Sandy could hear and follow our example.

 

After a few tries, she laughed quieter and quieter, until she had the perfect inside voice.

 

I thanked the children for their example, and explained to them that Sandy couldn't help it; she's as happy as a clam!

 

Easy and fun. 



 

 



The King, the Mice and the Cheese

Or, as I called it, The King, The Mouse, and The Cheese.

I used this skit as part of a "royalty" themed storytime. I have to say it was one of the most successful stories I've tried with the preschoolers so far. The story is simple, repetitive enough for kids to help with, and funny. It took little prep effort and reaped big rewards. Some of the children stayed after our craft to reenact the story with the puppets again--magic.

I can't take credit for adapting this book to a puppet story; Steven over at Beyond the Book Storytimes (http://btbstorytimes.blogspot.com/) recently posted this idea and I ran with it.

Puppets:
mouse
cat
dog
lion
dragon (in the book it's an elephant)

Props:
a faux block of cheese
a small paper crown that fits your mouse

I adapted the story a little to suit our needs. I kept all of the animals singular, I changed the elephant to a dragon, and in the end I made the dragon afraid of mice so that he flew away--the king was so elated to be rid of the mean lion that he crowned the mouse and decided to share his cheese.

It worked really well and was a lot of fun!