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

 

 

 

 

Move Over, Rover!

Move Over, Rover! by Karen Beaumont is one of my favorite rainy day stories to share with preschoolers and is easily adapted into a short puppet skit. My library branch doesn't own all of the animals in Beaumont's book, so I use what we have on hand and try to include varying sizes of puppets.

Then, I just stack the puppets one on the other inside Rover's dog house, having the children repeat the refrain "Move Over, Rover!" with me. I've tweaked the ending of the version I tell, since we don't own a skunk, and instead have a dinosaur join the mix, scaring the tuna salad out of every animal involved.






Props:
I used my favorite building prop, a tri-fold presentation board, to construct a simple house facade. Cardboard rectangles secured with brass fasteners made the roof, and I cut out a large hole in front.

Puppets:
Dog

You can use what you have on hand and adapt. Here's what I used today:
Cat
Mouse
Bunny
Opossum
Dinosaur

I mostly follow the format of this cumulative story, keeping it simple by saying  "Rover's in the dog house, sleeping through the storm . . . (the animal) is looking all around to find a place that's warm . . .  MOVE OVER, ROVER!"

And I end it with the dinosaur puppet, saying "Crowded in the dog house, snoring all around. What's that sound? ROAR! A dinosaur!" And everyone skit skats out of Rover's dog house.

I hope you enjoy this one.



Happy day,
Miss Lisa

Family Felt Board Party!

In honor of the Week of the Young Child, we celebrated all things felt! I hosted a craftastic morning with parents, caregivers, and children, creating a portable felt board. Who knew a plain 1" three-ring binder could be so much fun?!

We made three play sets to take home:  "Three Green & Speckled Frogs," "Three Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed," and "Shape Monster." The sets were easy to create, and the overall program lasted about an hour and a half.

Here are some quick photos:

I was struck by the cuteness of these peel and stick felt stickers found at Michael's. They are a steal at $3 per pack of 24. I sorted them into baggies of 3 stickers each, so attendees could have a set of each. And boy are they easy peasy to use:  just adhere to a piece of felt and trim the edges.

Plain black 1" binders found at Wal-Mart for $ .97 each. We covered the front with a blue piece of sticky-back felt. Sticky back felt: $ .90 at A.C. Moore

 

I dug out all the excess felt and flannel I've had sitting around my branch for the last ten years! It felt good to pare down this assortment of odds and ends to make room for some clean new felt. I grouped the felt by color and displayed it on a table for families to choose their colors. Cost:  $0

 

 

My set up to quickly demo the rhymes and songs we were making and take a few minutes to introduce myself, talk about the importance of Every Child Ready to Read, as well as the tactile and simple satisfaction that telling a felt story can bring. I also showed attendees examples of other types of felt boards:  the easel I use, a sturdy piece of cardboard, and even an embroidery hoop!

 

 

Each portable felt board included copies of the rhymes and songs we were using, as well as a case to hold the individual pieces we made for "Three Green & Speckled Frogs," "Three Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed," and "Shape Monster."

 

 

And I snuck some ECRR material in there!

 

 

 

 Here are a couple of snapshots of our finished sets:

 

 

 

 

 

It was a successful and simple program; minimal cost and prep with the instant gratification of a felt board to play with in the car on the way home! I had adults asking if we could get together again and make more felt play sets--I can't wait to host a Family Felt Board Party again.

 

 

 

Shape Monster Booklet can be found  on one of my favorite blogs, Chit Chat and Small Talk:

http://chitchatandsmalltalk.blogspot.com/2012/11/shape-monster-book.html

 

Happy day!

Melisa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five Green and Speckled Frogs (Flannel Friday)

Okay, so the post for my *first* Flannel Friday isn't really a flannel, but a manipulative that you can use for story time. It's great for on-the-go, if you're traveling to a classroom or center, and fun for kids to play with in the car. It's just so stinking easy, I have to share it!

This is a super simple prop you can use for the traditional favorite, Five Green & Speckled Frogs. I've used it for years now in story time, with a blue cloth draped over my lap, and I plop the frogs onto the floor as we sing the song together.

We make a craft together each week in my preschool story time group, and I've given children paper towel tubes and frog cutouts to make their own frogs on a log to take home and practice.

Hope you enjoy it!

The adorable printable can be found here:
http://picklebums.com/2011/03/29/five-green-frogs-printable/

Materials needed are:
5 frog cutouts, preferably on card stock or sturdy paper or laminated
a paper towel tube
razor knife or scissors, to cut the paper towel tube log

Using the razor knife or scissors, make one long slit along the middle of the tube, about an inch from each end, keeping the line as straight as you can. When cutting out the frogs, make sure to leave a longish tab along the bottom of each so that you have plenty of room to push the cutout into the slit. Line them up, and you're ready to go!



Here's Miss Nina's wonderfully fun version of Five Green and Speckled Frogs, in case you need a refresher:

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 Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear

I adapted Don and Audrey Wood's classic into a short and simple puppet/flannel board combo. I like to use our mouse glove puppet, since the legs are easily manipulated.

Puppet:
mouse

Props:
a large red strawberry (pre-cut in half) 

strawberry leaves (for easy removal)
a square of dark felt, larger than your strawberry
A pair of those silly nose/mustache glasses with hinges and temples removed; add velcro

Here goes:

Oh, little mouse; whatcha ya doing? (Little mouse points to the strawberry on the flannel board.)
Wow, you found a red ripe strawberry! (Little mouse nods his head.)
Whatcha going to do with strawberry? (Little mouse pretends to pull at the strawberry.)
You're going to pick that red ripe strawberry and take it home? (Little mouse nods and jumps up and down.)
Hmmm . . . little mouse haven't you heard about the big brown bear who lives in these woods? (Little mouse shakes his head.)
Oh, (very dramatically) he's this big--arms up high--he sniffs like this (big bear sniffs), and he is VERY HUNGRY (rub your belly).
Little mouse scurries behind my back and peeks out.
So, little mouse, if you take this strawberry home, the big brown bear will know where you live. AAH!

It won't matter if you to try to hide it (cover strawberry with larger felt piece). Then remove the larger piece.

And it won't matter if you try to disguise it (put the glasses on the strawberry).
That big 'ol hungry brown bear will sniff it right out! (All sniff together.)

Did you hear that? (Pretend to hear something way off in the distance. Ask children if they hear it.)
I think that may be the big brown bear sniffing his way here now!

The best thing to do little mouse, is to cut that red ripe strawberry in two; give half to me and you keep half. (Pull the strawberry in two and remove from board.) Hurry! Let's eat.

(Rub your belly.) That's one less red ripe strawberry that big brown bear will get! Mm-hm.

THE END

Fireworks Jackson

A silly and calming puppet skit. I used this for my preschool group, but there were older siblings in the audience and they enjoyed it just as much.

Puppet:
small monkey hand puppet

No props needed.

I carefully took Fireworks Jackson from my tote bag. Wow, he was very shy! The children were off their feet and crowded around me to get a glimpse of him, so I pretended he whispered in my ear and said he'd be a little less scared if everyone was sitting down.
Once the children were settled back on the story time carpet, Fireworks Jackson whispered in my ear that he was sad because he was going to miss the Fourth of July fireworks--the noise was so loud, it frightened him. I asked the children if any of them were also afraid of the sound of fireworks. (Some were.)

So I told FJ and the children that even if they were anxious about the fireworks, they didn't have to miss them! Instead, I showed them how to make pretend fireworks with our hands.

It's easy!

I've adapted my own version from Billy Jonas' wonderful applause idea, and it brings smiles every time.

First, clap your hands together.
Next, hands together, shoot your pretend fireworks into the air with a whoosh!
Clap your hands above your head!
Now, sprinkle your firework fingers down to your right side, then your left--all the while saying "ooh," 'aah," "pretty colors!" Do this a few times and really play it up! Sometimes, I ask children to call out the colors of their fireworks as they descend; they come up with interesting combinations!

Once we were finished, FJ clapped (he has great little hands for clapping) and jumped up and down on my lap. He was so excited to try pretend fireworks!

Happy Fourth!

A brief video of Billy Jonas' "fireworks" can be seen here: