Beach Storytime and Felt Board

For my evening Storytime this week I decided to do a beach theme.  The kids loved it.  I pulled out my coconut and pineapple bowling set for the beginning play time and the kids couldn't get enough of it!  I had a hard time narrowing my book selection for this one but I got it down to three books and a poem.  

The books:

 

I found the poem Five Little Seashells  and made a printout for the kids to color and take home.  You can print your own copy here.

I turned it into a felt board as well.  Below is my quick attempt at an ocean wave.  

I found pictures of shells on the internet to trace onto felt.  

For our craft we made a seashell wreath.  I cut out paper plates and tied a ribbon to the top.  The kids used glue sticks to add squares of tissue paper to the plates.  I had the kids pick out 6 small seashells and used glue dots to attach them to their wreaths.  The glue dots were perfect for this craft.  I didn't want to pull out the hot glue gun for this project and school glue takes to long to dry.  If you don't have glue dots go get them.  They are wonderful for crafting!

Here is my sample wreath.

Enjoy!

Umbrella/Rain Felt Board

I decided to do a rain Storytime this spring and came across some adorable felt board stories in my search. I will be using 10 Little Raindrops by Storytime Katie and 5 Umbrellas by Christine at Felt Board Ideas.  There are so many cute flannel board ideas for rain!

Here are my pieces.  I couldn't resist adding a little glitter to the raindrops.  I think I might have a problem with glitter.  I want to put it on EVERYTHING.

I also made a sheet for kids to color and take home.  You can print it out and use it.

I plan to read some of these books.  I haven't quite decided which ones yet.  They're all good!

The Thingamabob by Il Sung Na

 Rain by Manya Stojic

This Is the Rain by Lola M. Shaefer

 The Water Hole by Graeme Base

Confetti Bird Story and Craft

I'm working on my Spring Evening Storytimes and came across the Confetti books.  I will be using Roly-Poly Egg  Snack Time for Confetti by Kali Stileman. 

What you will need:

• Blue yarn
• Blue pipe cleaners
• Brightly colored paper
• Scissors
• Hole punches in different sizes
• Wiggly eyes
• Liquid glue

I found a fun and easy way to make Confetti out of yarn and a pipe cleaner. One of my oh-so willing Pages made large pompoms out of blue yarn.  My first attempt I used a large store bought pompom, but it didn't look fluffy enough.  I folded a blue pipe cleaner in half and then fold the ends to create feet and glued it to the bottom of the pompom.  Using two different sized hole punches I punched circles out of  brightly colored scrap paper.  I made the beak by cutting a diamond shape out of orange card stock and folding it in half.  Then I glued the eyes (I used two different sizes), paper dots, and beak to the pompom to create Confetti!  Isn't he cute?  The kids will have fun making this little bird and the stories are adorable.

Here's a closer look at Confetti:

Enjoy!

Five Green Shamrocks

I found some really cute poems and stories to do the next two weeks for St.Patrick's Day in Storytime.
This week I will be doing a green theme using the books Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger and Where Is Green Sheep? by Mem Fox.

I will be using the felt board for the rhyme: 5 Green Shamrocks.  This rhyme can be found on narrating tales of preschool storytime.  I decided to make coloring sheet with the rhyme on it for kids to take home.   

 You can print it here. 

The other flannel board story that I will be using next week is called Leprechaun, Leprechaun, What Do You See? It is based off of  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

You can find the whole story here at Storytime ABC's

Here's my felt creations for the story, minus the sun.  I will just use a sun from another story.  I mixed felt and clip art for my leprechaun.  He looks pretty cute to me!

Enjoy!

Lorax Craft

Saturday March 1st the library will be celebrating Dr. Seuss with Lorax Day.  I do a Lorax themed craft and we watch the movie.  It's a simple program that's lots of fun. Here is the craft I will be doing this year.

Lorax planter with a Truffula tree

What you will need:

• Small planter pots-I used ones that are about 2.5" x 3"
• Googly eyes
• Yarn
• Orange pompoms
• Large pompoms in various colors
• Small wood dowels cut into 8" lengths
• White paint-to paint the dowel
• Black marker to add the squiggly lines to the trunk
• Dry floral foam cut into 1.5" blocks
• Liquid glue or glue dots

Here's what I did:

    First, make the mustache.  I used a scrap of card board about 4" wide and wrapped the yarn around it 10 times.  Then cut the ends and tied one strand around the middle section.  

Glue the eyes, nose and mustache to the planter pot.

Next add the Truffula tree.  Place the floral foam in the bottom of the pot with a little bit of glue on the bottom to help keep it in place.  While that is drying take a black marker and add squiggled lines around the dowel.  Take a large pompom and use glue to attach it to the top of a dowel.  Once the pompom is attached to the top of the dowel stick the newly made Truffula tree into the floral foam as centered and as straight as you can. And that's it.

Enjoy!

Mouse Mess Craft

I'm doing a mouse themed Storytime next week and one of the books I will be reading is Mouse Mess by Linnea Riley

I decided to have the kids make a craft based off of this book.

What you need:

• Small paper plates
• Mouse picture ( I made mine ahead of time at home with a Cricut machine)
• Small pictures of food for the kids to color
• Crayons
• Glue sticks
• Pop-up glue dots

Have the kids color all the food pieces and then glue them at random onto the paper plate.

Put two pop-up glue dots on the back of the mouse.  I put one behind the head and one behind the belly.  Have the kids place their mouse on the plate.  And you're done. Mouse mess!

Enjoy!

Hanging Moose Craft

I decided to do a moose themed Storytime this winter and wanted a cute moose craft to go with it.  You can print out what I made here.  I found the moose head picture here.  

What you need: 

• Card stock
• Crayons
• Hole punch
• Yarn
• Beads (with large enough holes to fit the yarn through)

Print out and cut the moose pieces.  Have children color in their moose.  

Punch a whole in the top of each piece.

Cut a piece of yarn.  It does not need to be too long.  Each moose will need two beads.  I did not use the beads shown in the picture above.  They were too long and made the moose appear floppy.  Instead, I used round ones that were about half that length.  String the legs of the moose, bead, body, bead, and then the head.  Tie the yarn together and now you have this cute little moose.

Moose books to share:

Moose Tracks! by Karma Wilson

 If You Give a Moose a Muffin  by Laura Numeroff
This Moose Belongs To Me by Oliver Jeffers
 Duck Duck Moose  by Dave Horowitz
 The Invisible Moose by Dennis Haseley
 Z Is For Moose  by Kelly L. Bingham
Making the Moose Out Of Life by Nicholas Oldland
Moosestache by Margie Palatini

Moose On the Loose by Kathy-Jo Wargin

Enjoy!

Five Little Turkeys Felt Board Story and Printout

FIVE LITTLE TURKEYS 

Five little turkeys standing by the barn door,
One waddled away, and then there were four.
Four little turkeys out under the tree,
One waddled away, and then there were three.
Three little turkeys with nothing to do,
One waddled away, and then there were two.
Two little turkeys in the noonday sun,
One waddled away, and then there was one.
One little turkey better run away,
Soon will come Thanksgiving day.

I made my turkey using a die cut machine and added some color with fabric markers.

(Feel free to print out the sheet below)

5 Little Ghosts Felt Board and Poem

I found the Five Little Ghost poem in Twiggle Magazine and decided to make a felt haunted house and all the characters to go along with it.  Here's what I and two of my clerks, Robin & Mikayla came up with.

Aren't these adorable?!

We started with the Castle and ghosts.

The ghosts can be taken off and put back as needed for the poem.

I can't wait to share this with my Storytime kids!

UPDATE:  I did this in Storytime and the kids loved it.  I passed out the ghosts as we read the poem and had the kids bring them back up to the haunted house as they counted the ghost in the last verse.  We did this a couple times so everyone could have a chance to put something on the board.  On the second time around I passed out the monster, witch, skeleton, spider, and cat and had the kids bring up the item in their hand as they appeared in the poem.  This kept them engaged as well.

Felt Bat and Poem

I've seen several posts about bat rhymes which inspired me to make my own.  I had a hard time trying to find a good bat picture to use as a stencil so I made my own.  A picture of the stencil is below.  Feel free to copy and print it out if you'd like. 

I made 5 bats and gave them wiggly eyes.

I decided to use this Bat poem found here.

Bat pattern:  

Enjoy!

Fall Leaf Crafts

As I was planning my Fall Evening Storytimes, I decided to change things up a bit this year.  I'm working on finding that activity that is just right for my first session. I'm reading books about Fall colors and leaves.  The last two  years I've done Fusion Paper leaves using liquid watercolor.  They always come out great-but they take too long to dry.  Here's what I came up with as alternatives.  

The first is still using my leaf shaped fusion paper (you can also use coffee filters and cut them into the leaf shapes) and markers.  This is fun for the kids because they can color all over the leaf and then mist it with water.  The kids will be entertained as the colors bleed together.  For the frame I cut two leaf shapes out of card stock and glued to either side of the colored leaf.  This method of coloring the leaf dries quickly and comes out nice.

The second leaf  I made with glitter and Mod Podge.  This one is slightly on the messy side because glitter just has a way of getting everywhere! The kids will be given paintbrushes and Mod Podge and work in small sections to cover their leaves with different fall colored glitter.  

Enjoy!

Porthole Fish Craft

Who doesn't want to make a paper plate porthole?!  I'm going to be doing a fish themed storytime this fall and I wanted to change up the craft.  I came up with this porthole using paper plates and transparency paper.   With some prep work beforehand this is going to be a fun simple craft for the kids.

What you need:

• 2 paper plates (one with the center cut out)
• Transparency paper or plastic wrap
• Small shells
• Blue paper or crayons to color background blue
• Sand (not pictured in sample)
• Gems or sequins for bubbles
• Cutouts of fish and seaweed (or have kids draw)  I will be using foam fish stickers for storytime.
• Silver Sharpie or crayon
• Glue sticks
• liquid glue
• Scotch tape

Here's how to put it all together:

Cut a circle out of the center of one paper plate.  Tape a piece of transparency or plastic wrap tightly over the whole.  This will make your window.  Be sure to place tape on the inside part so you don't see the tape when the plates are glued together. Set this plate aside.

Cut out a blue piece of paper and glue to the top of the other plate, or have children color the other plate blue with a crayon.  I did not have any sand handy when I made my sample, but I will have the kids add a little bit of sand to the bottom of the plate under the seaweed.  Next decorate with seaweed, fish, and shells.  Use glue sticks to glue paper shapes to the blue background.  I used liquid glue to attach the shells.  

For storytime I will have foam fish shapes to use instead of paper cutouts.

Once your fish are in place add some clear gems to make air bubbles.

Now for the fun part.  Using the glue sparingly outline the bottom plate with liquid glue. Place the top plate with the window on top of the bottom plate.  Go around the outside edge gently pressing the two pieces together.

Next add some rivets to the outside plate with a marker or crayon by drawing small circles all around the inside edge.

Now, go show off your beautiful creation.

Enjoy!

The Wonderful Book and Activity

I've been trying to come up with a fun activity to go along with the book: The Wonderful Book by Leonid Gore for Storytime.  This is what I came up with.  I used recycled cassette cases to make the outside covers of a book and then glued pages to the inside.  For a tutorial on how I did this check out this post.  I created a cover  and glued it to the front.  Tonight in Storytime the kids will design their book cover and they can then draw pictures in their book and start creating their own wonderful stories.  I like this activity much better than making bookmarks!  

Hatching Chick Farm Craft

I'm going to a preschool visit next week and I always bring a craft with me for the kids to do.  This month's theme for the class is Farming.  I decided to do a variation of the hatching dinosaur egg and turn it into a hatching chick.  

I plan to pair this craft with the book Chicken Soup by Jean Van Leeuwen

For this craft all you need is:

• 2 small white paper plates
• Scissors
• Crayons
• Markers
• Glue Stick
• Paper/felt/card stock etc. (to make your chick)
• Wiggly eyes
• Stapler

For detailed instructions on how to make this craft check out the hatching dinosaur egg link above.

Once the craft is complete kids can fold back the flaps and see the baby chick they colored hatch!

For my chick I used an Ellison die 4"Chick

The chick is made out of Smart-Fab which is super fun to work with and decorate.  

It gives this little chick a nice soft look. 

Enjoy!