Flannel Friday: A Rumble in the Jungle

Hey, it's a jungle in here!

Source

Happy Flannel Friday!

This week, I was inspired during a super quick visit to our Dollar Store. It was a fast in-and-out visit yesterday morning but I happened to notice some adorable jungle stickers. 

They were only a $1.00!

Since my Family Night storytime this week was an adventure to the jungle, I just had to have them! 

But ~ what to do with them?!??!???

When we adventure to the jungle at storytime, I usually do several songs with lots of different jungle animals so I decided to make some magnetic/flannel sets using these cute animals as my inspiration. 

I took a sheet of the stickers and scanned it into Photoshop. Then I used the cropping tool to isolate each animal ~ leaving a border of the green around each one because I thought it was a nice contrast. Finally,  I enlarged each animal to the appropriate size and printed them out on cardstock.

This is what you need to make the flannel set.

Once they were printed out, I cut out each one leaving the nice green border. 

Sorry about the colors 

~ he should be brown and tan with a light green border ~ 

I'm not sure why my pictures show strange colors sometimes. :o(

Here is where I did different techniques ~ one for the magnetic board and one for the flannel board:

To prepare the animals for flannel use, I glued the cardstock to some stiff black felt using Tacky glue. 

The final step ~ I trimmed the black felt to leave a black border around the edge of the green. That really makes the colors stand out! 

Now he is ready to monkey around at storytime!

For the magnetic board set, I simply copied the animals onto the cardstock, cut out each one ~ leaving the green border ~ and laminated them. Once laminated, I trimmed them up again and put a magnet on the back of each one. Here is the whole gang that I made for last night's storytime:

If you are observant, you will have noticed that I did not include all of the animals from the sticker sheet. I was in a crunch for time since I found them at around 1 pm and needed to use them at 7 pm. I made the ones that I knew would go along with my featured book and a few songs that I had planned to sing. I will be adding the rest soon.

If you are super observant ~ which I am NOT! ~ you may have noticed an extra jungle friend. Here's a clue ~ It is one of these two animals:

It is the flamingo! Isn't she gorgeous? 

And she fits right in with a little help from the green border. I found the flamingo by doing a Google search in images. Once I found one that was similar to the other animals, a friend used a cool tool in Photoshop to add the green border. It is the rubber stamp tool. He says it is simple so I will be learning how to do it myself.  (I love learning new things, don't you?)

There you have it! 

Two ways to very quickly take an inspiration (stickers!) and transform it into usable, brightly colored storytime props.

A few ways that they can be used:

First, I used some of them with a fun song ~ The Jungle Walk (resource information coming soon ~ I have used this song for 20 plus years. It is from a record set that a friend gave me when I first started teaching preschool. The set is my absolute favorite music resource for teaching and for storytimes. I am researching on-line for information on it and will share it as soon as I find it In the meantime, you could just read the words. Contact me if you are interested in having them sent to you.) :

"It's a perfect day to walk in the jungle

Come and spend some time.

Look for the animals deep in the jungle.

Look through the trees and vines."

Each new verse introduces a different animal and asks the children to move like that animal. This song is wonderful for movement and for encouraging good listening skills.

The jungle animal sets can also be used for another active song:

 If I Were

(Sung to: "The Mulberry Bush")

Oh, if I were a monkey, 

a monkey, a monkey,

Oh, if I were a monkey

I'd swing around the jungle.

Swing, swing

Oh, if I were a tiny snake,

tiny snake, tiny snake,

Oh, if I were a tiny snake 

I'd slither around the jungle.

Slither, slither

More verses:

Flamingo ~ fly

Zebra ~ trot

Tiger ~ crawl

Giraffe ~ stretch

Hippo ~ waddle

Lion ~ stalk 

Elephant ~ stomp

For a different take on this song, you could make sounds instead of movements such as roaring for the lion, hissing for the snake, etc. If you don't know what an animal sounds like, you could always ask your child/ren. They often have great suggestions! 

Okay, one more:

At the last minute, I decided to use the animals for a little storytelling. I did a jungle version of Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  Any version of this popular book is always fun and well-received by the children and the parents!

It started out like this:

I went for a walk in the jungle

And what do you think I saw?

I saw a monkey looking at me!

And this is what I said,

Monkey, Monkey, what do you see?

I see a snake slithering by me.

If you would like a copy of the whole story, please send my an email at storytimeabcs@gmail.com

Our adventure to the jungle was a BLAST! Thanks to the colorful jungle animals that were soooo simple to make! I hope you enjoyed learning how they were adapted for both the flannel board and the magnetic board. Come back soon for another visit because I will be sharing more ideas on how to use these stickers for other learning activities. AND I will be sharing our craft from last night! He produced lots of ROAR-ingly good fun!

It's a roaring lion!

I chose this particular picture to include because 

of the little one in the background. 

They are really having fun with the magnetic set!

The little guy's expression is priceless!

I hope you have a fun, adventurous weekend!

And, as always,

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!

This week's Flannel Friday Round-Up is being hosted by Mollie at her blog, What Happens In Storytime. Thanks for hosting this week, Mollie!

Curious about Flannel Friday? 

In the awesome words of Library Quine:

Find out about Flannel Friday on the dedicated website. Features include past roundups, host schedule and how to participate.

Scan the Flannel Friday posts on Pinterest. 

Search for flannels and storytime ideas at Mel's Desk.

Discuss storytime and flannel boards on the Flannel Friday Facebook Page. 

And in my own words, 

ENJOY!

Flannel Friday: Valentine Race

Wow! Is it Friday again already?

This week has been CrAzY! But I have a feeling next week will be even crazier ~ especially since Tuesday is Valentine's Day and we have 3 storytimes scheduled for that morning! Whew!

Well, let's get down to business. Since it is Friday ~ that means it is time for Flannel Friday!

My contribution this week is a simple version of a very OLD but extremely FUN fingerplay:

VALENTINE RACE

Five little Valentines were having a race.

The first Valentine was frilly with lace.



The second Valentine had a silly face.

The third Valentine said, "I love you!"

The fourth Valentine said, "I do, too!"

The fifth Valentine was as sly as a Fox.

'Cause he ran the fastest to your Valentine box!

Yay!

The Valentines were easily made from felt. In fact, it was such an easy project that I decided to make a second set out of fun foam for the magnetic board...



I am not sure which I like better. I had fun making both sets. Which set do you like best?

Here is a list of supplies and quick directions to make the felt set.

Supplies Needed:

White felt

Purple felt

Red felt

Pink felt

Yellow felt

Orange felt

Black felt

Pink ribbon

Sticker eyes or wiggly eyes

Black Sharpie

Fuschia Sharpie

Tacky Glue

Sharp scissors

Directions:

1. Cut the lacy heart out of white felt and a regular heart-shape out of purple felt. Glue the purple onto the center of the lacy heart. Make a small bow out of the pink ribbon and glue onto the lacy heart.

2. Cut a regular heart-shape out of pink felt. Add sticker eyes or wiggly eyes using the glue. Draw on the eyebrows, nose and silly mouth with the black Sharpie.

3. Cut a regular heart-shape out of red felt. Cut a small heart-shape out of pink felt. Glue the small heart in the middle of the large heart. Add the letters and punctuation with the black Sharpie.

4. Cut a regular heart-shape out of yellow felt. Add the letters and punctuation using a fushcia Sharpie. I love this heart because it looks like a candy heart to me. :-)

5. Cut a regular heart-shape out of orange felt. Cut the upper part of the heart shape out of black felt and glue to the top of the orange heart. Cut "cheek" shapes from white felt and glue on. Cut eyes and nose out of black felt and glue on.

Now you have five little Valentines ready for a race!

Have fun!

***I just want to mention my inspiration for the fox heart. This week our storytimes have featured Michael Hall's book, My Heart is Like a Zoo. In his book, there is a "crafty" fox. I thought he was adorable and silly ~ just perfect for our race! What do you think? 



The top fox is made from felt and the fox to the right is made from fun foam.



I really love when I can tie our featured book in with our songs, learning activities like fingerplays and creative movement, and our crafts ~ when possible. These tie-ins help young children stay focused a little longer and help make more connections in their brains so that the children will be able to recall more about the storytime later in the day or week. I believe anything I can do that helps to make those connections possible is well worth the effort. :-)

This week, I was delightfully reminded of how these types of tie-ins were important to one particular storytime friend. One of our regular storytime Moms took this picture of her daughter creating her Lion Puppet at home. They proudly shared the picture with family and friends ~ and ME! ~ on Facebook. It was a sweet surprise because I am usually the one sharing storytime pictures with the families. ;-)



I am hoping to see an increase in the circulation of My Heart is Like a Zoo due to this family's enthusiastic sharing.  I am also hoping to see new families attend the library storytime next week. You just never know... I have already been contacted by a Mom asking for craft directions and the words to the song we sang with the puppet. What an awesome result for such a simple take-home craft!

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!

By the way, here’s Flannel Friday information for this week:

Library Quine has the round up at her blog, Loons and Quines @ Librarytime.

Round up archives and host schedule is at So Tomorrow.

Visually scan all the Flannel Friday posts at Pinterest.

Talk about storytime and flannelboards at the Flannel Friday Facebook Page. Be sure to checkout my Flannel Friday Comment Challenge on the facebook page. This is the third week and I am offering an incentitive!

Follow Flannel Friday on Twitter with the #flannelfriday hashtag. (You don’t have to be on Twitter to check this out.)

And, last but not least, if you’re a contributor, there is an awesome blog button from Melissa and you can grab it from the right hand menu at Mel’s Desk!



Craft: My Heart is Like a Zoo

Next week for my 3 and under storytimes, I will be sharing Michael Hall's book, My Heart Is Like a ZOO. It is a playful book filled with twenty zoo animals ~ all made from hearts! And it has a delightful, surprise at the end.

This book, with it's simple but bold illustrations, is one that can be used for many topics when working with little ones. It is definitely a good choice for hearts or Valentine's Day. It can also be used for a Zoo unit ~ or a Jungle unit ~ or a unit on Feelings and Emotions ~ or Colors and Shapes ~ or Counting or each individual animal like the penguin or crab or yak... The list is pretty extensive for such a simple, fun book.


I am using it in the first full week of February as a lead-in to my Valentine's Day celebration the following week. I know the little ones will love all of the animals, especially the lion. They always love to R-O-A-RRRRR! (Keep an eye out at the end of this post because I will be including a rhyme or two which will involve lots of roaring.)


Speaking of "roaring", my take-home craft will be the lion's face that is featured on the front and back cover of the book. As you have seen above, the face is bright and colorful and very simple to make. In fact, Michael Hall has done all the work for us. On the back of the cover, he includes a step-by-step how-to illustration! 

I did change a few steps to make it easier for my storytime friends. And I decided to add a popsicle stick or a long straw so that the children would be able to play with their lion like a puppet.

Making templates:



I made copies of the illustrations and increased their size until they were what I wanted.
 Here is my template.



I then made templates for each piece by cutting the hearts out of cardstock. 

This made my prep-time for 100 plus crafts go very quickly as I cut 3 to 5 hearts out at a time by stacking the paper, tracing the heart-shape on the top one, and then cutting 
them out all together. It takes a little practice but is fairly simple to do.

Supplies needed:

White cardstock for template

Brown construction paper

Tan construction paper

Red construction paper

Black construction paper

Pencil

Scissors

Holepunch

Scotch tape

Tacky glue

Jumbo popsicle stick or long straw

In preparing for my storytimes, I made the templates and then used them to cut out all of the hearts ahead of time. I also holepunched the black paper to make the eyes. 

If you want your child(ren) to help with the preparation:

* I would first demonstrate how to trace the pattern onto the construction paper. It might be      easier for your little one(s) if you hold the template in place for them. 

** Then I would supply them with a good pair of scissors and allow them to cut the hearts out. Helping them to turn the paper into the scissors.

*** Finally, I would demonstrate how to use the holepunch and then let them punch away! Yes, I know lions only have two eyes but little ones love to use the holepunch!

All three of the above steps are very good for eye-hand co-ordination and fine motor skills.

Directions for the little ones:

Glue the tan heart onto the the lion's mane like this.

Glue the second tan heart on top of the first ~ covering all of the first heart except the bottom curve.

Glue on the red heart for the nose.

Glue on the black dots for the eyes.

Turn the lion over and tape a jumbo popsicle stick or long straw to the back.

Ta daaa! You have a lion puppet to play with!

I usually show the example craft and then put it away. I want my storytime friends to feel free to create their own crafts without having to make it look exactly like the sample ~ unless following directions is one of my goals for that particular storytime.

Here are a few of my storytime friends' lion puppets that they made last year:

Cute, aren't they? I can't wait to see this year's lion creations!

How about a few activities to help you enjoy your lion puppets?

I'm a Lion

(A guessing rhyme)

I love to sleep all day in the sun,

And chase other animals just for fun.

In all the jungle, I'm number one.

Who am I?

I'm a lion!

ROARRRR!

Itsy Bitsy Monkey

(Sung to: "Itsy Bitsy Spider")

The itsy bitsy monkey climbed up the coconut tree.

Down came a coconut and hit him on the knee.

OUCH!

Out came the lion shaking his mighty mane.

ROARRR!

And the itsy bitsy monkey climbed up the tree again!

Where is Lion?

(Sung to: "Where Is Thumbkin?")

Where is lion?

Where is lion?

Here he is.

Here he is.

He's looking mighty hungry!

He's looking mighty hungry?!??!!

Better runaway!

Roarrr! Roarrr!Roarrr!

If you would like some more ideas to use with My Heart is Like a ZOO, please visit my blog post: Not a Flannel Friday: My Heart is Like a ZOO.

Also, be sure to check out the trailer for Michael Hall's unique, colorful book here.

And be sure to check out some fun activity pages from Harper Collins here. (A very special thank you to my friend, Library Quine, for sharing these pages with me so that I could share them with you.)

 

My Heart is Like a ZOO really touched my heart!

And I know it will touch yours, too! <3

Have fun with your lions!

Annnnd...

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!

Flannel Friday: There Was a Little Penguin

My love affair with penguins began  years ago when I was teaching my very first preschool classes. I used to visit my local library every week  to collect new books (on our weekly themes) for my class to enjoy. 


This particular day, I was looking for books on individuality. 

Boy, did I find the perfect one! 
It was:

I was IN LOVE from the very first page! Tacky was AWESOME! He was cute and cuddly but, best of all, he was DIFFERENT! 

I took Tacky to my classroom and he soon became everyone's favorite. We read about Tacky and then we read about real penguins. We pretended to be Tacky ~ waddling all around the playground and singing our own made-up songs. We counted our penguin friends; we played in the "snow" at the water table; and we even made our very own Tacky to take home ~ each one delightfully different from all the others!

It was a glorious week of learning about penguins but also about learning to be happy with being ourselves ~ just like Tacky!

Ever since I first read those final words on the last page of the book ~ "Tacky was an ... " ~  Oh, wait! If you haven't read the book, I don't want to spoil it for you. Just take my word for it! Tacky the Penguin is a true one-of-a-kind, there-is-noone-else-like-him kind of friend! 

I hope you will check him out at your library and share him with your own budding individualist(s).

In the meantime, I would like to share a fun flannel board activity with you: 

There was a Little Penguin

(A penguin version of "There was a Little Turtle")

(Click on the title above for the words without pictures.)

There was a little penguin

Who waddled when she walked.

She swam in the ocean,

And she climbed on some rocks.

(Before placing the penguin on the board, make her waddle, swim, and climb.) 

She snapped at seagull.

(After placing the seagull on the board, snap hands together one time.)

She snapped at a seal.

 (After placing the seal on the board, snap hands together one time.)

She snapped at a fish.

 (After placing the fish on the board, snap hands together one time.)

Mmmmm, what a meal! 

(After moving the fish over to the penguin, rub your tummy.) 

(I am thinking about making my fish smaller but for now he is one ENORMOUS, yummy meal. ;-)

Since my first meeting with my wonderful friend, Tacky, there are been several more books written about him. They are all fun, silly adventures that I wholeheartedly recommend sharing with friends...

But MY favorite will always be the original,

Tacky the Penguin!

  

**This post is brought to you in celebration of Flannel Friday! 

It is being hosted this week by Anne at So Tomorrow. Thank you, Anne! 

Be sure to visit the beautiful Flannel Friday Pinterest account. So Tomorrow has past roundups and future hosting schedule, as well.

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!