HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY!

Today is my blog's First Birthday!

Whooo Hoooo!

When I first started my blog last January, my only goal was to keep it going longer than my last attempt at a blog. :-/ I think that blog lasted maybe a month or two so I can proudly say that I met my first goal! ;o)

As the year progressed (and I made it past the second month), I decided to give myself another goal. This goal was centered around a very special group ~ Flannel Friday ~ because they were actually the reason I was sticking with my blog this time. 

My second goal was to try my best to post at least once a week. 

To help me with this goal, I made a commitment to get more involved in Flannel Friday by posting to the Flannel Friday Round-Up each week and by volunteering to help the group in any way that I could. That led to me hosting a Round-Up or two.

It also has led to me becoming a Pinterest Pinner for the first few months of 2013 and taking a turn as the Flannel Friday Fairy Godmother later this  year. I am very excited and can't wait to be a FFFG!

I have shared all of this to say:

THANK YOU, FLANNEL FRIDAY! 

My blog is still here today thanks to all of the wonderful creative people who make Flannel Friday such a welcoming and helpful group.I want to encourage all my visitors to check out their website and their Pinterest boards. You will find lots of fun ideas!

I also want to say a very special "Thank You"

to all of my readers!

Your support has been AWESOME ~ beyond my wildest dreams! And I feel very blessed to have "met" each of you along my blogging journey!

I really don't think my Storytime ABC'S blog would still be here without everyone's encouragement and inspiration! I am very appreciative!

To celebrate my first year, I will be doing a Giveaway!

To enter, please comment below or send me a quick email about which post from 2012 was most useful to you. Please include your name and a contact email address. I will send you a confirmation email so that you know that you are entered in the drawing.

 I will do a drawing on January 31st.

Okay, now it's time for the Happy Birthday dance! 

Won't you sing and dance with me?

And here is to another year of :

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!

Guest Post: The Cats of Roy G. Biv

Today, I am sharing another special Guest Post from our recent First Annual Storytime Swap. :-)
  

***Learn more about the Storytime Swap by clicking  here for the original invitation post and here to see other items shared in this swap.

***If a swap is something that you would enjoy participating in, please feel free to contact me at storytimeabcs@gmail.com

Planning is underway for another swap.

It will be soon!

 And it is in honor of Flannel Friday's birthday!

Okay, back to this particular swap. 

The featured item in this blog was sent from Margaret Ann to Monica. 

Margaret Ann says that she made "14 hand-cut cats in different colors. They measured approximately 3 1/2". They are numbered with fabric paints." 

So many colorful cats!

She also sent along an original poem!

"The Cats of Roy G. Biv"

Rat-a-tat-tat

I have a red cat.

We went to dine at half-past nine,

Me and my red cat.

Rat-a-tat-tat

I have an orange cat ...

I have a yellow cat ...

I have a green cat ...

I have a blue cat ...

I have an indigo cat ...

I have a violet cat ...

Last verse (all cats go on the board) :

Rat-a-tat-tat

I have a RAINBOW of cats.

We went to dine at half-past nine,

Me and my rainbow of cats.

I love the simple shape of the cats. It is perfect for a flannel set that can be passed out to the little ones so that they can bring them up to the board at the appropriate time. So many wonderful possibilities for this set of delightful kitties!

Thank you to Margaret Ann and Monica for participating in our First Annual Storytime Swap. It has been a wonderful experience due to all of the creative participants!

I am really looking forward to our next swap! How about you? I hope you will consider joining us!

Have a lovely week!

And, as always, 

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!

Storytime Swap 2012: Cookies, Shapes, and Colors Galore!

I had the privilege of participating in two different swaps for the First Annual Storytime Swap. (Find out about the swap here and see more items from the swap here.)

For my first swap, I shared this fun activity set with Amy: Shapes + Colors Memory Game.

I found the idea on one of Amy's Pinterest boards. Since she had it pinned, I figured she liked it. :0)  So I crossed my fingers ~ hoping she hadn't made it yet ~ and I went for it! 

I made the set exactly like the one from the original blog post. It was made from felt and wooden disks. Then I searched a few stores to find a drawstring bag to hold the wooden felt set. 

Wooden set with drawstring bag

After making the wooden set, I decided to make a couple of all-felt ksets for Amy to use during storytimes. I thought they could be used with songs, fingerplays, and even as the memory game on the flannel board.

Felt set

Here are the directions for both the wooden set and the all-felt set:

First you will need circles:

The wooden circles are 1 1/2". Twelve circles per set.

The felt circles are 2". Twenty-four per set.
They are diecut from tan felt and two are glued
together to make them sturdy enough for
repeated use by little ones.

Next, you will need 6 basic shapes ~ I used circles, squares, stars, hearts, rectangles, and triangles. The shapes are cut from colorful felt ~ I used rainbow colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. 
You'll need 2 of each shape for each set.

I used diecuts for some shapes and free-hand cut the others.

The sets (whether they are wooden or all-felt) are glued together with Tacky glue.

Wooden set

Felt set

And that's it. Very simple and quick to make!

Wooden set
(see above for felt set)

Once the sets are dry, they are ready for a fun game of Cookie Memory.

Place all cookies ~ shape side down ~ on the flannel board.
Have a child turn over two cookies.
If they don't match...

Turn the cookies back over on the board.
Then have another child turn over two more cookies.
If they match...

Then the child keeps the cookies and
another child comes up to choose
two new cookies.

That is just one activity you can use these sets for! They are very versatile and can be used for all kinds of shapes activities, colors activities and cookies activities. 

For example, here is a cookie rhyme that most of us know ~ with a little tweaking, of course:

Five Little Cookies

Five little cookies in the bakery shop.

You know the ones with the shapes on top. (whisper)

Along comes a child with a penny to pay.

He bought the red heart and took it away.

To start with, I have my storytime friends help me count out the five cookies as I place them on the flannel board. 

Then we talk about how they are all the same ~ they're round, they're the same size, they're all tan in color. 

Usually while doing this, at least one child will say, "But, they have different stuff on them." If not, I will ask them what is different about the cookies and we proceed to name and sign all of the colors and shapes. 

Now, we are ready for the rhyme! (All of the same & different, colors, and shapes discussion only takes a few minutes and really packs a ton of learning into a short amount of time. It is well worth the effort!)

As we do the rhyme, I will usually replace "child" with someone's name and that child comes up and takes the correct cookie off the board.

How about a few shapes and colors activities to use with these cute and versatile felt cookies?

For this next activity, I pass out a cookie to each child. I have them look at their cookie with their adult and talk about what color and shape is on their cookie before we do our interactive songs and rhymes.

The first one is a following directions one:

Put Your Cookie in the Air

Put your cookie in the air, in the air.

Put your cookie in the air, in the air.

Put your cookie in the air

And wave it right up there.

Put your cookie in the air, in the air.

Put your cookie way down low, way down low.

Put your cookie way down low, way down low..

Put your cookie way down low

And make it touch your toe.

Put your cookie way down low, way down low.

Put your cookie way up high, way up high.

Put your cookie way up high, way up high.

Put your cookie way up high,

And make it touch the sky.

Put your cookie way up high, way up high.

Put your cookie on the ground, on the ground.

Put your cookie on the ground, on the ground.

Put your cookie on the ground,

And sit yourself right down.

Put your cookie on the ground, on the ground.

Now that everyone is sitting again, we are ready to do another interactive activity with our cookies. I request that the adults help their child with this one because each child needs to stay focused on their shape and/or color. For demonstration purposes, I am going to share this as a shapes activity but it can be tweaked to become a color activity, too.

Shape Song

There are shapes on the floor, on the floor.

There are shapes on the floor, on the floor.

There are shapes on the floor, circles, squares, and so much more.

There are shapes on the floor, on the floor.

Find a heart on the floor, on the floor.

Find a heart on the floor, on the floor, 

Find a heart of the floor,

Pick it up and place it on the board.

Find a heart on the floor, on the floor.

Continue with the other shapes. Helping the children place them on the board in columns under the five cookies that you used for the Five Little Cookies rhyme. Once all the cookies are on the board, you can count all of them together. You can count them by shapes or colors and compare them. Are there more red heart cookies than yellow star cookies? Which cookies have more in their row? Which cookies have less?

There is just so much fun and learning you can do with these simple felt cookies! They are worth the time it takes to make them!

Amy, I hope you and your storytime friends have as much fun with them as I have had! 

Enjoy!

And, as always,

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!

Guest Post: Five Pairs of Socks

Happy Flannel Friday!

I am sharing another special Guest Post this week from our recent First Annual Storytime Swap. :-)  

***If you would like to learn more about the Storytime Swap, please click here for the original invitation post and here to see other items shared in this swap.

***If a swap is something that you would enjoy participating in, please feel free to contact me at storytimeabcs@gmail.com

Planning is underway for another swap.

It will be soon!

 And it is in honor of Flannel Friday's birthday!

Okay, back to the regularly scheduled program. This swap item was sent from Katie B. to Tami.

Look at this! 

Katie B. created a washing machine for Tami! 

Isn't it fun?!??!

She also made some very colorful socks:

The socks were made to be used with this rhyme that Katie B.  really likes and "has used in getting dressed storytimes, underwear storytimes, boot storytimes, etc."

Five Pairs of Socks

Five pairs of socks on my bedroom floor

Mom washed the blue pair and then there were four!

Four pairs of socks on my bedroom floor

Mom washed the yellow pair then there were three!

One pair of dirty socks on my bedroom floor

Mom washed the rainbow pair, my favorite pair of all!

No more dirty socks; Mom washed them all today

But wait until tomorrow, there's more on the way!

This is what else Katie B. had to say about her swap item:

"I have a set of socks that I typically use with this rhyme, and when I saw the post that Miss Mary Liberry made about the super cute felt washing machine that she made, it made me think how much fun it would be to create something similar and try some different activities with my socks. For the swap, I made a smaller washing machine which is covered in grey felt and a set of socks that can be used for this rhyme or for a matching game, or whatever else you can think of!"

A special thanks to Katie B. for participating in the Storytime Swap and for sharing her idea with all of us. I can't wait to make my own washing machine and cute socks, ;o)

This week's Flannel Friday Round-Up is being hosted by Lisa on her blog, Libraryland.

I highly recommend stopping by and checking out the very first Flannel Friday Round-Up for 2013!

And, as always, 

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!

Guest Post: Mouse Count!

I have a very special Guest Post to share this week. It is about the first swap item that I received from our recent First Annual Storytime Swap. So fun!

If you would like to learn more about the Storytime Swap, please click here for the original invitation post and here to see other items shared in this swap. 

If a swap is something that you would enjoy participating in, please feel free to contact me at storytimeabcs@gmail.com

Planning is underway for another swap. 

It will be soon and is in honor of Flannel Friday's birthday!

This Guest Post features Ann and her props for this fun mouse book by Ellen Stoll Walsh:

I adore Ms. Walsh's mice books
so I was very excited to see what Ann sent me!

Ann teaches preschool and loves to use props to share a book with her classroom friends. Here are the props that she chose to use with this book:

Ann says she found the stuffed mice at Walmart in the pet department. She also purchased  the container and lid at Walmart and the snake at the Dollar Store. The rock was not purchased. It is just a mouse-shaped rock that she found.

The props can be used for telling the story at storytime or at circle time. They can also be used by the children for re-telling purposes.

Ann also included a few other items to use with the book:

These are copies of simple shapes that can be used
as coloring pages for the children or
~ you didn't think I would neglect to find a way to flannelize a book did you? ~
you can use them as patterns for a flannel set.
Watch for a blog post about my flannelized version of Mouse Count!

What a FUN swap for me! I was very excited and happy to see what was in my box. It is so thrilling to get a surprise in the mail that I can share with my storytime friends in the New Year! 

I hope you enjoyed seeing what Ann sent! Oh, but wait!

There's more!

Ann also sent:

A cute little mouse and cheese for an extension activity

Here are a few pictures from Ann that explain how to use the mouse and cheese. It looks like lots of hands-on learning is happening here!

   

Thanks for taking a minute to check out my special Storytime Swap surprise. 

And a very special thanks to Ann! 

My storytime friends are going to fall in love with the book,  Mouse Count, thanks to you! 

And, as always,

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!

This week's Flannel Friday Round-Up is being hosted by Lisa on her blog, Libraryland. 

Be sure to swing over and check it out. 

It is the first Round-Up of 2013!

Storytime Swap 2012 Blog Hop

So excited for everyone to share their swap items!

Flannel Friday: Last One of 2012!

Coming Soon!

One Snowy Christmas Eve