Flannel Friday: Magical Rainbow Stew

Rainbows are MAGICAL ~ in and of themselves ~ but this activity will have your storytime friends asking, "How did you do that? Is it magic?"

This week's Flannel Friday is my version of:

 Rainbow Stew

Items needed:

Flannel or Magnetic board

Cauldron or "pot" of some sort

Spoon 

(for stirring)

Colorful fruits 

(made from felt, fun foam or a set of artificial fruit)

Rainbow pieces

(made from felt or fun foam)

We will get to the song in a few minutes but, first, let me explain how I set the activity up and present it ~ in as magical a way as possible...

Before the storytime starts, I place the rainbow pieces inside the "pot".

I start the activity by asking the children to help me name the different fruits
as I add them to the board. 

We then practice our color signs for each fruit.

The children should see only an "empty pot" with a stirring spoon throughout the song.

Now we are ready for the song. Please click on the song title for a copy of the words without the pictures.

 Rainbow Stew

(Sung to: "Jimmy Crack Corn")

"Take an apple"

"Put it in the pot."

"Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot."

"Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest red you ever did see!"
(Place red rainbow piece on the board with dramatic flair.)

Continue the song ~ taking one fruit at a time off the board, placing it in the pot, stirring with the spoon, and then placing the appropriate rainbow piece on the board. 

"Take the grapes and put them in the pot. Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot."



"Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest purple you ever did see!"


By this time, the children are wide-eyed and usually yelling, "It's a rainbow!" So I congratulate them on helping to magically make a beautiful rainbow from our Rainbow Stew recipe. Then we finish up with this rhyme:

Rainbow Colors

Rainbow purple,

Rainbow blue,

Rainbow green,

And yellow, too. 

Rainbow orange,

Rainbow red,

Rainbow smiling overhead.

Come and count the colors with me.

How many colors do you see?

1-2-3

Up to green

4-5-6

Colors are seen.

I also have a magnetic board version of this song. The rainbow pieces are made from Fun Foam.

The foam pieces have several magnets on the back to make it easier to place them together as a rainbow.

The fruit pieces that I use are artificial fruits that can be found at Michael's or Wal-Mart. I prefer to buy them at Michael's with a 40% off coupon. *Wink*

I have yet to find a blueberry so I made my own by painting a small wooden ball. It has worked just fine. (If you look closely, you can see it by the pear and grapes in the picture above.)

As you may have noticed in the picture, I use this activity with the book, Lunch, written by Denise Fleming. I have several learning activities for this book that I will be sharing in the near future. One is a cute mouse puppet or hat ~ depending on how you want to use it. 

I have also used this activity for a storytime on Spring, Weather, Colors, Fruits and Vegetables, or even Leprechauns and St Patrick's Day. Each time I use it, the children have a BLAST!

I also like to change up how we stir so that I can include sizes and following directions as part of my storytime learning. For example, when it is time for the blueberry, I talk about how small it is. I ask, " Do you think we can get any color from something so small?" We try and it doesn't work. Instead of the blue rainbow piece coming out of the pot after stirring, I just take the blueberry out and act sad and curious. "No blue! It's just the berry. How can we get the blue out? Maybe if we stir really fast? Are you ready? Can you stir fast, fast, fast?" I re-sing that verse and stir fast. Then when the blue rainbow piece appears, we all clap! So much fun!

No matter how many times a child has seen this activity, s/he still participates and has fun.

Thank you for stopping by my blog for another Flannel Friday post. I hope you find many opportunities to share a little Rainbow MAGIC with a child in your life!

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!

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

Andrea has the round up at Roving Fiddlehead Kidlit.

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 second 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!

Flannel Friday Guest Post: Five Little Apples

I am so excited because this week I will be posting two Flannel Friday activities! Only one of them is my own contribution. 

The first one ~ this one! ~ is a Guest Post! It is contributed by a fellow Friday Flannel-er and prechool teacher, "Teacher Rich". 

Here is a little information that she shared with me:

"I am a preschool teacher in the Philippines by profession and by heart. My students call me Teacher Rich. I like reading stories to them and it's actually my first time to use a flannel material as a medium for story telling (but it sure won't be the last!) I usually just print and laminate them. I learned about Flannel Friday from Google while searching for flannel patterns. I was very happy to see that there's actually a group for it and I've seen some of the members' work there as well and it has inspired me to start making my own collection of felt board stories."

It is so nice to "meet" someone who is a teacher "by profession and by heart".

Rich, you're children are very lucky to have you as a teacher and we are just as lucky to have you sharing your first flannel creation with us. It is beautiful!

Five Red Apples

(Rhyme found at preschoolprintables.com)

Five red apples hanging in a tree

The juiciest apples you ever did see.

The wind came by and gave an angry frown

And one little apple came tumbling down

Four red apples hanging in a tree

The juiciest apples you ever did see.

The wind came by and gave an angry frown

And one little apple came tumbling down

Three red apples hanging in a tree

The juiciest apples you ever did see.

The wind came by and gave an angry frown

And one little apple came tumbling down

Two red apples hanging in a tree

The juiciest apples you ever did see.

The wind came by and gave an angry frown

And one little apple came tumbling down

One red apples hanging in a tree

The juiciest apples you ever did see.

The wind came by and gave an angry frown

And one little apple came tumbling down

Rich is sharing with us a little more information about how she created her first flannel. She has generously included some wonderful pictures to help you create your own set. 

Here are her pictures and her tips for making this gorgeous flannel:

"It's fairly simple to do. I just made patterns before cutting them on flannel (just got regular clip-art online). Traced them onto the flannel and began to cut. I had a problem putting details on the cloud at first. But with the help of the group, Flannel Friday on Facebook, I was able to use a Sharpie and "dotted" the details with it."

 

Thank you so much, Rich! Such an AWESOME job! I am very impressed with your first flannel and look forward to seeing many more future flannels from you. I am also very happy to have had you as my very first Guest Poster! It has been a delight to host your Flannel Friday contribution.


For this week's Flannel Friday Round-up, please visit Andrea at  http://rovingfiddlehead.com/kidlit/

Well... I am off now to find some flannel so I can make my own Five Little Apples set. Can't wait to share it with my storytime friends!

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!

P.S. If anyone else would like to be a Guest Poster on my blog, please contact me at storytimeabcs@gmail.com ~ I would love to share your contributions for a Flannel Friday or even a blog about a Children's book that you would like to recommend to others. 

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!