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!

Not a Flannel Friday: My Heart Is Like a Zoo

Wow! Another FIRST for me this week!


Here is my very first Flannel Friday contribution! But... it is really NOT a flannel. It is a magnetic board activity. :-}


My contribution this week was inspired by Michael Hall's bold and colorful book, My Heart is Like a Zoo.

"Michael Hall's menagerie invites you and your children to talk about feelings and emotions, explore color and shapes, count the hearts, and meet the animals." ~ from the cover

As you can see from the picture, this book is filled with zoo animals ~ all made from hearts! 

The animals are so adorable that I couldn't resist making my own. I started with the lion because, as you can see, Mr. Hall provided step-by-step illustrations for making the lion's face. (I used this to create a lion puppet as our craft. For instructions on making the craft, click here.) I added the body to the lion and then went on to make 8 more heart animals.

I made:

A brave lion (tan)

A snappy crab (red)

A cozy clam (orange)

A busy bee (yellow and black)

A jumpy frog (green)

A frightened rabbit (blue)

A thoughtful owl (purple)

A silly seal (gray)

An angry bear (brown)

They were all made from construction paper heart shapes and then laminated. After trimming the extra lamination, I added a strip of magnetic tape to the back and they were ready for several storytime activities.

I had originally thought about making each animal in the book and retelling the story with them. (I might still make all of them for several different reasons that I will share in a future post. I have several ideas for a number of educational activities ~ too much for now but definitely worth a second or third or even fourth post!)

I decided to make only a few heart animals and I chose them for their colors and for the emotions they were associated with. 

Here are two learning activities that I used the heart animals for:

If You're a _____ and  You Know It

(Sung to the tune of: "If You're Happy and You Know It")

If you're a brave lion and you know it, give a roar.

ROAARRR!.

If you're a brave lion and you know it, give a roar.

ROAARRR!

If you're a lion and you know it, then your face will surely show it.

If you're a brave lion and you know it, give a roar.

ROAARRR!

Additional verses:

A snappy crab ~ give a snap 

(make snapping movements with your hands)

A cozy clam ~ give a hug

(wrap arms around yourself)

A busy bee ~ give a buzz

A jumpy frog ~ give a leap

A frightened rabbit ~ give a wiggle

(either wiggle nose or wiggle hands above head for ears)

A thoughtful owl ~ give a whooo

A silly seal ~ give a clap

An angry bear ~ give a growl

As you add the animals to the board, you can talk about the animal or about the emotion it is being used to convey. I also like to make the ASL sign for the animal and the emotion. This seems to help the children stay focused on the activity and the parents love the idea that their child is learning a few signs! 

Sometimes, I pass out the animals and have the children bring their animal up to the board when we sing about it. (This is another little "trick" to help the children stay focused on our activity.)

Here is the second activity for the heart animals. If you read my post entitled, "It is Snowing All Around", then you know that I like adapting the book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin. Well... here is another adaptation, Brave Lion, Brave Lion or Tan Lion, Tan Lion. It actually can be done in two different ways. You can focus on the emotions or on the color of the animals. I chose to focus on colors for this particular post. If you would like the words to Brave Lion, Brave Lion just email me at storytimeabcs@gmail.com but they are simple enough to do yourself. :-)

Tan Lion, Tan Lion, What Do You See?

Tan Lion, Tan Lion, what do you see?

I see a Red Crab looking at me.

Red Crab, Red Crab, what do you see?

I see an Orange Clam looking at me.

Orange Clam, Orange Clam, what do you see?

I see a Yellow Bee looking at me.

Yellow Bee, Yellow Bee, what do you see?

I see a Green Frog looking at me.

Green Frog, Green Frog, what do you see?

I see a Blue Bunny looking at me.

Blue Bunny, Blue Bunny, what do you see?

I see a Purple Owl looking at me.

Purple Owl, Purple Owl, what do you see?

I see a Gray Seal looking at me.

Gray Seal, Gray Seal, what do you see?

I see a Brown Bear looking at me.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?

I see lots of children looking at me.

Children, Children, what do you see?

We see:

a Tan Lion

a Red Crab

an Orange Clam

a Yellow Bee

a Green Frog

a Blue Bunny

a Purple Owl

a Gray Seal

and

a Brown Bear

Looking at us! Yay!

My apologies for the quality of the pictures. I am home sick today so...

I will take better pictures next week to replace these.

The children enjoy helping to finish the story! When it is time for them to help, I encourage them by saying, "It is your turn now. Can you remember all the animals in the same order that we first saw them?"

Then I point to each animal going from left to right (pre-reading skill). At the end, I always compliment the children on their storytelling abilities. "You were awesome! Did you know that you were such a good storyteller?"

The new storytime friends are always surprised that I called them "storytellers". LOL! It is such a joy to see the surprised look on their faces!

Well, that is my first Flannel Friday contribution. Hope you will be able to enjoy these ideas with your children!

Be sure to check out the other Flannel Friday posts. This week’s Valentine Extravaganza round-up is being hosted by  Anna over at Future Librarian Superhero.

And, keep an eye out here because I will be posting a complete outline of my Wild about Hearts Storytime. I'll link it so you can see the other activities, books, and craft that I shared along with my snack ideas, too.

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!