To celebrate Flannel Friday’s Shark Week I made a sequel to one of my kid’s favorites…Shark in the Dark. Nick Sharratt’s series is out of print and insanely expensive from secondary buyers. So, I decided to make my own story:
I bought a 9 x 12 black canvas board at the craft store. I used felt to create Timothy Pope’s window that he looks out using his telescope.I used stiffened white glitter felt to cut out the pieces from the book: sailboat, seagull, ice cream, and shark.With the original Shark in the Park story, the three shapes weren’t enough. The kids kept wanting to guess more, so I made some more up: rhino, star, moon, plane, kite, elephant, and a teddy bear named Corduroy. I always end with Timothy’s teddy, Corduroy, asking Timothy to go bed.I end the story each time, sneaking the Shark in at the last minute. I hold up the board with the shark and say, “There are no sharks in the dark today.” The kids yell and yell and yell. I shake my head and play it up, until I am startled to see the shark fin. I slowly take the “telescope” away to reveal the shark.
Here’s a video of the original story, Shark in the Park:
Lisa Shulman’s The Moon Might Be Milk is sadly out of print. But the story can still be used in puppet form if you can’t get your hands on a copy of the book!
You’ll need farm animals (or substitute for what you own):
Girl (named Rosie)
Cat
Hen
Butterfly
Dog
Mouse
Rosie asks each animal what the moon is made of and they each answer:
Cat = Milk
Hen = Egg
Butterfly = Sugar
Dog = Butter
Mouse = Flour
Rosie asks Grandma and she adds all of the answers to create a sugar cookie! The story can be used to discuss recipes or making predictions. I have an idea for a sequel (The Sun Might Be Cheese) and if I ever get it fleshed out enough I’ll post it. Until then, check out Mel’s Desk this week. She’s hosting Flannel Friday. Find out more about Flannel Friday at our website, see all the past ideas at our Pinterest, and hang out with us on Facebook.
Eve Bunting’s Have You Seen My New Blue Socks? is Seuss-esque and perfect for puppet storytelling! I used a cheat sheet Have You Seen My New Blue Socks, my puppet bin, and a puppet stand. The result is a lot of fun–and tons of rhyming! I only needed a few props that I found on clearance at Target (snowflake slippers and two pairs of socks: one purple and one blue). Here’s the story:
For more ideas to use in storytime, go to Flannel Friday. Check out the website, the Pinterest board, and the Facebook Group. This week’s roundup is over at Read, Rhyme and Sing!
I just finished my Infopeople course, Afterschool and Out of School Programming. It was a fantastic experience! It was a great group of professional librarians exchanging ideas. I want to share all the hard work everyone came up with.
First, I’d like to thank my friends for helping me make this class interactive and fun (as well as educational, of course). Feedback from participant surveys raved about the video clips. I appreciate all the time and effort you put into helping me! In case you missed the class, you can watch videos filled with program tips by amazing bloggers. Take the time to add these to your Watch List! I learned a few tricks myself.
A list of program ideas that the class came up with is available here. There are five different pdf files you can download: Early Elementary, Upper Elementary, Mixed-Age, Passive and Special.
I love this classic story and song. I use it with all kinds of themes: food, Thanksgiving, animals, family, days of the week. Greg & Steve’s song is a perfect way to extend the story after reading it. I made a flannel board so I can use this in many different ways. I can use it over and over and not get bored! I just found out that Scholastic sells the Big Book format, so I’ll be getting a copy soon!
This is one of my new favs–it reminds me of Pete the Cat! The story is so versatile to fit a number of themes: getting dressed, farm, animals, tractors, stories in rhyme, stories you can sing! I had to flannelize it! I made a Farmer Brown complete with all the clothes:
And I made a tractor with all the animals in their rhyming clothes:
This should come with a warning! I can’t get this song out of my head! Now you won’t be able to, either:
For more storytime ideas check out Katie’s Story Time Secrets, she’s hosting Flannel Friday this week. To find out more about Flannel Friday, check out the website, the Pinterest board, and the Facebook Group.
I wrote a play based on Mo Willems’ books featuring his famous characters Elephant and Piggie. I blended elements of a few stories together: My Friend is Sad, Are You Ready to Play Outside, A Big Guy Took My Ball, I’m a Frog! and My New Friend is So Fun! I made simple costumes using Oriental Trading’s DIY Knight’s Armor. I drew the characters on letter sized paper, copied them on colored paper and the children glued them to the armor. You’ll need the following characters and props:
I wrote a script (We Are in a Play Act Two) and then made a Power Point presentation (We Are in a Play Act Two) so each slide looks like a page from the book–complete with color coding and blending!! I fired up the projector and had the actors stand in front of the screen. This way, there was no need for memorization. They could just read the lines. I had this as a mixed age program. I had the older children help with the main roles and behind-the-scenes jobs (such as assistant director, Power Point slide coordinator, props manager), and the younger children take on the walking through extra silly parts (such as clowns, superheroes and cowboys). It was quite a success. The children took home scripts to do with their families, and I’m even told that it was performed in certain classrooms! I’m in the process of writing another act featuring…Pigeon AND Duckling! Stay tuned. For more kickass school age programming, check out Angie’s blog this month at Fat Girl Reading. She’s hosting this month’s Thrive Thursday blog hop. For more information check out the schedule, Pinterest board, and Facebook Group.
This is a new-to-me story, even though it’s about ten years old. I just fell in love with it and so have all of my kids. I had to make a flannel to accompany it, so I could use the story in different ways. I made all the pieces featured in the story. This way we can each get a piece and count along as we sing. I also added animals to the story, some can be found in the picture book and others I added that can be found in our own backyards. The children gave me this idea after reading it to one particular class.
If you don’t know this one, I made a video!
For more storytime ideas, check out Storytime Katie’s blog. She’s hosting Flannel Friday this week. To find out more about Flannel Friday, check out the website, the Pinterest board, and the Facebook Group.
Ragnhild Scamell’s Ouch is sadly out of print. I acquired a copy to create a flannel/puppet story to use in the fall. I changed a few details to make the story work a little better for the preschool audience. I use my favorite “Hedgie” puppet, as well as a squirrel, pig, frog, and goat. It’s easy to remember, and only took a few minutes to cut out the different felt pieces. Here’s a video so you can learn the story for your kiddies.
To get more storytime ideas, check out Flannel Friday. I’m hosting this week’s roundup! To find out more about Flannel Friday, check out the website, the Pinterest board, and the Facebook Group.
Over the past few years my school partner and I have been getting the word out about our successful relationship. Marge Loch-Wouters asked me to share some tips for her amazing class. So Joanne and I got together for a few minutes…here’s a quick video with Cliff Notes on how to get started and what seems to work best for us:
Excuse the coughing at the end. We had just done a Kindergarten Social Program for a packed room of about 80 at 10:30 a.m. At noon we did a welcome program for the New Teacher Orientation. Directly after that we taped this segment (Twice. The first time we were nearly done and were attacked by a gigantic spider. I’m taking about Aragog big!). And since I’m very basic with the video editing the coughing stays. Haha! We’re off to lunch finally at 2 p.m.!
