Friday 12 July 2013

Flannel friday - Five Ripe Strawberries

Summer is just right for a fruity storytime!  I took this idea from Mel's Desk where you can find her rhyme and pattern for Five Red Strawberries.

Five Ripe Strawberries

I was a little rushed, so made my strawberries all the same size (so I could cut multiple pieces at once) and used yellow puffy paint for the seeds (rather than stitches).



I simplified the rhyme a little too. We are a small library and our groups of baby storytimers are small enough that we can use names in our songs now and again. Admittedly that necessitates singing the song over a few times, but a little repetition never goes amiss! I don't use name tags, but prime the adults to chime in with their baby's name when I give them my 'ta-dah' arm signal (I hold my handheld flannel board in the other hand, so it calls for a little co-ordination)! It guarantees that the adults participate - no one wants their child to miss out. I also have to admit that I love when the babies start to recognise their names - I get the BEST baby smiles sometimes!

So this is how I do the rhyme:


Five ripe strawberries, sweet to the core.
[child's name] came and ate one, and then there were four.
Four ripe strawberries, sweet to the core.
[child's name] came and ate one, and then there were three. 
Three ripe strawberries, sweet to the core.
[child's name] came and ate one, and then there were two.
Two ripe strawberries, sweet to the core.
[child's name] came and ate one, and then there was one.
One ripe strawberry, sweet to the core.
[child's name] came and ate one, and then there were none.

It doesn't scan as well as Mel's, but works better with my limited memory skills!



If you want to know more:


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

Scan images and links to Flannel Friday posts on Pinterest.

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

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



This week's Flannel Friday host is Angie at Mrs Andre's Library blog



Saturday 6 July 2013

Flannel Friday - Felt-y Inspiration

Apologies folks! No post from me for a while, but I'm hoping to put that right very soon. All I need is a little inspiration!

I thought I'd got it when, on a recent visit to London, I came across these lovely packs of flannel sheets. Really the photo doesn't do them justice because they are beautiful.


My problem is I need to make flannels relevant to my baby story timers, and flamingos and exotic frogs don't really relate to life in rural Scotland! Now cherries would work, but I cannot find a book or rhyme featuring cherries for this age group that I like.  I guess what I'm really saying is HELP!  Seriously, if you have any good ideas, please add a comment. Hope you've all been enjoying your 4th July celebrations Stateside.



If you want to know more:


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

Scan images and links to Flannel Friday posts on Pinterest.

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

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


Friday 17 May 2013

Flannel Friday - Whats the weather? WINDY!


Some time ago I developed a set of flannels to depict different sorts of weather.  They've been great in any storytime to start a conversation about the weather; after all, it's what our adults do all the time!  We also regularly sing a little rhyme*, but my original pieces lacked one common weather symbol which features in the song (and unfortunately in our Scottish climate too) - WINDY!




Finally I added a windy symbol to my set. Also a template in pdf format.




Oh, and here's the rhyme:

What's the Weather (Weather Song)
[to the tune of "Oh My Darling"]

What’s the weather?
What’s the weather?
What’s the weather, everyone?
Is it windy?
Is it cloudy?
Is there rain?
Or is there sun?

source: CanTeach (Weather songs and poems)




If you want to know more:


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

Scan images and links to Flannel Friday posts on Pinterest.

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

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



This week's Flannel friday host is Storytime Katie.



Wednesday 1 May 2013

Flannel Friday Roundup - Friday 3rd May 2013


Welcome to this week's Flannel Friday Roundup!


What a great melange of storytime ideas we have for you this week from the Flannel Friday crew.  Yes, I LOVE that word, but have to say that it only just beats ‘mishmash’ or ‘hodgepodge’. What I really want to say is that we’ve got a fantastic variety of activities and themes to enhance your storytimes; there’s something for everyone!


*** NEWBIE ALERT ***
Brooke of Reading With Red blog deserves a big Flannel Friday welcome for her first ever Flannel Friday post! In her Tell A Pigeon Story post, she has a flannel based on Mo Willem’s Pigeon characters and props and shows us how they are used in the library’s early literacy center.


Mother’s Day

Here are some ideas to celebrate Mother’s Day in storytime (May 12th 2013 in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – in the UK it was back in March).

Jen in the Library has an adorable flannel set for an animal mother and babies matching activity rhyme. With all those fun animal noises what could go wrong (apart from running out of space on the board, that is)?

Kathryn at Fun With Friends At Storytime shares a selection of ideas for a Mother’s Day storytime in her Gift For Mummy post including an original Mother’s Day rhyme to use with clip art and a variation on the Little Mouse flannel with ‘Where’s the Cheese for Mother Mouse?’

In her Play Ball post Kathryn also tells us about using pellon to make flannel pieces and a cute flannel board rhyme called ‘Playing Ball’.




Lisa from Libraryland has a Crazy Traffic Light flannel set to use with the hilarious poem by Rob Reid.

Miss Angie at Mrs Andre’s Library shares ‘What Can You Do With a Box’ - a fun cardboard box post with a counting and shape-building flannel board activity made with cardboard and magnets.

Kathy at Bird’s Books has a colourful set of pirate finger puppets that she uses with a favourite pirate rhyme.

At Notes From The Storyroom, Linda continues her series of telling a tale 5 ways. This week she shows us a draw and tell version of The Fisherman and His Wife.

In her Cake Circles and Clothespins post at Mel’sDesk, Mel introduces us an adaptable early literacy activity with clothes pegs. She uses a farm yard theme, and makes lots of suggestions for alternatives and for follow-on activities.

At What Is Bridget Reading, Bridget has made an awe-inspiring set of flannel pieces to accompany the flannel board activity of Mix and Match Cinderella. Inspired by Mel’s original she has truly made this her own.

Andrea has revitalised an old **SCOTTISH** favourite at Roving Fiddlehead Kidlit with a bright flannel version of Aiken Drum with loose pieces for a participatory storytime song. [**no bias here!]


In her latest post Katie from Storytime Secrets shares an original rhyme she wrote about her Five Little Unicorns with a link to the clipart. 

Miss Courtney serves up Five Delicious Cupcakes - a charming take on the traditional Happy Birthday song with an additional activity giving the birthday child, or a whole group of children, the opportunity to add cherries to match their age so can also be used as a getting to know you activity.

Mollie’s latest post at Storytime With Miss Mollie includes an adaptation of the Five Little Robots rhyme from a fellow Flannel Friday-er and makes it her own with a hi-tech version set in Hank’s Robot Shop!

At Read Rabbit Read, Sarah has made some fabulous hand puppets of Goldilocks and the Three Bears for an early literacy fair. She’s even included patterns so we can easily replicate them – Thanks Sarah!


Miss Angela at Spectacular Story Time has a real conversation piece with her emotions flannel activity, It’s just Emooootions, Taking Me Over.

Now, at Ram Sam Storytime we get to visit the circus and Monica shares her build-a-clown-face storytime activity about Clancy the Clown. As a bonus we also get a simple ‘At the Circus’ draw and tell story.

Finally, Jane at Piper Loves the Library introduces us to an adorable picture book ‘Zoe Gets Ready’ by Bethanie Deeney Murguia as a means of illustrating her preparedness for the Flannel Panel at CLA.






If you want to know more:


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

Scan images and links to Flannel Friday posts on Pinterest.

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

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





Kay Leigh is holding the Flannel Friday Fairy Godmother wand (for May and june 2013). If you have queries regarding Flannel Friday you can contact her at flannelboardfriday@gmail.com





Friday 15 March 2013

Flannel Friday - Happy Birthday



Just in case you hadn't heard, Flannel Friday is 2 years old this week!
There’s a HUGE celebration of storytime ideas over on Mel’s blog (part 1 AND part 2). There is also, a very special unveiling of the map of Flannel Friday fans on Amy’s blog.
Now, UK readers: I’ve had around 75000 hits on this blog since I started it and over 9000 of them have been from the UK.  Where are you on the map? If you’ve clicked through to other Flannel Friday-er’s blogs, visited our round-ups, or accessed Flannel Friday from any other route, PLEASE let’s see it – add yourselves to the map (it’s simple to do, and you don’t have to reveal your exact location).
 

To celebrate the anniversary I've prepared a birthday song and flannel set to use when one our rhymetime-ers has a birthday. Our groups are small enough that it doesn’t happen every week.
The rhyme is adapted from one that I came across on Teachers.net posted by Leslie and Amy.







Someone's Birthday

(to tune of Frere Jacques)

Someone's birthday, someone's birthday,
Is today, is today.
Someone specials's birthday,
And it's [Flannel Friday]!
Hip hooray, hip hooray!

Let's prepare, let's prepare,
A birthday cake, a birthday cake.
Let's add a candle,
One for each year.
Hip hooray, hip hooray!

[add candles to cake]

1 candle,
2 candles, yay!





You can see all the other Flannel Friday Roundup submissions for this week on Melissa's blog Mel's Desk. Don't forget to visit the unveiling of our Flannel Friday anniversary map over on Amy's blog Catch the Possibilities too.  



If you want to know more:


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

Scan images and links to Flannel Friday posts on Pinterest.

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

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










Friday 8 March 2013

What Flannel Friday means to me!

I stumbled across Flannel Friday just when I needed it! 

My library's community needed storytimes. I was the person in a position to provide it, but my MLIS hadn't had any children's services content and my library service didn't have any money for storytime training. I had an hour's on the job instruction, the opportunity to observe a neighbouring library's storytime session, a small box of storytime props, the library's stock of picture books, and that was it. Flannel Friday provided the rest! 

Two years later we have weekly Rhymetime sessions for babies and toddlers, family storytimes and craft sessions, outreach visits to local pre-school groups and regular visits from school nurseries and the local after school club. Children's issue statistics have risen and participation in Summer reading schemes and early year's library challenges have improved enormously. Best of all, kids love coming to the library! 



This word cloud has been generated from my Flannel Friday posts and I think it says it all about the things that I've got from participation in Flannel Friday and what Flannel Friday means to me.

I've picked out a few of my favourites:

Share ideas for storytimes and Youth Librarianship
ParTicipate in a community of storytimers
Access a superb storytime resOurce
Introduce an additional sensoRy element to storytimes
Learn about sharing early literacY tips with parents
Improve my own storytelling versaTility
Have the opportunity to reflect on and dIscuss storytime practice
Make storytiMes more attractive
Solicit advicE and best practice
Make linkS and grow a network of early year's and youth services providers.

A big thank you to all who participate!




You can see all the other Flannel Friday Roundup submissions for this week on Storytime Reading Chick's blog Rain Makes Applesauce.



If you want to know more:


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

Scan images and links to Flannel Friday posts on Pinterest.

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

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


Friday 22 February 2013

Flannel Friday - Once I Caught a fish Alive!

This week's flannel set can be used for a number of fishy rhymes and games for storytimes and baby rhymetimes.

I made it primarily to use with this nursery rhyme:


One, two, three, four , five,
Once I caught a fish alive.
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
Then I let him go again.

Why did you let him go?
Because he bit my finger so.
Which finger did he bite?
This little finger on my right.




I can't take credit for the design (although I'd be proud to). It's the work of MiniEco a UK blogger, designer and author, whose blog I've been following for 2 years or more.  She has generously made her pattern available to download as a .pdf document. I took the pattern and traced it to transform it into a cutting file. The white parts were cut from flocked heat transfer material on a digital cutter, and the backing parts were cut by hand. I then added some numbers cut from sticky-back felt as I'd run out of transfer material.


The backing for the transfer material is clear (once the negative parts of the pattern have been removed) and placed on the flannel/felt fish shape. 






A hot iron is applied, with a cloth between the pieces and the iron, for 45 to 60 seconds and once it's stuck, the backing is peeled away. I really like the details but unfortunately not the price, so I'm looking for an alternative product that is less expensive.















I have plans to make a flannel dish and use it to illustrate the traditional song "Dance to your Daddie". There is some debate as to whether this is an English or a Scottish song, and a comparison of the two sets of lyrics can be found at Mama Lisa's World, a fabulous resource for rhymes and songs from around the world. If you're not familiar this song, this version is most similar to the one that I grew up with and sing in my Rymetimes

If you have more ideas on how to use this set I'd love to hear them. Please leave them in a comment.






You can see all the other Flannel Friday Roundup submissions for this week on Kay Leigh's blog Storytime ABC's.



If you want to know more:


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

Scan images and links to Flannel Friday posts on Pinterest.

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

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



Thursday 14 February 2013

Flannel Friday - Three Craws, flannel makeover

Looking back at my posts I realise I've been promoting the use of flannel and felt sets to enhance library storytimes on my blog for more than 18 months. I've shared these as the sole Scottish representative in a weekly social media event called the Flannel Friday Roundup, an international community of blogging librarians, teachers and early year's folk who share ideas about storytimes and who provide advice and support to each other via Facebook and Twitter.

I have written about using felt props to extend and re-tell stories, and to add a multi sensory element to rhymes, songs and early literacy games.  Along the way I've learnt a great deal about presenting storytimes and the practicalities of selecting appropriate books, songs and rhymes as well as the making of flannel sets. 

One important thing I've learnt is it that spending a little extra time to make the props multi-functional is time well spent. Some of things I made early on have seen better days, including the Three Craws finger puppets I made back 2011. So when the time came to remake them I wanted to build in some extra versatility. 

So, I present the NEW Three Craws (Crows) Sat Upon a Waw

- stick puppets 

- finger puppets (just remove the handle) and

- felt board set (felt sticks to a felt backboard).


Three craws sittin on a waw ...
Sittin on a waw, sittin on a waw-aw-aw-aw.
Three craws sittin on a waw ...
On a cauld an frosty mornin.

The first craw wis greetin for his maw ...
Greetin for his maw, greetin for his maw-aw-aw-aw.
The first craw wis greetin for his maw ...
On a cauld an frosty mornin.

The second craw fell an broke his jaw ...
Fell an broke his jaw, fell and broke his jaw-aw-aw-aw.
The second craw fell an broke his jaw ...
On a cauld an frosty mornin.

The third craw couldna flee at aw ...
Couldna flee at aw, couldna flee at aw-aw-aw-aw.
The third craw couldna flee at aw ...
On a cauld an frosty mornin.


You'll find many versions of this traditional song on the internet in both English and Scots. I like to use this set with the book Katie's Coo: Scots rhymes for wee folk, illustrated by Karen Sutherland. All these pieces were cut with a digital cutter, but could also be cut by hand.


NEWS FLASH!

On March 15th 2013 FLANNEL FRIDAY will be 2 YEARS OLD!

Where in the world are you?
As part of the festivities, the team are putting together a map of our bloggers AND readers. We want to include you! Please fill out the survey and we'll add you. You do not need to list your precise location. If no city is given, you'll be placed in the capital of your state or country, as appropriate. The map will be revealed during the anniversary roundup.



You can see all the other Flannel friday Roundup submissions for this week on Storytime Katie's blog.



If you want to know more:


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

Scan images and links to Flannel Friday posts on Pinterest.

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

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




Friday 8 February 2013

Cutting flannel (or felt) with a Silhouette Cameo

I've been experimenting with using my (personal) digital die cutter to make flannel (felt) sets for storytimes and thought I'd share some of my experiences, both good and bad.

First of all, although I love using the software (Silhouette Studio Designer Edition) and the machine (Silhouette Cameo) for cutting paper and card I don't see it as the perfect method for making flannels.



The combination has amazing functionality - with the ability to import all sorts of images (jpg, svg, png, for e.g.) and providing the means of turning them into cutting files. It has a print and cut function, which aligns prints made on your existing printer with cut lines on the cutter. You can manipulate, re size, recolour and then cut out all kinds of images, which I think is brilliant.


However, there are some disadvantages for flannel sets:


Iron-on Interfacing slips on flannel boards!


  • Firstly, the cutting results are variable - not all felt or flannel cuts well. I found a felt mix (wool and polyester) cuts best, but if you're like me and source your felt from different suppliers (and then store them for some time), you may no longer be aware of the source or the mix.
  • Intricate shapes don't cut successfully from felt, anything too elaborate will, at best, need to trimmed with scissors.
  • Before felt is cut it requires a backing (iron-on interfacing) to stabilise the felt. This adds to the time and cost. Also, and most importantly to Flannel Friday-ers, the interfacing limits the stick-ability of felt to the board. It's fine if the bottom layer is hand cut, but often you'd only be using one layer anyway.
  • Then there is more waste, unless you're prepared to cut down the scraps by hand to iron on to other projects.
  • The manufacturers don't give instructions for cutting felt as they do for other media including cotton and canvas. Although I haven't tried it, a conventional yet robust (non-electronic) die cutter would appear to give more effective results, without the need for backing material.
  • There are copyright limitations of the free and paid-for images and files available from the manufacturers. I still prefer to either draw from scratch (time consuming), or use clip art with minimal use restrictions (Open Clip Art is a great resource). 
The flannel layers stick together well when ironed
However, when the felt cuts well, the process is both quick and effortless. The layers stick together very smoothly when ironed and the finished result is uniform and pleasing. I used this method for my Five Current Buns set.

In order to combine a hand cut bottom felt layer with the detailed cutting capabilities of the cutter, I experimented with heat transfer vinyl. This worked very well once I worked out which way around everything needed to go. This was the method I used to make the Where is Little Green Bug set.  I'll tell you more about that in another post.






Check out Courtney's blog, Miss Courtney Meets Bobo, for this week's Flannel Friday roundup.



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

Scan images and links to Flannel Friday posts on Pinterest.

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

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


Flannel Friday celebrates it's second birthday in March. Look for out for ways in which YOU can participate (even if you don't have a blog).

Saturday 26 January 2013

Flannel Friday - Where is Little Green Bug?

Valentine's Day isn't celebrated in the UK in quite the same way as it is in the USA. So our closest storytime to Valentine's Day won't be of the mushy, gushy variety!

However, as our regular sessions in Valentine's week fall on a day when the school is taking a break, we decided to give our Bookbug Rhymetimes a Hug-a-Bug theme! As we've more space when school classes aren't in the library we've combined our Baby and Toddler Rhymetimes and invited older siblings to come along too. These family events are always well attended and we love hosting them. The older children always seem very willing to participate in group activities, and the little ones get to learn how much fun it is to join in.


Where is little green bug? 





For this rhyme I'll display a bug , a rug, a jug and a mug on the board.
I'll start off by asking ...
 
Little green bug, little green bug,
Where are you resting little green bug?
 
 
... and moving the bug around ...
 
The little bug's resting on the rug
 
The little bug's resting on the jug
 
The little bug's resting on the mug ... etc
 
 
As we've got some older children too, I thought we'd talk about WHERE the bug is resting on the objects?
 
 
 


 
Little green bug, little green bug, where are you resting little green bug?

The little bug's resting ON the rug
 
 
 

  
Little green bug, little green bug, where are you resting little green bug?

The little bug's resting BEHIND the jug!
 
 
 

 
 
Little green bug, little green bug, where are you resting little green bug?

The little bug's resting in FRONT of the mug!
 
 
Then I'll introduce some stranger objects ...
 

 
 


 
Little green bug, little green bug, where are you resting little green bug?

The little bug's resting NEXT to a plug!
 
(Sorry non-UK types - I guess your plugs don't look like this!)
 
 


 
 
Little green bug, little green bug, where are you resting little green bug?

The little bug's resting on TOP of a slug!




Where is he this time?
 
Who is he with?

A dog? Does that fit the rhyme?
 
NO!
 
We'll need a sort of dog that rhymes with bug - have you heard of a pug?
 
What is little bug doing?

He dosn't look as though he's resting, what do you think he's doing?
 
 
Little green bug, little green bug, what are you doing little green bug?

The little bug is making friends with the pug!


... and to finish (thanks to Sarah from her suggestion in the comments)

Little green bug, little green bug,
Friends say goodbye with a GREAT BIG HUG!






 

Technique - using HTV and a digital cutter





I've been doing some more experimenting with my digital cutter. These pieces were all made by cutting out the white bits from HTV (heat transfer vinyl) and ironing them onto the felt. They could also be drawn on with puffy paint. In theory, this SHOULD be a quicker process! I'll tell you more about it in a separate post.
 



Check out Sarah's blog, Miss Sarah's Storytime, for this week's Flannel Friday roundup.



Want to know more?

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

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

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


I'm taking a turn at being the Flannel Friday Fairy Godmother (for January and February 2013) and you can contact me at flannelboardfriday [at] gmail [dot] com.





 
 
 
 
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