Flannel Board Stories & American Girl Craft

I started doing Mother Goose on the Loose story time for babies one Saturday a month, which means that I needed to develop props from scratch since we really don't have anything like that at the library. The few sad musical instruments that we have are from when I attended story time a million years ago. They're just gross.

So I started my own collection of flannel board stories. I am still in the process of making a bunch, but these are the characters I made for the very first Mother Goose on the Loose program in January.

These are for the nursery rhyme Hey Diddle, Diddle...

spoon, dish, fiddle, cow & a random mouse

dish & spoon

fiddle!

 

 

cow

 

 

 

pig

cat

moon... or banana!

dog after my very own dachshund

bunny in progress

I have plenty more planned-I'm doing a bug theme this month and a food theme in March, so I'll have more to post! I'm alternating between felt and paper with velcro to stick to the flannel board. I don't want to get overwhelmed with all the sewing. 

I had a really easy craft for February's American Girl Love Tea program! I love the American Girl aisle in Michaels because they have all these ready-to-go crafts with the American Girl theme. Some of them are pretty pricey, but I get great ideas since I can just come up with similar things for cheaper. I couldn't resist getting this pack of patterned paper though for chain bracelets. One pack was less than $5 and it made 10 bracelets, so it was perfect for me!









The bracelets were really easy to make, but they did take up the whole 1.5 hours of the program (which is a plus! I always have kids that take their time and kids that rush to get it done) and the girls had a little trouble with getting the paper chains to slide into each other. Eventually they got it and some even made more than one.

These are the best crafts.  No real planning or preparing, they're simple and a big hit. I even have enough paper left over that I could do it again next year!