Fish Story Time

Sticking with the water theme for rainy April, I read some fish stories, freaked out about sharks, and added paper fish to a paper fishbowl. I didn't realize my sub-theme was "fish that get eaten because they are bad" until I already read This is not my hat and halfway through Uglyfish. Whoops! I have too many favorites and when I pair them with other favorites it is easy to forget they might have more in common than I remembered. Oh well!

The Books:

My Goldfish by Stephane Barroux

Fish Eyes by Lois Ehlert

This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen

Uglyfish by Kara LaReau & Scott Magoon

The Favorite: This is not my hat by Jon Klassen was the favorite, which wasn't a surprise since he won the 2013 Caldecott. The kids kept asking me "WHAT HAPPENED TO LITTLE FISH!?!!" Lead to great discussion about what might have happened to him.

Flannelboard: Five Little Fishies (to the tune of Five Little Monkeys)

Five little fishies, swimming in the sea
Teasing Mr. Shark, You can't catch me!
Along comes Mr. Shark, as quiet as can be... CHOMP!

I just had different colored fish shapes randomly cut from scraps of felt, but I used this Shark hand puppet I made a few summers ago for "Make A Splash @ Your Library" summer reading program puppet show. The kids all wanted a turn to "CHOMP" up the fish with this puppet!

What's in the Memory Box?
This was a great week because not one kid shouted "AN EGG!" They all named things that live in water. Fish. An octopus. Shark. SURPRISE! They actually paid attention! yay!
 It was a shark. I couldn't make it too easy on them. And of course, they all wanted to "pet" the shark.

The Craft: What can you make with an empty fishbowl printed on paper and tiny paper fish? Glue as many as you want into the fishbowl and color them!!

Duck Story Time featuring a Rabbit

Of course, following April Showers has to be ducklings to swim in those puddles. (I'm obviously really working hard thinking of Story Time themes...) I really wanted to try the Duck Rabbit Craft that's all the rage right now. Pair that with multiple staff out due to sickness or vacation and crazy double shifts on every desk and that's how this year's Duck Story Time theme was born.

The Books:

Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenheld

Duckie's Ducklings by Frances Barry

The Duckling gets a Cookie!? by Mo Willems

Chicken, Chicken, Duck! by Nadia Krilanovich

The Favorite: It was a tie between Duck! Rabbit! and The Duckling gets a Cookie!? I really liked Duckie's Ducklings because it was just a cute counting book that was easy with the toddlers. Sometimes the Pigeon's rants go over 2 year old heads.  They really like counting ducks though.

Flannelboard: I'm doing really well with having an extra activity ready every week for story time and that's all thanks to this blog, which was the whole point. Since Story Time at my library was just books & a craft with the occasional flannelboard before I took over, I had spent a lot of time making flannelboards since we don't really have a collection of them.  I look forward to the day that I already have something made and don't have to make one quickly 15 minutes before Story Time!

I just went with the traditional Five Little Ducks Went Out to Play from childhood this time. You know the rhyme!

Five little ducks went out to play
Over the hill and far away.
The Mama Duck said,
Quack, quack, quack, quack!
But only four little ducks came back.

Repeat with 4, 3, 2...

One little duck went out to play
Over the hill and far away.
The Mama Duck said,
Quack, quack, quack, quack!
And no little ducks came back!
So the Mama Duck said,
QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK!!
And five little ducks came back!

While looking for cute clip art of ducks, I came across this adorable printable from Picklebums blog and knew I couldn't do anything as cute in such a large, easy capacity as I wanted! They are the cutest ducks I have ever seen! And since it was an easy printable, I printed enough for 20 ducklings. This worked out great since I could give every child a duck to take from the flannelboard. I only had to sing about 18 ducks that "went out to play." It worked really well for a big group and it was a blessing to be able to print them out. I love printables!! 

What's in the Memory Box?
A felt bunny! Of course, everyone had to "pet" the bunny which I wasn't expecting and now I invite the kids up to "pet" everything I hid in the box if it is an animal or bug.
 

The Craft:
We made the Duck/Rabbit Craft to go with the book Duck! Rabbit! which was really fun. I just used the template that I found on Pinterest, added a popsicle stick and Bam! Duck! Rabbit! Craft.

April Showers Story Time

There was no rainy day this week in New Jersey since I jinxed it with my April Showers Story Time theme. We even did a RAIN DANCE! It didn't work, but by the end of the book, the kids all wanted it to rain.

The Books:

 

Kipper's Rainy Day based on the books by Mick Inkpen

One Rainy Day by M. Christina Butler

Floop's New Umbrella by Carole Tremblay

Rain Dance by Kathi Appelt

The Favorite: Rain Dance was the last book I read because I had the kids get up and act out all the animal parts to make our "rain dance" and it is always tough to get them to sit back down on their mats for another story after movement!

Flannelboard:  Five Little Raindrops
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this rhyme from thestorytimelady! It was

Five little raindrops 
dancing on a walk.
Pitter, patter, pitter, patter
That's the way they talk.
Out comes the yellow sun
Shining in the sky,
And away goes one raindrop
Bye, bye bye!

The kids really loved making a "rainstorm" with all the "pitter-pattering" on their knees/the floor. I'll definitely be using this rhyme again soon!



What's in the Memory Box?
I used my felt rain again from when I did a Robot theme. The kids all thought a cat would be in the box because they remembered the cat hiding in a tree in Kipper's Rainy Day. I don't know if they will ever guess right, but its fun watching them try every week!

The Craft: Grumpy Rain Clouds
I was the only one who made a Grumpy Cloud. Everyone else made one with a happy face, flowers or the biggest hit: RAINBOWS! I'm happy with my grumpy cloud though. I just gave them clouds cut from white construction paper, raindrops cut from blue construction paper and blue streamers. I was going to have them glue cotton balls on the clouds, but they were more interested in coloring and making faces with crayons instead. I'm happy about that since whenever we do crafts with cotton balls, half of the cotton balls always end up on the glue sticks!

Bunnies Story Time

This week's theme was bunnies so I could get away with doing an "Easter" story time without actually doing it. This way, if the parents want to incorporate the "Easter Bunny" while they do the craft, that's up to them. However, I'm playing it safe by just calling them bunnies!

The Books:

You're Finally Here! by Mélanie Watt

Little Bunny Foo Foo by Cori Doerrfeld

Squish Rabbit by Katherine Battersby

The Favorite: Little Bunny Foo Foo was the favorite, which I was surprised since they are all equally my favorite bunny stories! I wasn't sure how the parents/kids would react to Little Bunny Foo Foo eating the Good Fairy at the end of the book, but it went over okay as far as I could tell. I had the kids do the finger play motions as I read the book.


Flannelboard: 5 Little Bunnies Rhyme found on storytimekatie.com

Hippety hop and hippety hay,
Five little bunnies went out to play.
Hippety hop and hippety hay,
One little bunny hopped away.
(Repeat until there are no bunnies left)
No more bunnies are playing today,
I hope they come back another day.


The best part about this rhyme is having the kids repeat "Hippety hop and hippety hay" over and over before I started the rhyme to "make sure they could say it" and they were really excited to say it with me and kept them from grabbing the bunnies down from the flannelboard.


What's in the Memory Box? 
I put a tiny felt mouse in the box this time for the field mice that Little Bunny Foo Foo was bopping on the head. I wish I had put one of my felt cupcakes in there instead since that's what the mice stole from Foo Foo to make her chase them. I'll have to remember for next time.

The Craft: Bunny Finger Puppet
This craft was so simple! I remembered seeing a finger puppet paper dog on Pinterest some time ago and thought I could use that idea and make it into a bunny. Some of the kids didn't want holes and just covered them up with another white bunny head.

This is my first pattern-turned-PDF to share!

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!