Flannel Friday: Library Card Sign Up Month

Here's a really simple and fun idea to use during September for Library Card Sign Up Month: color library cards!

Miss T made these felt library cards by making color copies of our library card on cardstock. Then she laminated them, cut them out and glued them to different colors of felt. She added a little velcro on the back to help them stick since the cardstock makes them a little heavier than the typical felt. If you have library cards to spare, you could also just glue your library card onto colored felt, especially if you're not making a set of 30. ;) 

We use a lot of these color sets by passing them out to children (we typically have less than 30 children in each storytime) and then having them bring them up to the felt board when we call their color. This not only reinforces color concepts, but it helps kids practice following instructions and it helps them get used to interacting with an adult who is not in their family. 

If you have a larger group, you could certainly use these cards in different ways. Maybe a five little... rhyme, maybe placing each card by a word label for each color. 

These are especially great for outreach storytimes because it allows us to end by letting the kids know that they can get a free library card, too! And, of course, they're great to use during Library Card Sign Up Month. Do your patrons know that children can get library cards, too?

Bridget at What is Bridget Reading? has the Flannel Friday roundup this week, so click on through to see what other flannels everyone's using!

#FlannelFriday Color Library Cards

This week, I visited 4 classes at a local early childhood center. Y'all know I love outreach. It's fun to get out of the library, to see where the kids spend their days. We're modeling for teachers some methods of sharing books with their students and we're making connections with the kids so they'll know there's a friendly face at the library. I wanted to include an activity that would encourage the kids to come back to the library with their families. Enter: felt library cards!

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Miss T had made these for one of her Toddler Time programs and they were the perfect thing to bring with me. I told the kids I had one last activity and I would need their help. I showed them one of the cards and asked who had a library card ("Or maybe your mom or dad or grandma or grandpa has a library card?"). I explained that if they don't have a library card, they can come to the library any time and get one for free, and with  their library card they can check out books and movies and CDs to borrow. This was something familiar to some of the kids, which was great. 

I passed out different colored cards to the kids and sang a song: 

(To the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb", but you can do it to pretty much any tune you want!)

If you have a blue card, a blue card, a blue card,

If you have a blue card, bring it up to me! 

(Repeat with different colors.)

[You can also do "Put it on the board" or "Put it in the basket/bag" depending on how you're equipped. The classrooms I visited didn't have feltboards at ready and I hadn't thought to bring my own, so I asked the kids to bring the cards up to me. In one class I had a few special needs kids who weren't as mobile as the other kids, so I asked them to "Hold your cards up high!" and went around and collected them.]

Miss T made these cards by photocopying the front of one of our library cards, laminating them, and hot-glueing them to a colored piece of felt. 

Here's hoping that talking about library cards today will encourage some kids to come visit us at the library! 

And hey, it's Flannel Friday! Cate at Storytiming is hosting this week's roundup. 

What do you do at outreach visits to encourage families to visit the library? 

#flannelfriday : 5 Little Parrots

Determined to be on top of things this fall, I am working on plans for our fall storytimes. One of my storytimes is going to be jungles, so this week, I made 5 little parrots and wrote up a 5 Little Parrots rhyme!

Here are my parrots:

I used large red pom poms, yellow fun foam for the beak, wiggle eyes, and colorful feathers glued on the back for the tails. I attached everything with hot glue and I hot-glued a velcro dot on the back for each use with our flannel mitt.

I wrote a rhyme that counts up from one to five and then back down to zero, but you could use just part of the rhyme if you wanted to shorten it.

Five Little Parrots (Count Up and Down)

One little parrot, not knowing what to do
Along came another and then there were two!

Two little parrots, as chipper as could be
Along came another and then there were three!

Three little parrots, high above the jungle floor
Along came another and then there were four!

Four little parrots, glad to be alive
Along came another and then there were five!

Five little parrots, no room for more
One flew away and then there were four!

Four little parrots, getting quite hungry 

One flew away and then there were three!

Three little parrots, red and green and blue
One flew away and then there were two!

Two little parrots, when the day is done
One flew away and then there was one!

One little parrot, far away did roam
He was lonely, so he went home!

Enjoy! And do check out this week's Flannel Friday roundup at Putting Smiles on Faces for other great ideas!

#FlannelFriday: Santa Had a Christmas Tree

Well, ho ho ho! Look who finally got her act together to participate in Flannel Friday?

Since today's the holiday extravaganza, I wanted to share a flannel that's been a HUGE HIT with preschool classes in my community. I know not everyone's comfortable sharing Christmas materials at storytime and I think that's just fine not to. However, we do in my community (although we stick to more secular stuff).

Here's the flannel:

As you know, we love to pass out felt pieces and have our kids come up and put them on the board. You can do that this way or you could put the felt pieces on yourself!

(Apologies, but I don't have a source for this song!)

Santa Had a Christmas Tree (To the tune of "Old MacDonald")

Santa had a Christmas tree
Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho
And on that tree he had a star
Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho
With a twinkle, twinkle here
And a twinkle, twinkle there
Here a twinkly, there a twinkle
Everywhere a twinkle, twinkle
Santa had a Christmas tree
Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!

Repeat with:
Under his tree he had a gift... with a rattle, rattle here
On that tree he had a light... with a sparkle, sparkle here
On that tree he had a bell... with a jingle, jingle here
Next to his tree he had some cookies... with a crunch, crunch here

And, of course, you can add more verses if you think of different items you want to put on or around your tree.

Our Head Start teachers loved this so much that they all asked for the words to the song after we went there.

Today is the Flannel Friday Holiday Extravaganza, hosted by Loons and Quines, so head on over there to check out the roundup!

#Flannel Friday - Fifteen Animals

I have been loving the #Flannel Friday roundups that Mel's been posting and I finally got my act together to post one of my own. I have to confess, I did NOT make this flannel set. My wonderful employee Miss T is gifted with craftiness and she makes many of our flannel stories. When I saw the book Fifteen Animals by Sandra Boynton, I knew it would be great for storytime, but the small board book format wasn't the best for a group. So I took it to Miss T and she created these flannel pieces to go with it:

I won't print the entire text here (seriously, go get the book! I love it!), but the gist is:

I have a cat named Bob and a dog named Bob
And two fish named Bob and Bob...

And so on, until you get to...

There's Bob the mouse and Bob the bird 
And my turtle...
Simon James Alexander Ragdale the Third. 

I love the silly, surprise ending. This is a simple story that would work with a storytime on animals, pets, or counting.

Now, head on over to Mel's Desk for this week's #Flannel Friday roundup!