Flannel Friday: Firefly Fun!

HAPPY

FRIDAY!

I hope everyone is enjoying a bright and sunny Summer day!

This week in our storytimes, we decided to celebrate Summer by reading the book:

Mouse's First Summer

written by Lauren Thompson

This series of books is a favorite for my storytime friends and for me! If you have been following this blog then you may remember Mouse from our Springtime Celebration here.

In the Mouse's First Summer, Mouse and Minka, his sister, explore Summer after hitching a ride inside a picnic basket. They experience lemonade and grape jelly and lots of other treats for the first time throughout the Summer day. When it starts to get dark, they experience their first glimpse of ***FIREFLIES!***

I LOVE ***FIREFLIES!***, don't you? My storytime friends sure did!

I made colorful fireflies from construction paper using the cut paper technique that I like so well. :o) It is just so easy and fast for me! Oh, and I used a little glitter glue, too. Fireflies need their sparkle!

My inspiration for these fireflies came from a recent Flannel Friday post that you can find here. Thank you to Amy for sharing it with us and for linking to another Flannel Friday post  ~ where I found the inspiration for my firefly pattern and for the rhyme that I tweaked for my storytime purposes. You can find that post here. Thank you, Alison!

I actually decided to use 6 fireflies because I wanted to bring in a chance for my friends to practice recognizing and naming colors verbally and with ASL signs. As we began the rhyme, we counted out the fireflies and talked about what was the same about them and what was different.

Once we decided that they were different colors, we named and signed each color. Then as I said the rhyme, each firefly's colroful light "disappeared".

Six Little Fireflies

(Adapted from "Five Little Fireflies")

Six little fireflies blinking in the night

Looking at the glow of each other's light.

Whoosh went the wind.

And whistle went the breeze.

Then out went a red light 

With a great big sneeze!

Aaaaaachoooooo!

Five little fireflies blinking in the night

Looking at the glow of each other's light.

Whoosh went the wind.

And whistle went the breeze.

Then out went an orange light 

With a great big sneeze!

Aaaaaachoooooo!

Four little fireflies blinking in the night

Looking at the glow of each other's light.

Whoosh went the wind.

And whistle went the breeze.

Then out went a yellow light 

With a great big sneeze!

Aaaaaachoooooo!

Continue with: three/green and two/blue. 

Then with:

One little firefly blinking in the night

Looking at the glow of his very own light.

Whoosh went the wind.

And whistle went the breeze.

Then out went his purple light 

With a great big sneeze!

Aaaaaachoooooo!

Six little fireflies no longer blinking in the night

Flew off with each other in the pale moon light.

1-2-3-4-5-6

Bye, fireflies!

After cutting out the pieces to each firefly and gluing them together, I add white glitter glue to their wings and the matching glitter glue to each colorful body. Once laminated, the fireflies were ready to "blink on and off" by using double-sided tape. When the firefly is lit up, the colorful body is taped to him. When he is not lit-up, the colorful body is removed. So simple and fun!

I always like to include a craft for the end of our storytime or for take-home on our Pajama Party nights. Last night was our monthly Pajama Party for June so it was a take-home craft.

I also like to do a Library Search on Pajama Party nights so that any family who can not stay for a short children's video can easily leave from storytime without too much fuss. I combined the Search and the Take-home Craft in this way:

I informed my storytime friends that they each would be taking home six fireflies so they could do the rhyme at home. I brought out the take-home bag and we looked at what was inside. 

There were six firefly bodies ~ one in each color of the rainbow. 

But when we counted the fireflies there were only four. 

What?!!?? Only four?? 

How many did we need? That's right six. 

But where are they? Maybe they are flying around inside the Library.  :o)

We better go search for them and catch them! 

How many do we each need to find? That's right ~ 2 ~ one for each hand. 

Into the Library we go!

When all the friends return from the search, we have the video ready to go and a snack ready for them. This is the easiest way that I have found to transition into the movie portion of our evening. It helps those parents who do not wish to stay for the movie. They get their child's snack as they leave the room and there are no tears since they just don't return to the storytime room after they do the search. ;o)

For anyone who is curious, we did watch a video about fireflies. It was the Night Lights episode on a The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That! video:

Well, that is my Flannel Friday contribution for this week. If you want to learn more about Flannel Friday, you can visit the website here. 

I hope you have a lovely weekend!

And, as always, 

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!