Not Quite a Flannel Friday: Melting Snowman

HAPPY 
FLANNEL
FRIDAY!

We had our all day Summer Reading Workshop today ~ so I'm a little late.

My "Melting" Snowman

I know!  I know!
He looks just like an ordinary little guy.
But he is NOT!

He is actually a ton of fun to play with and simple enough to make with a large group of families. 

I can confidently say that because this is our Storytime Craft for last night's Family Storytime.

We made our "melting" snowmen to go along with several of our snowman songs and fingerplays ~ like this traditional one:

I'm a Little Snowman

(Sung to: "I'm a Little Teapot")

I'm a little snowman

Short and fat.

Here is my tie 

And here is my hat.

When the sun comes out,

I'll melt away.

But I'll be back.

Another day!

Isn't he cool?!??!!

For the little ones ~ and even the adults ~ it is like magic! 

He rolls down and up with ease due to some well-placed brads.

I heard a whole wave of ooooh's and aaaah's as I did it the first time. Then we had to do it over and over and over again to satisfy everyone's curiosity. :o) 

When I announced that everyone would be creating his/her own to take home, the room erupted into screams of "YAY!" and there was lots of jumping up and down with excitement. It made my heart smile to see them so excited!

If you would like directions for making this cool craft, please contact me at storytimeabcs@gmail.com or check out below who and what inspired me to make my "melting" snowman. It was a post about "telescoping" cards ~ using circles ~ that I came across recently. The post I read was not about making a snowman but it does have a video tutorial that shows the steps to make a "telescoping" card. Barb's video was all I needed to get excited about "telescoping" crafts. It didn't take much for me to tweak her circle card into a snowman! And I have several more ideas for "telescoping"!

***Special Note: There have been some discussions on-line and in my personal life recently about giving credit to others for their ideas. As far as I am aware, none of the discussions involve the Flannel Friday group but I feel that the topic of the discussions does apply. One of the first things that impressed me about this group is how often credit is given back to other participants. I think we, as a whole, do a very good job of that. Kudos to us!

I totally agree with the concept of giving credit for ideas and even for giving credit for that mystical little thing called inspiration. It is a positive concept! And well worth the effort to do!

But! I also know that many people have the same idea around the same time without ever seeing the other person's idea or knowing that the other person is thinking about doing the same thing. That has happened to me several times over just the past year. I have read a Flannel Friday post that is EXACTLY like one that I have been working on for weeks! Neither of us knew what the other one was doing. 

I love that "great minds think alike" and that we have so many "great minds" in our Flannel Friday group!

Another "But!" here:  

But it can be a little frustrating when someone else beats you to the punch. When this happens to me, I try (and hope that I am successful) to have a positive attitude about it. I often write a "what a wonderful idea! note to the other person and try to be happy that other children and other families will benefit from the idea ~ whether or not I was the first person to get that idea out there. I try to make the importance of the idea be about the children, not the origin of the idea.

I also know that there are times when someone sees an idea, likes it, but can't use it at the time. Then weeks, months, even years, later that idea comes to them at a time when they can use it. They may remember that they saw it somewhere ~ or not! I know my mind isn't as good at remembering these things as it used to be! 

Anyway, they may remember that they did see it somewhere but not know where to give the credit. I personally don't fault someone for this. I want to believe that most people, given the opportunity, like to give others credit for their work. So I try really hard to give the benefit of the doubt and trust in Karma. If the person meant well ~ good! If the person had questionable intent then "Uh Oh!" for them.

I am not naive or inexperienced though! I work with someone right now who takes others' ideas and doesn't give credit where credit is due. What do you do about that? I have learned several ways to handle it but that is for another time. Email me if you need suggestions right now though. ;o) I might be able to help by sharing from my vast experiences and frustrations! LOL!

Okay, I didn't mean for that to get so long! Sorry! I just want to be clear that I am giving credit for my inspiration. There may be posts out there that are actual "telescoping snowmen" ~ I couldn't tell you ~ because this particular idea came to me when I saw Barb's tutorial and decided to tweak her circle card into a snowman. :o) 

If anyone has a "telescoping snowman" or any kind of "telescoping" craft, I would love to hear about them and share a link to them! I might just start a Telescoping Blog Hop! Whoo hoo! You know how I love a good Blog Hop!

One last thing before I go, I  just want to mention that my features on this particular snowman were done to go along with my very first storytime post from last year, It Is Snowing All Around! 

I used the snowman from the "Snowflake, Snowflake, What Do You See?" magnetic board set but I tweaked it this year. (See, I am even known to tweak my own ideas! Tweak! Tweak! Tweak! I see a new blog coming to life!)

I gave my melting snowman a green bowtie instead of a purple scarf so that I could use him for a different snowman fingerplay that includes bowties. (Watch for this in an upcoming post. It is fun, too!)

I hope you enjoyed this Flannel Friday contribution! And didn't mind too much that I shared a few of my thoughts about giving credit. They are just my opinion and as people often say, "It's a funny thing about opinions ~ everyone has one!" 

Please feel free to share your opinion below ~ if you are inclined to do so. It can be about this craft, something fun that you do with a winter/snowman theme, or even your own opinion on giving credit ~  whether you agree or disagree with mine. 

I love sharing ideas and hearing what others think, too!

As I tell my boys: "If I want to be heard then I need to be willing to listen!"

Thanks for stopping by and, as always,

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!

Saturday Share: A Baby WHAT?!??!!!

I hope that each of you will be able to enjoy a nice long 
weekend with your families and friends.
Stay safe!

I missed posting this for the Flannel Friday Round-up because we have had a super busy week with record numbers at our weekly storytimes. I have been extremely busy cutting out more and more and more dinosaurs! :oP 

Besides all the cutting though ~ I have been creating lots of fun learning activities with dinosaurs. I can't wait to share these Dino ideas with you. I have a couple of Fun Finds, several cute, yummy snack ideas, and even a few simple, inexpensive crafts to encourage your child/ren to use their imagination(s) as they explore the prehistoric world of the Dinosaurs. 

I always enjoy doing Dinosaur storytimes! Being the Mom of four boys, I had to learn about these awesome creatures over the years ~ each of my boys was obsessed with them at one time or another! But, apparently, they were not alone in this obsession! Over the years, I have notice that my boys are not the only ones who LOVE these strange creatures who just seem to never lose their popularity! 

Both boys and girls adore Dinosaurs!

Since I missed the FFRU, I am going to go ahead and do a Saturday Share this week. Here is a quick idea for some silly singing and puppet play. It is an easy, inexpensive craft to make and it is tons of fun to show the little ones. 

It is an egg puppet that hatches into a... 

Hmmm, I think I'll make you wait  for the BIG reveal in the song. (Yes, it is a dinosaur but can you guess which kind?!??!!)

The little ones think it is magical when the egg begins to hatch! 

Here is the song that I use with my puppet:

I'm Bringing Home a…

(Sung to: “I’m Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee”)

Look what I found!
(The words in green are spoken.)

I'm bringing home a round, gigantic egg.
Won’t my mommy jump up on the bed?
I'm bringing home a round, gigantic egg.
Crack! Crack! Crack!

Uh, oh! It’s hatching!
 (Open the egg slowly)

And it’s a baby dinosaur!

I'm bringing home a baby dinosaur.
Won’t my mommy hide behind the door?
I'm bringing home a baby dinosaur.
"Roar! Roar! Roar!"

Oh, look!
 (Take the dinosaur out of the egg.)

It’s a Book-a-saurus!

(Did you guess?) 

I'm reading lots of books to my dinosaur.
Won’t my mommy love that more and more?

I'm reading lots of books to my dinosaur.

"More! More! More!"

We love books!

Yay!

My inspiration for the baby dinosaur once again came from a sticker. The sticker set is so old that I have no idea where I bought them ~ probably a teacher store or catalog ~ years and years ago. The Stegosaurus sticker was always my favorite so it became my "Book-a-saurus" for this craft.

As you can see from the picture below, I enlarged the baby dinosaur quite a bit! I enlarged it on the copier. Then I traced the outline to use with my cut-paper technique. It is a simple and effective technique! All you need to do it for yourself is ~ construction paper in different colors, a pattern, scissors, and glue. Add a popsicle stick and ~ viola!  ~ you have a puppet!

The egg part of the craft is a little more involved. It is simple enough to do but it does have a few steps involved. Contact me at storytimeabcs@gmail.com if you are interested in the directions.

At the end of our storytime, I had my storytime friends go on a Dinosaur Hunt in the library. They each found a smaller black and white copy of the Book-a-saurus to take home and color. I also provided them with a completely put-together egg to be decorated any way they wanted and a popsicle stick to make their dinosaur into a puppet.

Besides being a fun puppet to sing and play with, I told the families that each "Book-a-saurus" needed to be read to every day. I gave them 7 star stickers each and told them to add a sticker to the egg each day that they read to their new friend. Once they have added 5 to 7 stars, they can bring the egg back to the library and receive a special dinosaur prize! The adults loved this idea. It is a great way to encourage the families to read each day! ;o)

Well, that's it for my Saturday Share. If you make your own "Book-a-sarus", I would love to hear about it and see a picture or two. 

Have fun!

And, as always,

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!

Flannel Friday: A Rumble in the Jungle

Hey, it's a jungle in here!

Source

Happy Flannel Friday!

This week, I was inspired during a super quick visit to our Dollar Store. It was a fast in-and-out visit yesterday morning but I happened to notice some adorable jungle stickers. 

They were only a $1.00!

Since my Family Night storytime this week was an adventure to the jungle, I just had to have them! 

But ~ what to do with them?!??!???

When we adventure to the jungle at storytime, I usually do several songs with lots of different jungle animals so I decided to make some magnetic/flannel sets using these cute animals as my inspiration. 

I took a sheet of the stickers and scanned it into Photoshop. Then I used the cropping tool to isolate each animal ~ leaving a border of the green around each one because I thought it was a nice contrast. Finally,  I enlarged each animal to the appropriate size and printed them out on cardstock.

This is what you need to make the flannel set.

Once they were printed out, I cut out each one leaving the nice green border. 

Sorry about the colors 

~ he should be brown and tan with a light green border ~ 

I'm not sure why my pictures show strange colors sometimes. :o(

Here is where I did different techniques ~ one for the magnetic board and one for the flannel board:

To prepare the animals for flannel use, I glued the cardstock to some stiff black felt using Tacky glue. 

The final step ~ I trimmed the black felt to leave a black border around the edge of the green. That really makes the colors stand out! 

Now he is ready to monkey around at storytime!

For the magnetic board set, I simply copied the animals onto the cardstock, cut out each one ~ leaving the green border ~ and laminated them. Once laminated, I trimmed them up again and put a magnet on the back of each one. Here is the whole gang that I made for last night's storytime:

If you are observant, you will have noticed that I did not include all of the animals from the sticker sheet. I was in a crunch for time since I found them at around 1 pm and needed to use them at 7 pm. I made the ones that I knew would go along with my featured book and a few songs that I had planned to sing. I will be adding the rest soon.

If you are super observant ~ which I am NOT! ~ you may have noticed an extra jungle friend. Here's a clue ~ It is one of these two animals:

It is the flamingo! Isn't she gorgeous? 

And she fits right in with a little help from the green border. I found the flamingo by doing a Google search in images. Once I found one that was similar to the other animals, a friend used a cool tool in Photoshop to add the green border. It is the rubber stamp tool. He says it is simple so I will be learning how to do it myself.  (I love learning new things, don't you?)

There you have it! 

Two ways to very quickly take an inspiration (stickers!) and transform it into usable, brightly colored storytime props.

A few ways that they can be used:

First, I used some of them with a fun song ~ The Jungle Walk (resource information coming soon ~ I have used this song for 20 plus years. It is from a record set that a friend gave me when I first started teaching preschool. The set is my absolute favorite music resource for teaching and for storytimes. I am researching on-line for information on it and will share it as soon as I find it In the meantime, you could just read the words. Contact me if you are interested in having them sent to you.) :

"It's a perfect day to walk in the jungle

Come and spend some time.

Look for the animals deep in the jungle.

Look through the trees and vines."

Each new verse introduces a different animal and asks the children to move like that animal. This song is wonderful for movement and for encouraging good listening skills.

The jungle animal sets can also be used for another active song:

 If I Were

(Sung to: "The Mulberry Bush")

Oh, if I were a monkey, 

a monkey, a monkey,

Oh, if I were a monkey

I'd swing around the jungle.

Swing, swing

Oh, if I were a tiny snake,

tiny snake, tiny snake,

Oh, if I were a tiny snake 

I'd slither around the jungle.

Slither, slither

More verses:

Flamingo ~ fly

Zebra ~ trot

Tiger ~ crawl

Giraffe ~ stretch

Hippo ~ waddle

Lion ~ stalk 

Elephant ~ stomp

For a different take on this song, you could make sounds instead of movements such as roaring for the lion, hissing for the snake, etc. If you don't know what an animal sounds like, you could always ask your child/ren. They often have great suggestions! 

Okay, one more:

At the last minute, I decided to use the animals for a little storytelling. I did a jungle version of Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  Any version of this popular book is always fun and well-received by the children and the parents!

It started out like this:

I went for a walk in the jungle

And what do you think I saw?

I saw a monkey looking at me!

And this is what I said,

Monkey, Monkey, what do you see?

I see a snake slithering by me.

If you would like a copy of the whole story, please send my an email at storytimeabcs@gmail.com

Our adventure to the jungle was a BLAST! Thanks to the colorful jungle animals that were soooo simple to make! I hope you enjoyed learning how they were adapted for both the flannel board and the magnetic board. Come back soon for another visit because I will be sharing more ideas on how to use these stickers for other learning activities. AND I will be sharing our craft from last night! He produced lots of ROAR-ingly good fun!

It's a roaring lion!

I chose this particular picture to include because 

of the little one in the background. 

They are really having fun with the magnetic set!

The little guy's expression is priceless!

I hope you have a fun, adventurous weekend!

And, as always,

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!

This week's Flannel Friday Round-Up is being hosted by Mollie at her blog, What Happens In Storytime. Thanks for hosting this week, Mollie!

Curious about Flannel Friday? 

In the awesome words of Library Quine:

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

Scan the Flannel Friday posts on Pinterest. 

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

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

And in my own words, 

ENJOY!