Toddler Time - ABC's!

Since I only have 3 (counting this one) Toddler Time sessions left I wanted to make them really good ones. So I've been looking at doing fancier flannels and more interactive programs. I've been loving the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees people have made, so came up with a program to be able to make one!

Stories and Flannels We Shared
Today we read Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom! This isn't my favorite story (I know, everyone loves it), but the pictures are great and I wanted to make the tree, lol.
We used the Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom tree puppet to tell this story today. I've seen this a couple of times on Pinterest, and just love it so much. So I made one. :D It wasn't the easiest, but it definitely wasn't super hard. I did mess up making it though- I didn't make the trunk wide enough just using felt to fit around my hand. D'oh! So I ended up having to unglue it all and then attached a sock to the back of one side of the trunk to make my tree into a sock puppet. This worked really well, so it all worked out though! I purchased the dark brown felt and green felt from my local craft store and the foam for the coconuts from the dollar store, so the whole project cost me $2 in materials, and I have felt left over. I copied Lisa from Lisa's Library Land and used the templates from Making Learning Fun. She in turn got the idea from Twodaloo. My coconuts were cut using a 1 inch hole punch we have here at the library. Made my life SO much easier.
The foam coconuts work wonderfully since the kids can crumple them up and they just pop back into shape. And if they get lost- eh, they're foam.
I am going to try again (this time with my dad's help) to make the trunk just out of foam, so I bequeathed my sock puppet tree to a coworker.
I handed out some random letters to the kids and as we read the story they stuck the letters on the tree. Or rather since we're toddlers they stuck whatever letters they wanted on the tree whenever they felt like it, lol. :)

Rhymes We Shared
I also used this awesome rhyme from Storytime With Miss Tara called the Alpha-gator. She in turn found the idea on the Perry Public Library site. Can I saw how freaking awesome it is that we all share ideas like this? It is.
I used a gator puppet we have here at the library and the coconuts from the Chicka Tree. I had kids help me feed the gator and he "NOM NOM NOM NOM!"ed them as we read the letters. The kids LOVED feeding the gator and the parents got a kick out of the poem. It is rather adorable.
We also chanted the rhyme Emily shared on the Flannel Friday Facebook page about scarves. Found here.

Songs We Shared
Today we sang our usual Shaker Egg song from Jbrary today. The kids REALLY missed it from last week when we had to take a break because of my hip/leg pain. So I made sure to bring it back.We then sang the ABC's (of course), Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, and Itsy Bitsy.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared

• Singing the alphabet song is one way to introduce children to letters. Part of letter knowledge, one of the early literacy skills that helps children be ready to read in school, is knowing the names of letters. At first your child may not relate the letters they sing to the written letter. That's ok; this is a first step.
• You don’t need an alphabet book to talk about letters. With any book you are reading together, let your child look for the first letter or any of the letters in his or her name.
• Letter knowledge starts with seeing and recognizing shapes. A baby playing with a ball feels its roundness. Later that will mean a circle and then the letter O. Lots of letters use the circle shape. Others use triangle or other shapes. Researchers have found that children identify letters by their shapes. Playing and exploring are a part of learning how to read!