Toddler Time - Sharks!

This week marks my second to last Toddler Time. I am sad.I let my parents know that next week would be our last Toddler Time and I got a chorus of “whys.” It was really hard. Next week is going to suck.

Because it’s my last few weeks in Toddler Time, I’ve been trying to make them extra special for the kids and parents. Extra flannel boards, more singing, the works. This week I decided to do Sharks, based on some adorable flannels I saw during Flannel Friday’s Shark Week.

Stories and Flannels We Shared

Today’s story was The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark, told with flannels. I’ll be honest here, I totally stole the flannels from Anne over at ItsyBitsyMom. I couldn’t help it. Her shark and fish were just so ridiculously adorable, and I knew I couldn’t do anything cuter, so I stole them. Sorry Anne!! I even copied her idea to use a stamp pad for shading, and omg, it worked awesome. If I was going to continue doing flannels I’d dig out my stamp pads and shade all my flannels. It’s such a great idea. I could totally see combining the stamp pad shading with my puff paints (Anne embroiders her flannels which makes them double sided, and awesome, but I’m not that good with embroidery). 

Next up I used a modified version of Smiley Shark from Kim over at Destination Storytime. No one near us owned Smiley Shark so Kim’s idea of retelling Ruth Gallaway’s story was great. I modified it a bit more and used pieces from my magent story I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean. I actually had a little one who was in LOVE with the flannel board so I didn’t put pieces on the board as I retold this story, I acted it out with the pieces in my hands. It worked! :) (photo refernce is the I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean. For Smiley Shark I used my felt shark from above, the crab, the jelly fish, the octopus, a turtle, and the fish.)

Rhymes We Shared

We went a bit over our time today, what with the longer flannels, so we didn’t sing as much. Today we sang our Shaker Song Twice, Tiny Tim, and our hello/goodbye songs. That was it! But it worked. Sometimes we sing more, sometimes we sing less.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared

Today was a learning day! I had parents who asked all kinds of questions which I LOVE so very much. It was exciting. 

• We talked about how to make flannel boards and flannel pieces, where to find patters, what kinds of books and/or stories work for flannels (anything!) and where to get the parts to make flannel boards. It was awesome. 
• We also talked about how to make shaker eggs at home, the different things to fill them and how to avoid choking hazards. I love when parents are interested in the processes of how a story time gets put together. 
• We also briefly touched on Phonological Awareness and how songs break down words into easy to understand syllables. The parents were much more excited about learning how to take Story Time home with them that I glossed over the typical tips and delved more into story time dynamics.