Review: Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, Vol. 1: Revolutions of Terror

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, Vol. 1: Revolutions of Terror Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, Vol. 1: Revolutions of Terror by Nick Abadzis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved, loved, loved, Gabby as a companion. I wish that they had give with her in the show rather than Clara (yes I know I'm jumping Doctors). Gabby had more depth and personality and I found her so much more interesting.
Gabby meets The Doctor when he is investigating a psychic terror plaguing her neighborhood. As a good companion Gabby helps the Doctor figure out what is going on and Dave Earth. And, again of course, he takes her to see wonders.
They did a perfect 10 on this GN. He's a bit loopy and weird and totally fun. In the second episode he gets distracted by math and almost misses what's going on, only to have a light bulb moment and rush in.
The colors were vibrant and the art fit the iconic Doctor. I particularly loved the sketches and letter that Gabby wrote interjected in between the two episodes.

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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. 



Flannel Friday Roundup - 8/14!

Are you ready to see the Flannel Friday Roundup? I am! Squirt is too. He wants you to know just how awesome everyone is. Can you feel it?

Now that you've properly admitted how fabulous Squirt is, he says it's time to get onto the links!
With Summer Reading winding down for everyone and end of the summer parties and celebrations we've got a smaller round-up today, but don't let that fool you! We've got some awesome stuff to share today.

First up Kathryn over at Fun With Friends at Storytime has an adorable flannel version of Little Dinos Don't Bite. I cannot get over how ridiculously adorable her dinos are. I love the wiggle eyes and the layering. (I am totally stealing this one!!)

Next we have a huge welcome to Allison over at Rainbow Beams, it's her first time contributing to Flannel Friday! Welcome Allison! :) Allison shared a Colorful Butterflies flannel and rhyme with the cutest little butterflies made with felt and pipe cleaners. She used the flannel with her "B" storytime.

And finally, I made a Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom! tree puppet to go with my ABC Toddler Time. It didn't go exactly as planned, but it came out pretty darn good if I do say so myself. ;)

You can find even more ideas, tips, and tricks on the Flannel Friday Pinterest boards, website, and Facebook group.  If you're not a member of the Facebook group, you should join! It's an awesome way to find new flannels and the community is the best.

Next week's Roundup will be hosted by Mollie at What Happens at Storytime....


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!


Flannel Friday



Flannel Friday Placeholder for August 14, 2015. One of my adorable cats, Winston Ziggy-Stardust, will be helping me collect the links this week. (He's so helpful, can't you tell?)

Special thanks to Jane over at Piper Loves the Library for letting me steal her week. :) Thanks so much Jane!!

Due to circumstances beyond my control I'll be leaving Children's Services (right at my 19 year mark) to join Adult/Teen Services and Circulation. I will miss Children's Services SO much. My last story time will be on August 26, so that week will be my last time participating in Flannel Friday until I can get back into Children's Services. I have loved participating in Flannel Fridays and love the support of this group. I will continue to blog, but sadly no more flannels.

Now onto the links!! Post your FF link in the comments and I will compile into a plethora of wonderfulness.,


Toddler Time - Singing About Pond Animals

I did something a little different for today's Toddler Time. We sang the whole program. It was a lot of fun, and the only thing the kids missed was some of the movement. The day before my program I had a doctor's appointment for some lovely hip and leg pain I've been having and discovered that I have sciatic nerve issues from a fall on my way into work one day. I can move, but a lot of movement leaves my hip, tucas, and leg in agony. It's been steadily getting worse, and this week just sitting has left me wanting to break down and cry. So for this week (hopefully only this week) I nixed much of the movement. I did encourage the kids to dance and move while we sang though. Something they LOVED. The interpretative dance to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star was a riot.

Stories We Shared
I only shared one story today, and while I was planning on singing it, the kids INSISTED it was a book so I had to read it. It was very hard to read it, and I ended up doing it in a sing-song. We read an old favorite of mine, that I wish wasn't out of print. Little White Duck illustrated by Jean Paley.
(I also have a flannel for this when I use it as a song, but since we didn't sing it I didn't pull out the flannel. Because I love it, I'm sharing it below as well.)

Songs and Flannels We Shared
We sang lots of songs today! But singing is FUN! And since most of the songs had flannels, I'm combining this category into one today.
We sang:
     3(5) Little Ducks
     Three little ducks went out one day Over the hill and far away
     Mama duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack,” but only two little ducks came back…
     Two little ducks went out one day Over the hill and far away
     Mama duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack,” but only one little duck came swimming back…
     One little duck went out one day Over the hill and far away
     Mama duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack,” but no little ducks came back…
     Sad Mama duck went out one day, Over the hill and far away
     Mama duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack,” and all of the ducks came back.

     6 Little Ducks
     Six little ducks That I once knew
     Fat ones, skinny ones, Fair ones, too
     But the one little duck With the feather on his back
     He led the others With a quack, quack, quack
     Quack, quack, quack, Quack, quack, quack
     He led the others With a quack, quack, quack
     Down to the river They would go
     Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble, To and fro
     But the one little duck With the feather on his back
     He led the others With a quack, quack, quack
     Quack, quack, quack, Quack, quack, quack
     He led the others With a quack, quack, quack
     Back from the river They would come
     Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble, Ho, hum, ho
     But the one little duck With the feather on his back
     He led the others With a quack, quack, quack
     Quack, quack, quack, Quack, quack, quack
     He led the others With a quack, quack, quack
 (We used this flannel for both duck songs!)

     5 Green and Speckled Frogs
     Five green and speckled frogs
     Sat on a speckled log,
     Eating some most delicious bugs  (yum yum!)
     One jumped into the pool
     Where it was nice and cool,
     Then there were four green speckled frogs  (gulp gulp!)
     4...3...2...1
     Then there were no green speckled frogs!

     Tiny Tim
     I had a little Turtle,
     His name was Tiny Tim.
     I put him in the bathtub,
     To see if he could swim.
     He drank up all the water
     He ate up all the soap.
     And now he's sick in bed,
     With bubbles in his throat.
     Bubble, Bubble, Bubble,
     Bubble, Bubble, Bubble,
     Bubble, Bubble, Bubble
     Bubble, Bubble, Pop!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Itsy Bitsy Spider

And we didn't use this flannel, but I love it so much that I am sharing it. :)

Early Literacy Tips We Shared

  • Aside from being fun, singing songs with your child helps them hear  words being broken up into smaller sounds.
  • Singing is a good way for children to become aware of the different sounds that make up words. This is called phonological awareness.
 

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