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. 

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!

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.

Toddler Time - Fruits and Berrries

Today's Toddler Time was all about fruits and berries! With strawberry and raspberry season upon us and blueberry season coming soon it seemed a perfect theme. :)

Stories We Shared
Our first story of the day was a classic - Jamberry by Bruce Degen. I'm sure I don't need to talk about how fun this story is.
Next up I read a favorite of mine, and one I've read before (and will read again) The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood. There are no words to explain how much I love this story. It's an all time favorite. (I even have it memorized, lol).

Flannels We Shared

Today I shared a flannel adapted from one I found at Mel's Desk, which in turn was adapted from one she found on Abby the Librarian's blog. If I had had time I think it would have been more fun to make 5 different types of berries/fruits to use with the flannel, but since I'm moonlighting in Adult and Teen services this summer my flannel making time is limited. So I just went with strawberries this week. I used animals from various other flannels I've made (the Giant Carrot and my farm animals- I love that cow) and they worked wonderfully. The mouse also made the perfect segue into reading The Little Mouse.

Rhymes We Shared
Today's rhyme was one that a fellow librarian shared on Facebook. Emily Lloyd wrote and shared this fun scarf activity poem and it was a huge hit.

     Things we can do with our Scarves
     We can wave them way up high
     We can pretend they're capes and fly [like a superhero]
     We can make believe they're hair [drape scarf on head, looking silly]
     We can throw them in the air
     We can swish them side to side
     We can use our scarves to hide [drape scarf entirely over head, like ghost]
     We can make them very small [ball up scarf]
     We can let them gently fall [drop scarf to ground]

We also sang our shaker song, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and Itsy Bitsy. :)

Early Literacy Tips Shared

• Rhyming is one of the things that children learn that lets them hear that words are made of smaller parts. By reading rhyming books or singing rhyming songs with your child, you are helping to build their phonological awareness. Phonological Awareness is the ability to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words.
• Counting is one the of learning concepts which support your child's background knowledge.
• Singing slows down language and helps children hear the different sounds that make up words. Singing also develops an awareness of rhythm and syllables

Toddler Time - Balloons!

Today's Toddler Time was on my birthday! Yay! I was super excited to plan a Toddler Time for my birthday. Because it was my birthday, I decided that today's program would focus on the learning concept of play. Play is so important for children learning to read and relate to the world around them.

Stories We Shared
Today we read an adorable book I had InterLibrary Loaned: The Blue Balloon by Mick Inkpen. It's about a balloon a little boy finds that does all kinds of crazy things, from never popping, to disappearing and reappearing square, to taking a space adventure. The book is simple and engaging.

Flannels We Shared
Today's flannel was a counting rhyme that I found on Sunflower Storytime.
     Four Balloons
     Four balloons up in the sky
     See them flying way up high?
     If one of those balloons should happen to POP!
     Only 3 balloons will be left floating up top! (2..1..)

Rhymes We Shared
As usual we sang our Shaker Song today. Since we were playing I did not add any additional songs or rhymes, but we did some activities, outlined below.

Activities We Shared
Since today was a special Balloon program I brought in 67 assorted balloons for us to play with! I had blown them up the previous night, taking care not to blow them up fully so they were extremely hard to pop.
With the balloons we practiced throwing them, naming the colors, catching them, and kicking them. We also found colors that matched and colors that were almost the same (light and dark blue) but didn't quite match.
Then, I brought out the parachutes. Both of them. The little one and the enormous one. They had SO much fun. We popped the balloons like popcorn, moved the parachutes fast & slow, hard & gentle. They absolutely loved it. So much that we forfeit our usual play time for more parachute and balloon play. This was a huge hit with everyone.
We also only had one balloon casualty, and it didn't pop, but instead just slowly fizzled out.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared

• Play with your children is super important as they grow! It is one of the primary ways young children learn about how the world works.
• Play helps children practice putting their thoughts into words
• Play helps children think symbolically. That this item stands for this thing, which helps them understand that words can stand for real objects or experiences. (We experienced this when we talked about how the balloons were like popcorn cooking and a little one excitedly yelled that the balloons were like coffee in the machine.)
• Play is how children practice becoming adults and process what they see and hear everyday.

Toddler Time - Camping

Today's Toddler Time's theme comes from a request I had last week. Last week one of the little boys that attended asked if I could do a camping theme for him. I said of course and so camping it is!

Stories We Shared
Normally I don't like using popular media books in story time, but the first story this week was cute and I just couldn't resist. We read Maisy Goes Camping first today. It's a super cute one where Maisy and all her friends (including Eddie the Elephant) try to fit in a tent together. It was a definite hit.

Next up was another "can we fit" style book. One Dog Canoe was a new one for me, but I rather liked it.

Flannels We Shared
I brought out a slightly older, but perfect flannel for today's Toddler Time. I dug into my files and brought back the 3(5) Hungry Ants flannel. Of course, our favorite part is the sneezing ants. When we got to the pepper we would take an ant and as we sneezed I would toss an ant into the air. It always produces giggles.

Rhymes We Shared
We sang two rhymes today! (In addition to our usual opening song and clos
ing songs.) First up we sang Ten Little Marshmallows. I saw this somewhere in the past few weeks, but I didn't bookmark it so cannot give credit. My apologies! If you know where I found it, please comment!
We also sang 10 Little Campers which I found on Earlylit.net and comes from Beth Grai, at the Independence (MI) Township Library. Of course we sang Shake Your Shaker and Twinkle Twinkle as well. :)
     10 Little Marshmallows
     One little, two little, three, little marshmallows
     Four little, five little, six little marshmallows
     Seven little, eight little, nine little marshmallows
     Ten marshmallows in my mouth!

     Ten Little Campers
     Ten little campers putting up their tent.
(Put finger tips of fingers together forming tent roof)
     Ten little campers close the vents.
(Intertwine fingers together to signify closure)
     Ten little campers make a ring.
(Form circle putting tips of fingers together and thumbs together)
     Ten little campers start to sing.
(Cup hands to mouth)
     Ten little campers around the fire.
(Form circle putting tips of fingers together again)
     Ten little campers dance till they tire.
(Put all ten fingers up in the air and dance them around)
     Ten little campers close their tent up tight.
(Intertwine fingers together again to signify closure)
     Ten little campers say good-night.
(Wave good-night with both hands)

Early Literacy Tips We Shared

• Introducing your child to songs, rhymes and books is a great way to help your child expand his/her vocabulary since books and rhymes often contain a larger variety of words then what we typically use in conversation.
• Rhymes are fun to sing and say with your child. Because they rhyme, they also help children develop phonological awareness, an important skill for later reading when they try to sound out words

Toddler Time - At The Beach!

Today's Toddler Time was all about the beach! It's summer (finally, even if I don't like the hot), and the beach is such a perfect theme for summer.

Books We Shared
This week we read two of my absolute favorite books. First I had a show and read version of I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry. OMG, I love this story so much. It's a perfect story for a show and read/show and tell as well.

Next up we read A Beach Tail by Karen Lynn Williams. I have so much love for the illustrations in this book. They are so detailed and have so much life.

Flannels We Shared
I turned I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean into a show and read story this week. As I read the story I placed the pieces on a magnet board. They LOVED this so much, we ended up doing it three times. The first time I read the book and placed the pieces, the next two times we just placed the pieces. I used the patterns from KidzClub which are adorable and free.

We also had a flannel game based off the Little Bird game using pails and a little tiny whale (He's adorable if I do say so myself.) which I found on the Fun With Friends at Storytime blog, and a counting rhyme with shells.
     Little Whale
     Little Whale, Little Whale
     Are you in the [color] pail?

     3 Little Seashells
     3 little seashells all pearly new,
     Swish! went the waves and then there were two.
     2 little seashells lying in the sun,
     Swish went the waves, and then there was one.
     1 little seashell lying all alone,
     I picked it up and took it home!

Rhymes We Shared

As usual we sang our shaker song from Jbrary and our closing song of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The Shaker Song continues to be a favorie, and no one (grown ups) has gotten bored with it yet!

Early Literacy Tips We Shared

• Children learn language by listening. They learn new words and absorb general knowledge about the world around them. Talking to your child can help them develop vocabulary. Stretch your child's vocabulary by repeating what they say and adding new words. "You want a banana? That's a healthily choice."
• Singing slows down language and helps children hear the different sounds that make up words. Singing also develops an awareness of rhythm and syllables.