Dr. Seuss Storytime

Each year we do a Dr. Seuss program prior to Read Across America Day for our toddlers, preschoolers, and families.  Since we have a Cat in the Hat costume that we use, these tend to draw a crowd so I'm always looking for something a little different for the flannelboard that isn't too small and is colorful.  This year I found some Dr. Seuss fish cut outs at our local Michael's store.  There were 12 of each color in the packet.  I then found a rhyme "So Many Fishes in the Deep Blue Sea" at King County Library System's Tell Me A Story.  I adapted it to:

So Many Fish In the Deep Blue Sea

From Nany Stewart  (then adapted by Sandy Wallick)

 

There are so many fish in the deep blue sea.

What color fish do you see?

(Hold up one colored fish.)

 

Blue, blue, this one's blue. This little fish is blue

(Repeat first refrain)

 

Red, red, these are red. These two fish are red.

(Repeat first refrain)

 

Yellow, yellow, these are yellow. These three fish are yellow.

 

There are so many fish in the deep blue sea.

Can you count the fish with me?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

 

 

I laminated 3 of each color so I can change the color order if I want.  I added this to the flannelboard I made using Mel Depper's idea of GREEN EGGS (NO HAM) and fingerplays from Storytimes Online to some of my favorite Dr. Seuss books and plush Seuss creatures that I've collected (most recently from Kohl's).

Flannel Friday is being hosted by Storytime ABC's this week, so check out that site for lots of great ideas.

Pickup Trucks

My library added the big book LITTLE BLUE TRUCK LEADS THE WAY by Alice Schertle to our storytime collection recently.  I began planning a storytime around it and discovered that there were enough good pickup truck books to narrow my theme to that.  The next thing I needed was to find some flannel boards.  I found a great rhyme, "Five in the Truck" at King County Library System's Fingerplays, Rhymes and Songs page.  I also found a simple truck pattern at Honeybunch Boutique that was meant for quilters but which worked well for a flannel board pattern once I enlarged it.

 

 

The rhyme (based on "Five in the Bed") starts with Five in the Truck and the little hen clucked, "Move over, move over".  Instead of using five chickens, I used five wooden farm animals I had and just added some velcro to the back.  This fits in very well with the books FARMER DALE'S RED PICKUP TRUCK by Lisa Wheeler and MINERVA LOUISE AND THE RED TRUCK by Janet Morgan Stoeke. 

 

I used the same pattern, just not as big, to make several trucks in various colors.

 

 

 

I wrote two rhymes that I could use with these, one of which needs a duck and some other creatures that will fit behind the trucks.  This first rhyme can be used with different colored trucks or numbered trucks.

 

STUCK BEHIND THE TRUCK

 

My friend duck

Is hidden behind a truck.

 

Is my friend duck

Behind the _____ truck?

 

If no:

No, that's not duck

Behind the _____truck.

That's.....

 

If yes:

Yes, that's duck

Behind the ______truck!

But if duck is behind the _____truck

Who's behind the _____truck?

 

 

 

These trucks were made from card stock so I can also attach them to sticks for stick puppets if I want and have kids help with the second rhyme/song.

 

MY OLD TRUCK

tune:  "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush"

 

 

My old blue truck goes bumping along, bumping along, bumping along.

My old blue truck goes bumping along, all the way to town.

 

 

Different colors & descriptive words can replace the underlined ones.  For example, bumping can become bouncing, zipping, speeding, rolling, cruising, or crawling.

 

 

For an action song, I adapted "Wheels on the Bus" to "Wheels on the Truck" and adjusted verses accordingly.

 



 

 



Treasure Boxes

I decided to have a storytime on Treasures with pirate treasure only a very small part of it.  I found some small, colored boxes at Hobby Lobby and used small items around my office to create a rhyme.

 

TREASURE BOXES

 

What is in the (yellow) box?

What can it be?

Is it a treasure?

Let's look and see!

 

(repeat with each different color box)

 

A frog is a treasure for a boy named Ben;

An apple is a treasure for a hungry wren.

A bee is a treasure when you want honey for your tea;

And candy is a treasure when you're hungry like me.

A cat is a treasure when you're looking for a friend--

So now we've found our treasures and this is the end.

 

 

I used the following books:

• THE TREASURE CHEST by Dominique Falda
• RUSSELL AND THE LOST TREASURE by Rob Scotton
• TREASURE by Suzanne Bloom
• WHAT A TREASURE! by Jane Hillenbrand

This can easily be adapted to the flannelboard, which would make it easier to store.  These would also work well with a color theme and colors could easily be switched out.

 

Tracey at 1234 More Storytimes is hosting Flannel Friday this week, so check out all the other fun ideas there!

 

    

 



Five Green (or Red) Peppers--Flannel Friday

     I found these green peppers (as well as red ones) at my local Dollar Tree store.  My preschoolers love actual objects and (when we have a small group) enjoy participating by putting something in or taking it out of a basket.  I made of the following rhyme which can be done with either (or both) sets of peppers for a gardening theme, a color theme, or a vegetable theme.  I also use these peppers as part of my collection of vegetables we use when we tell the story of stone soup.
    For larger groups, I like to make really large cutouts (usually using clip art) that I can put on the flannel board so the kids who like to sit in the back can easily see them.

FIVE GREEN PEPPERS

Five green peppers in a basket by my door,

Ann took one for her pizza and now I have four.

Four green peppers in the basket as you can see,

Joe took one for grilling and now I have three.

Three green peppers in the basket, bright and new,

Sue took one for her relish and now I have two.

Two green peppers in the basket, safe from the sun,

Jack took one to make stew and now I have one.

One green pepper in the basket, now I'm almost done,

I used it in my tossed salad and now there are none.

If I have enough peppers for my group, I'll give one to each child and sing the following song as I move through them with a basket.  I just repeat the song until the peppers are gone.  Of course, you can do this with any item & could make it generic by changing pepper to veggie.

PICK A PEPPER

("Paw Paw Patch" was my inspiration)

Pick a pepper, put it in my basket,

Pick a pepper, put it in my basket,

Pick a pepper, put it in my basket,

Until my basket's full.

Mollie at What Happens in Storytime... is our hostess this week.  Check out her site to see what other fantastic ideas are there.  I know I always find something I want to try out.

Flannel Friday--Fairies

One thing I enjoy as I choose rhymes for storytime is finding something different to use in presenting the rhymes.  In earlier posts I have included a number of 3 dimension things but today I'm including something I found in Michaels' scrapbooking aisle on clearance.

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These chipboard embellishments are stiff and colorful.  The fairies are about 5"-6" in height.  All I did to prepare them for a flannel board was put a velcro dot on the back.

The other nice thing is that they can easily be converted to stick puppets by putting the loop velcro dot onto a large craft stick and then the fairies can be switched from one use to another.  They can also be used on a glove as finger puppets.

I've also found that Disney has a collection of princesses in Chipboard Embellishments as well & I'm planning to use them in the same way.


Now that I have the fairies, what could I use them with?  The book STORYTIME MAGIC by Kathy MacMillan and Christine Kirker from ALA has the rhyme "Five Tiny Fairies Flannelboard".  It uses the colors red, blue, green, yellow, and purple for their clothes (sorry--my flash reflected off the center fairy, but take my word she's wearing purple).  VOILA!  I was in business!  If you can't find this set, patterns for the flannel board pieces are given on line at the link where you can purchase the book if you don't already have it.

I'll pair this up with the book, LITTLE BUNNY FOO FOO; TOLD AND SUNG BY THE GOOD FAIRY by Paul Brett Johnson.
Check out this week's other postings at Liz's blog:  Putting Smiles on Faces :)

Six Colorful Fish

 I found these fish squirters in the dollar section at Target & thought they'd be a nice alternative to a flat flannel board story (of which I have several ocean related ones).  I used "Five Little Fishes" from Storytime Katie as the basis for what I did.  I have a small cart I take into storytime and they sat on top of it very nicely.  The kids seem to enjoy having 3-D objects periodically (& as you can see from my previous posts--I do too!)

SIX LITTLE FISHES

Six little puffer fish going out for a dive;

the (color) one got caught then there were five.

Five little puffer fish swimming by the shore;

the (color) one got caught then there were four
Four little puffer fish swimming in the sea;

the (color) one got caught then there were three
Three little puffer fish swimming in the blue;

the (color) one got caught then there were two
Two little puffer fish swimming in the sun;

the (color) one got caught then there was one
One (color) puffer fish swimming straight for home

decided he would never roam

I also borrowed the idea of the color spinner from Miss Mary Liberry, but I used a spinner I found at Dollar Tree & adapted it to my purpose by adding the color names over what had been on it before.

As you can tell, I've been using Flannel Friday posts as inspiration and you can too.  This week's Flannel Friday is being hosted by Shawn at Read, Rhyme & Sing.  To find out more about Flannel Friday and how you can participate, visit the Flannel Friday homepage.

Ah-Choo!

     A few months ago, I did a preschool storytime on SNEEZES.  I was looking for all kinds of things that make us sneeze--allergies, colds, pollen, etc.  We had the pansy die from Ellison and I came up with this rhyme to use with the die cuts.  I cut them out of felt, and made separate stems and flowers and only glued the blue blossom to a stem.

A FLOWER FOR YOU

Out in the garden the flowers grew

Each with a different color and hue.

I picked the red one just for you,

Then took a sniff and went "Ah-choo!"

Away the head of the flower flew.

(This continues substituting the colors purple, yellow, orange, pink for red until only blue is left)

Out in the garden where the flowers grew,

All that was left was a flower that was blue.

I picked that flower just for you

But I didn't sniff and go "Ah-choo!"

Now I can give you the flower that is blue.