Guest Post-Palooza-The Owl and the Pussycat

 

As a part of the Flannel Friday is four celebration, I am guest hosting Jane's post below. 

 

The Owl and the Pussycat—According to Wikipedia, “is a nonsense poem by Edward Lear, first published during 1871 as part of his book Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets. This poem I memorized in my youth so it became one of my first flannel graphs, (patterns are from The Flannel Board Storytelling Book by Judy Sierra, 2nd edition). I use an owl, cat, boat, island with tree, pig, turkey, moon, guitar, and a gold ring, as accessories. (I used a small hoop earring, with a little Velcro, for the gold ring. It makes for easy removal). There are several versions of this poem on YouTube.

 

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea     (place owl and cat in boat)

In a beautiful pea-green boat,

They took some honey, and plenty of money,

Wrapped up in a five-pound note.

The Owl looked up to the stars above,

And sang to a small guitar,             (add guitar)

"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,

What a beautiful Pussy you are,

You are,

You are!

What a beautiful Pussy you are!"  

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl!

How charmingly sweet you sing!

O let us be married! Too long we have tarried:

But what shall we do for a ring?"

They sailed away, for a year and a day,

To the land where the Bong-Tree grows     (add island with tree, remove boat)

And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood     (add pig, with ring)

With a ring at the end of his nose,

His nose,

His nose,

With a ring at the end of his nose.

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling

Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."         (remove ring from pig’s nose)

So they took it away, and were married next day  

By the Turkey who lives on the hill.         (add turkey, place ring on cat’s paw)

They dined on mince, and slices of quince,     (remove pig and turkey)

Which they ate with a runcible spoon;   

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,

They danced by the light of the moon,     (add moon)

The moon,

The moon,

They danced by the light of the moon.

 

You can find Jane McManus on Pinterest at https://www.pinterest.com/storylady101jm/.
She is a Library Assistant who has been holding story times for 24 tears at the Winton Branch of the Rochester Public Library!  Although she doesn't have her own blog, she is one of the contributors to http://mclskids.pbworks.com/w/page/20658653/Story%20Time, part of the wiki of the Monroe County Library System in Rochester, NY. 

Guest Post-Palooza-Froggy Went A-Courtin'

 

As a part of the Flannel Friday is four celebration, I am guest hosting Jane's post below.

Froggy Went A-Courtin’ – According to Wikipedia, “dates back to 1580, "A Moste Strange Weddinge of the Frogge and the Mouse." There are many texts of the ballad; however the oldest known musical version is in Thomas Ravenscroft’s Melismata in 1611.” John Langstaff won the Caldecott Medal for his book in 1956. Sharon, Lois and Bram filmed their TV version in 1986. And it was seeing this production, when my kids were growing up, which inspired me to create my flannel graph story.

Note: In the book, there are a lot more characters to the story, but these are the ones I use--frog, mouse, rat, snake, bumblebee and cat. I also add a veil for an accessory. There are several versions on YouTube if you need the tune. Little children are very forgiving. They’ll sing with enthusiasm if you do too.

Before we start, I ask the children if they can repeat,” uh-huh,”  “un-ugh,” and “ho-ho.” Once we practice repeating these phrases, then I tell the kids that they’re going to help me sing the song.

(Start with Frog in center of flannel board, leaving room for the cat to leer over at the end)

Froggy went a-courtin' and he did ride, uh-huh        (uh-huh)
Froggy went a-courtin' and he did ride, uh-huh        (uh-huh)
Froggy went a-courtin' and he did ride
With a sword and pistol by his side, uh-huh        (uh-huh, uh-huh)

(Add Miss Mousey, place on frog’s knee)

He took Miss Mousey on his knee, uh-huh        (uh-huh)
He took Miss Mousey on his knee, uh-huh        (uh-huh)
He took Miss Mousey on his knee And said

"Miss Mousey, will you marry me?" uh-huh        (uh-huh, uh-huh)

 

 (Shake finger “No!”)
"Without my uncle Rat's consent, un-ugh (un-ugh)
“Without my uncle Rat's consent, un-ugh (un-ugh)
“Without my uncle Rat's consent
“I wouldn't marry the president!” un-ugh (un-ugh, un-ugh)
 

(Add Rat)
Uncle Rat laughed and shook his sides, ho-ho (ho-ho)
Uncle Rat laughed and shook his sides, ho-ho (ho-ho)
Uncle Rat laughed and shook his sides, he said:
“Missy Mouse, you’re going to be a bride!” Ho-ho (ho-ho, ho-ho)
(Add veil to Miss Mouse)

  

(Add snake)

The first guest to come was a slithering snake, uh-huh    (uh-huh)

The first guest to come was a slithering snake, uh-huh    (uh-huh)

The first guest to come was a slithering snake,

And he ate all of the wedding cake, uh-huh        (uh-huh, uh-huh)

(Add bumblebee where there’s room)

The next to come was the bumblebee, uh-huh        (uh-huh)

The next to come was the bumblebee, uh-huh        (uh-huh)

Next to come was the bumblebee,

And he had a banjo on his knee, uh-huh            (uh-huh, uh-huh)

(Position cat leering over all other characters)

Last to come was the old tom-cat, uh-huh        (uh-huh)

Last to come was the old tom-cat, uh-huh        (uh-huh)

Last to come was the old tom-cat,

He said, “I’ll put an end to THAT!” uh-huh        (uh-huh, uh-huh)

  

(Sweep all characters off the board except Frog and Mouse)

Frog and Miss Mousey honeymooned in France, uh-huh     (uh-huh)

Frog and Miss Mousey honeymooned in France, uh-huh   (uh-huh)

Frog and Miss Mousey honeymooned in France,

And this is the end of that romance, uh-huh         (uh-huh, uh-huh)

You can find Jane McManus on Pinterest at https://www.pinterest.com/storylady101jm/.
She is a Library Assistant who has been holding story times for 24 tears at the Winton Branch of the Rochester Public Library!  Although she doesn't have her own blog, she is one of the contributors to http://mclskids.pbworks.com/w/page/20658653/Story%20Time, part of the wiki of the Monroe County Library System in Rochester, NY.

Candy Science

The kids around here are all on Winter Break this week so we have been hosting various activities to keep them busy.  Today's Candy Science program worked well with my budget as most of the candy was on clearance from Valentine's Day (Pop Rocks and Sprite were the only nondiscounted items).  All of the experiments except 1 were from the books Candy Experiments and Candy Experiments 2 by Loralee Leavitt.

We registered 20 kids, ages 7-12, for this program as this is what our Activity Room will hold.  There was a lot of interest and if we had extra staff to cover the reference desk, we could have easily run 3 sessions of this program.  It would help if you had a volunteer to help with getting extra cups out on the tables and used cups emptied out.  I just tagged some of our regular parents to help out (and really, they loved being a part of the program!).

Since I was the only staff member in the room, my goal was to have as much of the supplies out on the table at the beginning as possible.  Our tables seat four so I set the experiments up so kids would work as either a pair (on one side of the table) or as a group of 4.  This is what our tables looked like:

Experiment 1-Floating Letters
I started with this experiment as you want to let it sit for a couple of minutes.  The kids added their M&Ms to their cup of warm water.  We put it aside and went onto experiment 2, then came back to check our results.  We had quite a few floating M's on the surface of the water.

Experiment 2-Bobbing Hearts
The kids added their Conversation Hearts to their cup of Sprite.  The hearts started bobbing up and down right away.  We talked about how Sprite is carbonated and uses carbon dioxide.  This carbon dioxide lifts the candy hearts and as the bubbles pop, the hearts drop to the bottom of the glass.

Experiment 3-Floating/Sinking Candy Bars
We started off by talking about what a hypothesis is and made guesses as to whether each mini candy bar would float or sink.  Each kid would raise their hand as we guessed so I could count them and we displayed our guesses at the front of the room.

The kids then tested their guesses as they floated the mini candy bars (Twix, Snickers, Milky Way, Milky Way, and 3 Musketeers) in glasses of water.  Note-we have a lot of peanut allergies in our area so 2 tables did not use Snickers.  They got to try the special Milky Way Dark bars. 

If you haven't tried this experiment before, all of our candy bars sank except the 3 Musketeers.  We talked about the ingredients and how the Twix, Milky Way, and Snickers all had ingredients that were heavier than water (nuts, caramel, etc.).  The middle of the 3 Musketeers has a lot of air, which makes it lighter than water and will float.  We then talked about other food items, such as marshmallows, that would float as they are made up mostly of air.

Experiment 4-Disappearing Twizzlers
I filled disposable plastic cups with vegetable oil and passed out whole red Twizzlers.  I originally tried to break the Twizzlers in half due to the cup size, but that makes it hard for the experiment to work.  We talked about reflections in water and how images are distorted.  Then we added our Twizzlers to the glass and they could watch the Twizzlers bend in the oil.  Finally, I had them try to make the licorice disappear.  While they did this, I was able to get water out for the next experiment.  Most everybody had figured out the trick of turning the glass while the licorice is at the side by the time I had finished passing out new water.

Experiment 5-Sour Candy Bubble Test
We started by talking about acids and bases.  If you combine the two, you will get a chemical reaction.  We guessed that our Sour Patch Kids would have acid in them because they are sour so we put some in our new glass of water.  I walked around and added a spoonful of baking soda (base) to every cup and we watched the bubbles appear.  This proved that our candy was an acid.

Experiment 6-Pop Rocks Expander
For this experiment, you need Pop Rocks, Sprite, and a balloon.  Since I talked fast through the previous experiments, I had the kids add the Pop Rocks to the balloon without funnels to take up a little bit of time.  This way, they all got a turn to try and pour.  We added our balloons to the tops of our Sprite (20 oz. bottles) and tipped the Pop Rocks into the Sprite.  As the balloons expanded, we talked about how both Pop Rocks and Sprite have carbon dioxide in them.  In fact, Pop Rocks even list carbon dioxide as an ingredient.  The carbon dioxide from both ingredients makes the balloon inflate.

The overall program took about 40 minutes, but I also talk fast.  Since I had leftover candy, each kid who wanted (and whose parents would let them) could come up and get some of the leftover candy.  The kids all left happy and cleared out all of our food and candy experiment books from my display.

Flannel Friday-Cookie's Week

I have been working on another round of early literacy kits and one of them will deal with days of the week.  Cookie's Week by Cindy Ward is an excellent addition to this kit.  I used the pattern from Making Learning Fun for most of the pieces and used puffy paint to add the details.  For a few of the pieces (kitten, flowers, and leaves), I used die cuts.

The finished kit should be appearing here in the next couple of weeks.  This week's Flannel Friday round-up is hosted by Katie at Story Time Secrets.   

If you want to know more about Flannel Friday:

• Check out the official Flannel Friday blog that includes schedules and other important information.
• Search for images and links on our Pinterest page.
• Discuss story time stuff (and other ys stuff) on the Flannel Friday Facebook page.
• Follow #flannelstorytime on Twitter.

Toddler Valentine's Crafts

The neat thing about working with toddlers is that you can reuse awesome crafts and programs every 2-3 years for a whole new crowd.  2 of the crafts from this program have been posted here before and 1 is new.  My toddler craft programs are limited to 20 2 and 3 year olds.  I run it as a station program where there is a different craft at each station.  Almost everything is precut and I try to focus on only one skill per station (ex. gluing).

Craft #1-Envelope totes
This craft appeared in my first post ever.  To make your own, seal an envelope.  One of the corners will form your bottom point.  I cut the rounded heart bumps (the top) above it.  We decorated our hearts with stickers and attached a pipe cleaner through two prepunched holes to make a handle.

Craft #2-Clifford
This craft appeared here when we celebrated Clifford's 50th birthday in 2013. From the pattern, I precut all of the shapes so the kiddos just had to assemble their Cliffords.  Some kids made their Cliffords upside down from my example, but that is okay.  Then Clifford just had a different look.

Craft #3-Heart collage
To make our third craft, I drew a heart shape in Microsoft Publisher and printed it on white cardstock.  I pretore red, pink, and purple construction paper and the kids added these pieces onto their heart.

  

Car Day

If you are from the Midwest, then you know that January in Michigan is cold and snowy.  By the end of the month, both the kids and parents have been cooped up too long and are going a bit stir crazy.  This program idea came out of both that and something that I used to do when I was little-make masking tape roads for cars.  

I started by booking the largest room in our library-the auditorium.  Our auditorium easily fits 200 people, while our Activity Room where play times are normally held fits 20.  We advertised it as bring your own cars and I used 3 rolls of masking tape to make giant roads all over the floor.  
 

Kids came in by the truckload for this program and actually brought their own cars!  They played in groups, they had races, and some even drove around the "roads".  It was great.  Parents thought that this program was awesome and asked when we could do it again.

After an hour or so, they all started picking up and leaving as many headed off to preschool.  They also had great fun pulling the masking tape off of the floor and making my giant tape ball.

While my goal for this program was a giant play time based on a theme, if you want to add early literacy components to it, check out Amy's awesome post from this week about Tape Town.

Flannel Friday-Valentine's Extravaganza

Welcome to the Valentine's Extravaganza edition of Flannel Friday!  We've got some great Valentine's ideas for you, along with some other fun.  Without further ado...


It is retro day at Fun with Friends at Storytime as she brings back her very first post!  Kathryn shows off her Five Cupcakes for Valentine's Day.  Yum!

I saw this next post by Katie and immediately started singing the song-it's that fun!  Check out There's a Little Wheel a-Turnin' in My Heart at Story Time Secrets.  You will be singing it too!

Lisa at Thrive After Three shows off one of my favorite books for Baby Story Time-A Kiss Like This by Mary Murphy.  If you haven't read the story before, you will want to check it out as it can fit multiple age groups.  Plus, making kissing noises is too much fun!

Katie from Storytime Katie shows off another of my favorite things to do in Baby Story Time-The Shape Game!  This fun game was inspired by Brooke at Reading with Red.  While I use it with babies, you could definitely use it with 2 and 3 year olds too.

Just in time for your winter story time themes, Amy at One Little Librarian shows off her Five Little Olafs.  If your kiddos are also still Frozen crazy, this will be a hit! 

Do you wanna build a snowman?  Sandy at Storytime Sparks has you covered with three snowman building rhymes and flannels, including one for Valentine's Day! 

If your February schedule isn't set, you may want to check out Take Your Child to the Library Day.  Jane at Piper Loves the Library shows off her awesome Pigeon plans.  I am already trying to figure out how I can adapt it here.  

There are two big announcements from Flannel Friday this week!
1.  Anne and Melissa, two of our founders, will be hosting the first Storytime Petting Zoo at ALA Midwinter.  It will be Saturday, January 31 at 2, after Guerrilla Storytime.  I am jealous of everyone who will be attending as it will be great fun.

2.  To help celebrate Flannel Friday's 4th birthday, we have something fun planned for the week of March 4-our first Guest Post Palooza.  If you have always wanted to participate, but don't have a blog, this is your chance.  Our current bloggers will host your guest post so sign up today!  We are also looking for current bloggers to guest host so stop by to also sign up.

If you want to know more about Flannel Friday:

• Check out the official Flannel Friday blog that includes schedules and other important information.
• Search for images and links on our Pinterest page.
• Discuss story time stuff (and other ys stuff) on the Flannel Friday Facebook page.
• Follow #flannelstorytime on Twitter.