Love Monster and the Perfect Present (Valentine's Day)

Love Monster and the Perfect Present by Rachel Bright
(Valentine's Day)

I both want to share this flannel and offer additional sets for sale.  I'm a little late in the game making these sets, but they are perfect for valentine's Day and I can ship immediately.  Info below after blog post. 💓🎁💗


Summary:  (From B&N)  Everyone in Cutesville is excited for the most special day of the year: Present Day! Love Monster goes on a hunt for the perfect gift for his special someone, but as it turns out, finding the perfect gift is not easy. And the only thing worse than a not-perfect present is no present at all. But Love Monster soon comes up with the idea for the best gift ever―one that comes straight from his furry heart.

If you already have the red Love Monster I made last  year for Love Monster and the Last Chocolate and you only need the orange Love Monster and "perfect present", I can just send those.

Orange Love Monster is gifted the perfect present from Red Love Monster

Opening the present

The "wrapping paper" is velcroed on so you can "unwrap" the present

These Love Monsters were made with lots of love just in time for Valentine's Day... or a friendship theme...

For purchase:
Email: tara@foxandbearelp.com
Text: 480-516-3713
Or comment below

Thank you for your support! 💝

(I don't have extra books to mail with the sets, but you can get it pretty quickly on Amazon or from the library or I could ship it to you with Amazon prime for $16.00)

Check out more posts on my Fox & Bear Facebook page

Caroling in the Library 2014

This was the 8th year the Perry Branch Library in Gilbert, AZ has put on this big event.  This event was created by my colleague Allison Burke several years ago and I've shared in the joy and hard work of pulling this off ever since.  Every year we make improvements and small changes, but the program is solid at this point with lots of the same key players involved.  Allison got a well-deserved promotion with another District last year, so this year I had to use a LOT of elbow grease to get all the coordinating, planning, and organizing done.... but man, was it worth it!

Attendees: 1,300 (That's on the conservative end)

Whew!

Snowman Cookie Decorating:
Cookies decorated: 470

Thanks for the home-made cookies, Perry High School Culinary students and your amazing, hard-working instructor, Angela Stutz!

The cookie decorating room:

 Culinary students hard at work prepping the cookies:

 Masterpieces:

 You'll see this little guys a few more times in this post!

 We moved the line along very fast this year by inviting the kids to decorate in the main area of the library if they didn't want to wait for a decorating table in the meeting room.

For the kids who did wait, I put out sidewalk chalk (hand wipes available on the way in), a bubble machine, and had a very sprightly elf give the kids blue snowflake stamps on their hands (or cheeks).  So Elsa!

 

Refreshments

30 dozen cookies

15 gallons of hot chocolate

 Again, thank you Angela Stutz and culinary students!

 Elf Station:  
The children visited with our lovely Perry elves to write over 300 letters to Santa (will get email responses), take pictures, and get create-your-own-Olaf stickers (see here)

 Elf Kara, Elf Mae, Elf Becca, Elf Ashley

 Told you these kids would pop up again.  They are mine all mine!

Caroling: 
Thank you to Mr. Joe Little and the PHS choir!  You did a great job, especially performing in front of such a large and energetic audience!

Anna and Elsa Storytime:

Drum rolllll.... They were a hit.  I love, love, love, loved these two royal ladies.   They were honestly incredible and captured the audience and knew how to work the crowd and make every child feel special during pictures. 

I could not more highly recommend working with http://www.enchantedinaz.com/. Gina Archer was WONDERFUL to work with, never a lapse in communication, and extremely reasonable to book considering she had to arrange for Anna and Elsa's travel which included a boat, a train, and a reindeer.  Oh, and reindeer food.

The read a book about being sisters:

 This is what 1,300+ audience in our humble library looks like:

 They sang 3 songs....

 ...and invited all the kids to stand and do the arm movements.  Those kids belted out every song!

And they humored me by letting me build Olaf with them using the flannel pieces I made.  Olaf stands about 45" tall.  

Anna started by singing, "Do you want to build a snowman?" and I built Olaf as they narrated back and forth.  

Of course he had to try on a few noses before finding the right one.

 

I don't have a picture of this, but I gave Elsa a whole bowl of fake snow to create a "personal snow flurry" for Olaf and it made a mess but WAS SO WORTH IT!.  She threw snow all over Olaf and into the audience.  The kids were collecting it and making snow angels in it after the program was over! 

Pictures with Elsa and Anna

 The amazing staff who helped pull it all off.  I apologize to my co-workers who played a huge role in helping, but did not end up in the picture.

I already have more plans for next year!  I'll see you then!

Firecrackers - 2014's Version

Happy Fourth of July! And Happy Adoption of the Declaration of Independence, America!

Some of you may recall my firecracker post from last year:

http://storytimewithmisstara.blogspot.com/2013/05/firecrackers-flannel-friday.html

I remade my firecrackers over the weekend with the original materials I bought for this flannel:

5 little firecrackers getting ready to zoom (hold up 5 fingers)
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle (wiggle fingers upward, building anticipation)
BOOM! (clap hands above head while a second person slaps the exploded firecracker over one of the "candles" already on the board)

Same (unexploded) firecrackers, different flannel boards:

 All exploded firecrackers are about 9" in diameter:

 Some close-ups:

 This one has little LED twinkling stars that look really cool in person:

Christmas: Pre-K and Family Storytime

I have accumulated just too many fun Christmas books, flannels, music, and activities over the years!  I found myself agonizing over what to do and what to not do in storytime today.  Here are some of the winners from today's Pre-K and Evening Family Storytime:

Books:

Books I used today:

 

Jingle Jingle by Nicola Smee.  This is becoming one of my favorites!  I (sometimes with co-worker help) ring bells and we all chime in with, "Jingle jingle, Jingle, jingle" each time the text calls for some jingling.  As they go down the hill, we jingle faster and faster and faster and FASTER!

 

Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight? by Jerry Pallotta. Santa Claus has a big job to do and he tries out lots of animals until he discovers reindeer!

 

Dinosaur Christmas by Jerry Pallotta. Santa Claus reminisces about "the good old days" when dinosaurs pulled his sleigh.

 

Bear Stays up For Christmas by Karma Wilson. Bear's friends are determined to keep Bear away for Christmas so they wake him up and fill his day and night with lots of fun!

 

Music / Movement:

"Kris Kringle's Jingle Bell Band" (Listen here)

 

The morning group of kids all picked an instrument and we paraded around the library.  I don't know if parents love getting up and walking around, but the kids, staff, and library customers sure do! 

 

 

"Reindeer Pokey"

 

I found a recorded version of this song that has all the little reindeer dancing their antlers, hooves, noses, tails, and reindeer bodies.  I'm sure I can find the album/artist I downloaded from - just ask if you want me to find it!

 

 

"The Dancing Christmas Tree" 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlr4uXAz-JM

 

You have to watch this video.  Kids of all ages go nuts over it!  Kids dance with the Christmas Tree.

 

Flannels:

 "Santa's New Suit"

I really want to credit who shared this idea, but I'm just not sure anymore.  Sorry!
It may be a spin off of Laura Rader's Santa's New Suit.  Recipes for Reading created a flannel for this book.

Anyway...
 The story I told starts with Santa trying on his suit a couple days before Christmas Eve:

 

Oh no!  It is dirty with last year's chimney soot!:

 

Santa calls, "Ohh, Elllves!" (It's funny when the kids cup their hands around their mouths and call the elves with Santa).  "Please wash my suit."  So the elves wash it in really hot water and put it in the drier on really high heat.  Oh no!  It shrinks!:

"Ohh, Elllves!"  Santa asks for their help two more times, but they just can't find any red fabric:

 

What's this?  A gift from busy Mrs. Claus?:

 

 She made the perfect suit for Santa!"

 

"Rudolph, Rudolph":

 

I think everyone knows how this flannel goes:

 

Rudolph, Rudolph

What will you do? 

You can't guide Santa's sleigh

If your nose is blue

 

...etc...

 

Rudolph, Rudolph

The children are in bed

I know you are ready now

Because your nose is red



 

I knew I wouldn't have time to actually play this game in storytime, so we did one verse and then I sent the kids home with this so they could play with their adult at home:

 

"Santa's Hat"

 

Which hat is Santa's?