Hats

Who knew that doing a hat theme would be so timely in Arizona!?  The A/C just can't handle our excessive heat streak and temps are just awful everywhere - even indoors.  Our "hats" (paper plates) made wonderful fans during storytime.

 

 Books:

Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina.  See my flannel here 

The kids put their hats (paper plates) on their heads and acted out the monkeys' part.  So fun!

Don't Worry Douglas by David Melling.  Douglas is so thrilled with his new wool hat he can't help but bounce around and do cartwheels!  When his hat turns into a "long strand of spaghetti" his friends try to help him out.

 Meet Douglas

 My co-presenter wrapped yarn around me and the furniture so the kids could see Douglas' hat unravel.

 Silly Little Goose by Nancy Tafuri.  Goose looks everywhere to find a place to make a nest and finally finds a warm, cozy, quiet hat to lay her eggs in.

 Music:
 "B-Banana / Monkey See Monkey Do" by Carole Peterson.  Listen to song here

YouTube Video: "I Got a Hat" by the Learning Station
I projected this video on the wall and the kids danced using their own hats (paper plates) to follow the directions.

"I got a hat.
It's a baseball hat.
Put in on my head and give it a tap.
Then I spin around a clap. 
Then I spin around my hat." (place hat on floor and circle around it).

Game: Whose Hat?

 

Flannel: Teddy Wore His

Teddy wore his yellow shirt, yellow shirt, yellow shirt (pat arms)
Teddy wore his yellow shirt all day long
...pants (pat legs)
....shoes (pat feet)
....hat (pat head)

Frogs Pre-K and Family

Flannel Friday:  "Fred the Frog"
Listen to song here


At the edge of the pond
I caught a little tadpole (wiggle hands)
I named him Fred
and I put him in a fish bowl (make fish bowl with arms)
I watched him wiggle and swim around (wiggle hands)
And then one day guess what I found?


Fred's tail was getting smaller (put hands close together)
And Fred's head was getting larger (make large head over your head with your arms)
Fred had ONE leg (musical "boing") growing strong (extend one arm)
We knew he'd be a frog before too long


The song keeps going that he had
TWO legs... (extend 2 arms)
THREE legs...  (extend 2 arms and a leg)
FOUR legs ... (hop like a frog)

Finally he's a frog and hops away and we do too.

 The tadpole is about 14 inches and the bowl about 2 ft wide.  I put the tadpoles in the bowl one at a time as directed by the song - I just photographed them together.

 Fred becomes a frog:

For more storytime ideas, check out Katie's Storytime Secrets for this week's roundup.
Fore more Flannel Friday information, check out:  this website or Facebook Group



Letter of the Day: Ff (storytime was July 3rd)

Flannel (Day before Fourth of July)
"Five Firecrackers"

See post here: http://storytimewithmisstara.blogspot.com/2014/07/firecrackers-2014s-version.html

Books:

We read:
The Wide-Mouthed Frog by Keith Faulker - a great pop-up book!
Down by the Cool of the Pool by Tony Mitton
Ah Ha! by Jeff Mack - a tricky one to read, but funny if you can pull it off
Frogs by Nic Bishop - I showed them various colored frogs, bullfrogs, and toads

Olive the Fox (fox starts with F too!) feeling patriotic

 Having a small group (25 kids) in storytime the day before July 4th worked nicely because they all got a turn playing the frog on the way out the door.

 The lovely Miss Erica!  Oh I adore her!

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: