Flannel Friday- Trains

This week’s Flannel Friday is inspired by this post from Mel’s Desk. I used her patterns and will be using her own version of the rhyme. I realized, after I had already made the figures, that they might not all fit on my small Flannel Board. So, you can see I’ve had to arrange them quite cleverly to allow them all to be on the board at once. **Note to self: make sure the figures will fit before cutting and gluing!

I made these completely out of felt, and they were super easy and fast. I wanted them to be bright and funky, so I did not try too hard to make them exactly as the original pattern. The passenger car is my favourite, so here’s a close-up.

I was inspired to do Train Storytime when I was at a Kitchen Party and someone played this song, Little Pinkie Engine; I thought immediately that it would be great to share in storytime. It is a song from Cape Breton, and one that is somewhat rare, so not only am I sharing a fun train song, I am helping keep this bit of culture alive. I love it when that happens. You can listen to the song and find the words in the link above. (I will probably only share a few verses, the ones that are most kid-like).

Here are some of the books I am using:
I saw an ant on the railroad track – Joshua Prince
Engines, Engines – An Indian counting rhyme by Lisa Bruce
Hey Mr. Choo Choo Where are you Going? – Susan Wickberg
All aboard the Dinotrain – Deb Lund
The Rain Train – Elena De Roo
and, if they will sit still for it, The Little Engine That Could (may audience is a bit young).

And now, Chug chug to storytime…..

Storytime with SONGS

My husband is a musician, and every once in a while I can talk him into accompanying me to storytime. This week, we practiced a few tunes and had a very appreciative audience. Even if you don’t have a musician to help you out, you can do this fun musical storytime! Here are the books/songs I used:

Teeny Weeny Bop  by Margaret Read MacDonald – In which Teen Weeny Bop finds a gold coin and goes to market (to market) to find some pets. Sing the lines of the song twice so that the kids can chime in on the second round.

A-hunting we will go  by  Steven Kellogg.  Did not read this one, instead, I used puppets (thanks to Steven for the idea ). I had a fox in a box, a snail in a pail, a pig in a wig, an owl in a towel, and a bear in underwear, sitting in a chair. We had to do it again, the kids loved this one so much.

If you’re happy and you know it by  Jane Cabrera. You know the song, but this one has lots of fun animal actions and some roaring as well.

Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin – this book was my inspiration for storytime with songs. If you still have not heard the song and live reading, here’s the link.

Juba this, Juba that by Helaine Becker, illustrated by Ron Ligthburn. Local illustrator Ron Lightburn read this one at an elementary school and his wife Sandra did some fun motions that went along with it. Basically, when you say JUBA, you slap your thighs, clap on the next word, and for the refrains, touch elbows. You can make up your own movements, and it is plenty fun to read the story first, then read it again with movements. Hard to do with just one person—so either have the words typed out , or have an adult partner do the motions while you read.

To wrap up, we played Musical Chairs. We had 9 kids so we used 9 chairs—at the tender age of 3, it is hard to be left out, and for some it is hard enough to just find a chair when the music stops! Our live musician played slow, fast, and medium tempos for us, and we tried things like walking on tiptoe, walking very slow, dancing as we went in the circle. Lots of fun and very easy to do with a CD player or iPod.