I made myself a snowball ...

A few adorable little kindergartner's taught me this song and I liked it so much I decided to turn it into a flannelboard. First the song:

"I made myself a snowball as perfect as can be.
I thought I'd keep it as a pet and let it sleep with me.

I made it some pajamas and a pillow for its head.

But late last night it went away but first it wet the bed!"

(giggle - giggle - giggle)

This flannelboard is still in the developmental stages, hasn't been tested during storytime yet, but I think my plan will work. First, I made myself a snowball (out of white felt), and I plan to place it on the flannel board before storytime starts, so that hiding underneath it is a puddle of melted snow (out of light blue felt). As we sing the song I will give the snowball some pajamas, a pillow for his head and tuck him up in a blanket. I plan to put some scotch tape on the inside of the blanket, so it sticks to the pajamas and on the inside of the pajamas, so they stick to the snow ball. Then when the snowball goes away and I lift up the blanket, the pajamas and the snowball will be stuck to the inside of the blanket and the only thing left on the flannelboard will be a puddle of melted snow. Below are some pictures of my pieces and the process:

"I made myself a snowball as perfect as can be.

I thought I'd keep it as a pet and let it sleep with me."

(underneath the snowball is a blue felt puddle of melted snow)

"I made it some pajamas ..."

"... and a pillow for it's head."
(not the best picture, but there is a yellow pillow under there - better seen in person)

(no line in the song for this picture, but it is tucked in bed & all stuck together)

"But late last night it went away but first it wet the bed!"

(when I pull up the blanket, with the tape the pajamas and snowball are stuck to it and all that is left is this little puddle of melted snow - again not the best picture, better seen in person and on a different color background)

And that is "I made myself a snowball", which goes through my head constantly these days :)

The Hat

Just as with The Mitten flannel board I did last week, I found the animals at Jan Brett's website: http://www.janbrett.com/, specific page - http://janbrett.com/hat_coloring_page.htm. I colored and laminated the animals and put a piece of velcro on the back of each, then I used felt, ribbon and markers to make all the different pieces of clothes the animals put on as hats. I hung them on a clothes line across the top of my flannel board and began the story.

As I come to each animal in the story I take a piece of clothing off the clothes line and dress-up the animal.

If you notice, I don't have the star of the story, Hedgie, or the red & white woolen stocking he gets stuck on his head, because I used a hedgehog puppet and a red & white sock for his parts of the story. The kids thought it was all pretty silly.

I also found a reader's theater activity, with masks that you can print out for all the animals and some guidelines on how to put on a play of The Hat: http://janbrett.com/the_hat_play.htm

The Mitten

A co-worker and I sat for a while one day and tried to figure out how we could make an expanding mitten, one that would get bigger as the different animals snuggled in - we couldn't come up with any good ideas, so here is what I made instead.

A mitten out of card stock, with a pocket in the back that I could slide the animals into as I told the story.

If you go to Jan Brett's web-site: http://www.janbrett.com/, specific page - http://janbrett.com/tell_your_own_mitten_story_animals.htm you can print off a picture (black & white outline) of the animals from the story. I colored and laminated them to use for this flannel board. I also used them for an arts & crafts after storytime once. I cut mittens out of construction paper, punched holes all around the edges and let the kids use yarn to sew their mitten together, then they each got a print out of the sheet I linked above so they could fill their mitten with all the animals too.

Hey, Mr. Snowman

A co-worker gave me this rhyme last winter, it goes well with All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle. Depending on how many kids are at storytime, you can hand out all the pieces and let the kids put them on the snowman as you say each verse.

Hey, Mr. Snowman

I went walking

through a winter wonderland

and spied a frosty snowman

who needed a hand.

Hey, Mr. Snowman, what do you need?

"I need BLACK EYES. Put them on me."

Hey, Mr. Snowman, what do you see?
"I see an ORANGE CARROT. Put it on me."

Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?
"I see a BLACK TOP HAT. Put it on me."

Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?
"I see some BROWN STICKS. Put them on me."

Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?

"I see a GREEN SCARF. Put it on me."

Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?

"I see some PINK MITTENS. Put them on me."

Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?

"I see some BLUE BUTTONS. Put them on me."

Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?

"I see some YELLOW BOOTS. Put them on me."

Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?

"I see the coolest snowman ever. Me!"

I changed a few things from the original rhyme my co-worker gave me, such as the color of some of his accessories, so make it your own and change or add what you like.

There was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow

Well, I finished up my Old Lady from I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie, and promptly made her another story - There was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow by Lucille Colandro, and in honor of, hopefully, our first real snowfall later today, I thought it a fitting post for this Friday. Below is a picture of the Old Lady, with arms & legs this time. I taped a large clear expandable file (the office supply stores call it an "expanding wallet file") to the back of the hole in her tummy and I just put the things in there as she swallows them. It worked out very nicely!!! The file is very sturdy, everything packed in well and you can also store everything in the file when she is not in use.




















For her legs, I stuffed an old pair of socks and then put a smaller pair of black socks on for shoes. I used a large needle to sew in some ribbon for shoelaces and attached the legs to the body with hot glue, plus a few safety pins for extra support. For her arms I cut the legs off of a little pair of tights, stuffed them and tied them off at the open end; then I hot glued the excess above the knot onto the back. For her hands I stuffed the fingers of a pair of gloves and fit them onto the end of her arms. I used a few safety pins to pin the back of the gloves to her dress, so her hands weren't flopping around and since they are just pinned, I can change their position if I want. The last thing I did was attach the clear expandable file, and for this I just taped the sides on with packing tape.


















For There was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow, I made some paper snowflakes, a scarf, a corncob pipe and a black hat, collected a few sticks outside and grabbed a few pieces of charcoal from the garage. Then for the end when she hiccups twice and a snowman pops out, I made a little snowman out of extra foam core and kept him hidden behind her until the end of the story. Below are pictures of everything ...


















ENJOY!!!