Snow - Virtual Storytime

I guess I always do some kind of snow-themed storytime in January, but I was able to come up with two books I had not used before, so it's somewhat original. The weather is very unpredictable where I am now, for example a week after I arrived here in October a big storm dropped temperatures and 8"-12" of snow on us, after being sunny and 75 the week before, and after a few days almost all traces of snow were gone. I've been told they've had blizzards pop up as late as May, or even in the summer!

I started with a hello song, introduction, and lead-in song, then read the first book, Pablo In The Snow, by Terri Sloat and Rosalinde Bonnet. A little lamb named Pablo has never seen snow before, and is amazed when "pieces of the clouds" start falling down. He goes outside to explore and discovers lots of fun things to do in the snow. But he stays out a little too long and can't find his way home as new snow has covered all of the tracks.

I chose this book for a few reasons: it shows several snowy day activities, it was a newer book and I had not seen or used it before, and my branch happens to have "Lamb" in its name. I also used it as a reminder that if you get lost or separated from your group, you should stay put and call for help.

Next we counted out ten snowflakes as I put them on my flannel board, and then sang the following while counting on our fingers:

Ten Little Snowflakes

(The snow shower begins:)

One little, two little, three little snowflakes;

Four little, five little, six little snowflakes;

Seven little, eight little, nine little snowflakes;

Ten little snowflakes fall!

(Now it's snowing harder!)

They are falling all around us,

They are falling all around us,

They are falling all around us,

MILLIONS of snowflakes fall!

(The snow shower ends:)

Ten little, nine little, eight little snowflakes;

Seven little, six little, five little snowflakes;

Four little, three little, two little snowflakes;

One last little snowflakes falls.

(The snow is over, time to play!)

When I do a "Ten Little..." counting song, I may not always include a middle verse, but I do always include counting back down from 10 to 1 because it forces them to use their muscles and their brain a little differently, not relying on muscle memory or habit, so they have to think a little more and be more aware of what they are doing and saying and what it means. And of course, counting down is the first introduction to subtraction.

I followed that with a quick little action rhyme about a snowman losing his nose to a hungry bunny:

The Snowman & The Rabbit

There was a little snowman,     (pretend to stack 3 large snowballs)
Who had a carrot nose.            (indicate long nose)
Along came a rabbit                 (hold up two fingers and "hop" hand around)
And what do you suppose??    (hold out upturned hands)
That hungry little rabbit             (hold up two fingers, rub tummy with other hand)
Looking for his lunch                (look around)
Ate the snowman's nose!         (pretend to eat)

Nibble, nibble, crunch!

Then I read one more book, Snowball Fight! by comedian Jimmy Fallon and illustrated by Adam Stower. I was surprised when I came across this book as I had never heard that Jimmy Fallon had ever written a children's book. It is a bit older, 2005, which is probably why I wasn't familiar with it. Though I am generally VERY skeptical about celebrity authors, this turned out to be a really great, fun storytime book. It has very little text and lots of action as the neighborhood kids gather for an epic snowball fight. It ends with the protagonist sneaking out and making one last snowball and storing it in the freezer for "future use!", which is something my brother and I always did as well.

I closed with a goodbye song and the usual reminders about take & make kits, digital resources, and curbside services.

How It Went??

Again, it's hard to say. I am getting more comfortable with our set-up and being live, and I liked the books I chose, but I am still ending up at 20 minutes, which I feel is too long. I am seriously thinking of eliminating the additional songs and fingerplays, because I don't feel that translates as well to a virtual storytime, and that people are likely more interested in the books. 

Once again, I am not getting tons of views and I don't know how many of those "views" really indicate someone watched a significant portion of the storytime or just clicked through it, and I don't have access to any additional information Facebook provides to the administrators, only what it shows to the public. Our branch's page only has like 400 followers, so I wouldn't expect many views, but I would like to know if *anyone* is really watching. I may get a couple of "likes" from patrons, but thus far no comments.

I gave the green screen another try, and was much happier with how it worked this time. I do wish we had better a better quality camera with higher resolution; I think the poor resolution also makes it more difficult to engage viewers. Honestly, the videos I did on my own at home over the summer with my phone and natural light looked much better, imo. Here is a screenshot from the video (I choose not to link to or embed the videos I do for work in my blog as I want to maintain a separation between my employer and my professional activities as an individual):

I don't expect to return to normal, in-person programming until maybe the Fall (though I expect to be told to do outdoor in-person programming before that), so I will keep offering the virtual storytimes and early literacy kits for the time being and hope I start to pick up some viewers and re-evaluate in a month or two. Of course, I appreciate any and all suggestions for making virtual storytime more engaging and/or attracting viewers!

Snow?

I generally plan to do Snow-themed storytimes around the end of January, because that's typically the time we are most likely to see snow here. But the weather did not cooperate this year, and we've had 2 weeks of unseasonably mild temperatures and rain. Lots of rain. I think we have had at least some rain every day for the last 10+ days! But I didn't have time to change gears, and I knew the kids would still like talking about snow, so I stuck with it.

We started with our welcome song, and introduced the topic by talking about all the fun things we can do in the snow and looking at some beautiful photographs of actual snowflakes from www.snowcrystals.com (this site has tons of photographs, and lots of info on the science behind snowflakes). Then we sang our story song and read our first book, the classic by Ezra Jack Keats, The Snowy Day.

I love this simple story and the lovely illustrations, and the added bonus of making predictions (What will happen when Peter smacks the snow-covered tree with the stick?) and cause-and-effect (What happened to Peter's snowball? Why did it melt?) and featuring a person of color. I usually get one of the 50th Anniversary editions to use for storytime because they are bigger, but I waited too late and they were all checked out. I was feeling nostalgic, so I decided to use my original childhood copy, though the cover is certainly showing some wear after almost 50 years and five kids (myself, my 3 siblings, and my daughter).

For our next story, I used another personal book, my son's The Snowmen Pop-Up Book by Caralyn and Mark Buehner, which is a pop-up version of their popular Snowmen At Night. Do you ever wonder why your snowman looks a little different the next day? In this story, a little boy imagines why.

This version is particularly good for younger groups as it is a bit shorter than the original book, and of course has the added interest of the pop-ups to get their attention. (FYI, the spreads about drinking ice-cold cocoa, playing baseball, and ice-skating are omitted in this version.)

The kids were all too eager to point out the snowman had really just melted, which made a great segue into our next activity:

"Five Little Snowmen"

Five little snowmen standing in a row, each with a hat and a carrot nose.

Out came the sun and shone all day, and one little snowman melted away!

Four little snowmen........(down to one)

One little snowman standing all alone, with his hat and a carrot nose.

Out came the sun and shone all day, and the last little snowman melted away.

No little snowmen standing all alone, none with a hat or a carrot nose.

The sun came out and shone all day, and melted all the snowmen away.

I put the puddles on the board, then place the snowmen over them so when the snowmen "melts", the puddle is left behind. This can be said as a rhyme or sung to the tune of "Five 

Little Ducks Went Out To Play". [For more pictures, complete instructions with alternate versions, and printable files, see my previous Flannel Friday post.]

On the fly I decided to do a quick matching activity using these, too. Leaving the puddles on the board, I held up the snowmen one at a time and let the kids tell me which puddle he would leave, and identify the hatband and tie colors. They really got a kick out of my playing dumb and mismatching them on purpose.

We had talked a lot about building snowmen, making snow angels, and having snowball fights, so for the third story I chose a book that focused on an activity that many of us don't get a chance to do in this area because of insufficient snowfall, sledding. 

In Lee Harper's (not to be confused with Harper Lee, the author of To Kill A Mockingbird) Snow! Snow! Snow! our two young characters are thrilled to wake up to a landscape covered in snow. Their father takes them sledding, where a bump at the bottom of the hill sends them soaring into the air. But, what goes up must come down! Short, simple text with nice illustrations.

We ended with our usual closing song, and passed out stickers.

How It Went  
Despite Mother Nature not cooperating, we had a great time talking about playing in the snow. If this had been a library storytime rather than outreach, I would have let them have a snowball fight with our fake snowballs (like giant pom-poms) and spread something on the floor for them to make snow angels in. But, the classroom is too cramped and crowded to do either of these activities, unfortunately.

The Snowmen Pop-Up book was predictably the book they liked best. They were not quite as engaged with the other two, though they did all laugh when the snow from the tree fell on Peter's head in The Snowy Day and when the airborne sledders realized that what goes up must come down in Snow! Snow! Snow!  They really liked the "Five Little Snowmen" activity, and we discussed how it might be sad when our snowman melts, but we can always build another one the next time it snows.

I had a bigger crowd that usual today, with 19 kids instead of the usual 12-14. I saw several new faces, but the teacher said they weren't new to her class, just that they usually don't arrive early enough for storytime. With that many extra kids that weren't used to the storytime routine, it was definitely a little more challenging!

The [not very] Snowy Day

This is the storytime that got postponed because of "Snowpocalypse 2016" last week.  We didn't get quite the huge amounts of snow forecast (our friends in the mid-Atlantic region got the worst of it), but 7-1/2" of new snow on top of 1-1/2" on the ground from two days earlier is still a large amount for this area.  But, by this week it was almost all gone; all that was left were a few small patches and piles from the cleared parking lots.  In fact, the kids had already forgotten about it, until I reminded them!  But, having had the experience of a big snowstorm the week before made our stories today that much more relatable for them.

We started with our welcome song, then a very brief introduction, and our story song to lead into the first book, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  I was in the first generation of children to enjoy this book, and I still have my original copy, though it is a bit worse for wear after going through five kids.  I love using this book each winter, with it's simple yet engaging story, and wonderful illustrations.  Despite it's simplicity, children find it very engaging, plus since most of the kids in this class are of color, it's nice to have a story with a main character that looks like them.  I like seeing if they can predict what will happen when Peter hits the snow-covered tree with a stick, or explain why his snowball disappeared.  I like using the 50th Anniversary Edition because it is a little bit bigger than the standard book.

After that, we did the "It Is Snowing..." song and flannel board that I used yesterday:

"It Is Snowing"

It is snowing, it is snowing,

On my head, on my head.

I need a hat, I need a hat

On my head, on my head.

Other verses:  chest - jacket,

legs - snow pants, feet - snow boots,

hands -  mittens, neck - scarf

For the second book, I brought my son's pop-up version of Snowmen At Night by Caralyn and Mark Buehner, which is simply called The Snowmen Pop-Up Book.  I first decided to use it because this class has been so hard to keep engaged, so I hoped that the pop-ups would add more interest to help hold their attention.  Then as I checked it over for condition, I realized it is also edited to be shorter, which made it an even better choice for this group (fyi, the pop-up version omits the pages about drinking cocoa, ice skating, and playing baseball).  I like the cute story of the nightly snowman games that the boy imagines to explain why his snowman looks different the next day, though most kids will correctly explain that it is because it started melting.

And that of course led perfectly into my "Five Little Snowmen".  Since I did this as a rhyme yesterday, I decided to change it up and sing it today, to the tune of "Five Little Ducks Went Out To Play", especially knowing how this group likes to sing.  After showing them all the hand motions and setting up the magnetic board, we sang it first, then did my game version.  See my previous "Flannel Friday" post for full descriptions of all versions.

"Five Little Snowmen"

After that, it was time to settle down and sing our closing song, then pass out stickers and say "good-bye".

How It Went
To be perfectly honest, I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about storytime today because this year's class has been so difficult to manage (and it's not just me; the teacher reports the same thing).  But they completely surprised me with how good they were!  By the time we started our first story, they were settled and they stayed that way throughout the first story!  They were engaged, they participated but did not interrupt (much, hey, they're 3), and at the end one little boy even said "Thank you" and asked for another story. 

They did a great job with the first flannel board and song, and though they were just a tiny bit restless at the start of the second book, once they saw the pop-up snowmen, they were fully engaged!  The liked the melting snowmen, and absolutely LOVED my game version of it, and asked to play it again, but we were out of time.  I just love seeing how they giggle with the suspense of waiting to see who will get melted next, and some of the more dramatic death scenes.

So it turned out to be a really great storytime after all, and I felt a little guilty for not being too enthusiastic about it initially.  The shorter, pop-up version of Snowmen... turned out to be perfect for them, and I'm thankful that I happened to have a copy at home!

The Storytime That Almost Wasn't

This was an unusual week for my Storytime-To-Go program.  Normally, we go out 6 days per each 2-week rotation.  I am generally on the Storytime Bus every day it goes out, except for one or two days each month when we have a pair of volunteers that need to work together for transportation reasons.  This time though, one day we were closed for a federal holiday, two days I had volunteer pairs scheduled so no need for me, then two days were snowed out, thanks to "Snowmageddon 2016".  So that left me with only ONE day on the bus, which was disappointing (and ironic) because the theme was "Snow", one of my favorites.

The Books

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats is of course a must-have classic.  I had this in both the standard book and "big book" versions.  I love the illustrations, and the simple story.  Kids always seem to enjoy it, and can relate to Peter's adventures in the snow (if they have had the opportunity to experience snow themselves).  I like to see if they can predict what will happen when Peter smacks a snow-covered tree with a stick, or explain what happened to Peter's snowball.

Caralyn and Mark Buehner's Snowmen At Night came out right about the time my son was obsessed with snowmen.  A boy notices his snowman doesn't look the same the next day and imagines that it is due to all the fun snowmen have a night while everyone is asleep.  A cute, fun, slightly silly story with a rhyming text.  I like to see how many kids recognize that the snowman looks different because he has started to melt. 

Snowbaby Could Not Sleep by Kara LaReau and illustrated by Jim Ishikawa is a relatable story of little Snowbaby who is not ready to go to sleep, and comes up with one excuse after another.  It has repeating lines of "Snowbaby could not, would not, sleep" and "I can't sleep" that the kids can say along with you, as well as counting snowflakes along with Snowbaby.  It ends with a little Snowdoggie to keep Snowbaby company, and everyone gets to sleep.

Snow! Snow! Snow! by Lee Harper is a story told mostly through pictures with little text about a family going sledding down a big, fast hill and ending up airborne, flying through the air with the geese.  But, what goes up, must come down!  Cute, but I think it could use more words to help with the flow of the story.

Mouse's First Snow by Lauren Thompson is a cute, sweet story showing Little Mouse as he experiences snow for the first time along with Poppa.  This story doesn't work quite as well with some groups as the other Mouse's First... stories that are more interactive.

The Activities
First up, a song and accompanying flannel board:

 

"It Is Snowing"

(to the tune of "Frere Jacques")

It is snowing, it is snowing.

On my head, on my head.

I need a hat, I need a hat.

On my head, on my head.

Remaining verses:  chest - jacket

legs - snow pants, feet - snow boots

hand - mittens, neck - scarf

 

Next, a "Five Little Snowmen" rhyme and flannel board, described in a previous "Flannel Friday" post:

 

"Five Little Snowmen"

 

First, we did the traditional rhyme with hand motions, accompanied by the flannel board.  We followed that with my game version, where the kids all stand up and are the snowmen, while I am the sun, walking around behind them as we say the rhyme.  Then, when it is time for one to melt, I tap someone on the shoulder to tell them they have to melt (I usually do two at a time to save time).  The kids LOVE this, the suspense of waiting to see if they will be tagged, and the drama of melting. 

 

And for some real fun, an indoor snowball fight!  The "snowballs" are basically giant pom-poms (pictured below).  As I handed the snowballs out we sang "Ten Little Snowballs":

 

One little, two little, three little snowballs,

Four little, five little, six little snowballs,

Seven little, eight little, nine little snowballs,

Ten snowballs to throw.

Let's roll and pack and throw some snowballs,

Roll and pack and throw some snowballs,

Roll and pack and throw some snowballs,

Let's have a snowball fight!

 

Then, on the count of three they could start throwing the snowballs.  I let it go on for probably 2-3 minutes (if we'd had more time and a larger space I would have given them 5-10 minutes).  Then I called "Stop!" and collected the snowballs while we sang the last verse of the song, counting down from 10 to 1.

 

How It Went

The first two classes I had were younger and on the wiggly, chatty, and inattentive side.  There is one little girl in particular in the first class that is always very disruptive with continuously speaking out and interrupting or trying to talk over us, which makes it very hard to get through the stories, so we (the volunteer and I) ended up having to shorten the stories and ending their sessions a little earlier, and did not try the snowman game or snowball fight.

We had a ball with the second two classes, though!  They are older and always well behaved, attentive, and participate.  They had a blast with the snowman game and the snowball fights.  It was cute to see when they would get brave enough to throw them at me, getting a mischievous gleam in their eyes.  I really wish we had been able to give them more time.

The last group did pretty well, too, but because they can get out of control sometimes, I elected not to do the snowball fight or game version of the snowmen and stuck with the traditional flannel boards instead.

All the kids really liked Snowbaby Could Not Sleep, with the repetition and the cute little Snowdoggie at the end, and most enjoyed The Snowy Day and Snowmen At Night, except for the younger kids who had trouble paying attention to anything.  I realized I need to find some short, yet very engaging snow books for these younger classes (this is always a challenge!).  I had a few shorter ones, but they were all rather boring and didn't really engage them.

Let It Snow - Preschool Storytime

I did a winter themed storytime last December that focused on staying warm in winter, mostly about how animals have adapted to deal with winter by hibernating, storing food, migrating, growing winter coats, etc., wanting to save the focus on snow until January when we typically get it in this area.  The timing worked out perfectly!  We had a fairly big snow (for our area) the weekend before, so by the time I did this storytime, the kids had had a chance to experience snow and it was still on the ground.

We started with our opening welcome song, then talked about the snow and all the fun things you can do in the snow. Of course they were all very eager to talk about the fun they had playing in the recent snow.  After that, we transitioned into the first book by singing our "story song". 

For our first book, I chose a classic, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  I was going to use my childhood copy, but when I dug it out it was not in the greatest condition after going through 5 kids, so I opted for the 50th Anniversary special edition instead since it is bigger than the standard book.  This book has a simple sweet story of a boy exploring his snow-covered surroundings.  I chose this partly for nostalgia, but also because it features an African-American child, and I like to see if the children can predict what will happen when Peter whacks the snow-covered tree with a big stick, or if they can figure out what happened to the snowball in his pocket. 

After that, a simple song that would give them a chance for some movement.

"Dance Like Snowflakes"

(to the tune of "Are You Sleeping")

Dance like snowflakes,

Dance like snowflakes.

In the air, in the air.

Whirling, twirling snowflakes,

Whirling, twirling snowflakes.

Here and there, everywhere.

 

The onto some silly, snowman fun with Caralyn Buehner's Snowmen At Night.  This is a fun book that poses the question, "What do snowmen do at night?" after a boy notices his snowmen always look different the next day.  It has rhyming verses and a good rhythm, plus charming illustrations depicting the goings-on the boy imagines.  I chose this because its fun, and I like to see if the kids can tell me the real reason the snowmen look different the very next day.

Next we did a "Five Little Snowmen" rhyme with a magnetic board and snowmen and puddles I drew using the "shapes" tool in MS Publisher, inspired by the one on Miss Mary Liberry.  For a complete description with rhyme, more photos, directions, and printable files, see my Flannel Friday: "Five Little Snowmen" post.
 

 

The night before my storytime I had a sudden inspiration to turn this rhyme into a game, by having the children pretend to be the snowmen and me being the sun, and tapping them on the shoulder to tell them it was their turn to melt.  So first we did it the traditional way, then followed that by the "game" version.  This turned out to be a lot of fun!

 

For our third and last story we read In The Snow by Sharon Phillips Denslow, illustrated by Nancy Tafuri.  I liked the idea of doing a book that showed different animal tracks in the snow, and I thought this one did the best job of showing different animal tracks with simple pictures and text that were suitable for this age group.  After that, we finished up by singing our regular closing song.

How It Went
I had about 10 kids and it was a very good thing I had planned on doing "Snow" today, because after our recent snowstorm, that is all they wanted to talk about!  They were so excited about the snow, which kept them engaged, if a bit talkative.

They liked all the stories, and I was pleasantly surprised that several figured out what happened to Peter's snowball and some even recognized that the snowmen looked different the next day because of melting.  The kids were amazed when I told them that *I* had read The Snowy Day when I was their age.

This was the first time I had ever used any kind of storyboard with them, and they were very intrigued by the "Five Little Snowmen" board.  They absolutely LOVED when I turned it into a game, giggling at the suspense of who would be tagged to melt next!  I highly recommend trying it this way if you have the space.  I was a little surprised that they didn't get into dancing around like snowflakes with "Dance Like Snowflakes"; I had thought they would really enjoy twirling around like floating snowflakes, but they were very lackluster about it.

Numbers & Counting - The Winter Edition

One of the ten daycares the Storytime Bus visits asked that we not do a Christmas-themed storytime per their corporate rules, so I had to come up with an alternative to use with them during the rotation I had planned Christmas for everyone else (for my thoughts on the whole holiday programming debate, see my "To Holiday, Or Not To Holiday" post). 

As it happens, this daycare had missed out on our numbers/counting theme back in September because of Labor Day, so it made sense to use that theme.  But I wanted it to still be somewhat seasonal, so instead of using the same selection of books I used then, I pulled some winter-themed counting books and put together some wintery songs/rhymes/felt sets to go with them.  I used 2-3 books and a couple of the songs and/or rhymes with each group.

The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming is a great book for this theme, and has a snowman gradually becoming fully accessorized over ten days.  I like how it not only counts up from 1 to 10, but is one of the few books that has the ordinal numbers from first through tenth as well.  And you can either read it, or sing it to the familiar tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas".

Ten On The Sled by Kim Norman and Liza Woodruff has 10 animal friends sledding down the hill, and counts down from 10 to 1 as they fall off one by one.  This is another book that can either be read or sung, using the tune from a song from my childhood, "Ten In The Bed". 

Snowbaby Could Not Sleep by Kara LaReau and Jim Ishikawa is a story about a little snowbaby who "could not, would not sleep".  This is not actually a counting story per se, and only refers to counting snowflakes without actually showing the counting.  But, I really wanted to have at least one book that had a real story, and while the story does not show the actual counting, it is easy enough to pause and count the snowflakes that are on the next page.  The kids can also join in with the repeating "But Snowbaby could not, would not sleep" line.

Snowboy 1, 2, 3 by Joe and Wendy Wahman starts with two children walking through the countryside, unaware of the adventures of the snowboy and his woodland friends going on behind them.  This one counts from 1 to 10, and then back down to 1, and has rhyme and bright illustrations.

Millions of Snowflakes by Mary McKenna Sidals and Elizabeth Sayles is a sweet little story about a child playing outside in the snow and catching snowflakes.  It only counts from 1 to 5, and it is a little small with pastel illustrations, but I like the text and the pretty snowflakes of different patterns.  There are also movements the kids could act out as you read.  This one I thought would be good for the younger kids.

I already had a "Five Little Snowmen" rhyme and magnetic set I had made last year, and I found a couple of "Five Little Snowflakes" rhymes, one that counts up and one that counts down, and made up a simple "Ten Little Snowflakes" song.  Then I cut out some felt snowflakes to go with them.  Since I have shown these in recent posts, I'm not going to write them out again; but you can follow the links to get all the details.  I also made up a "Ten Little Snowballs" song:

One little, two little, three little snowballs.

Four little, five little, six little snowballs.

Seven little, eight little, nine little snowballs.

Ten little snowballs to throw!

Let's roll and pack and throw some snowballs,

Roll and pack and throw some snowballs,

Roll and pack and throw some snowballs.

Let's have a snowball fight!

Ten little, nine little, eight little snowballs.

Seven little, six little, five little snowballs.

Four little, three little, two little snowballs.

One snowball left to throw!

 

How It Went 

The weather decided not to be co-operative with my theme, being 60 and rainy following a 70 degree weekend (normal here would be in the 40's!), but otherwise everything went fine. I think the favorite books for the kids were Snowbaby Could Not Sleep, because it had an actual story and a cute snowdoggie; and Ten In A Sled, because it was silly and had lots of different animals.  They did fine with the others, though were a little confused by some of the unconventional snowman parts in On The First Day Of Winter.  In their minds, a carrot is the ONLY acceptable nose for a snowman.

Of the songs and activities, they really had fun with the "Ten Little Snowballs" song and pretending to have a snowball fight (I was so mad at myself for forgetting to bring our soft foam pretend snowballs to throw), and really liked the "Five Little Snowmen".  First they all wanted to pick out which snowman they liked best, then they really got into the melting idea and thought it was silly.  Afterward, I told them I also knew a way to turn it into a game, and had them stand in a circle while I walked around behind them as the "Sun" while we said the rhyme.  Then, when we got to the part about melting, I would tap one or two of them on the shoulder to tell them it was their time to melt.  They LOVED playing this and the suspense of who would have to melt each time! 

 

There was a new little girl in the class who spoke no English.  She did have trouble paying attention to the stories, but when we did the snowman activities with motions, she started copying what we did.  While I'm not sure how much she understood about what we were doing when we did the game version, she clearly appreciated the silliness of melting and really seemed to enjoy it.  Despite the language barrier, she seems very well-adjusted and completely comfortable and happy to be there.  Her teacher said the child's mom stayed with her the first day to ease her transition.  That is, until the little girl asked her, "Why are you still here?" and told her to go on home! 

This winter edition of the counting theme proved to be more fun than the general one!

Flannel Friday - Snowflakes

I love snowflakes!  I think they are so pretty; I love to decorate with cutout snowflakes in the winter, and I've always wanted to make a snowflake wedding cake, but never got the chance (I used to have a wedding cake business once upon a time).  But, don't let me catch you with anything but proper 6-pointed snowflakes!

These are super easy to make with an Ellison die-cut machine.  I used sparkle-felt, though it's not as sparkly as I'd like and I don't think the sparkle shows up in the picture.  There are sparkle craft foam sheets and glitter paper (in the scrapbooking section) that are REALLY sparkly, too.  You could dress them up with glitter glue as well [if anyone knows of a glitter glue that actually comes out in a nice, neat line, PLEASE tell me in the comments!].  I made up a simple counting song to go with them:

(This is just a small board I rigged up at home from an old
flannel pillowcase; the one I use at work is much bigger.)

"Ten Little Snowflakes"

One little, two little, three little snowflakes.

Four little, five little, six little snowflakes.

Seven little, eight little, nine little snowflakes.

Ten little snowflakes fall.

They are falling all around us.

They are falling all around us.

They are falling all around us.

Millions of snowflakes fall!

Ten little, nine little, eight little snowflakes.

Seven little, six little, five little snowflakes.

Four little, three little, two little snowflakes.

And one little snowflake falls.

 

I put the snowflakes on the board one by one as we sing, and everyone else counts up with their fingers. [ If you have the time and inclination, you could also cut out a whole lot of lightweight paper snowflakes and toss them over the kids when you get to the "millions of snowflakes fall" line.]  Then remove the snowflakes from the board as you sing the last verse.

 

"Five Little Snowflakes"

 

I also found two "Five Little Snowflake" rhymes at Bussongs.com.  One counts up from one to five, and the other counts down from five to one.  You can do one, both, or mash them up together like I did into one long poem that first counts up, then down. Again, I put the snowflakes on, then take them off, one by one as we say the rhyme, and everyone else uses their fingers and we act out the motions.

 

"Five Little Snowflakes"

 

One little snowflake with nothing to do.

Along came another and then there were two.

Two little snowflakes laughing with glee.

Along came another, and then there were three.

Three little snowflakes looking for some more.

Along came another, and then there were four.

Four little snowflakes dancing as though alive.

Along came another, and then there were five.

Five little snowflakes flew round and round.

One got caught by the wind and went floating down.

Four little snowflakes flew round and round.

One got caught by the wind and went floating down.

Three little snowflakes flew round and round.

One got caught by the wind and went floating down.

Two little snowflakes flew round and round.

One got caught by the wind and went floating down.

One little snowflake flew round and round.

Until it got caught by the wind and went floating down.

 

I do realize the first part is different for each stanza, while in the second part the number is the only thing that changes.  At first I thought about finding another count-down rhyme with stanzas that change each time, but then I decided the kids would have a much easier time joining in on the more repetitive one, so I decided to keep it as is.

 

And as a bonus, a link to Snowcrystals.com, a site by snowflake expert Kenneth G. Libbrecht, with some *amazing* photographs of real snowflakes, along with the science behind how they form, videos of the growth of lab-created snowflakes, and snowflake books.  If you're ambitious enough, you can make patterns for your snowflake cutouts based on some of these.

 

To see more Flannel Friday posts from other bloggers, go to this week's Flannel Friday Round-Up hosted by Lisa at "Libraryland", or visit the Flannel Friday Pinterest board for tons of inspiration.  For more information about Flannel Friday and how to participate, visit the Flannel Friday site.

Flannel Friday: "Five Little Snowmen"

This is my version of a "Five Little Snowmen" rhyme and "flannel" board I first saw on MissMaryLiberry.  She created snowmen using MS Word's "shapes" drawing feature.  I really liked hers, but wanted to make a couple of changes and to play around with it myself.

So I made my own last winter using the same "shapes" tool in MS Publisher.  And, of course I have to make things more complicated than necessary, so I decided instead of making them all the same with only different colored hat bands I would make them all just a little different by changing hat shapes, making some more elliptical than round, different numbers of buttons, different arms, etc. 

Here are all five snowmen, along with the sun:

And a close-up of two of them:



I also modified the rhyme she used a little bit:

                                                      "Five Little Snowmen"

       Five little snowmen, standing in a row.       (hold up 5 fingers)
       Each with a hat and a carrot nose.             (pretend to put hat on, gesture to long nose)
       Out came the sun and shone all day,         (hold hands up in circle)
       And one little snowman melted away.        (hold up 5 fingers, then "melt" one)

      Four little snowmen....     [Continue, counting down to none]

      No little snowmen, standing in a row.         (make a "zero" with hand while shaking head)
      None with a hat, or a carrot nose.               (point to head, nose while shaking head)
      The sun came out and shone all day.         (hold hands up making a circle)
      And all the little snowmen melted away.     (hold palms outstretched)

I start with the snowmen on the board, with the puddles behind them (I did not think of doing it this way as I was drawing them, so the puddles are a little wider than the snowmen and won't be completely covered).  I do a quick run-thru of the first verse to teach the audience the hand motions, then start over from the beginning.  I add the sun when we mention it in the first verse.  As each snowman melts in the rhyme, I remove one from the board, leaving the melted puddle in it's place.

You can use the links below to download the snowmen files from Google file sharing.  I scaled them to two smaller sizes after realizing I had initially made them much too large to fit on my small travel board.

Download Small Snowmen       Download Medium Snowmen       Download Large Snowmen

After we did the rhyme the traditional way with the flannel board, I then made a game out of it.  I had all the children stand in a circle, and as we said the rhyme I would walk around behind them as the "Sun".  When we got to the line where "one little snowman melted away" I would put my hand(s) on one or two kids' shoulders to indicate they were the snowman that had to melt away, and they would "melt" down to the floor.  We all had a lot of fun doing it this way, and they loved the suspense of seeing who would have to melt next.

Another variation is instead of chanting it as a rhyme, you can sing it as a song to the tune of "Five Little Ducks Went Out To Play".

Enjoy!  I'm happy to share my files, but I would love some comments and links back to my blog in return :)

To see more Flannel Friday posts from other bloggers, go to this week's Flannel Friday Round-Up hosted by Mollie at "What Happens In Storytime...".  For more information about Flannel Friday and how to participate, visit the Flannel Friday site.