Snowmen - Family Storytime

I chose this theme to have something seasonal, and because I have a really fun snowman activity I love to do. Though I had planned it 2-3 weeks ago, it turned out to be the day we had our first significant (though barely) snowfall!

As always, I started with our welcome song and introductions, then of course we had to talk about the weather and things we like to do in the snow, ending with talking about building snowmen, and pretending to build a snowman along with the following rhyme I first saw at Storytime Katie:

I Built A Little Snowman

I built a little snowman; he had a carrot nose.

(pretend to build snowman & place carrot)

Along came a bunny, and what do you suppose??

(hold up 2 fingers & "hop", shrug)

That hungry little bunny, looking for his lunch,

(rub tummy, hop bunny around)

ATE the snowman's nose! Nibble! Nibble! Crunch!

(pretend bunny is eating nose/carrot)

Then I led into our first book, a pop-up version of Snowmen At Night by Caralyn and Mark Buehner, with our story song. I like the pop-up version for younger or less-attentive kids because it is a little shorter than the original story, and pop-ups are always a big hit and more engaging. 

This story is very cute and has a nice rhythm when read aloud, and has nice illustrations, but the young kids usually need a little help realizing the real reason the snowman looks different is because he has melted. This led in nicely to the next activity.

After that is was time for one of my favorite activities, based on the fingerplay, "Five Little Snowmen", for which I made these props using the "Shapes" tools in Word (you can find downloadable files and more pictures in my original "Flannel Friday" post):

Five Little Snowmen

Five little snowmen, standing in a row.

Each with a hat and a carrot nose.

Out came the sun and shined on all day.

And one little snowman melted away.

[Continue down to the last snowman]

The first time I did this, I had a sudden moment of inspiration and turned it into a game after we did it the traditional way first. I had the kids all stand in a circle and be the snowmen. I was the sun, and walked around behind them as we said the rhyme, and if I tapped them on the shoulder, that meant it was their time to melt. It was so much fun, I've done it that way whenever space allowed every since.

After all of our little snowmen had finished melting and turned back into children, we moved on to a story about a very different kind of snowman, the "Abominable Snowman", a Western misnomer of the Yeti of Nepali legends. I gave an introduction and explanation of the Yeti before we read our second book, No Yeti Yet, by Mary Ann Fraser.

In this book, two kids go out looking for a Yeti, with the older one hoping to get a picture. As they walk through the woods, the Yeti is close by, but they never spot him, and all the while the younger child keeps questioning the older one about the Yeti. Finally, they reach the Yeti's cave and run into him, then run away in fright. Kids will love trying to spot the Yeti on each page, and laugh at the kids being afraid when the Yeti chases after them when they realize he is just trying to return their camera.

After that we of course had to go on our own Yeti hunt! First in the form of a call-and-response chant modeled after the classic "Going On A Bear Hunt". First start a clapping rhythm, then the leader says a line, and the audience repeats.

Going On A Yeti Hunt

We're going on a Yeti hunt.

Gonna find a big one. 

With great big feet,

And long white fur.

Look, it's a great, big snowfield!

Can't go around it,

Can't go under it,

Have to ski across it!

(pretend to ski)

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

[Repeat beginning verse]

Look, it's a wide, frozen river!

Can't swim across it,

Can't go around it,

Have to skate across it!

(pretend to skate)

Glide, glide, glide!

[Repeat beginning verse]

Look, it's a great big mountain!

Can't go around it,

Can't go through it,

Have to climb up it!

(pretend to climb)

Climb, climb, climb!

[Repeat beginning verse]

Look, it's a deep, dark cave!

Just like where the Yeti lives.

Let's go in it!

(pretend to walk carefully)

Step, step, step.

Whoops, what is that?

I feel two great big feet!

And long, shaggy, fur!

[Say the rest quickly, without pausing for response while acting out the motions]

It's the Yeti! Run!  Run, run, run

Climb down the mountain!   Climb, climb, climb

Skate back across the river!  Glide, glide, glide

Ski across the snowfield!  Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh

Go back in the house, and shut the door!  Slam, lock

Ah, safe at last!

After that, we went on actual Yeti hunt, looking for a small, stuffed Yeti I had hidden in the picture book section next to the storytime area. Since we were running a tad over our time after that, I skipped the closing song and went straight to the craft.

Craft 

Today's craft was very open-ended. I started with the idea of making snowmen by gluing cotton balls on a piece of construction paper. I provided blue paper, cotton balls, both liquid glue and glue sticks, pieces of scrap paper of several colors for added details, scissors, and crayons. At the last minute, I decided not to provide an example to discourage parents from thinking it had to be made the "right" way.

I just put out the materials, and told them to use the cotton balls however they wanted to create their own snowy scene. I suggested they could use them to make snowmen, Yeti, snow forts, snowballs in a snowball fight, snow falling down, or whatever they wanted.

I was pleased to see that the parents did just let the kids do whatever they wanted, and not worry about how they turned out. 

This one little boy [pictured with permission] was so cute! We have the glue sticks that are purple when "wet" and dry clear, and evidently he had only seen regular white ones because he kept opening one after the other, exclaiming "Look, purple!" each time. He had the sweetest little smile, too.

How It Went 

I was a little concerned about whether I would have anyone show up for storytime, because, ironically, we were forecast to have snow, possibly heavy and possibly mixed with freezing rain, overnight and in the morning. Luckily, we only got about a couple of inches of snow, no ice, and it was over before morning. I still had a smaller crowd than normal, but still a decent number with about 8 kids and 7 adults, and one family had actually already been out in the snow that morning and built a little snowman, so in a way it was good timing for the theme.

The kids were all on the younger side, and a couple had a little trouble listening to the stories or participating in some activities, but overall they did great. They didn't get into acting out the "Five Little Snowmen" like slightly older kids do, but some did (I'll have to remember to save the "game" version for older kids). One little girl was too shy, so her dad held her and melted to the floor holding her! I was pretty impressed with that. I was really glad to see several dads in the audience, and see them participating. 

They all like spotting the Yeti in No Yeti Yet and liked the twist of the Yeti chasing after the children not to get them, but rather to return their camera, and everyone enjoyed the Yeti hunt. All in all, I was very pleased with how it all turned out, and we all had a lot of fun with it.

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.

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.