Flannel Friday: 5 Little Ducks

This is an old favorite, obviously; I'm sticking to the tried and true lyrics because I love them. (I grew up listening to Raffi's version of this one over and over and over.) I would love to figure out a way to make this flannel board with more bells and whistles: for example, finding a way to make the ducks "swim" across the board, plucking them off one at a time once they disappear around the back. Ooh, magic! [insert jazz hands here] Alas, I'm going to have to save that for some future story time.

Five little ducks went out one day,
Over the hills and far away.
Mother duck said, "Quack, quack, quack, quack!"
But only four little ducks came back.

(Repeat with 4, 3, 2, etc.)

For the last verse, I use:

Sad mother duck went out one day,
Over the hills and far away.
Mother Duck said, "Quack, quack, quack quack!"
(dramatic pause)
Uh oh... I don't think that was loud enough. Can you all help Mother Duck quack a little bit louder?
(LOUD QUACKING ensues)
And all of the five little ducks came back!

For the actual flannel pieces, I used our ellison machine to cut ducks out of craft foam, then added some orange foam for their beaks and feet. Then I decided that this bunch of ducks loves to play dress up, and so each of them got a different accessory. (Aaaaand I am linking this to the Halloween flannel board post because... you know. Costumes! Totally relevant! Easy way to jazz up an otherwise non-Halloweeny flannel board!)

 There's my whole crew! Flock? What do you call a group of ducks?

Haha, and obviously I had to look that up. According to wikianswer: A group of ducks is called a badelynge, bunch, brace, flock, paddling, raft or team. Also, one might call it a dover of ducks. If it's a group of ducklings (i.e., they've recently hatched and are being looked after by their mother), it is called a brood. The more you know! I think I might like "paddling" the past. Look at that paddling of ducks paddling about! Dover is rather charming, too.

 

 Superhero Duck and Sir Royal Duck

 The Court Jester!

 Santa Duck and Ballerina Duck (I know, it's barely even October yet, but I figured a Santa hat was nice and recognizable.)

 

 

 And here we have poor Mother Duck! She's a sort-of-puppet. Her head is turnable, but that's the extent of it. She's huge and fluffy though, so she gets to sit on my lap and lead the quacking.

And that's it from me! Hope you liked my ducklings.

Story Time Craft: Sunflowers

 I'll have to go back and play catch up on my previous crafts for this session of story time, but for my YELLOW week, I actually remembered to take some pictures, so here they are!

We made sunflowers from yellow fall leaves and black beans!

These were super simple to make and even easier to prep for. I gave each kid a sheet of blue cardstock, with a simple circle drawn in the center (just a little bit bigger than the brown circle of construction paper). The circle was just there as a guideline to help my crafters figure out where to put the glue. We outlined the circle with a gluestick, then pressed the yellow leaves in place. Once the leaves were down, we glued our brown circles on top. Then we made dots with our tacky glue, and the kids pushed the black beans into place. (Tacky glue worked BY FAR the best to hold the beans in place.) Finally, each child got a green crayon to add whatever extra details they wanted.

 And there you have it! A nice sunny, autumnal sunflower. Do keep in mind that leaves can be temperamental beasts; my second day's story timers ended up with sunflowers that were more brown than yellow, since I had collected the leaves a few days previously. If you have the chance, it might be a good idea to press them ahead of time, in the hopes they'll hold their color a bit longer. Otherwise, collect the leaves day of or the day before for the brightest colors.

 

Happy Fall!

We take a break from our Wacky Wednesday updates to bring you...

Seussian decorations!

Our children's room is filled with some fairly large, terribly ugly columns. I'm sure they're an integral part of, you know, the library's structural support, but they also happen to be a huge pain to decorate. We try to change the columns with each new season, but it isn't always easy to come up with new ideas - especially ones that can be cylinder-ized.

Anyway, my coworker Miss Beth came up with the idea to Seussify the room, and the rest of us took that idea and ran with it. The room looks great (in my oh-so-humble opinion) - nice and colorful and bright and fun! So I wanted to snap some pictures to share with you guys!

 Credit to Miss Beth for this one! She kicked everything off with the Lorax. His mustache is made of felt, and the kids LOVE it.

I am the Lorax, and I speak for the trees. 

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,

Nothing is going to get better. It's not!

Miss Beth also did a Green Eggs and Ham pole.

"I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam I Am!"

Miss Jan made a lovely Yertle the Turtle bulletin board.

 And we have good old Horton over in the corner, courtesy of Miss Sarah!

"I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful one hundred percent!"

This was one of mine - the lovely Miss Gertrude McFuzz!

"This just isn't fair! I have one! She has two!

I must have a tail just like Lolla-Lee-Lou!"

And, of course, it wouldn't be Dr. Seuss without the Cat in the Hat, so I had to tackle him as well.

 "We looked, then we saw him step in on the mat. We looked, and we saw him - the Cat in the Hat!"

 I also did a One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish pole. I had wanted to do something more along the lines of McElligot's Pool with all of its crazy fish, but I ran out of time. Still, I like the idea of an interactive pole where the kids can "find" each of the fish! (Hufflepuffs in training, obviously.)

 "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish!"

I'm doing colors for story time this fall, and my first week is "red," so my initial thought was to make these Cat in the Hat hats (found here although be warned, those measurements are way off). Anyway, I decided the hat was a bit too complicated for a first week craft for 2s and 3s, but I didn't want it go to waste, so I stuck it on this little guy's head instead!

And finally, it was tough to get a decent picture, but I lined this overhang we have on our ceiling with"Oh the thinks you can think, when you think about Seuss!" in some awesomely bright colors. 

 As well as some bright 3-D orbs for good measure! (And yes, I did indeed have the soundtrack to Seussical the Musical running through my head the entire time I was making this.) In this picture, you can also see the stack ends that Miss Sarah made - the middle one has a silhouette of the kids from the Cat in the Hat, as well as a quote. Very cute!

And that's all for now! Check back soon for some more Wacky Wednesday crafts from this past summer, as well as at least one Flannel Friday in the near future.