Flannel Friday, are you feelin' it?

Feel the Love

Here's our new friend...we told you he was coming.  Just last week on Piper Loves the Library, we said we were making a new flannel friend and he was going to be a young man of color.  So, we did it.  Intentional casual diversity for my story time friends! 

And Kaden is his name-oh!  Yep, this handsome fella's name is K A D E N.  One letter for each of the space holders on the flannel board.  And it's a name the kids can learn with the Bingo song.  Here's our version.  (oh, sorry, we didn't make the letters yet)

Piper met a friend at school

And Kaden is his name-oh

K A D E N

K A D E N

K A D E N

And Kaden is his name-oh

From the moment I thought of making this young man, I knew I wanted to use the flannel band aids with him, so look...tough day for Kaden.  He's keeping a brave smile on his face.

We take care of him with all these band aids but sometime you just need to ask...are you feelin' it Kaden?  Are you feelin' the love.  Can we make it better?  Now look, I adore this part! " Feel better" hearts!  You know you need to make some...for everyone!  We're feelin' the love!!  (And you know that Kaden will make a flannel board appearance on Valentine's Day!)

We practiced some stories today.  We had so much fun.   Kaden loves Tip Tip Dig Dig.  Name those trucks my friend - then we can read the book.  

And then there's this!  These two cool cats met today.  "My buttons, my buttons, my four groovy buttons!"  And check it out! They both like tie dye!

Next week Kaden can meet the dinosaurs.  I wonder which one he'll like best?  We love the dinosaurs and we love making new friends.  

Before we left the story time room we intentionally placed some diverse books on display. And we took a photo for the blog.  Maybe you can't see that bottom book on the right...it's a biography of Maya Moore.  Oh yea, we're feelin' the UCONN love!  Piper and I hail from Connecticut.  We are loud and proud of basketball star and UCONN graduate, Maya Moore!  (((((yay)))))  Can you hear the love?  

P.S. (Piper Script): Go Huskies!  I hope Kaden likes basketball.  Maybe we can make him a UCONN shirt!  Our story time kids will love him.  

Oh, David, it's Flannel Friday!

Oh! David!
     No, David!

David Shannon's wonderful No, David has been the highlight of my week.  We had more fun with this book than I ever could have planned.  And it was a learning experience for me.  So it's back to the drawing board today.  I need a David with movable eyebrows and a movable mouth.  David needs to show his emotions!!

So I can do things like this:

and this:

or this:

So now, all of David's features are movable.  His eyes, eyebrows, and mouth are made of stiffened black felt and his nose is made of the same felt as his skin.   I hope to make a few more of these to keep on the flannel board during social time because David's many faces were ultimately the most fascinating part of the program.  A small tilt of the brow, or tip the mouth and WOW!

Some time ago I made a set of bandaids for Piper.  I pulled them out this week to use with the No, David book to include the CCSStandard of consequences.  I mean really people,  why does David's mom always say "No"?   Oh yes...this was fun, and comical, and I want to do it again. 

...David fell while trying to sneak a cookie and hurt is elbow

....David accidently stabbed his hand with his fork while playing with his food

....David fell on his bottom, "his bum" in his slippery bathroom

....David's head hit the ceiling while jumping on his bed

There was no end to the number of bandaids David needed.  And now...there will be no end to his expressive face.  Next time around...the children can provide the consequence, the bandaid AND change David's expression.  Oh, and we can all imitate David's face.  I'm thinking we need a mirror in our story time room!

I am presenting a program titled : Every Child A Reader this summer.  It's for children ages 4-6 with a parent.  It brings together the skill sets from ECRR along with many of the CCSS to encourage early literacy success.  Everyone went home with their own David-on-a-paint-stirrer-stick-puppet to practice narrative skills.  They decided while coloring if their puppet was a Naughty David or a Good David.  Needless to say most everyone selected Naughty David!  I say "Bravo"!  Play out the naughty with the puppet.  Let the puppet get in trouble!

This is mine, made of felt today...but we made paper ones in the library with an assortment of wild and crazy expressions.  

Piper and I outreached to a summer camp this week where we did two programs.  Not to be outdone by David...Piper needed her story told ...the story of why she needed all the bandaids.  She loved the attention!  Indeed Piper girl, you are my very real puppet!  xo

P.S. (Piper Script) There's more to David.  Yep, yep, yep!  The library's first Library as Incubator program featured David.    

If you would like to learn how to make David - click here for a tutorial (it's at the end of the post) 

Piper had a difficult day on Flannel Friday

Bumps, bruises, scratches and scrapes made Piper's day very, very, difficult.  Oh my goodness.  I hugged and kissed Piper so many times.  Our friends placed bandaid after bandaid on her "booboos."  Piper cried, it was so sad.  I gave her my heart to hold, read her a book... and now she is "all better"!

My thanks to Flannel Friday for the bandaid idea. Visit Katie  And many thanks to Connecticut's Capitol Region Children's Round Table for being so willing to play with me! This is my first Flannel Friday.    

P.S. (Piper scripts) the pink bandaid is my favorite!