Meet Bo! The Presidential Puppy!

Bo, the Presidential Puppy has made a TOP SECRET trip to the Library!!   This is very exciting for the staff as well as all of the library families.  Isn't he great?  He snuggles and he cuddles and he is very smart.

He is our newest very real puppet and he will make his debut during our Spring Story Time Session!  We can't wait.  You may already know about this book, it's his favorite!





We looked at many of the library books about dogs and we decided to share this book at Bo's first story time.




Although this one is very entertaining!





Holy smokes!  Look at this...I think I know where he wants to go!!!  Didn't I tell you he's smart?!

''

We'll see you at the library.  Check out some of the dog books, you'll love 'em!

Piper hasn't met Bo yet...so let's still keep this 

Top Secret!

Flannel Friday Circles!

We go round and round and round in the circle game!  Both Kandinsky and Joni Mitchell inspired the creation of these circles.  I love them and their flexibility.

 Soooo many things we can do with these circles.  Each circle has an exact match..but there are many other ways to group them..outer circle color, button color, which ones have pink, count the circles, circles in a line...you get the picture!  

 I like to start the circles in the shape of a square!  We square up the circles!!  Then all the children are welcome to take a circle off the flannel board, and we begin to match.  Some find their match before they return to the flannel board and two children will come up together. Very Cool!  Others take more time, and others just like taking them off and placing them back on!!  I slowly move the circles out of their pairs on the flannel board until I create a BIG...Circle! 

A circle made of circles.  We are approaching genius, and we are preschoolers!!! 

We make circles with our arms and circles with our hands.  We talk about dancing in circles...and then..we pass out the Lakeshore streamers.  Oh, how I love my job!

There are many Circle songs...no doubt you have a favorite, this one is mine and the YouTube video is just adorable: Joni Mitchell's Circle Game with Steven Curtis Chapman.  We dance in a circle with streamers.  We are beautiful! 

I have two favorite books to use with the circles - one was recently borrowed by my Starbuck's friend, Rex, with his new library card!

And the other a perfect Spring choice!

Hurray for Flannel Friday pals and the inspiration you bring to my library!

P.S. (Piper Script) will you please do a a flannel post on bouncing balls! (so much better than circles!)

Time for Templates

The Sheep template is directly from Google images.  Take a look at the Baa Baa Black Sheep post, (in my blog archive), and see how much fun I had with this!  I cut the entire sheep with the black felt and then cut the wool layer in another felt color.  Changing up eyes...to stars, squares, triangles or circles is something I really enjoy playing with.  It gives character to the character!  And the kids love to point those things out to me.





Okay, this one...In My Nest...is drawn by me!!  (as if you couldn't tell!)

I hand-stitched the details on the birds when I created the flannel pieces and made French knots for their eyes.  Visit my blog archive and click the Flannel Friday ~ In My Nest post for colors.

Hope these help with your creations!

Light One Little Candle

This is an incredible non-profit foundation with Connecticut roots.  Piper does her part at fund raisers and we both visit hospitals.  I recently met with an amazing young woman, Sarah Cody, a Fox News reporter as well as a writer with the Hartford Courant.   Please take a look at  Sarah meets Jane!  She will tell you all about Light One Little Candle and Joelle, the founder.

Piper is wearing a bumble bee hat and this is Mouse and Isabella - we are waiting for a train to visit some of our Light One Little Candle friends.

 Treat yourself to a Mommy Minute, Sarah Cody's blog.

P.S.(Piper script): Thanks for reading today!

Baa Baa Black Sheep!

This is one of my all time favorites for practicing sounds and syllables.  We use tapping sticks or chopsticks and we tap out each syllable.  (9 taps in the first line, 7 in the second line for the black and the white sheep)  We only sing the first two lines of this song.  The last sheep is a bit of a surprise...we often call him the naked sheep - brings lots of giggles, and we talk about the wool and yarn and how to keep our naked brown sheep warm...scroll down and you'll see our solution!  The kids love it.  

Baa Baa Black Sheep have you any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full

Baa Baa White Sheep have you any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.

Baa Baa Brown Sheep have you any wool?

No sir, no sir, I'm cold right through!

Oh, Little Brown Sheep, what can we do?

They shaved off your wool, boo, hoo, hoo!

 He needs to be warm...and we have lots of yarn

let's make him a sweater to wear in the barn!!  

Because the children are not willing to part with the tapping sticks we can repeat this song up to three times with complete focus!  We put the sweater on - off - on.  (we could easily add pants and boots and a hat...to keep this going!)  

 We have multiple copies of Mary had a little Lamb at the library... a perfect lap sit book, and we  read aloud together.  

I have templates for the sheep as well as the Flannel Friday post (3/2) - I will post them on the blog asap.  Check back soon.  

P.S.(Piper script)  I hope I get a sweater!  Millie did in Three Bags Full by Ragnhild Scamell

Flannel Friday ~ In My Nest

Loving Flannel Friday!

In My Nest by Sara Gillingham

Making this flannel board was great fun!  It is a warm, gentle, loving story of a baby bird and her family! I tell the story from the board book In My Nest by Sara Gillingham and slowly layer the pieces on.  I give the children the smaller green leaves - hence, do not ever expect it to look like this in story time!!!  Many thanks again to my colleague Kari Ann.  You can find her amazing work at  mystorytimelife.blogspot.com  She introduced me to this book.

I did create a template for the birds and their wings...will add to the blog on Monday or Tuesday.  Ready for Spring and all that it brings!
P.S.(Piper script): I love bird watching!

 Update: here's my drawing for the big bird and the baby bird.  My birds find a warm safe space to build their nest - yellow circle.  Everything else, (twigs from stiff brown felt, leaves, feathers) was just cut free hand.

Flannel Friday! There was a girl who had a dog!

 There was a girl who had a dog

and PIPER was her name-oh!

P - I - P - E - R

P - I - P - E - R

P - I - P - E - R

And PIPER was her name - oh!

(sing to BINGO)

This is Piper's person!  Piper is my wonderful, very real, Puppet and she is the mascot of Monday night's Pajama Story Time.  I recently updated Piper's person, (the previous version was drawn with markers and laminated.) When we begin this story the letters are all over the flannel board, upside down, etc.. although the space holders are set in line right next to the person.  Here's our story, we are very silly:

Once upon a time, here in West Hartford, there was a girl with green hair...no? not green..what color is her hair?  Yellow.  thank you!  a girl with yellow hair.

She wore a purple shirt...no?  not purple...ooh, it's pink.  Yes, a pink shirt.

And her shirt says I love cats, right?  no?  what does it say...Oh, I heart dogs.  And what does that heart mean?  Love...okay, the little girl with the yellow hair has a shirt that tells us that she loves dogs.  

She has something in her hand?  what is that?  a ball, yes!  a green ball!  

I bet her dog loves the green ball.  

Now her dog has a name...and I think it begins with the letter P...

we go through the letters, the sounds, who has that letter in their name, etc.

Finally, we spell out P-I-P-E-R and then we sing the above song. 

p.s. (Piper script) my person's name is Brie

Kari Ann's Inside Snowballs!

Inside snowballs surrounding my snow domes!  

We use the inside snowballs in story time with all the winter themes, even the parents have fun!  My colleague, Kari Ann at My Storytime Life , taught me about inside snowballs this year and I can not thank her enough.  These are the only snowballs we've had in Connecticut this winter.  Kari Ann also introduced me to the song: Freeze on Carole Peterson's Dancing Feet.  Available on iTunes.

I am including my first tutorial below.  Things you will need:  

I purchase polyester tulle, I like the pale pink sparkly tulle best!  I also use pale blue.

I buy the tulle by the yard and fold the 54" wide in half

then cut into 7" strips with sharp scissors

I suggest a long tapestry needle

thread, doubled

With my thread doubled and knotted I start by securing the initial stitch, doing it twice, and then start basting right up the middle of the tulle 

I generally don't gather until the end, but I want you to see what is happening.  When I tug a little on the thread it pulls the tulle together ~ we are making a snowball!

When I get to the end of the strip I gather the entire snowball in tight.  I stitch through the middle a few times, (the long tapestry needle will be very helpful here), and then circle my thread around the middle to tighten even more and stitch through a couple more times.  I then push my needle through just a few layers a couple of times and knot my thread and snip.  I will trim the snowball ends at this point if they aren't straight enough for me.  

Then... just fluff and throw!!!  But of course you'll need about 50 of these for a good indoor snowball fight ~ have fun.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

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!

Piper visits the Farmington Library!

What a great day! We visited the Farmington Main Library today and Piper had the chance to ride Tinker!  OMGoodness!  Piper jumped right on Tinker's saddle and Miss Heather's Chicken, (a funky-edgy chicken who must be related to Mo Willems' Pigeon) flew over to join her and away they went!

I am thinking:  Don't Let the Chicken Ride the Horse!  

P.S. (Piper Scripts)  giddyap! Tinker, giddyap!!!

This is a beautiful library with an amazing Children's room.  The Children's Department is on the ground floor - very easy to access for visits, programs, and pony rides...just stroll right in!!  The staff is creative,  friendly and so willing to play.  A visit here is pure pleasure and Tinker, a vintage pony and new addition for Farmington, makes this library a destination place for families.  Please let the Children's staff know that Jane Breen and Piper told you to vist!  Oh and ask Miss Paula about Lucky! 

Take a peak at the Farmington Libraries!

If you would like us to visit your library...send an email to jbreen@westhartfordlibrary.org

We love to travel!

Ready for Valentine's Day?

Valentine's Day is always sweet especially when there are chocolate kisses!  This weeks's hi-light at Pajama Story Time was our flannel board story & song of candy kisses and mittens  : )  The children were very excited about discovering the kisses under the mittens.  And since I am not the heart, lace and glitter

 "kinda gal"-the flannel mittens were perfect!

I have a kiss for mommy

a candy kiss for mommy

I have a kiss for mommy

but where can it be?

If you look carefully you can see parts of the kisses sneaking out from under the mittens!

This only added to the excitement!

I have a kiss for daddy

a candy kiss for daddy

I have a kiss for daddy

but where can it be?

I made four kisses from card stock, covered them in foil and tucked in a little tag that said KISS.  Make as many kisses as you need!  After discovering the kisses - kiss your moms, dads, grams & grandpas!

We read Tanika's favorite book: Secret Valentine

Tanika, Piper and Jane...all had fun at Story Time  xoxx  and...Happy Valentines Day!

Take Your Child to the Library - February 4th was fun!

On February 4th we celebrated Connecticut's very first

Take your child to the Library Day!

The Faxon kids created this alphabet 

following a fun Penguin story time!