It’s Flannel Friday—Have you heard?

Anna Haase Krueger, a YSS member, is the Youth Services Librarian/Assistant Library Director of Antigo Public Library. Anna blogs daily in her head, and sporadically at Future Librarian Superhero .  You can also find her on Twitter using @opinionsbyanna, where she is not as funny as she thinks but is occasionally relevant.

For those of us who do Storytimes, flannel (or felt) stories are a way of life. Many of us create our own pieces using craft felt and a good sharp pair of scissors. Have you ever spent hours laboring over a new set and wanted to show it off? Wasted precious time trying to think of a flannel board extension activity for your theme?  Wondered what else you could use a particular set for?

You, my friend, need Flannel Friday.

What is Flannel Friday?

On Fridays, storytime bloggers post pictures of flannel sets that they’ve made. Sometimes they include instructions, templates, or suggested uses for the pieces. Then, everyone who participates takes turn ‘hosting’ Flannel Friday and collects all the links into one place for that week’s round up. It’s a great way to connect with other librarians, get inspired, and show off your own work.  Occasionally, we have a Flannel Friday Extravaganza, which is a themed round up.  I hosted the Mushy Gushy Valentine’s Day Extravaganza recently, so if you’re looking ahead to plan your Valentine’s Day storytime there’s plenty of inspiration there.

But wait, there’s more!

Flannel Friday also has a Pinterest page, a fabulous visual collection of ALL the past Flannel Friday contributions. It’s perfect for browsing and searching for theme-specific ideas.  Flannel Friday also has a Facebook group, full of fantastic conversations, idea sharing, and crowd-sourcing (dare I say I prefer the Flannel Friday Facebook group to a list serve? I do).  

Want to get involved?

·         Anne over at So Tomorrow keeps Flannel Friday in line, with a schedule of upcoming hosts, and links to all the past round ups. She also does a great job explaining how to get involved, so rather than reinventing the wheel I’ll send you to her.

·         You can get a Flannel Friday badge (like the one above) to put on your blog from Melissa over at Mel’s Desk  She’s the one who started it all and is a fantastic resource.

·         Using Twitter is one of the best ways to get involved with the Flannel Friday community and get to know people. Get started by doing a search for the hashtag #flannelfriday and following the people who contribute.