Ask Jbrary Crowdsources Answer to Kids Tearing Down Felt Pieces

 

The marvelous Jbrary blog periodically asks readers to share their solutions to storytime conundrums.

In the most recent query, someone asked:

How do you get kids to stop running up to the felt board and tearing down the pieces in the middle of storytime? I’ve been trying to use felts but I get so defeated! I know the babies and toddlers aren’t doing it to rain on my parade, but it makes me feel like it’s a pointless. There’s gotta be tips and tricks from seasoned librarians who can help me out! 

Lindsey asked for suggestions from her readers and got lots of great ideas.

Please stop here to read the crowdsourced tips! [Kids Tearing Down Felts. Krabbenhoft, Lindsey. Jbrary blog. March 17, 2025]

Flannelboards Work

Image by Alicja from Pixabay

In a recent ALSC blog post, Tess Prendergast explored the efficacy of using felt stories pieces in early literacy work with children. Prendergast is a former children’s librarian and now teaches librarianship and children’s literature courses at The School of Information, University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada. 

In this informative and resource-rich post she writes: "In a 2004 School Library Journal article called “Children of the Cloth”, Renea Arnold and Nell Colburn say that flannel (or felt) stories “are a great tool to help kids learn early literacy skills.” (p.37) and I heartily agree with them."

Stop here to read the full post and links she provides. [Hands on Storytime: Felt Stories and Early Literacy. Prendergast, Tess. ALSC blog. December 19, 2022.]

Little Mouse, Little Mouse Renditions

From Storytimes with Moxie

I don't know about you, but I LOVE using Little Mouse, Little Mouse flannel activities during my storytime sessions!  And as I was scrounging up songs, rhymes, etc. for a Dinosaur storytime theme, I came across this wonderful cache of Little Mouse, Little Mouse renditions.  The list was compiled by one of the rockstars over at Jbrary (if you don't know them, type Jbrary into YouTube and get ready to have your library mind blown), and offers some fun twists on the little mouse rhyme!  Check out the whole glorious list HERE.

Flannel Friday Gets Even Better

For those of  us who may not have a million blogs on our RSS feeds and may have missed the news this week, the intrepid Flannel Fridays crew has created a webpage to make accessing  - and contributing your own content to - the adventure even easier. For those of us doing storytimes, the flannel story sharing is amazing and so varied. It is the best kind of librarianship in that the sharing is done so generously by so many and is so helpful for librarians on the front line of storytimes.

One of the people who has been moviong and shaking with others around the country as the FF has grown is Wisconsin's own Anna Krueger, a YSS board member and Youth Librarian and Assistant Director at Antigo Library.  She wrote about this spot a few months ago for us. Now with the website, the fun is easier than ever. And the fact that so many people work together and come together online to create FF is really pioneering work. It would be great if we could do this kind of gestalt-librarianship for other services and initiatives in youth librarianship. It makes me love the future! How about you?

Mail Call!

Our guest blogger today is Amanda Struckmeyer, a YSS member from the Middleton Public Library.

After our opening song, I often introduce storytime themes with a piece of mail.  I would guess that most storytimers don’t receive a lot of “real” mail, so this is exciting for them and it really grabs their attention.  It’s also a sneaky way for me to incorporate some teaching.  The whole process takes about two minutes. 

I read the entire address, pointing to the words as I go.  I use each part of the address as a clue that this piece of mail might be intended for us. 

“’Storytime’.  That’s us!  ‘Middleton Public Library.’ That’s our library!  ‘Middleton.’  That’s our city!  ‘Wisconsin.’  That’s our state!  ‘53562.’  That’s our ZIP code; this mail must be for us!”

Did you catch the sneaky teaching?  Some kids might not have heard of a ZIP code before, and it never hurts to reinforce the ideas of city and state. 

I read the return address aloud, too, so that we can find out who the mail is from before we open it.   Usually, this is a clue as to what our storytime theme will be that day.  I would love to improve this tool by adding thematic paper stamps, but for now, they are simply drawn on the envelopes. 

The mail always includes a letter and some kind of clue pertaining to our theme.  This particular clue is a flannel puzzle in the shape of a pig, which I put together on the flannel board as I read the letter aloud. 

“Dear Storytime, here is a clue for you!  First, put the big oval on the flannel board.  Next, place the four rectangles underneath the oval.  Now put the bigger circle on one end of the oval, and put the two triangles above the circle.  Place the smaller circle on top of the bigger circle.  Add the two eyes above the smaller circle.  Now put the curly tail on the end of the oval.  Have fun reading today!  Love, Farmer Janice.” 

I stop throughout and we decide together which of the circles is smaller and bigger, where exactly to put the eyes, and such.  Because I am placing the flannel pieces, the puzzle always comes out looking like the intended object. 

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.