Laminate my heart away

I was checking out some library blogs last week and saw a link for Mel's Desk. Literally fell in love with and was inspired by a bunch of the flannel sets she has created. Mel uses a lot of laminated clip art, which is perfect for me because I am not crafty (and no longer have a crafty volunteer) and love the hot laminator machine we have. I attempted the "A Hunting we will Go" rhyme set for the Transportation storytime this morning and it didn't work out too well with my two year olds, but I am still determined. I will give it another go next week with my infants and see how it flows.

I also decided to make a prop set for the traditional nursery rhyme of "Baa Baa Black Sheep". About three weeks ago I said to one of my teen mom groups, "Now we are going to sing a traditional rhyme that I am sure most of you know" and they all told me after I went through the rhyme once that they had never heard it before. I was shocked and wanted to laugh/cry. I taped them on to handles thinking this would be the best way to perform the rhyme, but now I think I am going to put some velcro on the back and see how that goes. Because I like Raffi's version of the rhyme, where he sings about different colored sheep, I mixed it up a little. Here is the final product:

F is for...

FELT/FLANNELBOARD STORIES!

I have been intimiated by felt since I became a Youth Services Librarian. Not the material itself (of course) but the creativity and skill set that goes into creating and executing a brilliant flannel board story. Last summer, I made a commitment to try to use the flannelboard more often and I have had an interesting time accomplishing this goal. My first step was to purchase some felt stories. After getting recommendations from a few librarians and purchasing a variety of sets, the place I like best is Artfelt.net. Her stories are awesome and the pieces double as finger puppets.

My next step was to try laminating some clip art and then sticking velcro on the back. While I don't mind this method, it is not as quick and easy as some people claim it is. I also get a little bored with the stock images at times...if only I could draw!

Recently, Joanna persuaded me to give my own felt story making skills a go, so I checked out Carlson & Carlson's Flannelboard Stories for Infants and Toddlers and genuinely gave it my best effort. The stories in the book aren't typical flannelboard stories. They are basic identifying "stories" with simple words and phrases, which makes them perfect for infants and toddlers. However, tracing was a challenge, cutting in a straight line even more challenging, and staying motivated the most challenging.

And then in walked a volunteer to save me from snipping more flesh from my hand. When I asked her if she was detail oriented, she embarrassedly muttered something about being slightly fanatic, so I assigned her my felt project. Behold:

(She literally sewed the wiskers on to that cat!)

 So this post is sort of my ode to Ella, who is abandoning me for a paying gig. The felt quest continues...