Flannel Friday Round Up - Final

It's Friday indeed! Check out this week's amazing flannel board submissions! 

And stay tuned for a special announcement at the end of this post!

Linda's here with a glove rhyme about pretty flowers (and they sparkle!) for May.

Don't look now, but your underpants are showing! Thanks Tara!

Anne is hosting Josh's fun rhyming flannel Squire McGuire.

Katie tempts us with her yummy felt cookies. 

Go under the sea with Nicole and her Five Little Sea Creatures.

Seth has put out a warrant for Goldilock's arrest. She's up to her old tricks again! 

Courtney's Five White and Fluffy Sheep are just too cute for words.

Cate has found some buried treasure at author Will Hillenbrand's website.

Who doesn't love The Very Hungry Caterpillar? No one! And thanks to Meghan, we have a sock puppet and flannel version to share.

The classic Five Little Ducks has been "Willem-ized" by Jane. Do they get cookies, too? 

Sarah is trying to get Animal to eat healthy, but will he bite?

Let's go on a (sparkly) bug hunt with K!  

THIS MONDAY be sure to look here and on other Flannel Friday blogs to learn more about some exciting changes coming our way!

Flannl Friday Roundup Place Holder

Happy Friday fellow Flannelers! This is where the roundup will be, so feel free to post your links in the comments below, or email them to me at molliereadsya (gmail).

Wee Read - Let's Move!

Early Literacy Tip: Be positive. Try rephrasing a request so that it doesn’t include don’t, no, can’t.

Books

Dancing Feet by Lindsey Craig

Dance With Me by Charles R. Smith Jr.

Wiggle Your Toes by Karen Katz

Read-Together Book

Songs/Rhymes

Bend and Stretch

--from Babies in the Library by Jane Marino. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2003.

Can You Kick with Two Feet?

-- Mother Goose on the Loose by Betsy Diamant-Cohen. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 2006.

I Wiggle My Fingers

--from Lapsit Services for the Very Young II by Linda L. Ernst. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc, 2001.

Jack in the Box

--from Lapsit Services for the Very Young II by Linda L. Ernst. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc, 2001.

Trot, Trot to Dover 
-- Mother Goose on the Loose by Betsy Diamant-Cohen. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 2006.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

--from Lapsit Services for the Very Young II by Linda L. Ernst. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc, 2001.

Texas Library Association Conference 2012 - Friday

8:00 AM: Literacy Leapers: A Special Needs Reading Program. Staff from the Smith Public Library in Wylie, TX shared how they planned an implemented a special needs program at their library. Their program is inclusive, but they offered many ways to include children with special needs into typical storytime settings.

10:00 AM: Safe Space Kit 101: A Guide to Being an Ally to LGBT Youth. This was an interactive presentation given by the GLSEN organization at the University of Houston at Clear Lake. This chapter works within the university to promote diversity and acceptance both inside and outside the campus.

Our first group activity was to ask ourselves a couple of questions about our beliefs and voluntarily share our answers with each other. We thought about questions such as, "If someone were to come out to you as LGBT, what would your first thought be?" and ""If you do not identify as LGBT, how would you feel if people though you were?"

Next we took a look at our individual organizations. How do our policies and procedures reflect our stance on how we feel? We discussed several case studies of discrimination against members of the GLBT community and what we would have done to change or remedy the situation. Lastly, we learned how to make our own action plan for implementing changes in our organizations.

As my last session at TXLA 2012, this was an exceptional one. It left me with a lasting impression and gave me many things to think about.

12:00 PM: Homeward bound! It was a fun and educational week, and thought I was sad to leave all of my librarian colleagues behind, I was glad to get home for some well-deserved rest and relaxation!

Texas Library Association Conference 2012 - Thursday

8:00 AM: Surviving the Public: With the Help of Unshelved. The guys of Unshelved did not fail in making the early morning session an entertaining one. With the utmost in sarcasm, Bill and Gene gave us ways to "make our own entertainment" while we are the front lines of customer service.

10:00 AM: Stories Alive! Using Creative Dramatics in Storytime.We were taught how to be more dramatic when telling stories by two veteran storytellers. This class was a Get-Up-and-Move type, and it was nice to have the opportunity to chat with other librarians. We also witnessed one of the funniest and out-of-control story with audience participation ever. Whoever said librarians are quiet has never sat in a room full of children's librarians! My coworker was in a session next door, and he said we were so loud, they couldn't hear the presenter over us. Now THAT'S the sign of a good session!

Quick shout out to Rachel from the Euless Public Library. She was my partner-in-crime during the session and my first in-person blog fan. Hi Rachel!

12:00 PM: Bluebonnet Award Luncheon. One of my superiors scored me an extra ticket to the Bluebonnet Award Luncheon. The Texas Bluebonnet List is an annual list of books for 3rd through 6th grade. Children are encouraged to "Read five, then decide," meaning they read five of the titles on the list and pick which one they think should win.

This year's winner was The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda by Tom Angleburger. Children from around the state were invited to the luncheon to introduce Tom. I couldn't believe how professional the children were. They all acted like public speaking naturals. One boy even gave out Cheetos to all of the people at the head table!

Angleburger discussed why he wrote the book. He admitted that two characters, Dwight and Harvey, have something in common with him: All three have Asperger's. Tom wanted to write a story that would have been useful to him back when he was in middle school. 

Tom revealed that the librarian plays the part of a hero in the next book, The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee, and also shared with us his new idea for a bumper sticker: Aspergers is not a syndrome it's a super power, but school is kryptonite & the library is the bat cave.

At the end, Tom told us to grab a piece of the green paper that was on every table. He demonstrated, along with a volunteer, how to make our own "Emergency Origami Yodas".

Side Note: It's no secret that librarians are predominately female. At gatherings, it's not
uncommon to see long lines at the ladies room, while the men have no wait at all. Thankfully, some quick-minded women remedied that situation real quick!