Thank you to everyone who entered my first felt story giveaway and congratulations to Ashley on being the lucky winner! Ashley says:
Hi Lindsey! I got the idea from your felt stories tab a while ago and made the felt set to “A Peanut Sat on a Railroad Track.” It was fantastic and I read it at a family storytime and everyone got a good laugh from it! I really appreciate your blog and all the wonderful resources you share with us. Thanks for doing a giveaway!
If you haven’t read all the comments, they are a gold mine of felt activities for storytime. This community is brilliantly talented.
I thought this topic is the perfect segue to the second installment of Ask Jbrary. You ask, I crowdsource responses. Here’s this month’s query:
Dear Jbrary,
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!
Jbrarians, please submit your responses one of two ways: Enter them anonymously into this comment box OR leave a comment on this post. I will aggregate all responses and add in my tips and tricks too.
If you feel your response would be better understood by including a picture you can email me at jbrary@gmail.com. I can’t promise I will include it, but I’ll do my best!
I would suggest a couple of things. One of which is to clarify before you start the flannel that “I am going to handle the pieces while I tell the story and the children are going to stay seated so that everyone can see. Adults, can you help me out with that?” You could do a fun movement activity beforehand and also include something about, “now that our wiggles are out, I need you to stay on your bottoms for our next activity.”
You could also put some tape on the floor to designate your area, giving the children a visual for where they can and cannot be.
I use felts quite a lot with children who are 3+ years, and almost never with really little ones. If I do get a kid who grabs (rarely – it’s usually a new kid who is running amok) I take it back gently and say go sit with your grownup, or “where’s your grownup?” in a friendly way – it doesn’t call them out completely, but hopefully the grownup is paying attention. If the grownup and offender won’t stop, I put the whole thing down and say “I think we’ll save this for another day.” It’s not worth fighting. When dealing with the older kids, I tell them to sit down. If they are sitting too close, I’ll say take 3 skooches bac. Then one or ward, and 2 back and one forward. And then say thanks for cleaning the floor! They think it’s funny, and are old enough to sit where they need to be . 🙂
I love that scooching back and forth and thanking them for cleaning the floor!!
So cute and fun.
I prop the felt board on the back of a table leaning against the wall; that way it’s out of reach!
I do the same thing, and it works.
While it is not always successful, I explain to my families and preschoolers that the easels my flannel boards are on are not very sturdy. “In order to keep the children safe, please do not come up and touch the flannel board or the easels.” Our easels are actually pretty sturdy, but once I did have child reach out and crab the leg of the easel and it came tumbling down. Fortunately, the child was not hurt, just startled. When I do have kiddos come up and try to touch the board, I relay that story which helps to reinforce my initial request.
I have struggled with this before and almost took flannels out of my story times because of it. I handled it by elevating my flannel board on a table pushed against a wall where the flannels are somewhat out of reach of littles. I also typically don’t have the flannels displayed on the board until I’m ready to tell or sing the flannel story or song. That’s also helpful if for some reason time is limited and I don’t really have time to do justice to the song or story. I can more easily skip it without feeling like I was teasing something I wasn’t going to use. Hope this suggestion helps. Error happened.
I use and LOVE the aprons designed for flannels! Ours where from Lakeshore Learning and they are called a storytelling apron. They have great pockets too which is handy as well. Even very small kids seem to have some concept of personal space, so it eliminates most of the flannel grabbing. The other thing is that if I know I have a grabby crowd, I announce that for our song/rhyme it’s my turn with the flannels but that they will be available after storytime for kids that want to play with them. It seems to prompt the adults to be a little more proactive about redirecting.
I use a lap stage sitting on a table to hide all my flannels and I call it “my magic box” where all the storytime activities come out (I try to decorate it for the theme too!). Our flannel board is elevated on an easel which mostly deters grabbers, but not always! Part of my hello and good morning is to set ground rules for storytime which includes grown ups keeping their kiddos within “the family bubble” or within arm’s reach, and I specify that I don’t want them running into each other OR running up to the stage area or behind it. If someone doesn’t listen, I do what others have suggested–take the flannel back and ask them kindly to go back to their grown up. I’ve yet to have to stop an activity because the grown ups and kids aren’t listening, but I like the ways others have handled that, staying calm and just moving on rather than fighting about it. Good luck!
I put my felt pieces on a neat, but homemade board made of flannel stapled to rigid cardboard. It is nice and light and I hold it in front of me. If a little one comes up to grab something off of it I just raise it out of reach and keep going.
RE: Grabbing at flannel story pieces
It really depends on the group (how old they are and how many) and your space:
I usually don’t put any felts on the flannel board until we are actually doing the flannels. They are not part of the display in other words.
Can you place them higher on the board than a little’s arm’s reach?
Can you use a table top flannel board?
We have metal doors that are “magnet-able” and we sometimes magnet on a big piece of felt so that it is high up and can be used as an “out of reach” flannel board. We also have a lot of “flannel stories” that are not flannel at all, but laminated pieces with a piece of adhesive magnet strip on back so the doors are a great option for this.
Kids really love the felts and I don’t want to discourage that. So, depending on the number of kids there are some felt sets where I have enough for the kids attending and hand out a small felt mitten or whatever BEFORE we start the other flannel stories. They know to hold on to it and that they will have their turn on the board when the other flannel stories are done. Then they have their chance to put it on the board and then we can count the mittens or say what colors we see, sing a short rhyme or song etc. This can be really easy/cheap to facilitate of you use the dollar store foam stickers/pieces and just stick a small piece of the adhesive Velcro on the back. Works well for smaller groups and if, like me, you do the flannels all together and not interspersed throughout the Storytime.
This is obviously space dependent, but we have a large stand up easel that our flannel board goes on, which keeps the flannels out of reach for our younger listeners. Sometimes, for our toddler storytimes, we will bring the board down to sit on the ground and hand out flannels to each child so they can come up and put it on the board. We only use flannels that we cut out specifically for this (think simple shapes like hearts or cats) so there’s no worry about them ripping or even hanging onto it. It can get a little chaotic for a minute as the toddlers all walk around, but I would say that 9 times out of 10 every single flannel makes it onto the board in under 2 minutes, which I think is great! It gives them a chance to stretch for a moment, and I think its helped keep the grabbiness down during other parts of storytime.
I usually have the board set up behind me ahead of time for ease during storytime, but the felt pieces live in a basket underneath and behind me until I am ready. Part of the spiel at the beginning of storytime is that little ones need to stay off the stage area where I am (just about 4 inches up) – mostly for behavior but also because ours is a rotating stage (puppet shows were more of a thing in 1986 when it was built) and I don’t want it to accidentally move while anyone under 14 is standing on it. It probably won’t ever move, but the potential of it is enough to keep kiddos away just in case.
If I do get board rushers during storytime, I will hold out my arm as a barrier or pick up the board away from the child. I will say something like, “Uh-oh, I need you to take a step back/ sit on your bottom so our friends behind you can see.” or I might say, “The kitties/ pumpkins/ fish/ etc. will be available to play after storytime, but right now I need to use them.” If none of these are working, I will find their grownup in the crowd and ask them to hold their child on their lap for a while.
We use PowerPoint to show words to rhymes, play songs etc. Near the beginning I have a guidelines slide that includes “Give me and others space.” I explain that kids should be on the ABC rug and I will be off the edge of it. Our parents pitch in to keep kids on the rug where they can’t reach the felts.
I do sometimes set up hiding games in advance. I find that a cloth covering the felt board gives people the idea that it is not to be messed with, though it is also on a table and not that easy to reach, too.
Good luck finding a solution that works for you.
Hello!!
I encourage the children to come to the felt board and take pieces!
On my last felt activity I had 12 seashells different kids on one sheet laminated and then asked the children to match up the seashells with the same one but cut out laminated ones they took from me, the 1-year-olds did a great job! All the children including the four-year-olds loved it. They are used to me letting them take them or put things on the board. (Not so great for the other Rhyme Time presenters).
Lita (Manly LIbrary) Australia
This happens every story time for me so I’ve learned to embrace it! I also got to the point where I considered not doing them, or raising the felt board up on a table they can’t reach but I decided it was good practice for the kiddos for future group/class settings. I tell the kids when I start the felt board activity that they can come after story time if they’d like to play with the pieces, and I hold my hand in front of the board when kids come up (I repeat that they can come after to play with them). If they persist I look to their grown up for help. I like to reassure the parents that this is good practice for them following directions, especially when a kiddo runs up and grabs at it during the activity and we are both trying to get it back. I try to have a sense of humor about it – like most things, especially with toddlers!
Hi everyone!
With little ones (3 and under), I will have interactive flannels where the children are each given a piece and when it is their turn they get to put it up. Sometimes it is an introduction song and when their colour or name is said then they get to put up their piece. For example, we have a flannel for “Dog’s colorful day” by Emma Dodd and each child gets a coloured spot to put on. This way they are active participants in the story, and it gets the curiosity of the flannel board out of their system. If I have a flannel that they cannot participate in, I then let them know that this one is special for me to tell and that they have to leave the pieces on the board where they are.
Jillian
St. Albert Public Library
I had the same problem and finally decided it would be easiest to just get them out of reach. I use an easel similar to this one (https://www.staplesadvantage.com/staples-hd-flipchart-easel-aluminum-28221us-50450us/product_1682318) and this portable flannel board (https://www.staplesadvantage.com/flipside-174-flannel-dry-erase-board-24-x-36/product_932511). It’s worked very well for me and also solves the problem of kids standing right in front of the felt board and blocking everyone’s view.
I use felt magnets on a white board so kids have a harder time ripping them off! I just have a couple magnets and velcro the felts so they’re interchangeable.
I make it part of the program. Kids are allowed to take turns- when called on- to be my helper and come grab a felt piece down. Some go out of turn, but overall, it’s been great! It’s a very fun and educational experience for kids and makes them really feel involved.
I tried interactive flannel – but we get very large numbers of children at our programs and it became mayhem quickly. I also handmake all my flannels and it was sad to have the pieces go missing or get damaged.
I now prop my very large flannel board up on a table and that has worked out well, out of reach from curious hands but high enough so a large crowd of little patrons can see the flannels.
That can be tricky! I do a lot of expectation-setting around this. At the beginning of storytime, I always ask families to keep the space in front of me and the flannel board clear so everyone can see, and encourage them to use the outside edges of the room if their little one needs to be up and moving. Then, I usually try to have a designated activity when I will invite kids up to take turns removing pieces from the flannel board. That way, when a kiddo tries to grab a piece outside of that time, I can say “There will be a time later in storytime (point at the visual schedule) when you can take down a piece, but we aren’t there yet.” This helps out with some of the toddlers who are able to understand that their urge to take down flannel pieces will be satisfied if they are patient. This has worked for me pretty well, but you never truly get away from the flannel-grabbers! It’s just a normal part of storytime!
As a retired public children’s librarian, one of the best ways I found to engage kids in a flannel board story was to let them each have one of the felt pieces to add to the story. They listened intently for their moment to come forward and add their piece to the board. My favorite flannel board story was Flip Flap Jack because there were so many pieces to add to the man’s face/body and if kids put their pieces in the wrong place or upside down, it just made everyone laugh. My version, taught to me by another librarian, began slightly differently: “There was a man made of breakfast food…” Also, the kids could slip-slap clap their hands everytime I sang “Flip Flap Jack.” (tune is “Aiken Drum”).
There are so many great comments here already! This has happened to me a lot and I agree with all of the comments! Troubleshooting it seems to break down into 2 main themes:
1. Making your environment do some of the work for you:
– Keeping the pieces visible, but out of reach
– Set expectations with caregivers (this is an entire query by itself)
2. Using developmentally appropriate approaches to the felt story:
– Understanding reasonable expectations for toddlers, your group dynamic, and reflecting on your comfort level with certain behaviors.
– Giving the children a way to experience the story that is active as opposed to passive by incorporating surprise, movement, voice, or dramatic play (this also requires caregiver buy in)
– Inviting the children to put the pieces on the board
– Providing a delayed opportunity for them to interact with the pieces
The only thing I would add is to synthesize some of what I’m reading here – which is to consider re-framing your approach to storytime a bit (especially with children under the age of five) so that the dynamic leans away from presenter/audience and towards leader/group (you, kids, and caregivers do all activities together.) This dynamic shift can eliminate a lot of unwanted behaviors, and enhance the overall storytime experience.
Y’all are awesome!
Thank you so much, Lindsey, for sharing these wonderful resources and fostering interaction! Felt stories not only add fun to storytime but also spark children’s imagination. I hope more readers actively participate in the discussion to explore effective ways to manage the challenges of storytime. Looking forward to seeing everyone’s wisdom and creativity!
We implemented this tip we received in an online group a long time ago and it works really well. We place a large piece of purple cloth below our chairs (there are two of us) and felt board, extending a foot or so around us in all directions. We kindly and clearly tell adults and kiddos that this is our purple “no-fly zone”. We tell caregivers that movement is expected and encouraged at our birth-two baby program, but if their kiddos come into the no-fly zone, we ask them to pick them up and take them back to where they’ve settled. We make this announcement every week, and you’d be surprised at how many 18 month-olds will come up with their tippy toes along the edge of the purple cloth, just looking at us and then back at their caregiver, wondering what will happen if they take a step! It’s really about communicating to the parents how to help you. It’s really fun when the kiddos get it!
That’s a fantastic idea! My library has such a small space that sometimes I have kids and caregivers right next to me and some young ones like to come lean on my knees while the caregivers just watch them run around. Usually I say “hi friend, please sit down so everyone can see and point to the floor or give them a cushion to sit on, but I have to repeat myself many times. This is a great way to lay expectations ahead of time and keep personal space so kids stay safe!