Thursday 17 May 2012

Flannel Friday: There's a moose loose aboot this hoose!



It has been a while since I've taken scissors to flannel and I've been wanting to make a Little Mouse flannel for my Toddler Storytimes like this one on So Tomorrow's blog for ages. Finally I found a little time.

But first a little diversion...
 
     Q: What is the connection between the title of this post and Little Mouse?
    
     A: The Scottish pronunciation of 'mouse' as 'moose' and a song...

... with the line, "There's a moose loose aboot this hoose". It comes from a vintage novelty song released in the UK called 'Hoots Mon' by Lord Rockingham's XI.  I wasn't born when it was released, but its one of those tunes that was played on kid's radio and at functions and celebrations throughout my childhood. You'll hear the phrase (mentioned just once) in this YouTube clip*.


Cover scan of Maw Broon's But An' Ben CookbookWith a (albeit contrived) Scottish influence, I wondered how my houses should look, and thought about using a But an' Ben as featured on the cover of Maw Broon's Cookbook.

A But and Ben is a Scottish two-roomed cottage with the but/butt end being the kitchen, and the ben being the bedroom. They do still exist. I lived in a larger and extended version for my first 10 years in Scotland.



The basic but and ben building forms the basis of lots of older granite homes all across the north of Scotland, mostly now extended. This photo of one still in original form (minus a thatched roof), taken by Karen, is of a former smallholding called Guildmuir Pendicle in Angus, and was once inhabited by a character called Hairy Nichol (great name, huh?)



Anyway, enough prattle, here are my houses with a template, and a mouse from clipart suggested by Miss Mary Liberry. Anne at So Tomorrow has instructions on how to play the game "Little Mouse, Little Mouse, Are you in the [...colour] house?" (I may adapt to "Wee Moose"), and Miss Mary suggests the use of a colour spinner for larger crowds. I'll be making one of those for our Family Storytimes.




The Flannel Friday crowd have come up with lots of variations on the game.
I'm sure you'll love them all.


Want more?

Find out all about Flannel Friday on the new website. Features include past round ups and host schedule and how to participate.

Scan the Flannel Friday posts on Pinterest.

Search for flannels and storytime ideas at Mel's Desk.

Discuss storytime and flannelboards on the Flannel Friday Facebook Page.


This week’s round up will be hosted by Linda at Notes from the Storyroom.


* Not embedded to avoid copyright infringement, the risks are summarised succinctly in The Blog Herald.

Monday 7 May 2012

Read all about it: Flannel Friday News

Exciting news for Flannel Friday!

Introducing the Flannel Friday website!


As you know, Anne at So Tomorrow has been an amazing manager and archiver of Flannel Friday information for the past year. Anne and her husband are expecting their first baby in June (congratulations Anne!) so we wanted to give her a break from Flannel Friday during her maternity leave. So this spring, Anne and Mel from Mel's Desk and a small group of old and new Flannel Friday-ers worked to create a new web home for FlannelFriday. 

Here's the link! http://flannelfridaystorytime.blogspot.com

The new site will be the home of the Round Up Schedule, the archives, FAQs about FlannelFriday, information about how to get involved with Flannel Friday, and links to help new members get started with social networking and blogging. There will also be a link to the week's Round Up, but the Round Up will continue to be hosted on individual blogs.We'll just point to each Round Up from the site.

Refining the Round Up Procedure


The Flannel Friday community has grown continuously over the year, with new bloggers, new Round Up Hosts, and new members every week on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. We are building an amazing community and are grateful to each and everyone of you for your participation and enthusiasm. As the group has grown, you've probably noticed that so have the Round Ups! We've seen an inevitable increase in missed links and general confusion as the Round Ups are compiled. We thought that the launch of the new site was a great opportunity to take a page from other round ups in the blogosphere and establish one single method for building the Round Up each week.

This information will be in the FAQs on the newsite, but here's our new strategy in a nutshell:

  • Every week the Round Up Host will publish a "placeholder" post for the Round Up on the host blog at 10pm EST on Thursday.
  • Each blogger who wants to participate in the Round Up will make a comment to the Round Up post with the link back to their Flannel Friday post by 10pm EST on Friday. This will be the only place to post links for the Round Up! This way the Host won't have to worry about checking Facebook or Twitter as well.
  • If a blogger can't make the 10pm EST deadline on Friday, we'll ask that the post be held for the next week's Round Up.
  • The Round Up Host will gather links from the Round Up post comments throughout the day, and publish the Round Up at the end of the day.
  • We hope this will make the Round Ups easier to create and easier to contribute to!

We'll look forward to your feedback over the next few weeks.

Sharon / @ReadingChick at RainMakes Applesauce has the Round Up this week, 5/11, so she's going to tryout the new procedure with us and see how it goes!

If you have questions or comments, don't hesitate to share them via the new Flannel Friday email: flannelboardfriday [at] gmail.com.

Thanks for all you do to to make Flannel Friday more than a blog event -- but a great community too. Here's to the next great year of Flannel Friday!
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