Flannel Projects: Seashells and Whales (AND professional development)

As I mentioned in my last post, my county (and then my state) announced a Stay-at-Home order. I was not sure how it was going to affect my work since we are considered essential. 

For now, we have been approved to telework unless they need additional help at the Emergency Operations Center. So, I am spending the time planning for my next storytime session, making flannels, and watching webinars for professional development. 

For the time being, this is my messy work-from-home station with flannels all over the place and my computer up-and-running with webinars!

Flannels:
This week I have focused on some ocean-themed flannels. I made flannel seashells and whales.

With my seashells, I usually use the rhyme:
Five little seashells, lying in the sun.
____ picked it up and took this one home.
You can use puppets or use names of people/characters.

For my whales, I reused a flannel rhyme that can be repeated each line:
One little whale went out to play,
On a bright and sunny day.
He had such enormous fun,
He called for another whale to come.
Count up 2, 3, 4, 5...

Webinars:

1. One of my library assistants shared a link from Infopeople of archived webinars specifically geared toward Children's Librarians. Infopeople has tons of other archived webinars, as well!

2. You can also find hundreds of library-related archived webinars via WebJunction. They separate them based on a variety of categories like collections management, programming, children's services, and advocacy. 

3. Booklist has online archived webinars from the past few months. They also have upcoming webinars listed as well, so you can learn about upcoming and new children's (and adult) releases.

4. School Library Journal has online events and professional development. Some are even all-day-long!

As I learn about new professional development and webinars, I will share along with my flannel projects that I am working on!