How Do I Put it On?

One of the first books I ever used as a preschool teacher was How Do I Put it On by Shigeo Watanabe.  Sadly, it's out of print now.  I searched around and found that someone else had already made a flannel board out of this--I copied her set!  After using it for the past couple of weeks with my two-year-olds during a season when we wear jackets, I've decided that I'm going to add a coat, mittens, long pants and a sweater to the set.  The children keep telling me that he's not ready to go outside without his coat!

Let's help bear get dressed--he doesn't know how!

Uh-ho!  Somethings not quite right here...

That's better!

I've got a similarly adorable dress up bear set right here!

Flannel Friday: Animal Pairs

I've been looking at this on Mel's Desk and Storytime Katie for a few months, but knew it would be a tad time-consuming to make them in felt.  I put it off for a while, but finally took some time to make felt versions.  I had to back the big snail and rabbit (not the babies) with stiff felt in the end--those ears and eyes were too floppy to hold themselves up.  For the birds, I put them on stiff blue felt.  

(This particular set isn't for sale, but please check out my shop with many of my other sets:

Flannel Board Fun SHOP 

Below are my attempts at more artistic shots :)

Be sure to check out the link at the top of this post for Melissa's many ideas on how to use these cute fellas!

The Roundup is here this week--check out lots of fun ideas there and at Flannel Friday Pinterest site!

Flannel Friday: Mary Wore Her Red Dress

We sing a version of this song ALL the time in my classroom--substituting the children's names and the clothes they are wearing as an opening song for our Small Group time.  We've had the book and an accompanying cd in the room for several years (which we've used on occasion), but with the addition of this flannel board (I got the pattern here), the children are just in love with this song/story!  

Sometimes we do the book before, during and/or after doing the flannel board version; usually we change the animal's names to the children's names (though some children don't want us to do that!).  

We love to see if anyone is wearing the same color or article of clothing as any of the animals, and of course we talk about the fact that we don't have all the same things the animals do (long ears, tails, quills, fur, etc.), but we do have some of the same things (eyes, ears, mouth, etc.)

We play a guessing game (the next piece of clothing is something that covers your arms and keeps you warm in the winter; the next animal that's going to put something on is something that hops and has a fluffy tail; the animal we're going to dress next hunts for nuts in the fall...) There are really lots of things to do with this set--it was well worth the intricate cutting and fabric-paint-face-making required!

(This particular set isn't for sale, but please check out my shop with many of my other sets:

Flannel Board Fun Shop 

Miss Mary Liberry is hosting the roundup this week.  Also be sure to check out many more amazing flannel board ideas at the FF Pinterest site!

Flannel Friday: Little Mouse Variations

We've been doing Little Mouse variations for years in my classroom--it is always a winner with children ages 2-4.  Up until this year we had a little mouse who hid in a house, a little fox who hid in a box, and a little cat who hid in a hat.  They are well loved and still around, but recently I went a little crazy and made several new versions! (Update:  I now have a million more:  they're all here.

You can buy this set right here., or make it yourself with this pattern!

The chant is as follows, subbing the bold words as appropriate:

Little mouse, little mouse, are you in the green house? 

And then you use all kinds of dramatic techniques to check behind the house, act confused/disappointed/stumped/etc. as you seek out that crazy critter! We like to pat our legs as we do the chant, just to get the kids even more involved and aware of the rhythm...  And of course invite them to tell you which color to check under (sometimes just lightly touching the one YOU want to do next will send a subliminal message and they'll 'choose' it for you!)

Here's an example of this set in action (click to see the video!):

These guys are available for sale right here.

The little duck and the trucks above, and the little bug and rugs below, were made based on clip art.  (I often include the word "cute" in my google searches for various clip art samples.)

The Little Peacock/Clock set below is printed out on card stock and laminated, with a sticky square of Velcro applied to the back.  I have done the same with a dinosaur and a set of doors.

                Below is another variation called Piggy Piggy Pancake (I originally found this here.)

Pink piggy, pink piggy, let me see...

Do you have some yummy pancakes for me??!

(We do a lot of snorting and pretending to eat like a pig in this one--it's so much better that way :) We sometimes even have to hose off the syrup that gets all over everyone from eating so sloppily!)

*This particular set is for sale, and you can find it right here, along with many of my other sets.*

Have some extra time on your hands?  You can make these cuties with this pattern!

There are several other rhyming things to do with this (frogs and logs or clogs; bears and chairs; ants and plants), but an easier chant to use, in which you can just randomly pick animals and objects is this:

Little _______, Little _____________, 

Playing Hide and Seek, 

Are you in the (red) ________________?

Let's take a peek!

So really, you could just print out a bunch of small creatures and critters, and a bunch of slightly larger familiar objects, and have a hide and seek party!  

   

The Flannel Friday Roundup is being hosted by Lisa at Libraryland.  Be sure to check out more fantastic Flannel Friday ideas at Pinterest or the Flannel Friday blog!

Pajama Party

This particular set isn't for sale, but please check out my shop with many of my other sets:

Flannel Board Fun SHOP

I can't quite get this tune out of my head!  Perhaps a Pajama Day needs to happen this month so I can share this new song with my little friends...  Any excuse to buy new pjs at Target!

Here's a link to all things related to the above photo!

Five Elephants in the Bathtub

(updated to change photo 12/10/15)

I don't know how I had never come across this chant in my 20+ years of being a preschool teacher, but somehow I only discovered this little cutie a few months ago.  I used clip art as inspiration for my free-handed elephants and bathtub, and used the collage technique

From the very first time we did this, the kids really loved it when the elephants come tumbling down from the board, so I quickly made them their own set to use in the Book Corner.  (Though I love the feel of the felt pieces, they would not stand up to as much (ab)use as the kids would put them through.) To do this I scan the pieces, print them out on card stock, laminate them and put velcro on the back of each piece.  The back of one of our shelves in the Book Corner is covered in Veltex, so the kids can use regular felt/flannel or velcro pieces on it.  We have also made 4 small Veltex covered boards that the kids can use on the floor, in their laps or on a table.  I use this method as often as possible so the kids can re-tell their favorite stories.  It is so amazing to hear them reciting the words to chants, songs and stories they've only heard a couple of times...  I'll do a post some day on the envelopes we use to store the children's versions of our flannel board stories.

Anyway!  Here's a link to the chant: Five Elephants  Thank goodness for JBrary!

I'm Going to Wear a Sweater

I plan to use these as comfy cozy visuals just to go along with the following action song:

I'm Going to Wear a Sweater

(to the tune of 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow')

I'm going to wear a sweater, 

I'm going to wear a sweater, 

I'm going to wear a sweater...

When I go out today!

I'll plop each article of clothing/outerwear up on the board, and then we can all act out putting on that particular piece of clothing as we sing about it.  Of course, we'll probably have to put the boots on our ears, or the mittens on our feet, just for a little chortle, but it will all come out right in the end :)

I used clip art as a guideline for my patterns, and fabric paint for the scarf stripes and mitten snowflakes; can't remember exactly where the song came from--probably one of the links on the right hand side of the blog.

Flannel Friday: Snowmen!

This is my first Flannel Friday post--yippee!!  Here are two snowmen flannel boards in anticipation of the coming winter... (you can see the videos of these sets in action right here or buy them right here!)

Five Little Snowmen Fat

Five little snowmen fat,
Each with a funny hat.
Out came the sun and melted one,
What do you think of that?
Down, down, down, down.
What do you think of that?

I found the poem here, and used clip art as inspiration for the snowmen and their cute little accessories. I made two sets for each snowman--the second set got scattered onto a "puddle" made of light blue felt.  When each snow friend melts I take them away and replace them with their puddle :) 

You can pick this set up right here.

Five Little Snowmen Riding on a Sled

2021 edit:  Since discovering that The Five Little Monkeys chant has racist roots, I'm removing it and its piggy back versions from my collections.  And I'm replacing it with fun new songs like this one:

Once upon a time on a cold winter day,

Five snow friends went out to play

They had such fun on the big fast sled

Until one friend fell off and bumped her head!

 I browsed through "cute snowmen clipart" images and kind of morphed them into my own little version, which I free handed.  The sled was clip art, too and I made the wood lines using fabric paint.  Frosty and the doctor are the same basic snowman as the five littles, but I spruced them up a tad with shiny fabric paint and the obvious accessories.  I kind of have a crush on the doctor.

Oh, by the way...  If you liked this post, you'll love the free song strips you get when you sign up to be notified of new videos and shop updates:

This week's Flannel Friday is hosted by What Happens in Storytime.  You can also access Flannel Friday at Pinterest or the Flannel Friday Blog for zillions of ideas!