Flannel Friday: Rabbits!

After seeing  this set of bunnies at Loons and Quines, and this adorable song at Ram Sam Storytime,   I started off by making the rabbits, and then realized they were probably too big to use with the song. I'd need to make an even larger bunny to be the mama--along with the stump and the carrot patch, which I also wanted to be bigger than those lovely guys...  But all of that would hardly fit on my board...

So, off I went to google some clip art images of stumps and carrot patches.  The results are below.  I can use one of the big bunnies from the original set to be the mommy or daddy to those cute little cotton-tails :)

I will store all of these together, and pick and choose which bunnies to pull out.

Here are the lyrics to the song linked above:

Once upon a time there were five bunnies.

They lived with their momma (or daddy!) in a tree stump.

One day ...

Five little bunnies

One spring day

Went to the carrot patch

Far away.

Momma bunny called 

"Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!"

stomp foot on ground

But only four came back to their stump ...

count all the way down until there are zero bunnies

last time :

Sad mother bunny

One spring day ...

Went to the carrot patch

Far away ...

Momma bunny went ...

thump ... thump ... thump ... thump ...

and ALL of her bunnies came back to their stump!!

And perfect to do after this, is Mollie's poem:

Tired Bunnies

“Come my bunnies, it’s time for bed.”

That’s what the mother bunny said.

“But first I’ll count you just to see,

If you have all come back to me.

Bunny 1, Bunny 2, Bunny 3, oh dear,

Bunny 4, Bunny 5, yes, you’re all here.

You’re the sweetest things alive,

My bunnies 1,2,3,4,5.”

  

Here are some more rabbit poems and songs I've collected over the years:

Five Little Easter Bunnies

 Five little Easter bunnies standing at the door

One boils the eggs and then there are four.

Four little Easter bunnies sitting under a tree.

One dyes the eggs and then there are three.

Three little Easter bunnies wondering what to do.

One decorates the eggs and then there are two.

Two little Easter bunnies, oh what fun.

One puts the eggs in a basket, and then there was one.

One little Easter bunny, what can you say?

He hides the eggs for a happy Easter day!

Five Little Bunnies Hopping Down the Trail

5 little bunnies hopping down the trail,

One fell down and bumped her tail.

Mama called the doctor–what did she say?

No more bunnies hopping today!

Repeat till there are no bunnies left. 

 (I often end these kinds of "5 little monkeys" variations with the
 mommy or daddy animal kissing the babies goodnight.)

Five Little Rabbits

Five little rabbits sitting by the door.

One hopped away, and then there were four.

Four little rabbits under a tree.

One hopped away, and then there were three.

Three little rabbits drinking morning dew.

One hopped away, and then there were two.

Two little rabbits resting in the sun.

One hopped away, and then there was one.

One little rabbit isn’t any fun.

He hopped away to find the others,

and then there were none.

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Shawn at Read, Rhyme & Sing,and of course you'll find lots of other ideas at Flannel Friday's blog or Pinterest page.

Flannel Friday: Five Little Babies Bouncing in a Crib

 Each year there's at least one baby sister or brother born to one of the kids in the class.  It's always fun to pull this out in honor of the new siblings, but really it works anytime.  Kids just love babies!

I was inspired by other people's babies, like this and this.  I added the crib and bibs so it would work with my take on Five Little Monkeys:

Five little babies bouncing in a crib
One fell out and lost her bib!
Daddy called the doctor and the doctor said,
No more babies bouncing in the crib!

(I know if doesn't rhyme, but eh.  Who cares?!)  Wait!  Edited to add:
...Daddy called the doctor who was not glib)...  I just thought of this, and I'm definitely going to use it, because: what a great vocabulary word!

By the way, sometimes some monsters sneak in and jump in the crib, too!  Here they are.

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Shawn at Read, Rhyme & Sing,and of course you'll find lots of other ideas at Flannel Friday's blog or Pinterest page.

Valentines!

I'm going on vacation the first week of February, so I've been trying to get some Valentines flannel board sets done early!  Even though it's a Hallmark Holiday, I have always found Valentines-related stuff to be quite aesthetically pleasing (aka CUTE!), so making these was a real pleasure.

Love, love, love this idea from Busy Crafting Mommy!  I made the envelopes first (sewed up the sides and used a little velcro tab to close them up), but then decided I didn't want to make the bee that's included in the original poem.  I love the clip art animals I found, but I'm not crazy about the bee images available.  

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

Flannel Board Fun Shop

Here's my shortened version of the poem:

Five Little Valentines

5 little Valentines were sent to my house,
The first one said, “I love you, From Mouse.” 

4 little Valentines in my mailbox,
The second one said, “Be mine, Love Fox.”  

3 little Valentines full of love,
The third one said, “You are sweet, From Dove.”

2 little Valentines mailed with care,
The fourth one said, "Here's a hug, From Bear."

The last little Valentine, from my friend Jay,
This one said, “Happy Valentine’s Day!”  

Now, I made my envelopes first, and since I didn't end up making a bee, I had an extra envelope.  I also had this poem laying around in my files, and finally figured out that with a little adjustment it would make a very easy flannel board project that would work well for Small Group times with my 2s and 3s...

I want to keep the following pictures here, but please note that the Jimmy Crack Corn tune has racist roots and I don't recommend using it.  Instead, the rhyme below can be chanted, or you can sing it to the tune of Five Little Ducks or I'm a Little Teapot. 💕 (Big thanks to Leslie for drawing my attention to this!)

I will likely just have them in the envelope, pull them out one at a time, put each one on the board and make a big deal out of which child I'm going to give it to... I might try to match the colors to something the children are wearing, and naturally we'll do a little counting, letter, and color recognition...  We can also work on position words by having them hide their heart behind, under, on, over, above, or beside various parts of their bodies.

I have one more Valentine song to share, to the tune of BINGO!  I blogged about it in my BINGO Variations Galore post, so I'll just copy and paste here:

I've had a plain laminated version of this for a few years, but I loved making these fancy felt valentines.  When we flip over the hearts we make a kissing noise or hug ourselves (or both!), so I used the universal symbol for hugs and kisses. xoxoxo!  Here are the lyrics (which I thought I got at Perpetual Preschool years ago, but now I can't find them there):

I made a valentine for you, the heart shape means "I love you!" 

H-E-A-R-T, H-E-A-R-T, H-E-A-R-T, 

The heart shape means "I love you!"


Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Ms. Kelly at the Library ,and of course you'll find lots of other ideas at Flannel Friday's blog or Pinterest page.

BINGO Variations Galore!

I recently posted my APPLE variation of BINGO

 

and thought it would be fun to include some other variations since the kids love them so much!  Such a great early literacy tool. The children really love talking about the letters and letter sounds, and saying the new words that we create each time we take away a letter.  Once they've got the hang of it, we sometimes mix it up and remove letters out of order rather than always from left to right... Oh, the hilarity!  When we're singing about vehicles, we pretend to drive, when we're singing about animals, we pretend to be those animals.  I sometimes put a visual on the back side of the piece, so when we flip it over the letter is gone and a new symbol indicates the new sound to make ("crunch" for apples, "beep" for trucks, "snort" for pigs...)

This apple set is available pre-made, or as a pattern so you can make it yourself :)

Let's start with T-R-U-C-K! 

(You may recognize the trucks below from my previous post on Little Mouse Variations.  It's great to be able to re-use pieces in different flannel stories and songs.)

I learned this song from a co-worker many years ago.  I'm not sure where she got it--she was extremely creative, so no doubt she just whipped it up on her very own...  It goes like this:

I've got a great big shiny truck, I'm driving it today-o!

T-R-U-C-K, T-R-U-C-K,T-R-U-C-K,

I'm driving it today-o!

Once the letter is flipped to show just the red circle, we say "beep!"

Next up--P-I-Z-Z-A!

I stole this from Storytime Katie!.  For this one, I just remove the letter from the piece of pizza rather than flipping it over--I couldn't come up with something to represent the "YUM" and the tummy rub we do.  (Feel free to share if you have an idea!)  So, for this one it's:

There is a treat I like to eat and pizza is its name-oh!

P-I-Z-Z-A, P-I-Z-Z-A, P-I-Z-Z-A, 

And pizza is its name-oh!

 We are all seriously hungry after this one...  Don't forget to get out your napkin and wipe your saucy face off at the end!

Moving right along, let's get snorting with some pigs!

I found my idea for the song here, and was greatly inspired by these cute little swine as well.  Here's the song:

There was a hungry little hog, and Piggy was his name-o!

(or:  There was a hog who loved the mud, etc.)

 P-I-G-G-Y, P-I-G-G-Y, P-I-G-G-Y 

And Piggy was his name-o!

When we flip over the letter, the little pigs and their big snouts tell us to say "oink" (or snort!) in place of the letter name!  

And now...T-R-A-I-N!

(Which my husband and I made up during a recent car ride together... my husband drew the oncoming train image that is on the reverse side of each car.)

You can buy these cuties here.

What's that chugging down the track?

I think it is a tra-ain!

T-R-A-I-N, T-R-A-I-N, T-R-A-I-N,

Oh, yes!  It is a tra-ain!

When we flip the car, the oncoming train tells us to say "choo!"

Next up:  HEART

I've had a plain laminated version of this for a few years, but I loved making these fancy felt valentines.  When we flip over the hearts we make a kissing noise or hug ourselves (or both!), so I used the universal symbol for hugs and kisses. xoxoxo!  Here are the lyrics (which I thought I got at Perpetual Preschool years ago, but now I can't find them there):

I made a valentine for you, the heart shape means "I love you!" 

H-E-A-R-T, H-E-A-R-T, H-E-A-R-T, 

The heart shape means "I love you!"

And finally, we have B-U-N-N-Y!

These bunnies star in various other stories and songs, so the letters are not permanently attached.  I made them out of regular felt, but decided to spray them with stiffener so they wouldn't get so squashed in the storage bag.  We take the letter off and make our bunny-ear-fingers hop as we say "hop", or we even do this standing up and actually HOP when we say it!  Here's the song (which I pulled out of my magic hat):

I know a cute white cottontail and Bunny is her name-oh.

B-U-N-N-Y, B-U-N-N-Y,B-U-N-N-Y,

and Bunny is her name-oh!

That's my collection for now!  I'm sure I'll add to it, as I've seen versions for ROBOT, MOMMY, DADDY and more at the Flannel Friday Pinterest Song page.  Take a look for more inspiration :)

     

     

Flannel Friday is being hosted by Ms. Kelly at the Library and of course you'll find lots of other ideas at Flannel Friday's blog or Pinterest page.

Space: The Final Frontier

Thanks to Mel at Mel's Desk for the inspiration for this one!  I made my space set felt pieces by adapting cute images I've seen in our universe ;) (PS--I've updated my set, which is available in my shop, so the pictures here are the updated version...)

                                 

What a great addition to any space theme--although I like to use all my sets randomly when the mood strikes me :)  

This set is so fun to use with songs like Zoom, Zoom, Zoom.  In my set for sale, I include other rhymes to go with it, as well as a list of fun space-themed picture books that are tried and true winners in my classroom.

And here's a glimpse of how it all started:

We like to sing Zoom Zoom Zoom all the time, but it's especially fun when we pull out and talk about all of these fun space pieces.  

We play the "What's Missing?" game with this set, talk about colors and shapes, count and compare--this is the first themed set I've made, and I would never have thought it could be so versatile.  I love it!

We have a set of Five Little Monsters which we sometimes call 'aliens', and they like to come out and jump on the planets sometimes:

Five little aliens jumping in the sky, 

One fell off and bumped his eye, 

The astronaut called the doctor 

Who said with a sigh

No more aliens jumping in the sky!

Flannel Friday is being hosted by Lauren at The Dilley Dally, and of course you'll find lots of other ideas at Flannel Friday's blog or Pinterest page.

Finger Puppet Duos!

A quick peek at Flannel Friday's Finger Puppet page sent me off to the store for embroidery floss and needles!  Two Little Blackbirds is a song that we do all the time during our Small and Large Group times (the adorable JBrary version linked is a chant--I'll try to find the tune I use and post it here).  I don't think I'd ever thought to use finger puppets for it--we just use our thumbs...  But these little guys really engage the children, and keep our fingers warm too!  

I maybe sewed last when I was in 8th grade, but haven't since then.  I will stick to basic stuff--my eyesight is definitely not what it once was!

These were made in the fall, and used a lot in the fall this year, but of course they can be used anytime!

The bats and blue birds above are from Mel's Desk.  I love her stuff!  My kids had to keep reminding me to say "bats" instead of "birds" when I used the bats.  Twenty years of saying "birds" is a hard habit to break!

This is a cute poem to go with these adorable penguins!

I did a google image search for bear finger puppets, and free handed my guys based on the results.

Can't remember where I found this:

To the tune of Where is Thumbkin:

Where is bear, where is bear?

Here I am, Here I am!

How are you today bear?

Very sleepy thank you!

Hibernate...hibernate...

 

The owls, turkeys,and elephants were all inspired by, you guessed it, Storytime Katie.  

These finger puppets aren't available to purchase, but please come visit my Etsy shop!  https://www.etsy.com/shop/FlannelBoardFun

Flannel Friday is being hosted by Lauren at The Dilley Dally, and of course you'll find lots of other ideas at Flannel Friday's blog or Pinterest page.

Veggies

Most years we make real veggie soup with the kids in the fall.  We've been singing and dancing to the Soup Song by Laurie Berkner for a few years, and I thought it might be fun to add some visuals to go with that activity.  We also have a chant that we do a lot:  Chop, Chop, Chippity, Chop.  (When we do the chant, we use our big voice and our big knives to do some veggies, and our tiny knives and our tiny voices for others...)  We do this song, too:

Vegetable Soup Song (here's the tune performed by the Jbrary girls)

The soup is boiling up
The soup is boiling up
Stir slow-around we go
The soup is boiling up.

First we add the broth
First we add the broth
Stir slow-around we go
The soup is boiling up.

Now we add some carrots(tomatoes, radishes, etc.)
Now we add some carrots
Stir slow-around we go
The soup is boiling up.

So, this year we used the veggies below, and I also found lots of other ideas at Flannel Friday's Food Page!  I used clipart as my templates, and did the collage method to make everything really stand out :)

(Though I originally posted this in late December, I'm including it in the January 8th Flannel Friday Roundup.  This week's Flannel Friday is being hosted by Mollie at What Happens in Storytime.  You can also check out all things Flannel Friday related on Pinterest or the Flannel Friday Blog.)