Apple Tree Felt Board Set

 I love nice, crisp, sweet apples on a nice, crisp, sweet fall day!  I also love soft, adorable felt apples on any kind of day.  That's why I made my APPLE bingo set, and it's never failed me yet.

But how did those apples even grow?  Were apple blossoms involved in some way?? And now that we've got apples, shouldn't we count them?  And wait, wouldn't it be fun to hide a worm behind the apples?  Yes!  Yes!  Let's make a huge apple tree set that we can play with in all kinds of ways!

First, let's make them grow.  We'll start off with a bare tree, with no little apples growing on it.  And then an apple blossom starts to grow...and soon, it turns right into an apple!  

Apple Count Up © Wendy Gerbi

No apples on this tree, growing for you and me, 

No sweet fruit for us to bite and crunch...

One flower starts to bloom, 

An apple will be here soon…

Now there is one sweet juicy fruit—yum, yum! 

After a while, we'll have five apples just waiting for us!  How will we get them down??

Apple Tree © Wendy Gerbi

Down in the orchard, way up in a tree 

Were five crisp apples looking so juicy. 

________ shook the tree as hard as they could! 

And down dropped an apple—it tasted so good! 

Here's a video of that one:

And that wiggly worm is perfect to play an apple version of Little Mouse.  Ah, apples for days :)

Happy Fall!

Halloween Big Fun!

I think I was feeling nostalgic for my carefree childhood days when I made this huge Halloween felt board set.  I loved all the commercialized, candy-filled holidays when I was a kid, LOL.  The colors of Halloween decorations--orange, purple, black and green--were always one of my favorite combinations.  Covering the windows in our house with witches and ghosts, jack-o-lanterns and cauldrons...  It was just plain FUN.

So, those were all on my mind when I made this set.  I just wanted it to be full of cute Halloween fun, and of course I wanted it to be super useful, too.  There are plenty of felt board sets that go with just one particular song or story.  I need my sets to be multi-use--two or three songs or games per set, at least!

This one fits the bill.

Play Little Broom (a Halloween version of Little Mouse)  with these cuties, hiding the adorable laminated witch's broom under the pieces. 

Little Broom, little broom, we're searching far and near!

Are you under this black cat?  Let's look under here!

Or use the pieces for a Halloween version of Brown Bear, but sprinkle in Halloween vocabulary of course!

And maybe my favorite way to play with these is to use the pieces in a Halloween version of The Enormous Turnip, with all the characters working together to get that huge pumpkin off the vine...

Happy Halloween!

More Felt Board Ghost fun!

 Yep, ghosts are perfect for BINGO variations.  But that's not all those cuties are good for.  How about a little hide and seek?  Oh, with color naming, rhyming and rhythm, and FUN thrown in for good measure.  I've got you!  Sounds like we need a candy corn and ghost version of Little Mouse, yes?  

Yes.

Here they are on video!

Candy corn, candy corn, playing hide and seek, 

are you behind the purple ghost??  Let's take a peek!

Or...

Candy corn, candy corn, I'm looking everywhere!  

Are you behind the green ghost?  Let's check under there!

Happy Halloween!

Ghost Bingo Felt Board Set

 

It's no secret that I love a good variation on BINGO.  Some of my favorites include T-R-U-C-K, 

T-R-A-I-N, and A-P-P-L-E.  You can read about them here, and here, or for a quick review:

But kids don't just love food and vehicles, you know.  They are fans of the holidays as well.  So I thought, why not give them a little not-so-spooky fun...  And if we can mix in a little early literacy without them even knowing, we'll feel super smart and sneaky, won't we.  Why yes, yes we will.  

The things I don't like about Halloween:  being scared and getting cavities.  Neither of those are involved in this cute Halloween ghost set, so here you go!

There is a spooky friend I know and ghost is his name-O.

G-H-O-S-T, G-H-O-S-T, G-H-O-S-T, and ghost is his name-O!

 

Flip over the G to reveal the “boo” on the other side.  For the next verse, replace “G” with “boo”!  Continue in this way until you’re just boo-ing away. 

 

There is a spooky friend I know, and ghost is his name-O.

Boo-H-O-S-T, Boo-H-O-S-T, Boo-H-O-S-T and GHOST is his name-O!

 

You can certainly make this is silly as you'd like, exclaiming BOO! in sppoooky, long drawn out ways, or short, surprising ways!  Quiet boos.  Loud boos.  Medium, fast, slow.  No matter what, your kids will be boo-booing, and not boo-hooing, so it's a win :)

Oh, and I can't leave out my favorite Halloween book that just goes along perfectly with these cute ghosts:

Happy Halloween!

Transportation Felt Board Fun!

 

Oh, hello vehicles!  Aren't you just the most colorful things...  

I WISH driving down the freeway was this exciting in real life! 

 But hey, that's what felt boards are for, right?

So, kids do tend to love vehicles.  Trains?  Check.  Trucks? Check.  Rockets? Oh, yep.

So let's put them all together in one big set, and have some good old transportation fun, shall we?

I made up a rhyme to go along with them.  Sprinkled transportation vocab and concepts in there.  You just pile your vehicles up in the right order before you start, and then place them on the board as you name them.  Or--pass out the pieces and have the kids bring them up as you name them.  

Oh, I like that interactive way a lot!

Look at all these Vehicles! © Wendy Gerbi

Look at these vehicles that like to go, go, go!

Car, truck, and bus, they drive to and fro.

And here come some more, way up in the sky…

Plane, ‘copter, rocket—they were made to fly.

But wait, there’s more—let’s not forget the boats!

Ship, submarine, and sailboat, they all know how to float.

And finally, our rail friends: train, subway and streetcar.

Look at all these vehicles—they take us near and far!

And you know how much I love the Little Mouse game, so this set has a laminated steering wheel so we can play that game, too!  So many colors and vehicle types to name!  So much learning through play to be done!

Steering wheel, steering wheel, playing hide and seek,

Are you behind the ___________?  Let’s take a peek!

OR

Steering wheel, steering wheel, you steer us everywhere.

Are you behind the _____? Let’s check under there!

Okay, that's probably enough transportation to digest for the day.  I'll be back with more!  I've got sorting cards and more fun ways to use this set...