Showing posts with label Book. Show all posts

Titch

This has been on my To Do List for at least ten years... No time like the present! Pat Hutchins was one of the first authors I was introduced to as a preschool teacher, and I've continued to use her books in my classroom over the past twenty years.

Titch, his sister Mary, and his brother Pete. Those bigs--they always get the big stuff!

Hmph! Tiny little pinwheel....

Silly little trike...

Puny little whistle...

Nails? Really?

Miniscule little seed. Pfff.

WOW!! Look what I grew!!

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

Flannel Board Fun Shop

I'm hosting Flannel Friday this week! Check out the Roundup HERE. And of course you can find a huge assortment of ideas at Flannel Friday's Pinterest Board, and other goodies at the Flannel Friday Facebook Page and FF blog. Check them all out!

Night Animals

One of my co-workers (hi Amy!) is especially supportive of my flanneling endeavors, and when I mentioned that I could make sets to go with any particular books she might like, she suggested Night Animals. I quickly got to work, and here are the results:

There's the whole crew, all together, unafraid of each other :) The large gray piece on the left is the bat's shadow--below you can see that it's see-through. It didn't photograph very well, but I think it will seem like a shadow when brought out during the story. It's made of Lutradur that I painted with black watercolor.

The piece I love the most is the tent with the silhouettes of the children inside. I used the same technique as with the bat's shadow. I love the effect!

I did the same to make a light coming from the flashlight:

And here are some close ups of a few more pieces.

This was a challenge! I had only read the book once before, so I wasn't that familiar with the story and needed to figure out which pieces were needed, which I could do without, etc. I am so glad I had the Lutradur and thought of using it--I think it really helps translate the story to the felt board.

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

Flannel Board Fun

Fall is Not Easy

It's almost summer, and that means fall is just around the corner, so....I'll just link Flannel Friday's Fall Pinterest Page--I was inspired by several Fall is Not Easy posts there to create this one! I have one tough little cookie in my group this year who always says "I don't wanna hear that story" about pretty much everything. But when I suggest Fall is Not Easy, she says "Oh! That's my favorite one!"

Click below to see a video of how I use this set:

I highly recommend scrunching up your face and being very theatrical with each attempt to change the leaves--guffaws are sure to follow!

Everything can be random except the spring, summer and fall leaves. I always make sure they are in the right order when I put them away for next time. I have 'spring' and 'summer' written on the back of those pieces, so everyone using the set knows what's what!

I printed out the Pittsburgh Pirates and Penguins emblems on Pellon Lutradur. They aren't very vibrant, and the glue dots show through, so I am not totally happy with them. But the kids LOVE their teams, so those are a big hit. I don't particularly like the NFL (shhhhh!), so I skipped the Steelers!

Click here to shop:

The Flannel Friday roundup is being hosted this week by Melissa at Mel's Desk! You'll also find other Flannel Friday goodies at Pinterest, Facebook, and the FF blog--check them out!

Bark George

Sadly, I can't claim this amazing set as my own. I don't actually know who made it--one of my past co-workers (Rebekah? Sarah?) left it a few years ago, and she was clearly a talented lady! I work with a lot of graduate students, and usually they take a class in which they have to make a flannel board story. I think this was the result of that course. I'm so happy to have this set, because I actually don't care for Jules Feiffer's illustrations, especially in Bark George. These pieces are more appealing to me, and I use this set rather than the book--because the kids do love the story.

I will take credit for adding the black felt background for more stability, and I also used black fabric paint to make the lines drawn on the animals stand out more. I decided not to do that with the vet, because I was afraid I'd end up ruining him. He's pretty awesome :)

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

Flannel Board Fun Shop

The Flannel Friday Roundup is being hosted this week by Laura at Library Lalaland! You'll also find other Flannel Friday goodies at Pinterest, Facebook, and the FF blog--check them out!

Freight Train

Freight Train by Donald Crews has long been a favorite in my classroom. We've had a laminated paper version in my classroom for many years. It is wonderful, but it's a little too large to work well on our flannel board. We have it out for the children to use on their own, and they love it. But I still wanted a felt version for the teacher to use, too.

So, I took those pieces and shrunk them down to use as my pattern. When the train moves in daylight, we put up the sun; in darkness, we put up the moon. There's the tunnel, and a city. I skipped the trestle, because it would take 150 hours to make it... I used a little fabric paint to put some of the details on the train cars, but tried to keep these pretty simple. The city is the most detailed piece, and I love it :)

You can no longer buy this set but I've got lots of other goodies here.

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Cate at Storytiming. You can also find tons of ideas at Flannel Friday's Pinterest Pages, the Flannel Friday Blog, and Flannel Friday's Facebook page.

The Elephant in a Well

Here's another set I made several years ago. The Elephant in a Well was posted on a list of stories that work well as flannels. I had never heard the story before, so I googled it and found this summary. Based on that, I printed out and laminated clip art animals, threw in a string, stuck on some velcro, and I was done! The children love this sort of cumulative story, especially if you make each animal's sound as they pull on the rope: the sheep pulled (baaa!), the dog pulled (rufff!), the horse pulled (neeiiigghhhh!!!), etc. We like to give the animals names, too. Sometimes the children use people names, sometimes pet names, and sometimes random odd words, like "toe". Or "box". Yep. Just go with it.

(By the way, the photo below doesn't represent the story very well. I place the elephant at the left hand bottom of the board looking up, the string extends down to him, and the animals line up one after another with the mouse last.)

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

Flannel Board Fun Shop

Little Gorilla

For years I've loved Little Gorilla, and I've been intending to make a flannel board version of it for almost as long. I think I once even printed out clip art images of each of the animals, intending to make a laminated version. But Flannel Friday is having it's birthday, and I wanted to do more than just a laminated story, and more than just cupcakes and presents (even though I love those too!)

So this week I got to work! It was difficult trying to make my pieces resemble the illustrations--those faces do not translate all that well to flannel... But, in the end I'm okay with what I have.

So, here's Little Gorilla:

Once there was a gorilla, and everybody loved him. His mother loved him. His father loved him. His whole family loved him! Even when he was only one day old, everybody loved Little Gorilla.

Pink butterfly flying through the forest, Green Parrot in his tree, and Red Monkey in her tree, all loved Little Gorilla.

Even big Boa Constrictor thought Little Gorilla was nice.

Giraffe, walking tall through the forest, was there when Little Gorilla needed him.

Young Elephant, and Old Elephant too, came to see him.

Lion roared his loudest roar for him.

Even Old Hippo took him wherever he wanted to go, because she loved Little Gorilla. Just about everybody in the great green forest loved Little Gorilla! Then one day, something happened... Little Gorilla began to grow...and grow...and grow.

And one day, Little Gorilla was BIG!

And everybody came, and everybody sang "Happy Birthday Little Gorilla!" And everybody still loved him.

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

Flannel Board Fun SHOP

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Mollie at What Happens in Storytime! You can also find 850,000+ felt and story ideas at Flannel Friday's Pinterest pages, or Flannel Friday's Facebook Page --check them out!

Flannel Friday: There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea

Recently our classroom received this copy of Over in the Meadow. I loved it so much that I did a YouTube search for more Barefoot Books, and found There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea. Though it doesn't grab me as much as Over in the Meadow, I thought it would translate well into a flannel board story.

Here's the song:

And here are my flannel pieces:

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

Flannel Board Fun Shop

I'm hosting Flannel Friday this week! You can find the roundup post here. Also, please be sure to check out all things Flannel Friday here and here!

Flannel Friday re-post: Ask Mr. Bear

In honor of Valentine's Day, I'm re-posting this little story about showing your mom a little love :)

Years ago I found a list of books that translate well to flannel boards... If I can find it again I will post it here! Anyway, one of the books on that list was Ask Mr. Bear,by Marjorie Flack, and though I did get the book for my classroom, I never did make it into a felt board. I finally got around to it last month, so here it is...

I scanned a page with each animal, one with Danny, and the last page--the hug :) I printed them out and outlined them in black marker, and then used the collage technique shown in this video Best Flannel Board Video Ever
to make the pieces. I used black fabric paint for the facial features and the mommy's bun...

(Updated to switch out the old grainy pics with what are hopefully a little more clear.)

Yep--Danny is reversible so he can follow the animals, and also face Mr. Bear as he talks to him!

This week you'll find the Flannel Friday roundup here and of course you'll find lots of other ideas at Flannel Friday's blog or Pinterest page.

Pete the Cat's 4 Groovy Buttons

Well, I love belly buttons, so I couldn't resist making this story in flannel! I used the Pete pattern from Make Learning Fun, but made his eyes more like the ones from the book. "Owl eyes", some of my kids call them :)

The numbers were based on a google image search for cartoon numbers, which I then printed out and used as a template. Pete is made of stiff blue felt, and everything else is made of the regular stuff. I wasn't sure how to make the shirt open only part way. I just glued the top portion and not the bottom, so I can scootch it away to see Pete's belly button. (It's not perfect--I think I'll have to re-glue occasionally, but it's fine). And then the kids all want to see their own belly button, too, and we have a belly button party!

(I keep Pete's head and body separate because they are too big for my storage bag if I glue them together. The kids think it is hilarious when I remove his body from the board when it's time to clean it up! Wait a minute--what happened???! Pete's head came off!! Are you okay Pete?? Yeah, it's all good...)

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.

Move Over, Rover!

This was another new story for me. I checked it out from the library (probably after seeing it suggested on one of the blogs listed on the right), and then checked Pinterest for a flannel board version. Of course there was one-- Here's Rachel's version, complete with patterns!

I just noticed I forgot to put Rover's name on his doghouse... I also noticed cat hair and random fuzz on that raccoon photo that I couldn't see until I enlarged the picture. Age is getting my mind and my eyes!

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: 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!