Hey Diddle Diddle Remix--Video!

You may have read about my Hey Diddle Diddle set before--I wrote about it here.  But I didn't have a video using the set until right this very minute :)  So...here it is!  Classic Nursery Rhyme fun--but with a twist!  

Let's get all mixed up (click the picture to watch the video!) 

Ball of Yarn Hide and Seek!

So, yep.  It's two of my favorite things, all bundled up together:  Cats, and Little Mouse.  I mean, can you go wrong with this?  No.  No, you can't.  (Plus, these cats are the stars of Kitty Bingo, too, so--muti-use sets for the big win!)

Kids just love surprises, and it's always a surprise where that ball of yarn might be hiding...And sometimes, just to be super sneaky, I don't hide it behind ANY of the cats--I hide it behind the flannel board!!  Gasp!  The children are furious!  I'm delighted!

Anyway..

Ball of yarn, ball of yarn, where can you be?

Are you behind the gray kitten?  Let...me...see!

or 

Ball of yarn, ball of yarn, playing hide and seek...

Are you behind the orange cat?  Let's take a peek!

Fun cat books to go along with these sweeties are right here.

Counting Kittens

 Oh, why not?  Let's add one more way to use these adorable kittens to the circle time mix!  With numbers, this time... (You can find the KITTY bingo song here, and the Ball of Yarn game is right here!

Sometimes it's fun to count up, and sometimes its fun to count down... This time, we're starting with five, and counting down to none--how sad to see them go!

I like to sprinkle vocabulary words into my rhymes, so we're not only counting, we're building knowledge about the subject at hand.  This time it's cat knowledge :)

Five Little Kittens ©Wendy Gerbi

Five little kittens, stretching by the door, 

One pounces away, and that leaves four. 

Four little kittens, scratching on a tree, 

One pounces away, and that leaves three. 

Three little kittens, hissing at you! 

One pounces away, and that leaves two. 

Two little kittens, purring in the sun, 

One pounces away, and that leaves one. 

One little kitten, looking for some fun 

She pounces off to join her friends, and that leaves none! 

Oh, by the way--since you're here, I know you like fun circle time stuff...  

So feel free to go check out my YouTube channel for tons more ideas!

Annndddd....  Here's a video of the Five Little Kittens:

KITTY Bingo Felt Board Set

 I love cats.  I've got two of them snuggled up and snoring/drooling next to me right now.  The poor things aren't spoiled at all.  But I digress.  Let's move on to felt cats, shall we?

Ah, there we go.  And as you can see, we've got a cat version of BINGO going on here.  You can see more BINGO ideas here, by the way.

I don't think there's much explanation needed here, but when you flip those letters over, you've got a cat face, which lets the kids know it's time to say "meow" instead of the letter name.  

You'll soon have a story time full of adorable meowing children, which should make everyone purrfectly happy.  (Sorry, had to.)

Oh, and look!  Here's a video just in case you need to sing along and practice a few times:

Need some cat books to go along with this set?  Here's my Pinterest board on cat books.

Hey Diddle Diddle Video!

Finally got around to making a video of this Hey Diddle Diddle set!  

You can check out my original post about this set right here.

Cats!

I happen to have two kitties who are in my lap as I type this.  I've been a cat owner for the past 25 years, and yet I've not had a cat flannel board set!  

Thanks to a recent request from a librarian, I was able to make this stinkin' cute set :)  Bonus for you:  you can buy these cuties in my shop!

(Since this post was originally published, I've added another kitty cat felt board set to the mix!  

You can check out the blog post here, and the felt set is right here.)

So many ways to use this set!  You can pass out the cats and ask the kids to bring them up by color, and use position words like over, under, next to, above and below as you ask them to place them on the board.  Doing a color theme or story time?  Ask the kids with a cat the color of a night sky, or a violet, or dirt, (or whatever clever ideas you have) to bring their cat up.  Increase their visual discrimination skills--"If you have a sleeping cat, bring it to the flannel board!"

I've also come up with a rhyme for using five of these:

Five Little Kitty Cats
Five little kitty cats sleeping on the floor
One pounced away, and now there are four!

Four little kitty cats, cute as can be,
One leapt away, and now there are three!

Three little kitty cats, hunters through and through,
One caught a mouse, and now there are two!

Two little kitty cats, basking in the sun,
One slinked away, and now there's only one!

One little kitty cat got up to stretch and yawn,
I looked away...and now he's gone!

Thinking about doing this with puppies too!

You can click below to get shop updates and sale announcements, 

as well as fun preschooler-related tidbits :)

Halloween Finger Puppets

These adorable guys are based on patterns from PreciousPatterns on Etsy.  Like my Christmas Finger Puppet Set, these Halloween creatures are not actually finger puppets--but they certainly can be made as puppets if that's what you want to do.  I chose to save time and just glued them together instead. Children can use these to tell stories on a small felt board, or adults can use them to accompany songs or stories.  I like the fact that they're all pretty cute, which can take away some of the spooky aspect of Halloween that isn't much fun for some of our littlest kids.  (There was a skull pattern, and I chose not to use it.)

These Halloween cuties are sold out, but you can find lots of other holiday felt goodies right here!

Flannel Friday's Halloween Extravaganza is being hosted by Lisa at Thrive After Three!

You can find many more ideas on Pinterest, and learn more about Flannel Friday on Facebook or the FF blog!

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.