Dress the Baby!

Okay, I have to say I just love this cute Dress the Baby felt set.  I had a custom request to make a set for toddlers to play with during a baby shower, and this is the result.  Gah--SO adorable!

Kids young and old love babies, so this actually works well for such a large age range.  I picture this Dress the Baby set being used independently in homes, classrooms and at library felt tables.  But of course it would also work well at a circle time or story time.  Hand out the pieces and let the children come put them on that poor cold baby, lol.  Great to encourage color recognition/naming, clothing and baby vocabulary, etc.

Here's an adorable little song from the adorable duo at JBrary that would work so well with this set!  Baby Put Your Pants On

Here's a link to my other Clothing sets for more/similar ideas on how to use this guy.

Join in on all the Flannel Friday fun by clicking here!

Anytime Mapleson

  I recently had a request from a lovely librarian in Vermont for this set. It's based on a story I've never read, and it's out of print--Anytime Mapleson and the Hungry Bears by Mordicai Gerstein.  If you can find a copy, I recommend it--it looks pretty adorable!  I don't know the story in detail, but I'm sharing it here anyway in case anyone else knows the story and is also inspired to make their own set.  Or I can make one for you ;)  

Flannel Friday is going through some changes.  It will no longer be hosted each week on a blog--but it's got a new home on Tumbler, and and will still be pinned monthly to the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards :)

Here's the Tumbler Page if you'd like to check it out, and here are the many amazing Pinterest Boards! 

 And I'd love it if you come visit my shop right here:  Flannel Board Fun.

Winter Friends Dress Up Set

I have officially mailed in my fee for an upcoming November Craft Fair!  I did take part in a vendor fair at my preschool last spring, which inspired me to start my shop, but this is the first time I'm venturing out of my comfort zone to sell my sets in person, to strangers. I'm nervous, excited, and busy!  I put together five of these sets last weekend, and hope some lovely families think they'll be perfect for their young children :)  I will definitely be making a set for my classroom!  

I think this would be a great table activity in a library following a story time on winter, penguins, owls, or any of the occupations/themes represented by the outfits...Some other ways to use this set:
Have the kids help you dress the critters!  Pass out only one item from each outfit, and keep the coordinating items in your hand.  Put the snowman on the board and put the hammer in his hand.  "Uh oh, this worker has lost her hat!  She only has a hammer!  Does anyone have the hat for this construction worker?"  You could also put all the accessories on one side of the board, and all the hats on the other side, and the kids can come up and make a match...  Really, there are tons of ways to use a set like this--I hope you find some that work for you!

I've got lots of fun felt sets at my shop--come take a peek!

I'm hosting Flannel Friday this week!  You can find the roundup here.  Need more information about Flannel Friday?  Visit the Blog and Facebook!  Want a zillion more ideas?  Check out Flannel Friday on Pinterest!

Felt Doll Set

Here's another set I made to sell at my upcoming vendor fair.  This is definitely one I'll also keep available for the kids to use independently.  I know lots of story telling, vocabulary building, and conversations will happen while this one is in use. 

These remind me so much of the paper dolls I used to love as a child, but they're so much easier to use.  I can't wait to bring this out, and I'm sure I'll add more clothes and accessories every now and then.

This set is available in my shop!

Mitten Match

The first place I saw this was on Storytime Katie-- I absolutely love her use of the clothesline, and intend to use one myself some day soon.  I have it, and the clothespins, so what am I waiting for??

What is is about mittens that is so appealing to children?!  They're just so darn snuggly and warm, and when they don't have to actually wear them, they're even better! (I write this having just spent most of the time on the playground this morning picking up discarded mittens as the children frolicked about happily with freezing fingers...)  That said, when they get to come put a mitten on the board to make a pair, they are so proud of themselves.  And when they see all those colors and shapes matched up and lined up, they know something is just right in their world.

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Anne at So Tomorrow!  You can also find more fantastic ideas at Flannel Friday's Pinterest pages, or Flannel Friday's Facebook Page --check them out!

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.

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.

Cowboy!

My kids love Froggy Gets Dressed and How Do I Put it On so much, I wanted another similar flannel board to share with them.  I found this one at Library Village and adapted it using the images I saw at this site..

I do think it's pretty cute, but I am annoyed with myself for making it so small.  This one will only really work with a small group of kids--from head to toe my little cowboy is only about as tall as my hand.  Just wasn't thinking last night when I made him...

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.

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!

(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!

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!

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.

Froggy Gets Dressed

We used to have a copy of this book (Froggy Gets Dressed) in the classroom, but at some point over the past several years it went missing.  Once again I was moved to do a flannel version based on Storytime Katie's perfectly snipped version :)

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

Flannel Board Fun Shop