Five Little Friends Went Out Today

 

Five little friends went out today...out on the playground where they like to play!

Why is it still so hard to find classroom materials that are representative of various cultures, skin tones and abilities?  I'm doing my part to take care of that problem!  And now my All Together friends are going out to play on the playground together :)  

It's to hard to learn all the tunes, so I like to re-use familiar tunes and rhymes as much as possible.  Kids and educators benefit from this--we can all join in more easily :)

Here's the video of Five Little Friends Went Out Today--enjoy!

Cumulative Story: Kite Stuck in a Tree

A little bird told me that the summer reading program this year is All Together Now.  I thought it would be nice to have a group of sweet felt friends all work together to solve a problem.  And that's how this little felt set was born :) 

Here they are:

And rather than write out the whole kite story here, I'll just show it to you on video :)  

Just click those cuties below to watch.

I've not got the videos up yet, but I'll also use these friends in a few more circle time activities, coming soon:

Kind Friend Count Up
Five Little Friends Went Out Today
Little Kite Hide and Seek

By the way, if you liked this video story, I've also got  a Halloween version of the Enormous Turnip!

Friends with Masks :)

Well, it's a different world we live in right now, so I thought I'd make a little set of friends and write a little song about masks.  Because we all need friends, and we all need masks, right?  Right.

You can see them putting on their masks and getting ready to go outside right here:

I have some other songs that go along with them, too, which I'll post soon!

The Enormous Turnip

I have used the printed out, laminated-card-stock version of this story for many years (here's the pattern from KizClub), and decided to make a felt copy of it last night.  I could have sworn I made the mouse, even remember cutting the dark gray felt, but couldn't find him anywhere today--so a brown laminated version is being featured in these pictures :)

This set isn't available in my shop, but lots of other goodies are.  Please visit me there!

Oh, and hey!  I've made up some stories similar to this one!  You can find videos here!

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Anne at So Tomorrow.  You can find lots of other great stuff at Flannel Friday's Facebook and Pinterest pages, too!

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

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!

A House for Birdie

I saw this set while perusing Flannel Friday's Pinterest pages--it was originally posted here.  I love the simplicity of the birds, though when I used this set today for the first time, one of my little girls couldn't stop asking me where the birds' feathers and wings were...

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

Shop Flannel Board Fun

So, I have never read the book this set is based on, but it seems that Birdie (the turquoise bird in the red house above) doesn't have a house, so he and his friends go house hunting together.  I named the friends Bluey, Orangie, Yellowey, and Greenie.  Of course.  Anyway, as they come across each house they discover that although the house is too narrow, short or tall for Birdie, it is just the right size for one of his pals.  They all celebrate each new house for their friend, and in the end, Birdie finds the house that is a perfect fit for him.  

This is such a simple, simple story, but I cannot tell you how completely enthralled my little two-year-olds were.  They fell in love with Birdie and his friends, feather-less and wing-less though they may be.

Flannel Friday is being hosted by Melissa at Mel's Desk!  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!