A Ramadan Felt Board Pattern!

 

Ramadan is here!

A year or two ago I had the pleasure of learning all about Ramadan, and I created a felt board set for story time and for independent play.  I wrote about it here.  Click there for my thoughts, feelings, and some of the lyrics :) 

And after having a ton of people ask me if I could pretty please make a pattern for them...

I finally did!

I'm so pleased that the pattern will make the Ramadan set more accessible to more people.  I know as a teacher our classroom was sorely lacking in materials that represented children of color and a variety of holidays and cultures.  I hope this pattern fills that hole a bit if you're experiencing the same thing!

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🍎📚Flannel Board Fun felt board story sets are multi-use circle time fun!  With each felt set, you get the lyrics for three or more rhymes, songs and/or stories to use with it!  Hello, storytime FUN!

 

✂️You can find felt board patterns right here.  

Lots of fun videos are right here!

 

🛒🍎📚Shop all the Storytime felt board songs, rhymes, and story sets: 

  

🛒🎁👦🏽👧🏿👧🏻 Find felt board stories and activities for kids are here. 

 

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Diwali: Rangoli Hide and Seek!

Okay, here we go again!

I love a good reason to come up with another version of Little Mouse, and Diwali is as good a reason as any!

This Diwali set has lots of songs and games that go along with it, which you can read about here.  I even briefly mentioned this game in one of those posts, but now I've got a video for it, so wanted to share it again :) 

Click the image below to see this simple game in action.  It's a great way to introduce Diwali concepts and vocabulary to even your littlest story time friends!

Little Broom Hide and Seek

 I've written about this Halloween game before, right here.  

You've seen these fine fellows in other posts, like this one, too.  Remember?  They look like this:

But I've only just gotten around to publishing the Little Broom Hide and Seek video, and I thought it deserved it's very own post.  So that's why we're here :)

If you need to know more about Little Mouse and all the fun to be had with this game, please check out all these fun versions of the classic preschool game!  

And now, for Little Broom in all it's not-very-scary action.... (Please take note of my blunder at the end, as well as all the vocabulary, position words, color naming and more early learning that goes on in this one!)

Sorting With Vehicles!

Okay, time for a little sorting fun.  Ready?  Let's go!

I'll use my Transportation Set for this little game.  Because it has sorting cards, which we need for this activity...  Here they are (laminated in all their cardstock glory :) ):

(The steering wheel you see in the pictures goes with this hide and seek game, by the way.)

Okay, so what do you do with these sorting cards?  The point is to engage the kids in playful early math and early literacy. No strict rules or right or wrong--just have fun.

One way to use them:  Put the sorting cards that represent the four types of vehicles on your board on the four corners.  Talk with the kids about what each of the cards mean.   Now place each of your vehicles in the center of the board. Ask the kids to help you figure out where to put each vehicle.  You might want them to simply call out where that vehicle goes, or you might call children up to pick a vehicle and “steer” it to the right spot.

Use your “many” and “few” cards in the same way.  Does a particular vehicle carry many or few people?  What do many and few mean?

And then of course you can combine the cards and get them thinking even harder:

Have fun sorting, you little mathematicians!

Hey, by the way...  I bet you'll like my Transportation playlist over on my YouTube channel!  

Go take a look:) 

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.

Christmas Fun!

 We need some jolly old Christmas storytime fun, don't we?  Yes, indeed!  So here we go:

The laminated jingle bell is just right for a Christmas version of Little Mouse:

Jingle bell, jingle bell, you're hiding somewhere!
Are you behind the Christmas tree?

Let's peek under there!

And this set is just right for a Christmas version of Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  

I like it so much, I even made a video of it :) 

Fingers too tired to make your own?  Visit my shop:

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!

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...

Little Mouse Update

 I finally updated my Little Mouse houses in a way I've been meaning to do for ages!  Now, the roofs and doors match the colors of the actual house.  

I'm not sure which version I like better, so I'll keep both :)

You can see my original Little Mouse post here.

Leprechaun videos!

 I've got a St. Patrick's Day set that I've posted about before, but wanted to link to two videos you can use with it.   Have fun!

Here's the set:

And here are two fun ways to use it:

Have fun!  Oh, and check out these other St. Patrick's Day posts for more fun ideas :)

Screen Free Ideas

I posted recently on my website Resource Center about screen free activities that are easily implemented using stuff you've already got on hand.  Whether in the classroom or (stuck) at home, I'm sure there's something in here for you!

Click the image below to get all the fun screen free activities--art, outside fun, and more:

Little Pig

Welcome to piggy, felty fun :)

Editing:  The original pancake version of this set has been updated!  It's now a multi-use peach and pig set full of early literacy, math and rhyming fun--woohooo!  

I didn't use flannel boards for the first 10 or so years of teaching.  I can barely remember that time of my life!  Thank goodness I was introduced to them--they added so much to my circle times, making them WAY more fun and engaging for both the children and me.

Here's an example of a perfect little flannel board game.

This can be played with toddlers up to five year olds, or even older, I'm sure.  The original version of this game that most people know is called Little Mouse, and it features a mouse and several houses of various colors.  I've got a post on it here and for lots more variations and explanations of how to play, click right here!

But for this version, we're using pigs.  And yes, a fuzzy, sweet little peach!

Here's a video of this game:

**Before I go further, you might be asking "Why should I play this game?  What's the value?  Sure, it's cute, but is it worthwhile?"

You bet it is!  As you play the game, kids are either learning colors, or their color knowledge is being reinforced. Count how many pigs you have left to guess, and you're adding even more math into the mix!  You're exposing them to rhyme and rhythm.  Critical thinking and observation skills abound!  They're building language skills as they chant along or simply listen.  And very importantly, they are having fun!**

Here are various chants you can use with this game:


*Fuzzy peach, fuzzy peach, playing hide and seek...
Are you under the purple pig?
Let's take a peek!

*Little peach, little peach, not very big...
Are you hiding under the purple pig??

Kids love guessing where that peach is hiding.  You can make this super simple by having  a bit of the peach sticking out from behind whichever pig you've hidden it under.  This is great for toddlers just getting used to the game.  But they catch on quickly!  You can have the kids cover their eyes as you hide the peach, or turn your flannel board around so they can't see your tricky methods...

Have you played this game or another version of Little Mouse/Little Pig?  Drop your ideas in the comments--I'd love to know!

PS

Feeling crafty?  

You can make a Pigs and Pancakes set! 

 Click below for the pattern :)

 

          

Closest to the Hole

One of the little girlies in my class is celebrating her fourth birthday in August, and her mom requested this golf-themed game to use at her party.  It's like pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, but instead the blindfolded child tries to put his or her golf ball closest to the hole.

Once I had it made, I thought it might be a fun game to use with a small group of kids when doing a sports, senses, or positional-words theme.  Or as in my classroom where we don't do themes, you could just pull this out at any time.  

We don't play competitive games in my class, so if I were to use this I would use it to talk about about different words like far, close, closer, long, short, near, etc. We won't concentrate on a "winner", but rather on how having our eyes covered makes it harder to put that ball close to the hole...  

You can find all sorts of fun felt sets in my shop!

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Mollie at What Happens in Storytime.  You can also find tons of ideas at Flannel Friday's Pinterest Pages, the Flannel Friday Blog, and Flannel Friday's Facebook page.

Quilts Galore

I've been meaning to get around to this cute cozy set for ages!  I found this idea on Busy Crafting Mommy.  For my set, I used clipart from Etsy  (and some fabric scraps from one of the awesome moms in my classroom!)

When we cover up the animals, sometimes I put the quilts up to their chinny chin chins...

...and sometimes I only let their ears or the tips of their tails poke out.  This leads us into a whole new guessing game :)

There are lots of similarly adorable and useful sets in my shop, by the way :) 

Here's my  altered version of the Quilts Galore rhyme:

Five Cozy Blankets

5 cozy blankets with patterns galore,

1 covered Rabbit and then there were four.

4 cozy blankets as snuggly as can be,

1 covered Raccoon and then there were three.

3 cozy blankets with dots red and blue,

1 covered Fox and then there were two.

2 cozy blankets made just for fun,

1 covered Bear and then there was one.

1 cozy blanket left out in the sun,

It covered Owl and then there were none.

Flannel Friday is being hosted by Kate at Felt Board Magic this week.  For more FF fun and information, please visit the blog, Facebook page, or Pinterest page!  And share these links with your co-librarians or co-teachers. The more we share, the better!

So Many Fish!

I've updated this post with pictures of my new fishies!  See below for the chant that goes along with this one--though now that I've made this big new set, I can see lots of other ways to use these,  similar to ways we use my Mitten Match set...

This is a set I made many years ago.  The fish are cut from sheets of foam.  I drew them with coordinating colors of marker on the foam and then cut them out, and stuck a square of velcro on the back of each one.  I think this probably works best in a classroom, where the teachers know the names of all the children--not sure how valuable it would be for librarians, unless you know your group well enough that you know every child's name...  It definitely works well for me when I have a smaller group of children, so there's not a long wait for anyone to come up and take their fish.

With my new found skills and insight (!) I will be re-making this set using felt (no little velcro squares to tempt the children to peel, peel, peel), and I will make the fish much bigger.  These are fine for small group time, but bigger is generally better.  I'm not sure why I always made my story/game pieces so small in the past.  What was I thinking?

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!

This is a Square

I was inspired by Shawn at Read, Rhyme and Sing, who did this activity using letters.  I decided to copy the concept using shapes and colors, which I thought my Two-Year-Olds might be a bit more in tune with.  I was right--they love this simple but fun activity.  Below I have a picture of the shapes (which I cut out free hand while binge watching some show or another on Netflix...), as well as the instruction card that's kept along with it in the storage bag.  There are lots more ideas that I didn't put on the card (handing out shapes and having children bring up a matching shape or color; having children come up and find a color that matches something they're wearing, or something the same color as ___________; the list goes on...)

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

Flannel Board Fun Shop

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