Mary Had a Little Lamb

I love nursery rhymes, and they provide so many early literacy skills (singing with kids helps them hear the sounds in words; rhyming helps with phonological awareness; rhythm helps with understanding syllables!)  It's fun to just share them with children while you're playing, talking, and reading--and sometimes during a story or group time they need a visual to hold their attention.  Enter Mary and her little lamb (and everyone else pictured, of course :) )

Here's the rhyme to go with this set:

Mary had a Little Lamb
Mary had a little lamb
Little lamb, little lamb
Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went
Mary went, Mary went
Everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day
School one day, school one day
It followed her to school one day
Which was against the rule!
It made the children laugh and play
Laugh and play, laugh and play
It made the children laugh and play
To see a lamb at school.

And so the teacher turned him out
Turned him out, turned him out
And so the teacher turned him out
But still he lingered near...
And waited patiently about
Patiently about, patiently about
And waited patiently about
Til Mary did appear.

Mary had a little lamb
Little lamb, little lamb
Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went
Mary went, Mary went
Everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go!

How about a few books to go along with this set, in case you're doing a lamb, spring, or farm story time...





And here's my Pinterest board on Farm Books!

And don't forget to check out Flannel Friday's Pinterest Boards and Tumbler Page for a zillion flannel board ideas!

Old MacDonald, Part Three!

What is her obsession with Old MacDonald, you might be asking yourself.  I'm sort of asking myself the same thing!  This set isn't that different than my second set,  This one, though, is just right for Toddlers!  None of the pieces are small enough to be considered choking hazards, so this set is perfect for the little ones to use independently if they are so inclined.

I'm selling these cuties in my shop--come check it out!

As you can see, these pieces are pretty darn huge, so this is a great set to use with a large crowd where visibility might be an issue.  And of course you're not limited to just singing Old MacDonald with these pieces.  Adapt songs like The Wheels on the Bus (The Chicken on the Farm goes cluck, cluck, cluck...)  Make up stories using all or some of the animals...  Play rhyming games (I'm thinking of an animal, and her name rhymes with that thing we wear outside in cold weather...)

Here are some farm themed books that might work well for you, too:

Clip Clop by Nicola Smee

Hurry, Hurry by Eve Bunting

How Kind  and I Kissed the Baby by Mary Murphy

Old MacDonald Had a Farm by Jane Cabrera

Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown

Mrs. Wishy Washy by Joy Cowley

Spots, Feathers and Curly Tails by Nancy Tafuri

Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins

Bridget is hosting the roundup this week.  You can also find tons of ideas at Flannel Friday's Pinterest Pages, the Flannel Friday Blog, and Flannel Friday's Facebook page.  And come on over to my shop to check out lots more sets for sale:  Flannel Board Fun!

Old MacDonald Part Two

One of my co-teachers wants an Old MacDonald set for her little girl.  I wanted to make her something cuter than my Judy Sierra set (sorry Judy :))  I found these guys through a google search.

Since her daughter is pretty young, I didn't want the backs of the animals to show where the ears, horns, and feet are glued on, since she would probably want to start picking everything apart.  So I layered these guys to cover up those little picky pieces.  Hopefully she won't want to peel off the noses, spots and hooves!

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Mary.  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!

Lamb Finger Puppets

These cuties are not for sale, but a lot of other cuties are!

It's been a little while since I've posted finger puppets.  Here are some lambs I made recently, inspired by a pattern at Precious Patterns on Etsy.

Some ideas to use these:

• Sing Baa Baa Black Sheep, subbing "black" with other color names based on the color of the sheep's face.  And throw out the "3 bags full" and make it as many as the kids you have--"...yes sir, yes sir, 6 bags full!  One for Tyler, and one for Wells, one for Vivian and one for Abby, one for Flora and one for Parker!"
• Green sheep, green sheep, who do you see?  I see a pink sheep looking at me!  Pink sheep, pink sheep, who do you see?  I see  a blue sheep looking at me!  Etc...
•  Two little white sheep sitting on a hill, one named Jack, the other named Jill.  Trot a away Jack, trot away Jill.  Come back Jack, come back Jill.

I'm hosting Flannel Friday this week!  You can find the roundup here.

Old MacDonald

This set, like my Hickory Dickory Dock and One, Two, Buckle My Shoe sets is from a Judy Sierra pattern e-book.  I actually didn't already have an Old MacDonald set--though I do often use my farm finger puppets when we sing it.  I also have a pop-up Old McD book.  But it will be nice to finally have a simple felt set to use with this classic little song. 

You can find lots of my sets in my shop-come take a look!

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Lisa at Libraryland.  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!

Five White and Fluffy Sheep

These guys have been sitting waiting for me to apply their "wool" for several weeks!  I finally got around to getting them all cozified today, so here they are in all their toasty glory :)

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

Flannel Board Fun Shop 

I got this idea from Kathryn, and I'm looking forward to using it soon.  I should probably add a little more fleece to cover their little eyes when they are "fast asleep" in the pasture, or maybe just move the little fuzzy head piece lower...