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...

T-R-A-I-N Video!

Looking for a way to build some early literacy skills through a fun and interactive song?  Especially for the little train lovers?  It's your lucky day ;) 

Not only are you introducing or reinforcing letter names in this song, but you're building musical skills as the kids keep the beat by rubbing their hands together.  You're reinforcing color concepts as you name (or have the kids name) the colors of the train cars.  There are motor and coordination skills being built as they attempt to make the 'choo' movement (and try NOT to sing the letter name!).  Plus--it's fun!

I have a bunch of other train related preschooly stuff over on my FlannelBoardFun.com blog, too.  You can check those goodies out right here:

Like what you see?  Sign up for more preschooly goodness:

Down by the Station

I made a cute little Down by the Station video using my Train Set and characters from my Goldilocks, Five Little Monkeys, and Ocean Set.  You could make so many variations of this using whatever characters you want. (Edit: I've discontinued my Five Monkeys set due to racist roots.)

Talking about where Goldi drops off the animals at the end is a nice little way to build vocabulary.  The hand motions to go along with the song build musical skills (which in turn build early literacy skills.)  You can extend this to be more interactive by having the kids choose which animal goes in which color car...  As always, there are so many possibilities!  Have fun!

Transportation Set

Thanks to custom requests, I am able to keep up with my best laid plans of frequent Flannel Friday posts!  Well, actually my plans were for every Friday, but I am now just going to have to admit that that isn't going to happen.  But better sometimes than never...  

This set is intended to go along with a Barefoot Book called We All Go Traveling By, but it can be used in lots of ways.  

Conversation starters, for instance:  "I have something hiding in this box that has LOTS of wheels, and can carry lots of people, or freight...  Does anyone have an idea of what it could be?"  "Ok, the next thing in my box has NO wheels, but it can still carry people from place to place...What could it be?"

Do you have other ideas of how to use this set?  Leave them in the comments below!

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

Freight Train

Freight Train by Donald Crews has long been a favorite in my classroom. We've had a laminated paper version in my classroom for many years.  It is wonderful, but it's a little too large to work well on our flannel board.  We have it out for the children to use on their own, and they love it.  But I still wanted a felt version for the teacher to use, too.

So, I took those pieces and shrunk them down to use as my pattern.  When the train moves in daylight, we put up the sun; in darkness, we put up the moon.  There's the tunnel, and a city.  I skipped the trestle, because it would take 150 hours to make it...  I used a little fabric paint to put some of the details on the train cars, but tried to keep these pretty simple.  The city is the most detailed piece, and I love it :)

You can no longer buy this set but I've got lots of other goodies here.

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Cate at Storytiming.  You can also find tons of ideas at Flannel Friday's Pinterest Pages, the Flannel Friday Blog, and Flannel Friday's Facebook page.

BINGO Variations Galore!

I recently posted my APPLE variation of BINGO

 

and thought it would be fun to include some other variations since the kids love them so much!  Such a great early literacy tool. The children really love talking about the letters and letter sounds, and saying the new words that we create each time we take away a letter.  Once they've got the hang of it, we sometimes mix it up and remove letters out of order rather than always from left to right... Oh, the hilarity!  When we're singing about vehicles, we pretend to drive, when we're singing about animals, we pretend to be those animals.  I sometimes put a visual on the back side of the piece, so when we flip it over the letter is gone and a new symbol indicates the new sound to make ("crunch" for apples, "beep" for trucks, "snort" for pigs...)

This apple set is available pre-made, or as a pattern so you can make it yourself :)

Let's start with T-R-U-C-K! 

(You may recognize the trucks below from my previous post on Little Mouse Variations.  It's great to be able to re-use pieces in different flannel stories and songs.)

I learned this song from a co-worker many years ago.  I'm not sure where she got it--she was extremely creative, so no doubt she just whipped it up on her very own...  It goes like this:

I've got a great big shiny truck, I'm driving it today-o!

T-R-U-C-K, T-R-U-C-K,T-R-U-C-K,

I'm driving it today-o!

Once the letter is flipped to show just the red circle, we say "beep!"

Next up--P-I-Z-Z-A!

I stole this from Storytime Katie!.  For this one, I just remove the letter from the piece of pizza rather than flipping it over--I couldn't come up with something to represent the "YUM" and the tummy rub we do.  (Feel free to share if you have an idea!)  So, for this one it's:

There is a treat I like to eat and pizza is its name-oh!

P-I-Z-Z-A, P-I-Z-Z-A, P-I-Z-Z-A, 

And pizza is its name-oh!

 We are all seriously hungry after this one...  Don't forget to get out your napkin and wipe your saucy face off at the end!

Moving right along, let's get snorting with some pigs!

I found my idea for the song here, and was greatly inspired by these cute little swine as well.  Here's the song:

There was a hungry little hog, and Piggy was his name-o!

(or:  There was a hog who loved the mud, etc.)

 P-I-G-G-Y, P-I-G-G-Y, P-I-G-G-Y 

And Piggy was his name-o!

When we flip over the letter, the little pigs and their big snouts tell us to say "oink" (or snort!) in place of the letter name!  

And now...T-R-A-I-N!

(Which my husband and I made up during a recent car ride together... my husband drew the oncoming train image that is on the reverse side of each car.)

You can buy these cuties here.

What's that chugging down the track?

I think it is a tra-ain!

T-R-A-I-N, T-R-A-I-N, T-R-A-I-N,

Oh, yes!  It is a tra-ain!

When we flip the car, the oncoming train tells us to say "choo!"

Next up:  HEART

I've had a plain laminated version of this for a few years, but I loved making these fancy felt valentines.  When we flip over the hearts we make a kissing noise or hug ourselves (or both!), so I used the universal symbol for hugs and kisses. xoxoxo!  Here are the lyrics (which I thought I got at Perpetual Preschool years ago, but now I can't find them there):

I made a valentine for you, the heart shape means "I love you!" 

H-E-A-R-T, H-E-A-R-T, H-E-A-R-T, 

The heart shape means "I love you!"

And finally, we have B-U-N-N-Y!

These bunnies star in various other stories and songs, so the letters are not permanently attached.  I made them out of regular felt, but decided to spray them with stiffener so they wouldn't get so squashed in the storage bag.  We take the letter off and make our bunny-ear-fingers hop as we say "hop", or we even do this standing up and actually HOP when we say it!  Here's the song (which I pulled out of my magic hat):

I know a cute white cottontail and Bunny is her name-oh.

B-U-N-N-Y, B-U-N-N-Y,B-U-N-N-Y,

and Bunny is her name-oh!

That's my collection for now!  I'm sure I'll add to it, as I've seen versions for ROBOT, MOMMY, DADDY and more at the Flannel Friday Pinterest Song page.  Take a look for more inspiration :)

     

     

Flannel Friday is being hosted by Ms. Kelly at the Library and of course you'll find lots of other ideas at Flannel Friday's blog or Pinterest page.