Spring Chicks Felt Board Set

Spring has sprung!

And with spring comes...chicks!

Ten of them.  (A clutch!)  

And a mama hen, too.  So sweet.

I used to have a laminated cardstock set for this rhyme.  I wrote about it here, many moons ago.

I like this set much better, because with each chick/egg loose, there are so many more rhymes and songs you can use the set for.

I've got those written, and all the videos will be out soon!  In the meantime, here's the first one, for the original Ten Fluffy Chicks rhyme and finger play.  Which I love and hope you do too :)

Lots more videos are right here!

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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.  

 

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Three Green Frogs on a Log!

So we all know Three Green and Speckled Frogs.  It's a classic preschool song, and I love using it at circle time.  In fact, I've posted about it here. 

But I like to mix things up, so I'm using these froggies for a few new songs, to be posted here over the next several months.

Here's the first installment of my mini frog series :)

Three Green Frogs on a Log 

Here are the felt pieces I use:

...and here are the lyrics.  

(For the tune and a demo, click here or on the lyrics picture below :) )

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10 in a Cave

You might recognize these sweeties from my Five in the Bed set.  This set was a custom order for a kindergarten teacher.  

10 bears and a cave--what's not to love?!

Get inspired to make up a 10 bear rhyme with my 5 in the Bed ideas.

And of course, you could do something simple like:

Ten Brown Bears in a Cave

(to the tune of 100 bottles of beer on the wall!)

Ten brown bears in a cave,

 Ten brown bears, 

One wakes up,

Gives a quick wave, 

Nine brown bears in a cave!

(and then continue to count down. ) 

Or (to the Tune of Farmer Brown's Apples)

Ten brown bears, take a winter's sleep.

Ten brown bears, take a winter's sleep.

If one of those bears, 

Should wake without a peep...

There'd be nine brown bears

Taking a winter's sleep.

You could also make up a variation using the Jellyfish song

Have fun--and visit me on Instagram to see my sets in action!

Over in the Meadow

I presented a bunch of flannel board songs and games to a lovely group of librarians this past week, and on the drive back home I started down memory lane.  I miss doing circle times!  I love singing, dancing, reading, and playing with kids!  (My cats just don't interact the same way ;)  )

One of the songs that stuck out on that lane of memories is this fantastic version of Over in the Meadow.  It's a Barefoot Books version, which I was introduced to by one of my past student's mom.  I just love, love, love it.  Here it is!

I have a felt set of this song, too.  I couldn't do all ten animals--it was just TOOooooo much. 

 But I've got five parents, and 15 babies, and that's just right for me :) 

(I ended up making a custom set for a lovely lady, and it does include all 10 parents and their wee babies.  In case you're interested, here's what that looked like:)

And here's a video of my set in action:

I love combining books and music, and this one throws in math as well!  Hey!  Learning IS fun!

Happy spring!!

Like what you see?  Subscribe to my newsletter for lots of preschooly goodness, and get a free Shake Your Booty Cube, perfect for circle times, story times, and using at home!

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!

Caterpillar to Butterfly

Spring sprang some time ago, so I'm a little late to the butterfly game!  But better late than never, here are my pieces to go along with a couple of caterpillar/butterfly rhymes/songs:

I might update my caterpillar at some point to make it fit with the more realistic butterfly and chrysalis, but for now it will do!

Here are a couple of the songs I do with this one:

The Fuzzy Caterpillar (to the tune of The Itsy Bitsy Spider)
The fuzzy caterpillar
Curled upon a leaf,
Spun her little chrysalis
And then fell asleep.
While she was sleeping,
She dreamed that she could fly,
And later when she woke up
She was a butterfly!

The only tune I could find to link and share for this next one is not the tune I use, and I don't like the annoying Youtube video, so I'm not sharing it here... Hopefully you can figure out a tune that works for you!  You can always just chant the lyrics instead of singing them.

The Caterpillar
A caterpillar crawled to the top of a tree,
"I think I'll take a nap,” said she.
So under a leaf, she began to creep
to spin her chrysalis and she fell asleep.
All winter she slept in her chrysalis bed.
Till spring came along one day, and said,
"Wake up, wake up little sleepy head!
Wake up--it's time to get out of bed!"
So she opened her eyes that sun shiny day--
She was a butterfly and flew away!

And here's a song we sing without the use of the flannel pieces.

I Spin My Chrysalis (to the tune of Pop Goes the Weasel--but a lovely slow version)
I spin and spin my chrysalis (roll hands)
I go to sleep inside. (curl up in ball)
When I wake up I've changed indeed-- (wiggle)
I'm a butterfly! (spread out arms and shake them off--and then fly!)

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Kate at FeltBoardMagic.  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!

Build a Bug Set

Bugs gross me out.  So, I needed to neutralize them for this set.  In other words, make them pretty and rather unrealistic.  I guess I'm doing a disservice to the children in my classroom by doing this, but I see it done in a lot of books too, so I'm just going with the flow :) 

Click here to buy this set!

In my classroom, I have individual flannel boards for the children to use on their laps, on the floor, or at a table.  That's where I'll have these buggies available.  I might also incorporate them into a small group time and let the children help me build some bugs on the big board.  Lots of great opportunities for vocabulary and imagination building with this set!

If you're a librarian, you could make these available at a felt table after a bug, spring, or garden story time.

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

Five Little Mice

I have had these little squeakers ready to go for many, many months--except for the mama mouse.  Before some quick adjustments tonight, she looked sort of like a gray, long-tailed dog.  She only had one ear, and it was the wrong shape.  So I trimmed off her nose, peeled off that puppy ear, shortened her tail, made her nose pink, added a smile, and put two mouse ears on.  Ahhh.  Much better!

Here's the mama before I fixed her--yikes!

I found a couple of songs to go along with this. I can't for the life of me figure out where I got the first one...  Please let me know if I stole it from you!

To the tune of Five Little Ducks:

Five little mice went out to play

Through the fields and far away.

Mama mouse called "squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak!"

Then one little mouse played hide and seek.

Count down to zero, then...

Five little mice played hide and seek

Didn't come home when their mama squeaked.

                                     But when the big cat started to hiss,

They all ran home as quick as this (clap!)

I'd use my kitten puppet to go along with this, and I think I'll make (or borrow from another set) some items for the mice to hide behind.

The second one is from Kididdles:

Five little mice came out to play

Gathering crumbs along the way

Out came pussycat sleek and fat

Four little mice go scampering back

(continue, counting down)

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Kate at Felt Board Magic.  

For more info about Flannel Friday, check out these links:

Pinterest and Facebook and the Flannel Friday Blog!

And hey--I'd love to have you visit my shop!

Little White Duck

I've always loved the Little White Duck song.  I especially like this version of the book, but I only have a small board book copy which is hard to use with a large group, and which I believe is missing some of the pages from the larger copy.  

Sometimes I'll use my classroom's old, worn out, too-small felt set of Little White Duck, along with Ivan Ulz's version of the song.  But that set is so old, worn out, and too-small that I had to DO something about it!!  So, I did this:

Here's a video of these cuties in action:

                              

And here are the lyrics:

There's a little white duck, sitting in the water

A little white duck, doing what he oughter

He took a bite of a lily pad

Flapped his wings and he said, "I'm glad

I'm a little white duck sitting in the water

Quack, quack, quack!"

There's a little green frog swimming in the water

A little green frog, doing what he oughter

He jumped right off of the lily pad

That the little duck bit and he said, "I'm glad

I'm a little green frog swimming in the water

Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit!"

There's a little black bug floating on the water

A little black bug doing what he oughter

He tickled the frog on the lily pad

That the little duck bit and he said, "I'm glad

I'm a little black bug floating on the water

Buzz, buzz, buzz!"

There's a little red snake slithering in the water

A little red snake doing what he oughter

He frightened the duck and the frog so bad

He ate the little bug and he said, "I'm glad

I'm a little red snake laying in the water

Hiss, hiss, hiss!"

Now there's nobody left sitting in the water

Nobody left doing what they oughter

There's nothing left but the lily pad

The duck and the frog ran away, I'm sad

'Cause there's nobody left sitting in the water,

Boo, Hoo, Hoo!

These will be making their debut next week with my summer campers!  Can't wait to see what they think :)

Oh, and by the way:

Want to buy this set?  You can check it out at my shop right here.

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Bridget at What is Bridget Reading.  Check out the round up there, and don't forget to find more amazing flannel board ideas at Pinterest and Facebook and the Flannel Friday Blog!

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

Well, I looked up the meaning behind the lyrics to this one, and I just won't share that with the kids :)  No need to terrorize two- and three-year-olds, I always say...  I'll just pretend it's about a little girl growing some lovely flowers.

I'm enjoying making these simple nursery rhymes into flannel sets.  I tend to have more sets that work with my older group, but these can be used with all ages.

I'm very disappointed in my cockleshells--the fabric paint is just a mess, and doesn't give the look I was going for at all.  But, the kids won't care so I'll deal with it.  From far away it's not terrible, and I think Mary and the Pretty Maids make up for it :)

This particular set isn't available for purchase yet, but please stop by my shop where you'll find lots of my flannels for sale!

Shop Flannel Board Fun!

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Jen at Adventures in Storytime.  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.

Chickens and Chicks

Okay, spring has sprung!  And with spring come chicks, and eggs, and other stuff not featured in this post.  Such as the Cadbury mini eggs I'm eating by the handful.

These happy chicks are felt versions from this post from Mel's Desk.  Here's the poem:

One Little Chick

One little chick was yellow

One little chick was brown

One little chick was blue

And one was upside down!

I cannot WAIT to share this with my Two Year Olds.  They were so excited about Silly Sally when I read it to them today, and I know they're going to flip when I put that gray chick on the board upside down!  Oh the giggles!!

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

Flannel Board Fun Shop

The pieces below come from the same post at Mel's Desk.  I didn't do this one in felt--just found some clip art and printed it out.  I took the pictures before the set was laminated--yay for no glare!

Ten Fluffy Chickens

Five eggs and five eggs  (Add a clutch of eggs each time you say “five eggs”)

And that makes ten

Sitting on top (Add the hen)

Is Mother Hen

Cackle cackle cackle (Clap hands as you say Cackle!)

What do I see?

Ten fluffy chickens (Flip over each clutch of eggs)

Yellow as can be.

I need to do more of these super simple sets--I love them, and I know my littlest ones will too.

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

Three Green and Speckled Frogs

This school year I've been so focused on making flannel versions of new songs and stories, that some of my old favorites have been sort of forgotten.  I've had a Three Green and Speckled Frogs flannel board set for many years.  I actually like it a lot--I didn't really need to make a new set, but for the fact that one of our bugs (or at least one of its antennae) is missing. 

But I wanted cuter eyeballs, and bigger everything...

And so, I made these adorable replacement froggies and buggies.  And I wrote some other fun songs to go with the set, so I can use this a billion times instead of just a million :) (Here's Three Green Frogs on a Log, for example.)

Do you need these cuties in your life?

Click here to buy these guys :)

Just in case you need them, here are the lyrics:

Three green and speckled frogs

Sat on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs. Yum! Yum!
One jumped into the pool
Where it was nice and cool
Now there are two green speckled frogs--glub glub.

Two green and speckled frogs
Sat on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs. Yum! Yum!
One jumped into the pool
Where it was nice and cool
Now there is one green speckled frog--glub, glub.

One green and speckled frog
Sat on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs. Yum! Yum!
He jumped into the pool
Where it was nice and cool
Now there are no green speckled frogs--glub glub!

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

Flannel Friday: Rabbits!

After seeing  this set of bunnies at Loons and Quines, and this adorable song at Ram Sam Storytime,   I started off by making the rabbits, and then realized they were probably too big to use with the song. I'd need to make an even larger bunny to be the mama--along with the stump and the carrot patch, which I also wanted to be bigger than those lovely guys...  But all of that would hardly fit on my board...

So, off I went to google some clip art images of stumps and carrot patches.  The results are below.  I can use one of the big bunnies from the original set to be the mommy or daddy to those cute little cotton-tails :)

I will store all of these together, and pick and choose which bunnies to pull out.

Here are the lyrics to the song linked above:

Once upon a time there were five bunnies.

They lived with their momma (or daddy!) in a tree stump.

One day ...

Five little bunnies

One spring day

Went to the carrot patch

Far away.

Momma bunny called 

"Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!"

stomp foot on ground

But only four came back to their stump ...

count all the way down until there are zero bunnies

last time :

Sad mother bunny

One spring day ...

Went to the carrot patch

Far away ...

Momma bunny went ...

thump ... thump ... thump ... thump ...

and ALL of her bunnies came back to their stump!!

And perfect to do after this, is Mollie's poem:

Tired Bunnies

“Come my bunnies, it’s time for bed.”

That’s what the mother bunny said.

“But first I’ll count you just to see,

If you have all come back to me.

Bunny 1, Bunny 2, Bunny 3, oh dear,

Bunny 4, Bunny 5, yes, you’re all here.

You’re the sweetest things alive,

My bunnies 1,2,3,4,5.”

  

Here are some more rabbit poems and songs I've collected over the years:

Five Little Easter Bunnies

 Five little Easter bunnies standing at the door

One boils the eggs and then there are four.

Four little Easter bunnies sitting under a tree.

One dyes the eggs and then there are three.

Three little Easter bunnies wondering what to do.

One decorates the eggs and then there are two.

Two little Easter bunnies, oh what fun.

One puts the eggs in a basket, and then there was one.

One little Easter bunny, what can you say?

He hides the eggs for a happy Easter day!

Five Little Bunnies Hopping Down the Trail

5 little bunnies hopping down the trail,

One fell down and bumped her tail.

Mama called the doctor–what did she say?

No more bunnies hopping today!

Repeat till there are no bunnies left. 

 (I often end these kinds of "5 little monkeys" variations with the
 mommy or daddy animal kissing the babies goodnight.)

Five Little Rabbits

Five little rabbits sitting by the door.

One hopped away, and then there were four.

Four little rabbits under a tree.

One hopped away, and then there were three.

Three little rabbits drinking morning dew.

One hopped away, and then there were two.

Two little rabbits resting in the sun.

One hopped away, and then there was one.

One little rabbit isn’t any fun.

He hopped away to find the others,

and then there were none.

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.