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:
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!
These are not for storytelling necessarily, although it would be fun to give each child a piece and have them come up to the board to help build a gingerbread house--and then go into a rousing rendition of The Gingerbread Man. I made these for the kids to use in the classroom--everything comes apart other than the candy canes and window panes--they are glued on.
These guys are a work in progress. I bought clip art for the patterns, but the sizing is off for various roof toppings that aren't shown, and I want to adjust them. I also made all the candy canes facing the same way (there are four but I only have two pictured), and the gumdrops and peppermints should be much smaller!
This particular set isn't for sale, but please check out my shop with many of my other sets:
Okay, so really some of these are sub-Saharan critters. Lions, zebras and giraffes don't live in jungles, right? Monkeys do...and crocodiles, and jungle elephants. But anyway, on with the rhyme!
I realize my giraffe is missing some important parts! They're going on tomorrow :)
You can read the background story below if you're interested, but if not, let's just cut to the chase!
Choose five of your animals and line 'em up. Put your sub-Saharan scene a bit away from your animals, and commence your chant:
This little monkey went to market.
This little lion stayed home.
This little zebra ate grass.
And this little elephant ate none.
And this little crocodile went
"snap snap snap snap!"
all the way home!
Move the crocodile to the picture as you're saying the last few lines, then move him back to the front of the line of animals and start over. Always put your returning animal at the front of the line, so that the next time you do the rhyme you'll have a new animal at the end of the line--that's the one that goes "all the way home".
You can really use this rhyme with any set of five animals--farm, zoo, jungle, pets, etc. You could do it with bugs, even. And sea creatures! Just make sure you know what everyone eats and what noise or movement they make before you get started :)
Background Story: A few weeks ago I was playing with one of my two year olds with these sorting farm animals:
We were lining them up, building homes for them, making them slide down ramps, and just generally having a good old time with them. (They are great, and most sorting toys are too small for below age three, so I especially love these guys!) At one point I started doing the This Little Piggy rhyme, but the row of animals I was pointing at had only one piggy, so I substituted the other animals names and sounds, and did the rhyme that way. It was a hit--I had to do it at least 17 times before I was allowed to play anywhere else!
Yesterday when I pulled out my Herman the Worm flannel board story, I recalled the hacked version of This Little Piggy rhyme and tried it with the Herman and his friends. It worked, and I decided I wanted a set to devote to it. I went for jungle animals because there are already so many farm songs and poems swimming around in my head, and I wanted to change things up a bit.
It's almost summer, and that means fall is just around the corner, so....I'll just link Flannel Friday's Fall Pinterest Page--I was inspired by several Fall is Not Easy posts there to create this one! I have one tough little cookie in my group this year who always says "I don't wanna hear that story" about pretty much everything. But when I suggest Fall is Not Easy, she says "Oh! That's my favorite one!"
Click below to see a video of how I use this set:
I highly recommend scrunching up your face and being very theatrical with each attempt to change the leaves--guffaws are sure to follow!
Everything can be random except the spring, summer and fall leaves. I always make sure they are in the right order when I put them away for next time. I have 'spring' and 'summer' written on the back of those pieces, so everyone using the set knows what's what!
I printed out the Pittsburgh Pirates and Penguins emblems on Pellon Lutradur. They aren't very vibrant, and the glue dots show through, so I am not totally happy with them. But the kids LOVE their teams, so those are a big hit. I don't particularly like the NFL (shhhhh!), so I skipped the Steelers!
I found this idea last fall over at StoryTime Secrets. I had never heard the poem before, and that's kind of rare for me after so many years teaching, so I snatched it right up! Rather than a laminated version, I decided to do a felt set using the collage method, because as you might know by now, that's my favorite as far as aesthetics go! The barn isn't collaged--it's from DLTK. I think I had started to make the whole farm set from that site, but in the end I just included it with this set to give a little farm ambiance :) If I get back around to doing the whole farm set, I'll store the barn there and pull it out to use with this, as well as other farm themed stories and rhymes.
(This particular set isn't for sale, but please check out my shop with many of my other sets:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/FlannelBoardFun)
Here are the words:
5 Little Apples (but I call it Munch, Munch, Munch)
Five little apples hung on a tree The farmer wasn't looking
So guess who came to eat? A CATERPILLAR.......MUNCH, MUNCH
Four little apples hung on a tree
The farmer wasn't looking So guess who came to eat? A BIRD.........MUNCH, MUNCH
Three little apples hung on a treeThe farmer wasn't looking So guess who came to eat? A PIG..........MUNCH,MUNCH Two little apples hung on a treeThe farmer wasn't looking So guess who came to eat? A HORSE.......MUNCH,MUNCH One little apple hung on a treeThe farmer wasn't looking So guess who came to eat? A SCARECROW......MUNCH,MUNCH Now the tree is bare There are no more apples there But when next fall comes around Guess who'll be there? THE CATERPILLAR THE BIRD THE PIG THE HORSE and the SCARECROW YUM! YUM! The Flannel Friday roundup is being hosted this week by Melissa at Mel's Desk!You'll also find other Flannel Friday goodies at Pinterest, Facebook, and the FF blog--check them out!
Sadly, I can't claim this amazing set as my own. I don't actually know who made it--one of my past co-workers (Rebekah? Sarah?) left it a few years ago, and she was clearly a talented lady! I work with a lot of graduate students, and usually they take a class in which they have to make a flannel board story. I think this was the result of that course. I'm so happy to have this set, because I actually don't care for Jules Feiffer's illustrations, especially in Bark George. These pieces are more appealing to me, and I use this set rather than the book--because the kids do love the story.
I will take credit for adding the black felt background for more stability, and I also used black fabric paint to make the lines drawn on the animals stand out more. I decided not to do that with the vet, because I was afraid I'd end up ruining him. He's pretty awesome :)
This particular set isn't for sale, but please check out my shop with many of my other sets:
These are stolen! I saw them at Falling Flannelboards and had to have them! Their eyeballs are so cute, and we love to talk about 'eyeballs' in my three-year-old class...
This particular set isn't for sale, but please check out my shop with many of my other sets:
We use these (little, friendly, or silly) guys as either monsters or aliens. We've had them jump on a bed or in a crib as monsters, and they've also bounced on planets when we call them aliens. When you first say "monster" to young children, you might get some fearful looks--but by calling them friendly or silly, and by giggling at their adorable eyeballs, and by having them bounce around in a baby's crib, for goodness sake, the fears can be dispelled a bit. I also have a laminated set of these so the children can handle them often, giving them a little more control over something that might be a scary concept.
When I first discovered Flannel Friday, Five Clean and Dirty Pigs was one of the first sets I made for my classroom. I made the little porkers below, which were clearly copied from these guys at Storytime Katie. We use them all the time in my classroom now, but for some reason I hadn't posted about them...
One of the teachers at my school wanted a set for her classroom, and I decided to change them up a little for her. I made my own piggies:
And then another year and more ideas rolled around, and I created these guys:
And then I thought--hey, other people might like to make these, too!
So I made a pattern for you:
Here are the words--sing 'em to the tune of Three Green and Speckled Frogs!
Five pigs so squeaky clean,
Cleanest you’ve ever seen,
Wanted to go outside and play (in the mud! or Oink! Oink! or Snort, snort!)
One jumped into the mud,
Landed with a big THUD! (stomp your foot!! And flip that piggy over as you jump her into the mud--but fast, so the kids don't see it!)
Now there are four pigs squeaky clean (oink, oink!)
Continue counting down until they're all a big dirty, muddy, sloppy mess! You can hose them off with imaginary hoses, and flip them over again so fast the kids just can't figure out where the mud went!
I haven't had any new sets to share lately, because of the vendor fair in April. I came up with flexible "travel flannel mats" to sell to go along with the sets I created and posted about. You can see the mats hanging over the backs of my chairs, and stacked up on top of each other. The trains were all spread out to dry. The other sets were bagged and waiting to go to their new homes :)
I've been busy. Thank goodness for spring loaded scissors...
So, after the vendor fair in April, I've been overwhelmingly busy making flannel board stories to fulfill all my orders. I've been happily cutting away, but I miss producing new stories for my own use. I have nothing new to post!
I do have a few sets I made long ago that I haven't posted yet, and one of those is this week's installment. Completely irrelevant at this time of year, but pretty adorable nonetheless. Here are my Five Fat Turkeys:
And here's a video of how I use the set:
Those guys are too labor intensive to make, so I came up with a simpler set, which is available at my shop!
We used to do this only as a finger play, but I find the addition of these cute turkeys and adorable chef makes it even better...
Five Fat Turkeys
Five fat turkeys are we.
(hold up five fingers)
We slept all night in a
tree. (make fingers into fist)
When the cook came around
we couldn’t be found. (thumb of other hand looks around the fist)
Hmmmm….Where did all my
turkeys go?! (thumb wiggles as it talks)
And that’s why we’re here
you see, yippee! (open fist so turkeys can cheer!)
You could also start with
only one turkey in the tree and sing the song for that one turkey, and then add
the other turkeys one by one.
One fat turkey that’s me
I slept all night in a
tree
When the cook came around
I couldn’t be found
Hmmm…Where did all my
turkeys go?
Hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph!
And that’s why I’m here
you see, yippee!
Then have that little guy
call for another turkey friend to join him in the tree, and so on until all
five are in the tree.
We also act this out, with "lots of fat turkeys" hiding in one corner of the room all curled up, and lots of chefs coming to look for them and then stomping away, and then all the turkeys jump up and cheer. It's awesome. Especially if you're a pescatarian like me :)
Like what you see? Click below to get free song strips and lyrics to go with them--perfect to use during circle time and story time, or anytime you need a quick song or game!
