Flannel Board Fun

Somebody's Moving in the Sea (an Ocean Song for Kids)!

When I was teaching preschool, we used to use this tune to welcome the kids to circle time. "Somebody's knocking at my door--oh, Suzie, I hear you knocking..." It's actually an old hymn, but we went a little lighter with it ;)

I thought this tune would work perfectly with my ocean set. I think I was right :) I certainly had fun making this video and performing all the movements.

It would absolutely be super fun to make this a standing up movement activity! Do it!!

Ocean Friend Count Up

I wrote this song to go along with my Five Ocean Critters set last year, but only now got around to making a video for it! I had a lot of fun with this one!

This ocean song is just a wee bit tricky in the math department, probably most understandable to older preschool kids. You'll see what I mean when you watch the video.

But it's SO fun for all the little ones: we get to do diving and splashing and all kinds of fishy movements!

And as usual, I've made it easy to learn and join in on by using a familiar tune--this time, it's the Five Little Ducks tune.

Take a look right here:

Hope you like that one! And I hope it makes any ocean, beach, or fishy themed circle time that much easier to plan for :)

Did You Ever See a Lassie (Ocean Version!)

Whether you're prepping for your Ocean's of Possibilities Summer Reading Program, or you just like oceans critters as much as I do, or you like singing songs about ocean animals with small children--or any combination of the above... This one's for you :)

As always, I'm on a mission to come up with as many way as possible to use each felt set in my collection. My ocean set already has a bunch of songs to use with it (here's a whole playlist!), but I wanted more!

Enter Did You Ever See a Lassie, Ocean Version. I love this one because you can do it sitting down as a finger play, or you can get up and move! It teaches ocean vocabulary--and you can totally switch it up and let the kids come up with the movement words, too. Plus, you most likely already know the tune, so it's suuuper easy to learn this one.

Anyway, enough talk! Here's the video--enjoy :)

If you like singing and rhyming and generally having fun with kids,

I think you'll love these songs strips:

Ramadan Storytime Set

Next month is Ramadan, and I don't have a Ramadan set! Strike that--I DIDN'T have a Ramadan set. But now I do :)

Like my Kwanzaa and Diwali sets, I had to do quite a bit of research for this set--because I don't personally celebrate Ramadan. Here's what I wrote about those holidays, and it applies here, too:

I thought it would be fun to create some holiday sets for holidays that I don't personally celebrate. (I was right--it WAS fun, and wow, I learned a lot while doing research for these sets.) I'm so happy to be able to share these, as I think it's so important to expose kids to various cultures, and to share in celebrations with the kids who DO celebrate holidays outside of my own experience :)

I focus holiday sets on the parts of holidays that kids understand, so the concepts are about simple traditions vs. religious themes.

I also want them to be usable both as storytime sets-- where the adult is using the set pieces as props to support a rhyme, song or story--and as play sets for the kids--where the kids are re-enacting traditions, songs, and stories that they've learned about.

Here's one of the rhymes I've written to go along with this set:

Ramadan is Here ©Wendy Gerbi

Place your felt pieces on the board s you sing about them and use the pieces to act out the words as you sing them.