Flannel Friday Roundup for June 24th!

Hi everyone! Here's the Flannel Friday Roundup for the week... Thanks to everyone for their wonderful contributions!

First up we've got sports metaphors galore over at Awnali's Librarian Is on the Loose! She brings us THREE sports-related sets, including these helmets to use as a Little Mouse variation...

...a sports ball guessing game...

...and finally a really cute take on Five Elephants, using soccer players!

If you're not into competitive sports, you can always get outside for some non-competitive fun... Maybe go fly a kite? Check out Kathryn's amazing (I mean, really!) Kite set to accompany Grace Lin's Kite Flying. It is beautiful, and a wonderful way to get kids interacting as they help build a kite on the board. I love this!

Kate at Felt Board Magic brings back the classic Five Little Ducks... (with hills!)
(Sorry Kate--I can't get your pictures to work on my blog :( )

...as well as a sweet and simple color game using umbrellas (with eyes!). Both should be staples in your repertoire!

Speaking of sweet and simple, Laura at Literacious joins in the fun with this lovely set of felt Balloons. She's got it paired up with Balloons, Balloons, Balloons, by Dee Lillegard, and includes several ideas on how to get the children involved and participating in the story. I especially love her color combination and shiny rick rack balloon strings!

From sweet and simple, we go to...um...just plain suh-weeet! You have got to check out Keith's (at Felt-tastic Flannelboard Funtime) T-themed sets. He's got Tools to go along with Emma Garcia's Tap Tap Bang Bang (I have a copy that's been sitting right here waiting for me to flannelize it, and I have now been pushed into action!) But wait, there's more...

...He has dump trucks dumping shapes (seemingly random shapes, but just you wait) hither and yon... Sound effects are happening. And songs...

...and finally, it all comes together when the tools build those dumped shapes into a train! Genius at work, folks. I'm copying.

Now, we're still not done! What would a summertime Flannel Friday be without a quick trip to the ocean?! Jennifer at Bookwings takes us to the beach and sings us some songs, sharing not only this beautifully cut Once I Caught A Fish (and various other sea creatures) Alive set...

...but also this squiggly little bloom of Jellyfish to go along with the Five Little Jellyfish rhyme. She also share tons of book ideas to go along with the Ocean theme, and don't miss the video of Jennifer singing Baby Beluga with her ukulele! You rocked it, Jennifer :)

Finally, I'm sharing two stories I've adapted to the flannel board.

One--an oldie but goodie: Titch by Pat Hutchins...

... and

Two: a newie but goodie: Night Animals by Gianna Marino.

Thanks again for participating, everyone! 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! Next week there's no Flannel Friday due to the July 4th holiday in the US. Check the blog for the July/August schedule!

(My cats are so thrilled to see what you made! See how excited they look??! Great work everyone!)

Titch

This has been on my To Do List for at least ten years... No time like the present! Pat Hutchins was one of the first authors I was introduced to as a preschool teacher, and I've continued to use her books in my classroom over the past twenty years.

Titch, his sister Mary, and his brother Pete. Those bigs--they always get the big stuff!

Hmph! Tiny little pinwheel....

Silly little trike...

Puny little whistle...

Nails? Really?

Miniscule little seed. Pfff.

WOW!! Look what I grew!!

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

Flannel Board Fun Shop

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!

Night Animals

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:

Flannel Board Fun

Gingerbread House Set

Nothing like gingerbread in the middle of June!

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:

Flannel Board Fun Shop

The Flannel Friday roundup is being hosted this week by Mollie at What Happens in Storytime! You'll also find other Flannel Friday goodies at Pinterest, Facebook, and the FF blog--check them out!

This Little Jungle Critter...

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 :)

A new version of this set is available in my shop!

The Flannel Friday roundup is being hosted this week by Kate at Felt Board Magic! You'll also find other Flannel Friday goodies at Pinterest, Facebook, and the FF blog--check them out!

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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.

Fall is Not Easy

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!

Click here to shop:

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!

Munch, Munch, Munch

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!

Bark George

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:

Flannel Board Fun Shop

The Flannel Friday Roundup is being hosted this week by Laura at Library Lalaland! You'll also find other Flannel Friday goodies at Pinterest, Facebook, and the FF blog--check them out!

Five Friendly Monsters...or are they Aliens?

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:

Flannel Board Fun Shop

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.

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Emily at Literary Hoots. You can also find lots of wonderful ideas at Pinterest and Facebook.

Five Pigs So Squeaky Clean

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:

You can buy this reversible set of adorable porkers at my shop.

I loved them so much, I made a video.

No, TWO videos, with new lyrics created!

(Actually, even more than that! Here are some curly tail songs for you :) )

You can check them out below.

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!

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

Goodies