Flannel Friday: The Pets I Love (Magnet Board)

This week I did my first baby storytime!  SQUEEEEEE! While prepping for it, I knew I had to include the song “The Pets I Love” from the Baby Signing Time CD series by Rachel Coleman. I’ve talked about Baby Signing Time before and am a HUGE advocate for it.  Not only for the product itself, but for Rachel too. She’s a really magnificent woman who has gone through more in her life than I probably ever well.  And she never let it hold her down or felt sorry for herself.  She is who is she today BECAUSE of all those things.  And for that, I look up to her.  She has such a positive attitude and inspires me to be better.  If you get a chance, check out her blog. She doesn’t post often, but when she does, it’s always great.

ANYWAYS, back to my Flannel Friday!  I created magnet pieces to put on our board while we sing the song “The Pets I Love”.  Very simple, nothing fancy. I used clip art, laminated them, and attached a magnet!  Wallah! I know I could have done it on flannel pieces, but this was much faster 🙂

Flannel Friday: Brown Bear, Brown Bear

The Brown Bear is much bigger than these guys

Okay, so this is more of a storytelling activity than a flannel board.  But I really wanted to share it with you all!  Last week I did a Teddy Bear’s Picnic, so of course everything was bear themed.  I love the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? By: Bill Martin.  I don’t think I know anyone who DOESN’T love that book. I also love to use it because most of the children know the story.  This time around I didn’t want to just read the story, or just use my flannel board, but I wanted the kids to help me tell the story.  When our Outreach Department closed late last year, they had tons of stuff in storage that we were able to use. Kits, crafts, crayons, flannels etc.  Well, I found these great laminated pieces that went along with the story and really wanted to use them.  My idea was to pass one out to each child so that when we came to that animal in the story, they could come up to the front of the room and hold up their animal!  I invited everyone to help me tell the story too.  Of course, I had to make sure I had several pieces of each animal so there would be enough for everyone, but it worked out.  Sometimes we had three ducks and only one cat, it was ok!  By the end of the story all the kids were standing up front holding their animals proudly.  It was a blast!  I will definitely do it again. A few kids didn’t want to come up front, so I told them it was ok to just hold up their animal where they were sitting.  I hope you all can try this next time you tell this story!

Flannel Friday: Sylvie (The Flamingo)

It’s been such a long time since I participated in Flannel Friday and I really miss it.  I just had to look up how long it’s been.  April, wow.  That’s 6 months!  I definitely need to participate more often!  So I finally made a flannel that I’ve been putting off for a little while.  As soon as I read the book Sylvie By: Jennifer Sattler I knew it would make the PERFECT flannel.  If you haven’t seen this book, be sure to check it out or buy it for your collection.  I promise you won’t be sorry 🙂

It’s a story about a flamingo named Sylvie and she learns that she is pink because of what she eats, so she decides to try eating other things.  As you can imagine, she has some crazy results!

The end is my favorite part!

Flannel Friday: 5 Little Caterpillars

This week’s Flannel Friday is a special one because Seth wrote it, and I made it!  I got the idea that I wanted caterpillars to be transformed into butterflies and asked him to write it for me.  THEN, I got an even better idea to make the last “caterpillar” a worm.  I think it flows very nicely!  I’m hoping the kids don’t pay TOO much attention to the fact that all the “caterpillars” don’t look the same.  On one side of the flannel square is a caterpillar, then I flip it over when it turns into a butterfly.  Easy!  I was able to use our Ellison die cut machine for this too, so that made it even easier.  Sorry I don’t have a pattern!

5 Little Caterpillars tucked in eggs among a score

1 began to hatch and that left four.

4 Little Caterpillars munching on some leaves

One became too full and that left three.

3 Little Caterpillars spinning their cocoons

One fell right to sleep and that left two.

2 Little Caterpillars basking in the sun

Then he became a butterfly! …BUT WAIT! There still was one.

1 Little Caterpillar waiting for his turn

But it never came because he was…a worm!

Flannel Friday: Five Little Birds

Here is my Flannel Friday for this week!  I really like this “5 little” counting rhyme because it’s a little different than the usual ones.  Instead of taking things away, we add them!

Five Little Birds

1 little bird with feathers of blue, flew beside the green one and then there were 2

2 little birds singing in the tree, the red one came to join them and then there were 3

3 little birds wishing there were more, along came the pink bird and then there were 4

4 little birds happy to be alive, found a yellow one and then there were 5

5 little birds happy as can be, singing beautiful songs just for you and me!