Flannel Friday Round Up for October 20

Hey, y’all!  Welcome to the October 20 Flannel Friday Round Up.  Have a great flannel to share?  Drop your link in the comments and I’ll add it!

Wendy at Flannel Board Fun shares a great “Wheels on the Bus” flannel.  I can’t get over how adorable this bus is!  This flannel has everything for your favorite traditional verses, including a super-cute horn, wipers, and crying baby.

Amy at One Little Librarian shares her “Five Little Monsters Came to School” flannel.  This adorable set features some of your favorite Sesame Street monsters (which I know would definitely be a hit at my library) and simple counting.

I didn’t have time to write up a new Flannel Friday post this week, but you can check out some of my past entries in the archives here.  Thanks to everyone for sharing this week!

New or looking to learn more about Flannel Friday?  Check out the blog or join the Facebook group.  For more inspiration, check out the Flannel Friday Pinterest boards, or look for conversations and links on Twitter using the hashtag #flannelstorytime.

Flannel Friday: Blue Square House

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for a long overdue Flannel Friday entry.  My goal is to eventually share all of the flannel stories that I’ve created, so with that in mind, I’m starting at the beginning of my flannel arsenal, alphabetically speaking.  Interestingly enough, I’ve yet to create a flannel that starts with “A.”

What You Need

The pieces for this set are pretty simple:  a square, a triangle, a rectangle, a circle, a star, and a crescent.  I created all of the pieces from simple clipart shapes that matched what I needed, sized to fit on top of each other like a house.  The most important thing is matching up the colors, because the rhyme relies on naming the shapes and colors while you build the house.

The Story

This rhyme was taught to be by one of my fabulous coworkers, Lara Barrett, at another branch of our library.  It goes like this:

I live inside a blue square house

With a green rectangle door.

It has a red triangle roof,

But look outside – there’s more!

In the morning when I wake up

The sun is in the sky:

A bright and shining orange circle

Way up high.

And when it’s time to go to bed

There’s a single yellow star

Beside a big white crescent moon

Looking down from so, so far.

Shapes and colors, come with me.

Let’s count how many we can see!

Credit:  Lara Barrett, W.O. Haggard, Jr. Library (Plano Public Library)

Tips for Use

I start by putting up the different shapes all over the board, in no particular order, while we name the colors and the shapes.  Then we sing the song and put the house in the correct order.  At the end, we count the shapes together as we take them back off the board again.  We’ve also used this as a transition in our sensory story times.  For those groups, we hand out shapes to each of the children who want to participate, and they get to bring them up as we get to the their shape in the song.  The house doesn’t always look like a house, but it’s a great way to get everyone involved!

Can’t Get Enough?

This week, our host is Kate McBright at Felt Board Magic.  For more information about Flannel Friday, visit the website here, join the Flannel Friday Facebook group, or check out the Flannel Friday boards on Pinterest.  Happy Friday, everyone!

 

Flannel Friday: Happy Birthday, Moon

I can’t believe that it’s been so long since I posted!  Even more, I can’t believe that it’s Flannel Friday’s fifth birthday!  I’ve been so inspired by all the posts that I’ve read, and I can’t wait to see what the next five years bring.  Happy birthday!  As it turns out, I have the perfect birthday flannel.  At my library, we’ve done both space and birthday themes this session, and this flannel works perfectly for either.  So, here’s my contribution:  a flannel version of Frank Asch’s Happy Birthday, Moon.

What You’ll Need

The pieces are all from designed from various clipart pictures I found.  There is, of course, Bear and Moon, and a top hat (I did make sure it had a purple band like the one in the book – that detail seemed important).  There is a bare tree, a river, a canoe, a series of small trees together for a forest, and a mountain range.  I also created a miniature piggy bank and a pile of coins for Bear to buy the hat.  The pieces aren’t to scale (Bear is bigger than the mountains, I think), but I needed them smaller to fit on our board and honestly, they were easier to make that way.  The kids didn’t seem to mind, either.

The Story

I use this one by retelling what happens in the picture book.  The best part is that you can be as detailed or not as you want, depending on the audience.

Tips for Use

Since we co-present our story times, we had one person serve as the narrator and Bear, and the second person served as the Moon.  It turned out really cute!

Can’t Get Enough?

Hopefully it won’t be as long before I share again.  In any case, I’ll be keeping up with the round-ups and getting more great ideas.  This week, our host is Mollie at What Happens in Storytime.  For more information about Flannel Friday, visit the website here, or join the Flannel Friday Facebook group, or check out the Flannel Friday boards on Pinterest.  Happy Friday, everyone!

Flannel Friday: Ice Cream Colors

I’m running a little bit behind today, but I am determined to get this post up in time for Flannel Friday.  Last year for Halloween, I did a Halloween-themed story time.  Unfortunately, it didn’t go over well at all with the parents.  So this year, I decided to switch things up a bit.  In honor of Halloween candy, we did a Candy and Desserts story time this week instead.  After looking at our book selection, I decided on an ice cream cone flannel story to add variety to the types of desserts we talked about.

What You Need

Here are all the ice cream cones that I created.  I took the simplest clipart template that I could find and cut out the cones and tops and then glued them together.

The Story

Here’s the rhyme that I used with it:

We have ice cream, the best in town!

Let us begin with chocolate BROWN.

This ice cream is lime and GREEN.

It is the creamiest we’ve ever seen.

YELLOW ice cream is lemony and tart.

We like it from the very start.

ORANGE sherbet is next, oh so sweet.

Everyone thinks that it’s a great treat!

Scoops of BLUEberry make this a lucky day.

We just want to cheer, hip, hip, hooray!

RED ice cream is a cherry delight.

This ice cream cone is a heavenly sight.

Vanilla CREAM (or WHITE) is a popular flavor.

It tastes very good to an ice-cream craver.

PURPLE ice cream really gives us a kick.

Good and yummy till the very last lick.

Now let us scoop some bubble-gum PINK.

It is sweet and yummy, the best we think.

Ice cream, ice cream, what a cool sensation.

We love ice cream in any combination!

I slightly adapted this rhyme from Fun with Friends at Storytime to work with the colors that I had.  Kathryn’s rhyme originally had mint ice cream, but I didn’t think that my green was very minty looking, so I went with lime instead.

Tips for Use

With both my toddler and preschool groups, I handed out the ice cream cones and we waited our turn to put up the right color.  I loved that this turned out to be a great time for parent interaction, since the parents this week were great about encouraging their children to wait their turn to put up their ice cream rather than swarming the board.  With my preschool group, we also talked about what flavors we might be missing and what colors they should be in between putting up more ice cream cones.

Can’t Get Enough?

This week, our host is the wonderful Storytime Katie, one of my favorite blogs for inspiration and ideas.  For more information about Flannel Friday, visit the website here, or join the Flannel Friday Facebook group, or check out the Flannel Friday boards on Pinterest.  Happy Friday, everyone!

Flannel Friday: Dotty the Dinosaur

It’s Flannel Friday time again!  I missed last week (I was on vacation), but I’m excited to share again this week.  This week in story time, we did dinosaurs.  I actually created two different flannel stories, but I only have time to share one here today.  Today I’m sharing my version of “Dotty the Dinosaur.”  I originally got this idea here.

What You’ll Need

Here’s the rainbow horde of dinosaurs that I created:

The patterns for everything in this set are just modified clipart images that I thought were cute and tied in with the theme.  I had an idea of the colors that I wanted for the dinosaurs, and then I chose food for each to eat based on what I thought would be easy to create for the colors.  Here’s the finished food:

The Story

To summarize this story, Dotty is a green dinosaur who has always eaten green foods.  One day, she decides to try something else, and, wouldn’t you know it, it changes her color.  Each time she eats something new, it changes her color:

By the end of the story, Dotty can’t decide what color she wants to be, so she just eats everything and becomes a polka-dot dinosaur instead.

But, for anyone who wants it, here’s the rhyme that goes with it:

Dotty the Dinosaur loved to eat

Things like lettuce and string beans.

That is why her dinosaur skin

Was colored a lovely GREEN.

One day she saw some cherries

And ate them all that day.

Later, Dotty the Dinosaur

Turned bright RED they say.

Dotty just loved colors,

So the next day she ate two

Bushes filled with blueberries

And turned the color BLUE.

The next day she saw some grapes

And ate them on the spot.

Then Dotty turned quite PURPLE

From her bottom to her top.

Next she ate a banana;

It made her feel quite mellow.

And wouldn’t you know it, next thing

Dotty turned bright YELLOW.

Then she ate some juicy orange,

Just a little slice.

And when Dotty turned ORANGE she thought,

“Isn’t this quite nice?”

Then she found some cotton candy,

Quite tasty, don’t you think?

And once Dotty ate it up

She turned the color PINK.

Dotty couldn’t decide now

Which color she liked best.

So Dotty just ate everything.

Was her skin an awful mess?

No, Dotty now had dots

Of color everywhere.

Dotty now was different,

But Dotty didn’t care.

Dotty loved her new skin,

She liked it quite a lot.

Now she was the only dinosaur

With a coat of polka dots!

Credit:  Adapted from Jean Warren

Tips for Use

I originally planned on using the rhyme to go with this one, but when I told the story with my preschool group, I just made it up as I went along.  I put up the different foods that Dotty was eating, and my helpers brought up the color dinosaur that she turned.  I used this for an outreach story time this morning and adapted the same approach, with the children shouting out what Dotty was eating and what color she turned.

Can’t Get Enough?

This week, our host is Melissa at Mel’s Desk.  For more information about Flannel Friday, visit the website here, or join the Flannel Friday Facebook group, or check out the Flannel Friday boards on Pinterest.  I can’t wait to see what everyone is sharing this week!

Flannel Friday: Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons

It’s Friday!  And that means that it’s time for one of my favorite parts of the week…Flannel Friday!  As you may be able to tell from all the exclamation points so far, the more I participate in this wonderful group, the more excited I get about sharing my flannel creations.  And, I love that I keep getting inspiration from other people to create even more spectacular flannel boards.  If only the question of where to store them all was solved so easily…

This week in story time, we continued our back to school themes.  Last week, we did colors with an existing flannel board crayon set that my library already had on hand.  This week, we worked on numbers and counting.  Pete the Cat has been appearing each week in story time as we work on our concepts, and this week, he helped us count with the classic Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons.  The great part was actually being able to talk about what Pete has done so far in story time and remembering the different things we’ve talked about.

What You’ll Need

Since I’ve seen so many other adorable flannel versions of Pete, I wanted to make my own.  Here’s the finished product:

I used this pattern from Kiz Club to create Pete.  My biggest concern was making sure that he was accurate to the book, so I made sure before making the buttons that they are actually the four colors of the buttons that Pete has in the story.  Instead of making felt numbers, I used my previously mentioned magnetic numbers while we were counting Pete’s remaining buttons.

The Story

I tell the story exactly as it appears in the book.  Each button has a tiny piece of Velcro on the back to help it stay in place and keep Pete’s shirt on.

Of course, when we get to the end of the story, we’ve removed all of Pete’s buttons, opened up his shirt, and found his belly button!

Tips for Use

For my toddler group, I told an abbreviated version of Pete the Cat without using the book and adapted it as needed to fit their attention span.  For my preschool group, I read the story at the same time, and my helpers removed a button from Pete’s shirt each time one popped off in the story.  My favorite part was that by the end, my group was helping with the “Pop!” for each button, and singing Pete’s song, too.

Can’t Get Enough?

This week, Mollie at What Happens in Storytime.  For more information about Flannel Friday, visit the website here, or join the Flannel Friday Facebook group, or check out the Flannel Friday boards on Pinterest.  As always, thanks to everyone for sharing their inspiration and making my story times better!

Flannel Friday: Five Yellow Buses

This week in story time, we started our back to school themes.  For the first part of fall, I’m planning story times that have basic school concepts, like colors and shapes.  To get us in the spirit, we started with a school theme this week (one of my most popular themes to date, actually!), and in honor of back to school, this week’s Flannel Friday is my version of “Five Yellow Buses.”

What You Need

The pattern I found at Keeping Life Creative here.  It’s super easy to make, which is great.  We also paired school story time this week with a school bus craft, so the kids got to take home their very own buses to play with.

The Story

The rhyme that I used with this is from Anne Hicks at AnnesLibraryLife:

Five yellow buses,

Around the town they zoom.

One makes a stop

And the others go vroom.

How many yellow buses are there?

Continue counting down until there are no buses left.

Tips for Use

I also recently bought some cheap magnetic numbers at Walmart.  The set only contains numbers 0-9, but I purchased several sets and hot glued numbers together to make numbers up to 25 as needed.  I brought out the numbers this week to match up with the buses, so that we could see the numbers that we were talking about.  One of the things I love about this set is that although this rhyme is for counting down, you can also count up by adding buses, too!  Plus, it can be adapted for several other rhymes.  When paired with our singing of The Wheels on the Bus, this one was a hit!

Can’t Get Enough?

This week, Laura at Library Lalaland is hosting the Roundup.  For more information about Flannel Friday, visit the website here, or join the Flannel Friday Facebook group, or check out the Flannel Friday boards on Pinterest.  I can’t wait to see what other flannel creations are sent in this week!

Flannel Friday: Going on a Picnic

In honor of Labor Day and the end of summer, this week in story time we took on picnics.  After looking through our existing felt boards, I found that we didn’t have anything that had food or picnics in it, so…creation time!

What You Need

The set contains a picnic basket, a blanket, a plate, a napkin, a fork, a spoon, a slice of bread, a piece of meat, a piece of lettuce, a tomato, a piece of cheese, a slice of watermelon, a bag of chips, a glass of lemonade, and a batch of cookies.  I got the idea and the rhyme from Neverlandarling, but I modified the song to fit the pieces that I created.  All of the pieces are created from various Clipart images that matched what I thought we would need on a picnic.

The Story

Here’s an idea of how it would go:

Going on picnic, leaving right away.  If it doesn’t rain, we’ll stay all day.

Did you bring the picnic basket?  (Yes, I brought the picnic basket!)

Did you bring the picnic blanket?  (Yes, I brought the picnic blanket!)

Ready for a picnic, here we go!

Going on picnic, leaving right away.  If it doesn’t rain, we’ll stay all day.

Did you bring the plate?  (Yes, I brought the plate!)

Did you bring the napkin?  (Yes, I brought the napkin!)

Ready for a picnic, here we go!

Going on picnic, leaving right away.  If it doesn’t rain, we’ll stay all day.

Did you bring the fork?  (Yes, I brought the fork!)

Did you bring the spoon?  (Yes, I brought the spoon!)

Ready for a picnic, here we go!

Going on picnic, leaving right away.  If it doesn’t rain, we’ll stay all day.

Did you bring the bread?  (Yes, I brought the bread!)

Did you bring the meat?  (Yes, I brought the meat!)

Ready for a picnic, here we go!

Going on picnic, leaving right away.  If it doesn’t rain, we’ll stay all day.

Did you bring the lettuce?  (Yes, I brought the lettuce!)

Did you bring the tomato?  (Yes, I brought the tomato!)

Ready for a picnic, here we go!

Going on picnic, leaving right away. If it doesn’t rain, we’ll stay all day.

Did you bring the cheese?  (Yes, I brought the cheese!)

Did you bring the watermelon?  (Yes, I brought the watermelon!)

Ready for a picnic, here we go!

Going on picnic, leaving right away.  If it doesn’t rain, we’ll stay all day.

Did you bring the chips?  (Yes, I brought the chips!)

Did you bring the lemonade?  (Yes, I brought the lemonade!)

Did you bring the cookies?  (Yes, I brought the cookies!)

Ready for a picnic, here we go!

Tips for Use

The great thing about this set is that you can use as many or as few ingredients in your rhyme as you want, depending on the number of kids who want to participate.  You don’t have to have a fork and spoon on your picnic, but if you have extra kids – done!  No one has has to be left out and the rhyme can easily be repeated as many times as possible.  When I used it in story time, I asked the kids what they thought we needed for a picnic, and we did the pieces in the order they thought rather than sticking to a particular order from the song.

Can’t Get Enough?

This week, Kathryn at Fun with Friends at Storytime is hosting the roundup.  For more information about Flannel Friday,  visit the website here, or join the Flannel Friday Facebook group, or check out the Flannel Friday boards on Pinterest.

Flannel Friday: Five Little Squirrels

Just in time for fall, this week’s Flannel Friday is another flashback.  This week, we’re taking it back to the first flannel story I ever created for my version of “Five Little Squirrels.”

What You Need

The pattern I found from Earthbound Trading Company here.  There are some other really cute woodland creatures with it, but I haven’t found a use for them yet.  The squirrel is a pretty simple outline, with accents for his neck and belly, and, of course, his acorn.  If I was doing this one over again, I probably would have looked for different colors to do the squirrels, but I think these guys are pretty cute, too.

The Story

The song goes like this (to the tune of “Five Little Ducks”):

One little squirrel went out to play,

Up in the branches one autumn day.

He had such enormous fun

He called for another little squirrel to come.

Two little squirrels went out to play,

Up in the branches one autumn day.

They had such enormous fun

They called for another little squirrel to come.

Three little squirrels went out to play,

Up in the branches one autumn day.

They had such enormous fun

They called for another little squirrel to come.

Four little squirrels went out to play,

Up in the branches one autumn day.

They had such enormous fun

They called for another little squirrel to come.

Five little squirrels went out to play,

Up in the branches one autumn day.

They had such enormous fun

Then all scurried home ‘cause winter had come.

Credit:  Storytime Stuff

Tips for Use

I generally sing this one when I do it, but it can also be done without singing for those who prefer.  As with most “five little” rhymes, it can be fairly easily adapted to what works well with your audience.

Can’t Get Enough?

This week, Melissa at Mel’s Desk is hosting the Flannel Friday Roundup.  If you haven’t checked out her blog, do – her amazing resources have saved my story times more than once!  For more information about Flannel Friday,  visit the website here, or join the Flannel Friday Facebook group, or check out the Flannel Friday boards on Pinterest.

Flannel Friday: Fall Is Not Easy

This week’s Flannel Friday is also a flashback to when I was doing my practicum with the Carrollton Public Library, way back in 2009. (I promise, more recent flannel boards will be coming!)  I got the idea to make this set during a Youth Services Resource Sharing meeting.  One of the librarians from another public library had an adorable felt board set for Marty Kelley’s book Fall Is Not Easy.  The story, if you’re not familiar with it, talks about the different seasons and how the tree hates fall because his colors never turn out right.  Instead, he ends up with leaves in different pictures, like a hamburger our cow spots.

What You Need

I created the tree trunk from a template that I found online, which I printed and free-handed over to make less complex.  The tree top was a little more complex.  I modified a shape that I found online by tracing a leaf pattern (also found online) around the edges to give it a tree-like shape.  This gave me the outline that you can see, with the leaf edges all the way around.  The same leaf was used to make accent leaves for dimension.

In all, there are 12 trees in the story:  a spring tree, a summer tree, a rainbow tree, a happy face tree, a purple tree with yellow polka dots, a red and white striped tree, a hamburger tree, a world tree, a cow tree, an “Eat at Joe’s” tree, a jack-o-lantern tree, and a fall tree.  I made a separate tree top for each, as well as accent leaves for spring and fall and snowflakes for winter.  Each tree has a solid color background, and the accents were then added to make the pictures and give texture.  Each picture is made from the original leaf shapes.  I also cut slits in each top and glue pairs of leaves together to add texture.

I

This picture shows the rainbow tree, which was the most detailed of all the trees. It had several layers of leaves. The underlying piece is red, with each additional color added on top. From this angle, you can see some of the texture from the layering and added leaves.

The Story

Basically, put up the trees as you say the phrases that appear in Marty Kelley’s book.  I’ve read it enough times at this point that I can mostly recite it without even having to look at the words.

Tips for Use

The only challenge that I’ve ever had while using this flannel is to make sure that the trees don’t all fall off at once.  I’ve tried both layering new tops on the trees as the story progresses or taking one top down for another.  Personally, I prefer to remove the previous top rather than layer just because they stick to the board better.

This is the one flannel board that I wish I still had.  It stayed at the library after I left, and it would have been perfect for a fall theme that I did last year.  But, I still have the patterns somewhere, so if I can find a copy of the book, I may make my own version of this someday soon.

Can’t Get Enough?

This week, Mollie at What Happens in Storytime… is hosting the Flannel Friday Roundup.  For more information, visit the Flannel Friday website here, or join the Flannel Friday Facebook group, or check out the Flannel Friday boards on Pinterest.  As always, I can’t wait to see and share more ideas!