I made this set to go along with my Steve Antony storytime in the fall. I used this free template from A Cup of Thuy to make the donuts. I made 12 little donuts and 5 big donuts. I used an illustration from Thank You, Mr. Panda to make the felt Mr. Panda. No puff paint on the donuts and just a little puff paint on Mr. Panda for his eyeballs. I used this set with Carrrie's rhyme, but I ad-libbed some at the end. "Bridget picked the pink one." Oh, that's a good one. It's chocolate with raspberry. She took it home and she ate it all up." I asked the kids what they had to say to get a donut from Mr. Panda...please and thank you. We also counted the donuts and talked about flavors. Important Links: Flannel Friday Blog/Website Flannel Friday Tumblr Flannel Friday Pinterest Flannel Friday Facebook Group
Breaking my month-long blogging hiatus with a fun Flannel Friday post today! Last month I gave one of my favorite hat flannels a little makeover by adding a bunch of patterned party hats! I hid far…
I have been wanting to make a Dinosaur/Door flannel for a loooooong time! The first 2021 Flannel Friday Just Do It Round Up and an upcoming virtual sensory storytime inspired me to FINALLY get it d…
This week, I am sharing another flannel board idea based on a poem I recently read to my daughter. It is entitled "Who is Tapping at my Window?" and was written by A.G. Deming. It can be found in A Child's Book of Poems by Gyo Fujikawa, and thanks to Google Books, you can read it online. I like this poem as a read-aloud because it's very repetitive and has a strong rhythm that becomes really obvious when speaking the words out loud. It also reinforces kids' understanding of familiar animals (dog, cat, hen), but also introduces a few that kids might not know about (hare, cony, wren). The clipart images I used in the Google Drive presentation below all come from kizclub.com. Many were in the flashcards and clipart sections, but for a few, I had to comb through the story props section. Also, they didn't have a wren or a cony, so I used a generic bird and a rabbit. I added in speech bubbles as well, but I would definitely consider those optional. This poem works well for an animal theme or weather theme, or just as an easy way to slip some poetry into story time. Find my animal-themed story times here, and my rain-themed story times here. Today's Flannel Friday round-up is hosted by Lisa at Thrive After Three. For more on Flannel Friday, visit the official website.
This flannelboard comes courtesy of Mollie at What Happens in Storytime! Making this flannelboard was super easy — I just got some simple clip art and cut it up right before storytime. The ki…
For this flannel, I used Matthew Porter's simple and lovely board book: Tails Chasing Tails. I made each of the animals from the book and then cut them in half (which, even though necessary, was still a little heartbreaking, honestly). The book starts with the elephant chasing the tiger: When the kids have guessed who that tail belongs to, I add the head: Here are the other animals chasing/being chased: And it ends with the mouse chasing a gray tail... Which brings the whole thing full circle. You could also choose to make the elephant a whole animal and end with the mouse. I used this with both toddlers and preschoolers and they seemed to enjoy it equally; some of the tails are easy and some are challenging enough to make it an interesting concept for both these groups. Flannel Friday is being hosted by Emily at Literary Hoots so stop on over there to see other flannels shared this week.
One of my favorite books to read for a weather storytime is Geisel award winning book Move Over, Rover! by Karen Beaumont. In this book, Rover is sleeping safe and dry during a rain storm in his do…
I have always loved Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert, but it is a hard one to share in a group environment like story time. I thought that it would be a good selection for our Play to Learn early literacy program, though, because it promotes a one-on-one environment. With this program I like to put out flannelboards for the kids to play with so flannelizing Color Zoo required some thinking. I started off by making another pizza box flannelboard (if you missed the previous saga, I now have about 42 empty pizza boxes sitting my desk awaiting inspiration). After playing with the flannel set one time through, I think that I am going to divide the book into three separate flannelboard sets or pizza boxes. There are just too many pieces in one set unless I want the kids to play with it all day long. For the flannel pieces, my inspiration was a combo of Mr. Potato Head and tangrams. If you look through Color Zoo, you will see that it is a combination of shapes and colors (which make great flannelboard patterns). You can also make a pattern for some of the shapes by tracing through the die cut. Instead of gluing the animals together, I cut out their individual shapes. This way the kids can make the animals with a pattern or use their imagination and make their own creations. This is what the final stack of pieces looks like. You can see why I would like three separate boxes for them. Are you ready for some fun? We are going to play guess the animals! Answers will follow. #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 Answers: 1. tiger 2. mouse 3. fox 4. ox 5. monkey 6. deer 7. lion 8. goat 9. snake This week's Flannel Friday round-up is hosted by Mollie at What Happens in Storytime... If you are celebrating this weekend, Happy Easter. If you are like Michigan where all of the kiddos are on Spring Break, may the force be with you!
Happy Flannel Friday! Click here to check out the rest of this week’s Round Up. A few months back, my kiddos absolutely LOVED the flannel I made to go with KCLS’s fun 5 Baby Owls. I wan…
Back with another out of this world flannel for “A Universe of Stories” this summer 2019 – or any good old outer space/night sky storytime! I made this set using FREE clip art fro…
Have you ever looked at an old flannel and really wanted to give it a makeover? When I started doing storytimes, I made flannels willy nilly… but my idea of what makes a good flannel now diff…
Today I’m excited to share One Very Big Bear by Alice Briere-Haquet. I’ve been meaning to flannelize this picture book for a LONG time, but Flannel Friday’s Picture Book Celebrati…
Back with another out of this world flannel for “A Universe of Stories” this summer 2019 – or any good old outer space/night sky storytime! I made this set using FREE clip art fro…
So we're prepping for Hispanic Heritage month coming soon and I wanted a felt set for Storytime so of course I thought of guacamole! Here's my rhyme, Let's Make Some Guacamole! I had made the lemonade pieces a few months ago and never used them and thought they'd be perfect with my guac! I used some Google images to make some patterns but free handed the tomato and chips. I used glitter glue to make my segments on the lime and slick paint for the salt and pepper shakers. I made up a rhyme and we're ready for Fun with Friends at Storytime!
And yet again, another flannelboard from the Storytime Katie archives. I made this flannel version of “Mouse Paint” and posted about it in my Colors storytime, but I wanted to pull it o…
My contribution this Flannel Friday is a flannel set I made up for a recent "Icky Sicky" storytime. I was inspired by the wonderful Storytime Katie. She had the kids place felt "bandaids" on her storytime mascot during her storytime on the same theme, and I adapted the idea into a flannelboard. To make this set, all I did was use a bear template found online to trace the shape of the bear onto brown flannel. The other pieces were all cut freehand. When we used "Boo Boo Bear" in preschool storytime I passed out the bandaids to the kids and had them come up to place a bandaid on the bear as I called the colors. This helps them work on both turn taking and color recognition. For my toddler storytime I turned the bandaids into a way to teach about body parts using this song I found at One Little Librarian: Bandage Song (to the tune of Farmer in the Dell) Put a bandage on my knee, Put a bandage on my knee, Oh please take care of me, Put a bandage on my knee. Put a bandage on my head, Put a bandage on my head, Please put me to bed, Put a bandage on my head Once again each child received a bandaid, but this time we put them on various body parts as we sang the song. This is a fun way of introducing the names for body parts, which is important vocabulary for this age group. The Flannel Friday Roundup this week is hosted by me! To add your ideas head over to the placeholder post and share a link in the comments. To participate in upcoming roundups, or get more great storytime ideas head over to the Flannel Friday Blog or Pinterest page. You can also follow #flannelstorytime on Twitter.
I was inspired to make this felt set by Katie over at Storytime Secrets . Katie created a Google Drive Presentation, but I opted to go with ...
Though I am officially no longer employed as a children's librarian as of 5:45 p.m. this afternoon (Friday, 10/4), I still have a flannel board idea to share today. I hope some of you who are doing Halloween story times will be able to use my original rhyme and let me know how the kids enjoy it! The rhyme goes like this: Knock knock! Trick or treat! Behind this door, who will we meet? Ask the kids to help you choose a door. Behind each door is hidden a Halloween creature. When the creature is revealed, all chant: A [ghost]! A [ghost]! A spooky spooky [ghost]! Repeat for as many doors as you'd like. Because I have no immediate reason to use this idea, I opted to make it into a Google Drive presentation, rather than a traditional flannel board. The presentation is embedded below. To find out who is hidden behind a given door, click on that door. This will take you to a new slide showing a ghost, witch, mummy, spider, or bat. To return to the doors, click on the individual creature. Those of you who use iPads or a projector in story time might want to use this presentation as is, but if you'd prefer to adapt it to the traditional flannel format, here are links to the clipart images I used. Bat Door Ghost Mummy Spider Witch This week's Flannel Friday Halloween Extravaganza is hosted by Kay Leigh at Storytime ABC's.
Hey, it's a jungle in here! Source Happy Flannel Friday! This week, I was inspired during a super quick visit to our Dollar S...
I FINALLY made a Fall is Not Easy flannel! I feel like I’ve leveled up as a children’s librarian. If you haven’t been exposed to this book before, it’s a fun, silly story th…
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(Apparently formatting is not my friend today because my pictures REFUSE to orient properly. I apologize for the turning of the head required to read this post.) I read somewhere that "Hooray for Hat!" would make a great flannel and I thought "OMG yes it would!" So here's my version (as of yet untested - my Story Time sessions start next week). When Elephant woke up he was grumpy... But there's a knock on the door and he gets a present: a hat!! So he goes to show Zebra (who is grumpy): Elephant cheers him up by giving him part of his hat: So they go show turtle (who is grumpy): But they cheer him up with part of the hat: Then they go show Owl (who is grumpy): I'll bet you have no idea what cheers him up... They go show Lion (who is, you guessed it, grumpy): And while his part of the hat cheers him up... He feels bad because Giraffe is still unhappy and there are no more hat pieces left. So they put all their pieces together and that helps Giraffe feel better. Hooray for hat! I made the animal pieces reversible (someone turned me on to reversible flannel pieces and I'm digging it). So here they are grumpy: And here they are happy: TL:DR? Here's the whole set: Happy Friday and Hooray for Hat indeed!
Inspired by Katie at Story Time Secrets, I made my own set of family members to do the “Knock Knock” flannel she showed us here. (I used the clipart that Katie linked from Kizclub.) The…
I have a slight obsession with Babybug magazine. I don't have a subscription, but my local library allows back issues to be checked out, so I have borrowed a few here and there. On the last page of the March 2013 issue, I found "Nonsense Rhyme" (also called "There Was an Old Man with a Beard") by Edward Lear. I had heard the rhyme before, but the illustration in the magazine by Ruth Tietjen Councell made me think it might work as a flannel board. Thus, the following adaptation was born. There was an old man with a beard, Who said, "It is just as I feared! Two owls and a hen, four larks and a wren have all built their nests in my beard!" This flannel board would be a fun addition to a bird-themed or hair-themed story time, or even to a Father's Day or Grandparent's Day program. Flannel Friday is hosted this week by Jenna from Stories with Ms. Jenna. For more on Flannel Friday, visit the official website.
AVAST, me hearties! It be time to celebrate! Aaaaarrrrr! If you follow this blog or my Flannel Friday posts at all, then you know how much I adore anything pirate-y. If you know about my love for pirate treasures ~ then you have probably guessed that I look forward to Talk Like a Pirate Day each year. And, oooooh, how I DO look forward to it! If you have never heard of this very special day, you can learn about the celebration here. For this year, I have been working on adding things for younger children to my pirate stash of things to share when it is time to set sail with the Captain at a storytime for little ones. Recently, I came across a delightfully illustrated Board Buddies book entitled, Pirates! Illustrations by Viviana Garofoli The simple and easy-to-follow text presents the exciting antics of a small band of young pirates. Your younger child(ren) will enjoy the brightly colored illustrations, especially the expressive faces of the pirate crew. They remind me a little of the old Peanuts characters ~ especially Charlie Brown! ;o) For my Flannel Friday Round-Up contribution this week, I have made a magnetic board set of 5 young pirates. These could be made for use on a flannel board by backing them with a little felt or they could be made into stick puppets so that you could have 5 children actively participate in the rhymes by holding the stick puppets up in front of the group ~ until you take them back as you count-down with the last rhyme. Each pirate is around 9 to 10 inches tall. For the first activity, I am sharing a piggy-back song: One Brave Pirate (Sung to the tune of "One Little Elephant") One brave pirate sailed out to sea Across the blue waters, wild and free He had such enormous fun That he called for another brave pirate to come. Two brave pirates sailed out to sea Across the blue waters, wild and free They had such enormous fun That they called for another brave pirate to come. Continue counting up to five ~ adding another pirate with each verse. Special note: As you can see, I used the illustrations from the book to create my cute little pirates. Out of respect for the illustrator, I am only posting a few pictures here. I will be using these adorable pirates along with the book so that I can give credit where credit is due! I feel that by creating a magnetic set that mimics the illustrations in the book, I am adding some cohesion to my storytimes. The little ones will be able to more easily connect the book with the song and rhyme. It also gives me an opportunity to talk briefly with the adults about the importance of reading well-illustrated books with characters that appeal to younger children. These little guys are perfect for this "teachable moment" discussion. Five Scurvy Pirates Five scurvy pirates standing on the shore, One went on a search and that left four. Four scurvy pirates sailing out to sea, One went for a swim and that left three. Three scurvy pirates out on the ocean blue, One walked the plank and that left two. Two scurvy pirates having tons of fun, One went below the deck and that left one. One scurvy pirate, tired and alone, He turned the ship around and sailed for home. The book actually only had 3 different pirates so we had to play around with them in Photoshop to make 5 pirates for the set. This is the same guy with a few tweaks, like different hair color: We also made a few changes to this guy ~ a solid-colored bandana and striped:pajama pants to match his shirt! We all had a blast at our Talk Like a Pirate celebration! We sang and danced like pirates. We counted pirates and fish. And we even "swam in the ocean" with lots of other sea creatures. We topped off storytime with a yummy snack of fish crackers while we made Pirate Spyglasses to take home. We used pirate stickers, jewel stickers and colorful beads to decorate our spyglasses: I have one more picture to share ~ just for fun. ;o) It is our youngest storytime pirate. She is only 2 months old! So precious! Enjoy your weekend! And, as always, HAPPY READING TOGETHER!
Happy Independence Day to my fellow American Flannel Friday friends! This week's submission was inspired by Miss Tara . Five Little...
I am flying back into Flannel Friday with some bird patterns for you! I made these felt birds so I could sing Little Bird in baby storytime on Monday. First you have to listen to the amazing Elizab…
This week's Flannel Friday is inspired by another Flannel Friday post from the blog, Narrating Tales of Preschool Storytime. I loved the finger puppets she used to tell the book I Took My Frog to the Library by Eric A. Kimmel. I decided immediately that I needed my own flannel version of this super cute story. I also decided to change up the wording just a little bit to make it more toddler friendly. I Took My Frog to the Library By Eric A. Kimmel I took my frog to the library, but he jumped on the checkout desk and scared the librarian! I took my chicken to the library, but she laid an egg by the computers. I took my pelican to the library, but he hid a book in his beak! I took my snake to the library, but she shed her skin all over the picture books! I took my giraffe to the library, but he tried to read over everybody's shoulder. I took my hyena to the library, but he laughed so hard during story time that nobody could hear the story! I took my elephant to the library. She was very well behaved. She stacked her books neatly. She asked the librarian questions. She listened to the story and laughed in all the right places. But my elephant is very big! SO BIG! She wrecked the library! The bookshelves fell over! The librarian said, "You are always welcome at the library, but please leave your animals at home." So whenever I go to the library... my frog stays home, my chicken stays home, my pelican stays home, my snake stays home, my giraffe stays home, my hyena stays home, and my elephant reads to them! This flannel set was really easy to make. I traced clip art from the Internet and drew in the faces and other features. To save time, I used a combination of permanent markers and paint to add details. I think I may make a library to add to this set at a later date. I also plan on telling this story not reading it from the book (especially since I made changes to the wording). I am really excited to use it in story time. I hope the little ones like it! Thank you to Storytime Katie for hosting Flannel Friday this week! Please check out her blog HERE. If you would like more information on Flannel Friday or how you can participate, click HERE! Thanks for stopping by!
This is a hugely popular storytime game: I first saw it done at a Prop-a-Palooza meeting of Lapsit Leaders. Here’s a photo of the version I made: All you need to play this game are simple sle…
Well, I did my best to find a flannelboard I’ve done that fits in with the theme “One World, Many Stories” as several other Flannel Friday participants are doing. And the only one…
This year, the Library Village will be at the PLA in Indianapolis, Indiana the week I would've planned a St. Patrick's Day story time. So, instead of forgetting the holiday altogether, I decided to do a rainbow story time with a hint of St. Patrick's Day green! I was so excited to find Storytime ABC's flannel story Rainbow Stew. I knew immediately that it would be perfect for my story time. I can't wait to make some rainbow stew with the little ones.. I know they are going to love it! Rainbow Stew Take an apple Put it in the pot. Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot. Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest red you ever did see! Take an orange Put it in the pot. Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot. Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest orange you ever did see! Take an banana Put it in the pot. Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot. Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest yellow you ever did see! Take an pear Put it in the pot. Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot. Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest green you ever did see! Take some blueberries Put it in the pot. Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot. Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest blue you ever did see! Take some grapes Put it in the pot. Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot. Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest purple you ever did see! What did we make with our rainbow stew? A magical rainbow for me and you! Thank you to Amy at Catch the Possibilities for hosting Flannel Friday this week! If you would like to learn more about Flannel Friday, follow the link here! Hope to meet many of you at the PLA!
Learn how to create a felt or flannel story based on the book Please, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony. Perfect for storytime and sharing with little ones!
A blog about children's books, story time, library service, and literacy activities written by a children's librarian turned stay-at-home mom.
I really really really wanted to be part of the first flannel friday of the new website, so I went into my archives and found this flannel that I made years ago. Aiken Drum seems to be the original…
Today’s flannelboard was one I found at Miss Meg’s Storytime! “Lots of Cars” There are lots of cars driving down the street (pretend to have a steering wheel) Tell me what c…
I have been wanting to make a Dinosaur/Door flannel for a loooooong time! The first 2021 Flannel Friday Just Do It Round Up and an upcoming virtual sensory storytime inspired me to FINALLY get it d…
Back with another out of this world flannel for “A Universe of Stories” this summer 2019 – or any good old outer space/night sky storytime! I made this set using FREE clip art fro…
A gallery of vintage football photographs taken by Life magazine from the 1960 NFL season, feat. the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles.
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina has been in print for over 50 yeras and was a storytime favorite of mine when I was a kid going to libra...
Wayyyyy back when I was still in library school, I took a children's materials and services class where our assignment was to tell a story using props, flannels, etc. I was also working part-time in a library and I knew about their storytelling kit for the book Bark, George by Jules Feiffer. It consisted of a cardboard box made up to look like George the dog along with a lab coat, yellow rubber glove, and puppets. This past year, I decided to do a pet-themed storytime and wanted to create something similar. It was relatively painless and cheap to do! 1. I grabbed a cardboard box (about the size of a Baker & Taylor shipping box for reference) from our ILL department and taped it closed on both sides. 2. Then I drew a marker line across the "front" of George about 6 inches up from the bottom. 3. Next, I drew 2 diagonal lines on George's "sides" that began at the top corner and met at the straight front line. 4. I used a box cutter to cut along my lines. Then I used packing tape to tape down any cardboard flaps on the inside. Please forgive the blurriness. I was trying to take the photo with one hand. 5. Then I cut up some paper grocery bags (I cut off the bottoms and up on one seam) and used them to cover the box and make it look more like dog fur. 6. Lastly, I used construction paper for the eyes, nose, ears, tongue, etc. For the rest of the kit, I just added Folkmanis puppets. You can set the puppets in the box in reverse order and just pull them out during the story. They end up looking like they are coming out of George's mouth! Storytime Katie is hosting this week's Flannel Friday. You can find the round-up over on her blog! For more information on Flannel Friday, check out their website, Facebook group, or Pinterest page.
Happy Flannel Friday, everyone! I hope your day has been better than mine! I have a poor sick puppy dog and, once again, we were very short-handed at the library. I think that makes 3 weeks now! Uuugh! :o{ I almost decided to skip sharing this week but ~ since I already have the pictures taken ~ why waste'em? Right? LOL! I'll go ahead and post the pictures and then I'll be back later to share the music and rhymes we enjoyed last at our Family Storytime and Game Night. Our theme was: BUGS! Lots of colorful bugs joined us for storytime! You can't tell too well from these pictures but each insect had a little ***sparkle*** added due to a touch of glitter. My storytime friends loved the ***sparkle***! These four bugs were featured in one of my favorite "bug" songs entitled, "Butterfly, Fly". The ladybug, bumblebee, firefly, and butterfly enticed us all to "fly up into the bright blue sky" and "in and out of the leaves on the trees"! It is a beautifully done song! Then I added a few more ***sparkly*** insects to the four above for our "Bug Hunt". (Words to be added here in the very near future.) Here they are! The words to "We're Going on a Bug Hunt!" Just click here. The books I shared were: I Love Bugs by Emma Dodd and Snappy Little Bugs a pop-up book Since it was also Family Game Night, we played a few games with our bug friends! We danced with our colorful Rainbow Butterflies. We played "Pass the Ladybug". Which soon became "Pass the Ladybug and the Bee"! And then the Caterpillar and the Butterfly and even the Spider joined in the fun! Finally, we ended the night with our last game and our yummy snack: We pretended to be Bees and Butterflies as we went "Flower Hopping". Delicious Ladybug Cookies! I promise to be back tomorrow to flesh out the details of this post. Sorry it is so sketchy! I'll also be adding links for more about our Family Game Nights since several readers have asked for more information on what we do for them. Have a lovely evening! (I am going to go check on my poor sick puppy dog and give her a little loving! As always, HAPPY READING TOGETHER!
This week's Flannel Friday is a version of Denise Fleming's Lunch that I made to go along with a vegetable themed story time. Basically, Mouse is hungry so he eats a large variety of food and then heads off to take a nap until dinnertime. It is a cute story, great for the littlest story time friends with a few words on a page and bright, bold illustrations. The book also notes the color of each food, so for my flannel/foamie version I made vegetables in a variety of colors so the kids could help by naming the color and food. In my version, Mouse gets out his pink napkin, and his blue fork (because I wanted more colors and it was really hard to find pink and blue vegetables). Then he feasts on some white cauliflower, purple eggplant, green peas, brown potato, orange carrot, red tomato (I know, I know, not technically a vegetable), and some yellow corn. Then, he heads off for his nap! You can find the rest of this week's round up with Tracey at 1234 More Storytimes, view past round ups with Anne at So Tomorrow, or click the Flannel Friday button to the right to view the page on Pinterest.
