I finally figured out a way to turn Good Night Gorilla into an interactive flannel board story. First, I made each animal that appears in the picture book. I also included the zookeeper, his wife, and their bed. Then, I cut out six different colored cages to go over each animal.

To make this story intereactive for toddlers, I made keys to coordinate with each cage.

I put the keys on a two-inch book ring and tell the children that this is the zookeeper’s key ring. Before I tell the story I pass out a different colored key to each child and tell them that the gorilla told me to.

I introduce each animal one at a time and ask the children if they have the correct colored key to let the animal out of their cage. At the end of the story I place them all in the zookeeper’s bed and we say good night and blow them kisses.

For more flannel ideas, check out Roving Fiddlehead’s blog. Or check out Flannel Friday.