This is one of my new favs–it reminds me of Pete the Cat! The story is so versatile to fit a number of themes: getting dressed, farm, animals, tractors, stories in rhyme, stories you can sing! I had to flannelize it! I made a Farmer Brown complete with all the clothes:
And I made a tractor with all the animals in their rhyming clothes:
This should come with a warning! I can’t get this song out of my head! Now you won’t be able to, either:
For more storytime ideas check out Katie’s Story Time Secrets, she’s hosting Flannel Friday this week. To find out more about Flannel Friday, check out the website, the Pinterest board, and the Facebook Group.
This is a new-to-me story, even though it’s about ten years old. I just fell in love with it and so have all of my kids. I had to make a flannel to accompany it, so I could use the story in different ways. I made all the pieces featured in the story. This way we can each get a piece and count along as we sing. I also added animals to the story, some can be found in the picture book and others I added that can be found in our own backyards. The children gave me this idea after reading it to one particular class.
If you don’t know this one, I made a video!
For more storytime ideas, check out Storytime Katie’s blog. She’s hosting Flannel Friday this week. To find out more about Flannel Friday, check out the website, the Pinterest board, and the Facebook Group.
I love Under My Hood I Have a Hat for winter storytimes. I made a flannel story so I can tell it to the children. I use a “Under My Hood I Have a Hat by Karla Kuskin “Cheat Sheet”” so I can use the original text for the story. I laminated a copy and keep it in my lap:
Of course, the children love seeing her underwear, which I decorated with purple sparkles!
Here’s a coloring page to use: Under My Hood I Have a Hat. I like to print this on heavy paper and use glitter paints!
In honor of the 2013 Caldecott winner, I’m doing a puppet story of This is Not My Hat this week! You’ll need just a few puppets and props:
fish finger puppet (if you don’t have one on hand, you can make one)
fish puppet
crab (or lobster) puppet
light blue felt to make four hats (two for each fish: one on each side of the head)
transparent Velcro tabs (four to put on each side of each fish puppets heads)
plant background
I tell the story with a lap flannel board covered in the seaweed print. Once the little fish goes behind the board, I drop him in my lap and switch hands of the big fish puppet, making sure to put the blue hat on the transparent Velcro tab I placed on his head.
Go fish!
I couldn’t resist going with the Hat theme, so I also used puppets for I Want My Hat Back and Martin’s Hats. For other storytime ideas, check out So Tomorrow’s blog for the Flannel Friday roundup.
Jon Klassen’s I Want My Hat Back is a perfect book to tell using puppets. This funny story is easily adaptable using your puppet collection. The animals used in the book are:
bear
fox
frog
rabbit
turtle
snake
possum
deer
squirrel
If you don’t have all those puppets, you can substitute with other forest animals. I used my new forest Outreach bin to hold the puppets while I told the story. I made a red hat, but you can find these party hats at the dollar store if you want a quick, cheap craft! I hot-glued red felt over a cone of posterboard.
I love my hat!
For more hat stories, check out the 2013 Caldecott winner This is Not My Hat and Martin’s Hats.
One of my favorite books to use in the winter is out of print. Martin’s Hats by Joan W. Blos and illustrated by Marc Simont is a perfect story to tell about getting dressed, wearing hats, community helpers or using your imagination. I use this story with a flannel board, and with a hand-made headpiece. Here’s how:
You’ll need:
a boy puppet
headband
piece of cardboard about 8.5 x 11
two sheets of felt 8.5 x 11 in the puppet’s hair color
hot glue gun
scissors
paint and paintbrush to match felt hair color (optional)
Using a puppet as a guide, purchase a headband that will fit its head. Try to find one that has a gap in it so you can mount a piece of cardboard to it. Make five slits in the center of the cardboard and fit the headband to it. Use hot glue to mount it.
Hot glue the felt to the cardboard. Cut out hair. Touch up the sides of the hair with paint (you’ll have a cardboard edge showing if you don’t). Now you can use felt hats to tell Martin’s story:
If you can’t get your hands on the book (used copies are quite expensive), here’s my version of the story. You’ll need 10 hats:
tan explorer hat
white and red striped party hat
light blue engineer hat
white chef hat
white and black police hat
green and yellow post office hat
red fire hat
yellow welding hat
yellow cowboy hat
yellow and red striped nightcap
Martin loved exploring all over the place. He loved putting on his explorer hat and crawling into caves under his bed. One day he climbed through a cave and up a hill and found a party. He put on his party hat and joined the fun. (You can ask the children what kinds of activities Martin did at the party and what kinds of food he ate.) At the end of the party, people were getting on train to go home. Oh, no! They can’t leave because they don’t have an engineer. Wait, Martin has an engineer hat! “I’ll drive!” said Martin. (You can ask the children where the train is going.) “All aboard!” “Is anyone hungry?” asked Martin. He put on his chef hat and cooked a meal. (You can ask the children what kind of food Martin cooked.) When they arrived at their destination, there was much to do! First Martin had to put on his police officer hat and direct traffic. He helped all the train attendees cross the street safely. “Remember to look both ways before crossing,” he said. Then he put on his post office hat and delivered the mail. (You can ask what kind of packages Martin delivered. Square boxes? Rectangle boxes? Envelopes?) On the way back to the post office, Martin had to put on his fire fighting hat and put out a fire! (You can ask the children for help lifting the ladder and using the fire hose.) Then Martin climbed up high and put on his welder hat. He helped build a new building overlooking the farm. When he climbed down, he put on his cowboy hat to harvest the hay and plow the fields. He had to feed all the farm animals, too. (You can ask the children what farm animals live on the farm and what kinds of food they eat.) At the end f the day, Martin hung up his hat, washed his hands at ate dinner. After dinner he took a bath, got into his pjs and a special hat was waiting for him…his nightcap. “Sweet dreams, Martin.” (I always have the children blow Martin a kiss.)
This week’s Flannel Friday Round-Up is hosted by Katie of Story Time Secrets. Complete information about Flannel Friday can be found here.
