Baby Faces Feltboard

I must give full credit to Melissa Depper for the inspiration for this felt board.

These babies were easy and fun to make - no real pattern needed. And they were such a hit at my baby storytime! 

Cookies felt board

Here's a felt board I put together for a cookie themed storytime. I also have a Cookie Monster puppet, so naturally we sang a round or two of "C is for Cookie" This set of cookies includes a gingerbread man, a sugar iced cookie, 2 chocolate chip cookies and one oatmeal raisin cookie.

Here's the song that goes with the felt board.

Five little cookies in the bakery shop.
Shinning bright with the sugar on top.
Along comes (child's name) with a nickel to pay.
He/she buys a cookie and takes it away.
(continue with four, three, two and one)

Guessing game felt board

I had so much fun with this felt board. I tried something new, and instead of doing a song or rhyme to go along with this activity, I just tried a discussion with the kids about what could be behind these mystery boxes.

I gave them lots of clues, such as: 
This animal is a mammal.
This animal has fluffy white wool.
This animal sounds like, "baaaa!"
What is it?

This animal is a sheep!

Here are all our animals, revealed. I think we had a lot of fun with this guessing game. Kids at my storytimes are super fond of animal noises, so even if they didn't guess with the other clues I gave them, they definitely had fun with our animal sounds!

This was a really fun and different dialoging exercise, and I'm really glad I tried it.

Snowmen Feltboard

Here's a set of felt snowmen I put together. Easy and fun! I had a great time with these in storytime - this was before our "big snowstorm" this week. Most of the kids had not seen snow before, and had never made a snowman before. We talked about all the different colored hats. I really have the best job ever.

Here's the song we sang:

Five little snowmen riding on a sled

One fell off and bumped his head!

I called Frosty and Frosty said

"No more snowmen riding on a sled!”

Four little snowmen ....

End with: NO MORE snowmen RIDING on a SLED!

Halloween feltboards

Here are two felt boards I whipped together for Halloween.

I'm really happy with this bat one. The kids loved the sparkles on some of the bats.

Here's the rhyme I used:
Five Black Bats
Five black bats are flying around,
The first one did not make a sound.
The second one said, "I'll fly far tonight"
The third one said, "I don't like sunlight"
The fourth one said, "I want to eat some bugs"
The fifth one said, "I want some hugs"
Five black bats are hanging upside down
Shhhh! It's daytime, don't make a sound!

This pumpkin felt board was popular as well, even though it's not quite as cute as I hoped. Maybe I'll re-do it by next year.

I used this old classic:

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late."
The second one said, "There are ghosts in the air."
The third one said, "We don't care!"
The fourth one said, "Let's run and run."
The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun!"
Oooooh, went the wind
And out went the lights
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Flowers feltboard

Here's my latest felt board creation:

And here's the rhyme I used with it:

Five pretty flowers in my garden grew.
"Hmmm," I said, "I bet they smell good too!"
I bent down to sniff, but they tickled my nose.
Aaah-Choo! Oh no! (with exaggeration!)
Away one flower blows! (remove 1 flower, repeat rhyme & continue count down)

I sang this to the tune of "Five Little Ducks." I have to say, I did not expect for the kids in my storytime to find sneezing so very, very hilarious, but they really did! This felt board story was a lot of fun. If I'd had a little more time, I would have created leaves and stems, so that I could just pop off the heads of the flowers one by one, but they worked well enough on their own, and were attractive and easy to make.

5 Apples Felt Board

I've been seeing this felt board around for a while, and finally decided to make my own version. I love it! I start out with the pieces turned around, and flip them when they get "eaten." Easy to make, and the kids go wild over the "bites" in some of the apples.

I modified this rhyme a bit:

Five little apples
Hung in a tree
The farmer wasn’t looking.
So guess who came to eat?
A worm! Munch munch munch!

Four little apples... (etc.)

Rocket feltboard

Forgive the poor picture quality - I snapped this on my cell phone, and for some reason the moon looks very bright! I just have a quick little rhyme that goes with this one:

I'm a little rocket, pointing to the moon!
5, 4, 3, 2, 1... blast off, zoom!


I read the following books:

Randy Riley’s Really Big Hit – Chris Van Dusen
You Can’t Eat a Princess! – Gillian Rogerson
Mooncake – Frank Asch
The Birth of the Moon – Coby Hol
Brave Spaceboy – Dana Kessimakas Smith

The funniest moment in this storytime, I had two little girls sitting in front, who began arguing among themselves while I was reading Mooncake by Frank Asch.

"The moon is made of cheese," nodded one girl.

"No! You're wrong! The moon is made of air," her friend whisper-shouted back.

"Cheese!"

"Air!"

"Cheese!"

"Air!"

I had to stop reading, and tell them, "Ladies! You are both wrong! The moon is made of rocks. Now, can we settle down and find out what Bear thinks the moon is made out of?" It was very hard to keep a straight face, let me tell you.

Spilt Milk feltboard

I'm so glad I made this felt board! It's based on that old classic picture book, It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw. It was pretty easy to make - just cut out the shapes in white felt, and the kids loved calling out what each shape was. Some of the younger kids were mystified and surprised by the ending, while my pre-k storytime kids were calling out, "It's a cloud! I bet it's a cloud! It's a cloud, right?" right from the start.

Sometimes it looked like spilt milk...

Sometimes it looked like...

Sometimes it looked like spilt milk... but it was only a cloud in the sky.

Valentines Feltboard

Valentine's is over, but I just had to share this fun little feltboard I put together. I found this on Storytime ABC's, and if imitation is the highest form of flattery, I hope they are feeling very flattered, as I pretty much copied the pattern outright!

This was a real hit at storytime - a fun rhyme, and easy to remember.

Five little Valentine's were having a race.
The 1st Valentine was frilly with lace.
The 2nd Valentine had a very silly face.
The 3rd Valentine said, "I love you!"
The 4th Valentine said, "I do too!"
But, the 5th Valentine was sly as a fox!
'Cos he ran the fastest to your Valentine box."

Owl Feltboard

I've had my eye on this great felt board for a while. I've seen a couple of different versions of it... Storytime Katie discovered them through Leah at Sunflower Storytime.

Here's my version:

Easy to make, and I think they look charming!

Five Fish feltboard

I'm really excited about this new storytime rhyme, which I love because it's an anything rhyme. You can have five of anything, and the rhyme still works.

One problem that I have with a lot of rhymes with five of anything is that they can be fairly tricky to remember. For example:

Five little seashells lying on the shore;
Swish! went the waves, and then there were four.
Four little seashells, cozy as could be;
Swish! went the waves, and then there were three.
Three little seashells, all pearly new;
Swish! went the waves, and then there were two.
Two little seashells sleeping in the sun;
Swish! went the waves, and then there was one.
One little seashell left all alone;
I picked it up and took it home.

See, you've got to remember all these things that rhyme with four, three, two and one. And what if you don't have 5 seashells? (Okay, I know you could always just use your hand, like a fingerplay) but say you wanted to do 5 flowers, or 5 cookies, or 5 elephants? Now all the stuff about the waves doesn't make any sense.

This rhyme featured on the amazing blog Mel's Desk is what we'd call "extensible," you can pop anything in there and it still makes sense.

The "original" version, as near as I can make out goes like this,

Five little cupcakes in the bakery shop.
Five little cupcakes with sprinkles on top.
Along came someone with a nickel to pay,
And one of those cupcakes went away!
(etc.)

If you can't think of anything that would logically go "on top" of your item, you can use this version:

Five little _________ at the _________ store.
Five little _________ and not one more.
Along came someone with a nickel to pay,
And one of those _________ went away!
(and so on, with four, three, two, one, etc.)

Here we go! I did a version with five fish. I made the nickels perfectly round by tracing around a bottle cap - they're a little bigger than real nickels. Someone suggested the technique of stippling with a marker onto the felt - it works like a charm! Clear, and easy to read the 5's on those nickels. I'm still kind of debating if I want to add eyes on the fish.

I finished out like this:

Five fish! Five nickels!
My tale is at an end.
Now, tell me children, how much money do we have to spend?
Five! Ten! Fifteen! Twenty!! Twenty-five cents!!!

I shout the last part with as much enthusiasm as if I was saying "A million dollars!" The kids in my storytime love counting by fives, so this one was a real hit.

When Animals Get Up in the Morning feltboard

Here are some new felt board figures I made recently. The thing I love about this is that you could use any animals you happen to have around. Most of these guys are bigger in scale than the rest of my felt collection. I borrowed the chicken from my Little Red Hen set, and I think it's obvious she doesn't match. When I've got the time, I'll try and make a new chicken, more in the style of the duck, to go with the rest.


Here is the song that I sing with it:


When dogs get up in the morning,
they always say hello.

When dogs get up in the morning,

they always say hello.

Woof, woof. Woof, woof.

That is what they say.

Woof, woof. Woof, woof.

That is what they say.

And so on, and so forth, depending on which animals you've got. I wish I could describe the tune I'm using... but I'm deliriously unmusical!
You can sing as many rounds as you have felt animals, and/or as many rounds as the kids will sit still for. I always end with this verse:

When people get up in the morning,

we always say hello.

When people get up in the morning,

we always say hello.

Hello, hello. Hello, hello.

That is what we say.

Hello, hello. Hello, hello.

That is what we say.

It's a nice gentle song, I try to keep it pretty mellow and slow-paced. Afterwards, the kids like to point out which animals have eyes, and which ones don't have eyes.

Feltboard Dragon

A little late for Chinese New Year, but I've been working on this latest felt project for a while. I borrowed the pattern from Phee McFaddell's craft website. The original dragon was done in green and blue. I decided to try red. I'm not sure about the red color. He looks a bit like a Welsh dragon. (Not that there's anything wrong with that! It just wasn't quite the look I was going for.) This is quite a different style than most of my other felt pieces. I kind of wish that he had wings.  I like the look of layering so many pieces of felt - although it is rather thick, making it practically 3-dimensional. That sounds silly when I put it that way... I mean, everything is 3-dimensional, isn't it? What I mean to say is that it's a heavy piece, I have to hold my felt board at an angle so this guy doesn't fall right off it. It seems as if the original dragon was done on dyed craft paper. Or perhaps very, very, very thin layers of felt. I tried using a fine-tip marker to draw his eyes, mouth and so on, but those details seem quite a bit more blurry on mine. On the whole, I'm really happy with this project though! I haven't thought of any dragon rhymes or stories to share, other than Puff the Magic Dragon. Got any to suggest?

Little White Duck feltboard

Here's my latest feltboard, it's all the pieces I need for Little White Duck.

For the first time ever, I cheated, and taped the words to the song to the back of my feltboard. I'm kind of glad I did, because I always forget exactly how this one goes.

There's a little white duck, sitting in the water
A little white duck, doing what he oughter
He took a bite of a lily pad
Flapped his wings and he said "I'm glad
I'm a little white duck sitting in the water
Quack, Quack, Quack."

There's a little green frog swimming in the water
A little green frog, doing what he oughter
He jumped right off of the lily pad
That the little duck bit and he said "I'm glad
I'm a little green frog swimming in the water
Glug, Glug, Glug."

There's a little black bug floating on the water
A little black bug doing what he oughter
He tickled the frog on the lily pad
That the little duck bit and he said, "I'm glad
I'm a little black bug floating in the water
Bzz, Bzzz, Bzzz."

There's a little red snake playing in the water
A little red snake doing what he oughter
He frightened the duck and the frog so bad
He ate the bug and he said, "I'm glad
I'm a little red snake playing in the water
Hiss, Hisss, Hisss."

Now there's nobody left sitting in the water
Nobody left doing what they oughter
There's nothing left but the lily pad
The duck and the frog ran away, I'm sad
"Cause there's nobody left sitting in the water,
Boo! Hoo, Hoo...

5 Little Ducks Feltboard

This week I put together a simple, but very appealing feltboard for Five Little Ducks. Their feet are actually all one piece, glued to the back - I think it really works.

Five little ducks went out one day
Over the hills and far away
Mama duck said, "Quack, quack, quack, quack,"
but only four little ducks came waddling back...

Four little ducks went out one day
Over the hills and far away
Mama duck said, "Quack, quack, quack, quack,"
but only three little ducks came waddling back...

Three little ducks went out one day
Over the hills and far away
Mama duck said, "Quack, quack, quack, quack,"
but only two little ducks came waddling back...

Two little ducks went out one day
Over the hills and far away
Mama duck said, "Quack, quack, quack, quack,"
but only one little duck came waddling back...


One little duck went out one day
Over the hills and far away
Mama duck said, "Quack, quack, quack, quack,"
but no little ducks came waddling back...


No little ducks went out one day
Over the hills and far away
Mama duck said, "Quack, quack, quack, quack,"
and all five ducks came waddling back.

Pig Feltboard

I was getting ready for storytime the other week, and suddenly realized that I don't have a pig for my feltboard. I created this guy in a jiffy -- maybe if I'd had a little more time, I would have tried something different. Still, this did the trick!

Transportation feltboard

I made this one in kind of a hurry. I love the way the train turned out. I wish I had made it a little bigger though. Recognize the car? It's from a whole car feltboard set I did a while back. I got a little lazy on the plane. If I'd had more time, I would have used grey felt on a black backing and cut out the windows. Instead, I simply cut out the plane in grey, and glued the black windows on top. Still, it worked rather nicely, and the kids enjoyed it.

I sang this song with it, from one of my favorite websites: everythingpreschool.com

Sung to: She'll Be Coming Around The Mountain
Oh we're goin' on vacation on a plane (zoom zoom)
Oh we're goin' on vacation on a plane (zoom zoom)
Oh we're goin' on vacation
Oh we're goin' on vacation
Oh we're goin' on vacation on a plane (zoom zoom)

Oh we're goin' on vacation on a train (choo choo)

(etc.)

Oh we're goin' on vacation in our car (honk honk)

(etc.)

Little Red Hen feltboard

Here's my latest creation, The Little Red Hen, who plants, grows and cuts the wheat all by herself, grinds it into flour all by herself, mixes and kneads the dough and bakes it into bread all by herself, and when the time is right, eats the loaf of bread, all by herself, with no help from lazy cat, dog and mouse, of course!

Recognize the cat, dog and mouse? I re-used them from my Giant Turnip set I created some time ago. The lovely hen comes straight from the pattern from my beloved Judy Sierra's The Flannel Board Storytelling Book. Oddly, there was no pattern for a stove, or a loaf of bread, so I freehanded those. I experimented with a couple of different looking kinds of bread which all ended up looking lumpy and not-at-all breadlike until I came up with this simple loaf of french bread. As a rule, I don't like to draw on my felt pieces with marker, but I think it works well here. Even though she's a "red" hen, I made her orange, as making her fire-engine red didn't look right, and made her wattle stand out less. I thought about making her all of one piece, to save a little time, but I like the extra dimensionality from having her wing and leg a little separate. This felt board went over very well at storytime. I hewed pretty closely to the Paul Galdone version of The Little Red Hen.

Orange Feltboard

Here is, just about, the easiest felt board that I've ever made. I just traced a circle on orange felt using a large bowl, and drew some dimples with a black marker. I freehanded the leaf. Simple!

Here's the song I sang with it.
It's to the tune of Three Blind Mice.

An orange is orange.
An orange is orange.
It is not red.
It is not red.
It's not pink or purple or yellow or gray!
It's si-mply not colored that way!
An orange is orange.
An orange is orange.

I used this for a food-themed storytime, but I'll probably re-use it for a color-themed storytime.