Dear Zoo Flannel - Inspired by

I'm very pleased to present my very first flannel board! One of the themes I chose for the upcoming year is Zoo and everywhere I look I see praise for Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell.

I found a printable here to use as a guideline for my pieces. I'm very excited to bring this one out and see how it goes! Until then here are some closeups of my favorites!

This one was inspired by Nikarella. You can see the original here.

Going Buggy!

Well my second story time ( and my last until September) centered around BUGS!

Our first book for this session was Beetle Bop by Denise Fleming. The reception was luke warm on this one and I was disappointed since i'd heard such good things.

For my story board, I did the rhyme Colorful Butterflies.  I put some magnet tape on the back after finding a butterfly clipart I liked afterI colored and  laminated them. I was sitting on the floor close to the chalkboard which made it easy for me to flick my wrist and have butterflies look like they were flying out of my hand onto the board! Sounds nerdy but I enjoyed it and so did the kids. 

Colorful Butterflies

The first to come to the garden bed

Is a lovely butterfly of brilliant RED

Then in comes another and that makes two

Fly right in my friend of BLUE

“The garden is fine, the best I’ve seen”

Says the butterfly of softest GREEN

Our garden needs a sunny fellow

Fly in butterfly with wings of YELLOW

Little friend of PURPLE, fly in too

The garden is waiting for a color like you

ORANGE, orange you’ve waited so long

Fly right in where you belong

Butterflies, butterflies, you’re such a sight

Flying together – what a delight!

Next we read I Love Bugs! by Emma Dodd. The kids (mostly thew little girls) screamed when we saw the spider page so we scared him away by turning the page.  

The last book was Jump! By Scott Fischer. It was an absolute HIT! The giggled and rolled and got into by helping shout out "jumped" at the appropriate parts. 

For our craft we did Ants on a Hill. I had the kids draw the legs and antennas as well as a treat to carry into the queen. Some things the kids drew include a chocolate cookie, a strawberry and of course a slice of watermelon.

I loved this activity because when some of the kids weren't focusing and getting kind of fussy, I got down on the ground and colored along side them!

Bulletin Board Numero Uno

 

I admit it. I'm ADDICTED to pinterest. It's where I found the idea for my first bulletin board (Technically, two windows but hey i'll take what I get!). I made a few slight changes such as the birds are cutout of index pages from atlas that was to be thrown out, the flying bird has a banner hanging from his mouth that says "Fly away with a good book!", and I used wrapping paper from the dollar store as the sky.

The original creation can be seen here.

Here is a close up of the birds I captured with my phone: