Guest Post...Five Elephants in the Bathtub!

I'm so happy to have Kelsey guest posting on my blog this week!

Happy 4th Birthday Flannel Friday!

Hi! My name is Kelsey and I’m a librarian in Washington State and am so very excited to be guest posting today on Kathryn’s blog for Flannel Friday’s 4th Anniversary. Flannel Friday is probably the highlight of my week and I was very excited to share something for the first time this month! 

Now I’ll admit, I tried to put together a great birthday flannel to share or something brand new that hadn't been on Flannel Friday before, but sadly my mind went blank and my creativity fled. So instead, I thought it only fitting that I share my own version of a classic and one of the many amazing creations I've seen on Flannel Fridays throughout the years. My version of 5 Elephants in the Bathtub was inspired by Lisa over at Libraryland  and the wonderful Mollie and Leah at SunflowerStorytime .

I’m sure many of you are familiar with the rhyme, but for those who aren't, it goes like this:

One Elephant in the bathtub,

Going for a swim.
Knock, knock (Slap knees twice)
Splash, splash (Clap hands twice)
Come on in! (Motion to come in with both hands)

Continue counting up until 5 …..

Five elephants in the bathtub,
Going for a swim
Knock, knock
Splash, splash
They all fell in!

At one of my coworker’s prompting, I tried pulling all of the pieces to the floor as they all fall in and the kids loved it. It got them wondering about the size of the tub and how many elephants it would take to break it. We've also talked about how many elephants they think could fit our meeting room, what colors elephants are in nature, and whether or not they'd want to take a bath with an elephant (that one always gets some really fun answers)! 

This set is really versatile as well; besides an elephant storytime, I've also used it for a color themed one and a messy/clean storytime. I also use the set to play a really simple guessing game. You can hide an elephant behind the tub and then try and guess which it is. I’ll bring out an elephant not “playing” in the tub one at a time until they can figure out which color is missing.

Thanks for checking out my contribution to Flannel Friday and thanks a million to Kathryn for agreeing to host my guest blog!

Thanks Kelsey for such a fun post! Love the size of your pieces too. It's always great to get ideas for using our sets in more than one theme/activity! 

The rest of this week's Guest a Palooza / 4th anniversary roundup is @ What Happens In Storytime.