Old McRainbow's Wheels on the bus

  

I'm revisiting my schoolbus sets with my Old McRainbow rhyme.  I had forgotten that I made this up a couple of years ago.  This is an interactive rhyme.  I hand out the colored wheels to the kiddos. There's enough for 20 kids.  As I say the rhyme I put up a colored bus and the kiddos bring up the matching wheels.  They love doing this activity. There are so many learning skills involved in this game.  They have to stay engaged to wait for their turn.  They need to know that wheels go at the bottom of the bus shape. They see that each bus has 2 wheels. Plus they enjoy the chance to get up and move and the felt just feels good too!  Old McRainbow and his colorful buses are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

More Duckies!

Well, it's spring time and in my mind that means eggs and chicks and ducks!! I shared the set I made last week for a Duck theme HERE.  Our preschoolers right now are young and so they really enjoy an interactive activity at the flannelboard so I made a set of colored ducks and a new rhyme so that we can play a game.  They don't seem to get tired of this activity!!  I say the first part of the rhyme initially and then only repeat  *The (color) ducks go swimming with a quack quack quack* and change the color each time. The kiddos with that color felt duck get to bring it up and put it on the felt board "pond". Then I close the rhyme with the last two lines and we all admire the colorful ducks!  

Old McRainbow’s Colorful Ducks

by Kathryn Roach 

There’s a funny kind of farm where colorful ducks grow.

They’re cared for by a funny farmer, Old McRainbow!

Waddling to the pond way out in the back

*The red ducks go swimming with a quack quack quack!

Orange Yellow  Brown Green Black Blue Purple Pink  White

See the colorful ducks swimming and their quacking seems to say,

"Please come back to play with us on another day!"

                         

Be sure to check out my other duck post HERE!  Ducks are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Rabbits!

A few weeks ago, Wendy @Flannel Board Fun shared her bunny sets and several rhymes and I was inspired!! We are planning to do a bunny theme in May so Wendy's post was a tremendous help in our prep! There are lots of bunny posts on the Flannel Friday Pinterest boards too. Anyway, here's my take on the bunny sets plus an original rhyme/activity set too. I used pom poms for the bunny tails and google eyes instead of making them from felt. I like the extra dimension it gives to the bunnies...plus cutting out eyes is a pain! LOL! I love the carrot patch and the baby bunnies!

Here's a printable link for Rainbow Rabbits. It's a take on my Old McRainbow character and his rainbow carrots and rabbits that eat them! The felt rabbits are a diecut. The carrots are just freehand cutouts. They are about 6 inches long. I did add some glue to the back of the carrot tops to stiffen them. They weren't quite dry when I took this pic. I do plan to make a filefolder of the carrot shapes too...eventually.

Rabbits are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime! There are more ideas on the Flannel Friday Roundup!  Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more info!

Old McRainbow's Flower Garden

Here's another post for springtime bees and flowers! I was inspired last week to make up a new rhyme for Old McRainbow for Springtime! This is a color recognition and listening activity as well. Since I hand out the colored bees the kiddos have to wait and listen and watch for the color of the flower to change in the filefolder. There are several learning skills happening with this simple little activity! My littlest kiddos get the hang of this very quickly and love to add their piece to the flannelboard! Here's the link for the rhyme:  Old McRainbow's Flower Garden.

This is fairly easy to make too. I used a Google image of a cute bee and programmed a sheet with four bees and copied them on colored paper. I used my handy little laminator and laminated them. I rough cut them so that I could laminate 6 at a time and use less laminating film. Once I cut them out more carefully I'll add a small velcro dot to the back. I also used a Google image for my flowers. I just cutout some 'grass' for the bottom of the filefolder and a couple of leaf shapes. I cut out the flowers and the bee but colored with a sharpie the outline and stripes of the bee shape. I laminated the filefolder and hotglued two little googly eyes and stacked my paper and we're ready for Fun with Friends at Storytime!

There are more great ideas on the Flannel Friday Roundup. Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more info!

Sheep, Sheep everywhere!

One of my earliest posts for Flannel Friday was 'Five White and Fluffy Sheep'. In it I mentioned a post I had seen @MissMaryLiberry of her colored, numbered sheep she had made for Counting Ovejas by Sarah Weeks. I had made a set myself but I can't find them??!! So I've made another set of colored sheep. I'm not going to add numbers to mine so that I can use them with other rhymes too.  I'm thinking since there are 10 of them they would lend themselves to the easy '1 little, 2 little ...' rhyme and then to a fun game of 'Which One's Missing?'. You know this could also be a verse of an Old McRainbow song too! (sing it slowly and have your sheep stacked in order) Check out my other Old McRainbow post HERE.

Old McRainbow had a farm, eieio!
and on his farm he had some sheep! eieio!
Red, brown, green, yellow, purple, pink
blue, black, white and turquoise
Old McRainbow had a farm, eieio!

These were quick and easy to cut out by stacking a couple of colors and cutting two at a time (I staple them together) I had these done in no time!

You'll recognize the sheep from the craft on my post, HERE. I just tweaked the pattern a little, added google eyes and black slick fabric paint for the nose. I think they are adorable!  Baaaa! Sheep are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime! There are more great posts on the Flannel Friday Roundup. Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more info!

Old McRainbow's Pumpkin Farm

I just finished doing a Pumpkin themed storytime at a preschool to 10 classes divided into 4 groups.  It was a great success!  I heard, "Read it again!" or "Do it again", or even as he was leaving, a child said, "I love you!".  Of course, I replied," I love you too!".  *sigh*  That's why I do what I do!! Anyway, I used some old favorite flannel sets and a new favorite set copied from Sarah at Read Rabbit Read called Five Giant Pumpkins.  My set is a combination of felt pumpkins with glitter (of course!) and laminated Google images under the pumpkins. We even played a "which one's missing?" game with the Google images. This was a great hit!  But, I didn't have any interactive sets so that the children could get up and participate.  I realize, in that setting, there were just too many kids to really do the interactive game but I still would like a set for my library storytime or a classroom setting. I thought about it for several days and this is what I came up with:

Old McRainbow's Pumpkin Farm

by Kathryn Roach

There's a funny kind of farm where colored pumpkins grow;  

     planted by a funny farmer, Old McRainbow

         (chant or sing to tune of Mary Wore Her Red Dress)

       You can see a red one, red one, red one,

            a pretty red pumpkin on the farm.

(repeat with other colors as children bring up their matching colored pumpkin and add it to the 'farm')

        (speak the last rhyme to close the activity)

 What a funny rainbow farm with pumpkins row by row,

 Colorful pumpkins planted by Farmer McRainbow!

I die cut 4 of each color.  I plan to hand them out to the kiddos to bring up and add to the board as I chant/sing the color verse for each color.  I could see this being tweaked to apples or different veggies or fruit depending on the color. The first verse could be; There's a funny kind of farm where colored produce grow...  That gives me the chance to define a new, big word for the kiddos.  Rainbows and pumpkins are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!