Flannelboard: Pirates

If I come up with more rhymes and songs to go with this set, the post will be updated to reflect that. If you have ideas for other ways to use the set, please share!

Flannelboard

I used this for my pirate storytime on Talk Like a Pirate Day! I spent far too much time making these pieces, but hopefully I will find use for them in the future. If nothing else, I can continue to do pirate themed storytimes for Talk Like a Pirate Day every year! Part of the reason I decided to do a flannelboard with five pirates instead of something like a mouse in the house variation with treasure in chests was that I wanted to make 100% sure I would have both female pirates and pirates of color in my storytime. Most books for children about pirates feature white boys as the protagonists so I thought a great way to make sure I added more diversity was to do a flannelboard with different pirates too! I've made three out of the five pirates female and each pirate has a different skin tone. The two lightest skin tones look pretty similar in photographs but they are different and I think the difference is slightly more obvious in person.

Songs, Rhymes, Games, and Fingerplays

Flannelboard: “One Brave Pirate”
(Tune: One Elephant Went Out to Play)

One brave pirate sailed out to sea
Across the blue waters, wild and free
He had such enormous fun
That he called for another brave pirate to come.

Two brave pirates sailed out to sea
Across the blue waters, wild and free
They had such enormous fun
That they called for another brave pirate to come.

Verses: Count up to five

Five brave pirates sailed out to sea
Across the blue waters, wild and free
They had such enormous fun
As they sailed together 'neath the golden sun!

Source: modified from Storytime ABCs

Flannelboard: “Five Scurvy Pirate”

Five scurvy pirates standing on the shore,
One went on a search and that left four.

Four scurvy pirates sailing out to sea,
One went for a swim and that left three.

Three scurvy pirates out on the ocean blue,
One walked the plank and that left two.

Two scurvy pirates having tons of fun,
One went below the deck and that left one.

One scurvy pirate, tired and alone,
He turned the ship around and sailed for home.

Source: Storytime ABCs

Flannelboard: Flowers

If I come up with more rhymes and songs to go with this set, the post will be updated to reflect that. If you have ideas for other ways to use the set, please share!

Flannelboard

I used this for my flowers and garden storytime. I am honestly not terribly thrilled with how this board turned out, but I had less time to make it than with many of my previous boards. I would like to at least add cute faces to these if I use it again, but what I'd really prefer is a flannelboard with five different types of flowers! I'm thinking rose, tulip, daffodil, delphinium, and iris. I can definitely see myself using a flower themed board again in the future, so I may update this board at that point in time.

Songs, Rhymes, Games, and Fingerplays

“Out in the Garden”

Out in the garden
Growing in the sun
Were five pretty flowers
And I picked one!

Verses: Count down to one

Source: Mel's Desk

Storytime: Flowers and Garden

Books

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

Plant the Tiny Seed by Christie Matheson

My Garden by Kevin Henkes

Lola Plants a Garden by Anna McQuinn

What Does Bunny See by Linda Sue park

Flower Garden by Eve Bunting

There are a lot of great books about flowers and gardens out there and it is a perfect theme for Spring or Summer. I did this one in late Spring, even though I'm just getting to posting it now. Plant the Tiny Seed is a fantastic interactive book if you have a small group, though it may not work as well for a larger audience. It was my favorite of the book selections for sure. I used What Does Bunny See in my bunny storytime too, but I brought it back for some of my groups who hadn't read it the first time around.

Click read more for extension activities to go with this theme.

Flannelboard: Gnomes

If I come up with more rhymes and songs to go with this set, the post will be updated to reflect that. If you have ideas for other ways to use the set, please share!

Flannelboard

I used this for my gnome storytime. This set definitely took longer than a lot of my flannelboards, but I have a slight (okay more than slight) obsession with gnomes so I had to make it perfect. As with my superhero flannelboard, I made sure to make each gnome have a different skin tone from pale peach to dark brown and also to have both male and female gnomes represented. Most gnomes you see in artwork are white males with white beards and red hats, so I included the traditional gnome among my pieces, but there is no reason that gnomes can't come in all skin tones and hair colors! 

The list of songs and rhymes to go with this board is a bit long, so I've put it behind a cut. Click read more for gnome themed rhymes and songs to go with this cute board!

Storytime: Gnomes

Books

Go Big or Go Gnome by Kirsten Mayer

No, No. Gnome by Ashlyn Anstee

Lawn to Lawn by Dan Yaccarino

Good Night, Garden Gnome by Jamichael Henterly

The Tomten and the Fox by Astrid Lindgren

Pip the Gnome by Admar Kwant

We didn't actually have all of these books at my library. I bought a copy of Pip the Gnome specifically for this storytime and my personal collection at home because I love gnomes! I ended up using it for the toddler storytime, so I'm glad I had it! If you like to use music from CDs or videos with your storytimes, definitely consider using Emily Arrow's "No, No Gnome" song along with the book!

I was so exciting for this storytime that I even dressed up for it both times I ran it, with different gnome themed dresses each time! I dress up for storyimes when I can. I should really try to get more pictures of that since that is what the "lookbook" part of my blog title was supposed to be. 

For extension activities click read more.