Flannel Friday - Nursery Rhyme Sheep

If you follow my story times, you know I love creating flannel boards.  I really enjoy going off-book and just telling a story using flannel props.  I also love crafting sets which I can leave on the board for 'Free Exploration' after story time.  Lately I have been focusing on nursery rhymes and songs.  According to Every Child Ready to Read, singing and talking are two strong components of early literacy.  By learning and reciting poems and singing songs, children learn rhyming, patterns, how words are formed, sequence, etc.  I try to incorporate one of these rhymes at least once a month.  The children who know it feel successful, the children who don't can learn it and take home tools to be able to try it at home.

This set I have created is for an upcoming sheep story time.  I decided to immortalize three nursery rhymes in flannel in one multi-use set.  I'm sure I'll be adding pieces to it later.  Here are all of the pieces in the kit:

The sheep are cut from a coloring sheet I found at http://www.coloringan.com/2013/03/sheep-coloring-pages-1612/.

**Shout out to my daughter, Sarah, who designed the people in her artistic style.  I used her drawings for the template for the Master, Dame, and Little Boy.

The rest of the items, the school, staff, bags, bushes, are free hand.

First: Baa Baa Black Sheep:
Baa Baa Black Sheep have you any wool?
Yes sir, Yes sir, three bags full!
One for the Master, one for the Dame, 
and one for the little boy who lives down the lane.

Next: Little Bo Peep:
Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep
and doesn't know where to find them!
Leave them alone and they'll come home
Wagging their tails behind them!

Finally: Mary had a Little Lamb
Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb.
Mary had a little lamb with fleece as white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went,
Everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.
It followed her to school one day, school one day, school one day.
It followed her to school one day which was against the rules.
It made the children laugh and play, laugh and play, laugh and play.
It made the children laugh and play to see a lamb at school.  
(there is more to this story but this is generally long enough for preschool)

My flannel stories are generally created by making a template from a photocopy of a book, drawing, or coloring page.  I will first cut out the piece which will be out front (for example the dress), then do the hands and head but adding a 'tail' so there is more surface area to glue in back. T-shirt paint (also called puffy paint) is used for detail.  This paint does come in a sharpie like pen as well, but is for a softer line.  I have flesh tone markers to softly color in the skin.

Thanks to Kathryn for hosting Flannel Friday this week!  If you are new to Flannel Friday, visit her blog at: http://kdr4xmom.blogspot.com/ and see what Flannel Friday is all about!