Five Green and Speckled Frogs (Flannel Friday)

Okay, so the post for my *first* Flannel Friday isn't really a flannel, but a manipulative that you can use for story time. It's great for on-the-go, if you're traveling to a classroom or center, and fun for kids to play with in the car. It's just so stinking easy, I have to share it!

This is a super simple prop you can use for the traditional favorite, Five Green & Speckled Frogs. I've used it for years now in story time, with a blue cloth draped over my lap, and I plop the frogs onto the floor as we sing the song together.

We make a craft together each week in my preschool story time group, and I've given children paper towel tubes and frog cutouts to make their own frogs on a log to take home and practice.

Hope you enjoy it!

The adorable printable can be found here:
http://picklebums.com/2011/03/29/five-green-frogs-printable/

Materials needed are:
5 frog cutouts, preferably on card stock or sturdy paper or laminated
a paper towel tube
razor knife or scissors, to cut the paper towel tube log

Using the razor knife or scissors, make one long slit along the middle of the tube, about an inch from each end, keeping the line as straight as you can. When cutting out the frogs, make sure to leave a longish tab along the bottom of each so that you have plenty of room to push the cutout into the slit. Line them up, and you're ready to go!



Here's Miss Nina's wonderfully fun version of Five Green and Speckled Frogs, in case you need a refresher:

Happy day,
Miss Lisa

Lunch!

Super-simple way to incorporate a puppet into story time. Based on Denise Fleming's book, Lunch.

Puppet:
mouse

Props:
I made simple felts of :
a turnip
a carrot
pea pod
an ear of corn
an apple
a bunch of grapes
a slice of watermelon

Mouse is hungry. AAH! Mouse spies our picnic while we're napping! She eats through:
a crisp white, turnip; a crunchy orange carrot; a sweet green pea pod; a crisp ear of yellow corn; a juicy red apple; a sour bunch of purple grapes; and a slice of pink watermelon. Then, she takes a nap until DINNERTIME!

The kids thought this was funny and enjoyed guessing the fruit and vegetables as I pulled them out of our picnic basket.

Five Little Apples

This is a puppet and flannel board combination skit. Very simple and effective. I used it this morning with my preschool group and it was a sweet addition to our stortytime.

Puppets:
caterpillar (or worm)
horse
pig
goat
squirrel

Props:
flannel board tree with five removable apples

"Five Red Apples"
Five red apples on the tree,
the farmer didn't care, so guess who came to eat?

CATERPILLAR!
Munch! Munch! Munch!

Countdown until you get to one.

The tree is bare,
there are no more apples there.
But when next Fall comes around,
guess who will be found?
Caterpillar, horse, pig, goat and squirrel!