We’ve been reading rhyming stories this week. It’s late enough in the school year that many of the older preschoolers will have started getting rhymes and can really participate in the stories. The younger kids still have trouble – they have an easier time with beginning sounds – but they still enjoy the storytime just as much.

I have a Frog puppet, Freddy, who says he “likes to rhyme all the time!” I think I had him say “see you later, alligator!” to a group of kids, and that reminded me that I had seen a whole list of these animal rhymes on Pinterest. I decided to make this into a flannelboard that we can use at the end of storytime to say goodbye to Freddy.

First, we name the animals. There’s an alligator (from a previous flannel I made), a crocodile, and a raccoon:

(Paint was still wet on the crocodile so he had to sit on paper)

Also a ladybug, butterfly, and jellyfish:

Next, I have our list of beginning phrases. We read them all, and I run my finger under each phrase from left to right (building print awareness!). This is just a more rigid piece of 8 1/2 x 11 felt with the words written in puff paint:

Finally we match each animal with its rhyming phrase, and say the whole thing as a goodbye to Freddy. I matched the color of the words to the dominant color of the animal to add even more recognition:

You could add a lot more animals (“Out the door, dinosaur!” Toodle-oo, Kangaroo!) but I didn’t have time (or space) to do more. Of course, many of us have a stock of felt animals that can be used in lots of different stories – so you’d just have to make the words. And the jellyfish. Who already has a jellyfish?

Visit Busy Crafting Mommy later today for the full roundup, or check out the pinterest page for all past Flannels (icon to the right). Happy flanneling, y’all!

Tags: Animals, flannelboards, goodbye, insects, rhymes