What's a Flannelboard?

In storytimes, we often use the flannelboard for stories, rhymes, and/or songs.  I absolutely love using the flannel boards for a variety of reasons, and I'd like to share some of them with you.

First of all, what is a flannelboard?

A flannelboard is simply a board with a felt background.  We can cut out shapes and characters in felt, and the two naturally stick together, allowing us to further visualize our stories!

But we have the book--why would we need a flannel board?

My quick and easy answer is: participation! I love including the children in the story or song we are talking about.  This week, all of the children either helped place colored leaves on the board or colored turkey feathers.  Not only did this get them excited to help, it got them excited about the story/song, and we were able to work on our colors!

In the book, Supercharged Storytimes: An Early Literacy Assessment and Planning Guide*, the authors dive more into specific ways flannelboards help with literacy:

• Print Concepts: when we sing songs with a story, i.e. "Down by the Bay," "I Know an Old Lady," or "Five Green and Speckled Frogs," we can hand flannelboard pieces that relate to the song giving the child a chance to participate and make a connection between the visual and the words we are singing.
• Alphabetic Knowledge: Flannelboards give us the opportunity to make large letters that we can focus on and clearly display.  This can work with songs like, "ABCs" and "BINGO" (can turn the word/name into any five-letter word).

If you ever have any questions about flannelboards, do not hesitate to ask! Would you like to make your own? Check out the link here to get started!

*Campana, Kathleen, et al. Supercharged Storytimes: an Early Literacy Planning and Assessment Guide. ALA Editions, an Imprint of the American Library Association, 2016.