DIY Flannel Board

Flannel boards are a huge part of story times in preschool and toddler education. I do not have much training or experience with preschool education, but I currently teach a once-a-week 'school readiness' class for 2-5 year olds to get them ready for preschool and kindergarten. So I decided I wanted my own flannel board. They aren't THAT expensive at places like Lakeshore, but I knew I could make my own. I googled plans for making your own flannel board, hit Joann's, and here is the result:

I bought a cheap bulletin board to start. I had intended to buy a prepared stretched canvas, but they were pretty expensive.  Then I bought enough flannel to cover it and staple it to the back. I picked this fun blue/green tie-dye look flannel, but the internet recommends solid light blue or light green, because those are more univerally useful for stories that take place in water or outside, and they are just mellow background colors. We'll see how well my background does. I borrowed my friend's staple gun to attach the fabric, and her suggestion was, "stretch that fabric TIGHT before you staple." I did stretch it tight, but I didn't stretch it TIGHT, so there are some loose spots, but hopefully it will be okay. 

For my first story, later this week, I'll read "I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean" by Kevin Sherry, and then have the children put up each piece as we retell it.  I got the idea and the template for all the characters so you can make your own pieces out of felt, at Storytime Katie. I also bought a few sets of pre-made felt pieces from the Etsy shop Storytelling Fun. I will combine some from the Ocean set I bought from Etsy and a few that I made from the template to do the story with the kids. Making them wasn't too hard, but obviously buying them was even easier. And the bought ones are quite cute. 

I made the whale and little blue fish. I purchased the jellyfish and crab

I haven't used these yet in a storytime, but when I do, I'll post the results...if they worked for me. I also bought some small canvas boards that I would like to cover with the extra flannel so the kiddos can have their own flannel lapboards, but that is a future project! 

 

Whisper Phones

I've known about whisper phones for a long time, but this is the first time I've made them or used them.  

Whisper phones are just short pieces of PVC pipe with PVC elbow joints attached to either end. When a kid puts one up to their ear, like a phone, they can whisper into it and hear themselves loud and clear. These are great for reading, especially kids who still read out loud but don't want everyone to hear them or in loud classrooms. 

This year in ASP (After School Program) I decided to put a much heavier emphasis on reading. I really believe the only way to get better at reading is to do a lot of it. And the students' reading scores from this past year didn't reach our expectations. So every day, for half an hour or more, it's pretty dedicated reading time. 

Ashmita using a whisper phone to read a book on her phone

But kids do not love to read, so I am working on making things more fun, and whisper phones are one way to do that. Typically they are used in classrooms of very young children learning to read, but I've found that here, kids of all ages like using them, and because they are neat and fun, it's not embarrassing for older kids to read out loud to themselves if they need to.  

I just found the instructions online, google "whisper phone instructions".  I think I got 3/4" PVC and they folks at ACE cut it into sections for me for free. I think the sections were like, 3 1/2" long, and then I bought a bag of 10 3/4" elbow joins. Popped them together, and wrapped some colorful duct tape around the center section for flair.

My whisper phones, with scissors for size reference.