Flannel Friday: The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins

For the first preschool story time of the Fall (which is today, Friday, at 4:00pm), my theme is numbers and counting. As soon as I decided that, I knew I wanted to find a way to include The Doorbell Rang. It's a book I have always liked, but that tends to flop at story time because the illustrations don't lend themselves well to being shared with large groups. It also bothers me that the text doesn't specifically reference the number of cookies Ma has made- the closest we get is when we're told that Victoria and Sam get six each on the first page. As a kid who did not understand the concept of multiplication until at least two years after her classmates, I needed to have things spelled, and this flannel board does just that.

All the clipart you see in these photos is available from Clker.com, and is in the public domain. I made these pieces at home, where I do not have a flannel board, so I used my kitchen folding table to take the photos. The quality is pretty terrible, but I think they still get across the general way I plan to present this flannel to my preschoolers this afternoon!

Here's the start of the story where Ma has her twelve cookies. Victoria is the red-haired girl, and Sam is the blonde boy. I did my best to match the faces I found to the way they look in the book. I did the best job with these two characters.

Here are Victoria and Sam, now each with their six cookies.

But of course the doorbell rings...

...and in walk two more kids.

The cookies get redistributed, and now everyone has three.

Not for long, though.

Two more boys shows up, and the number decreases to two.

The doorbell rings again, and this time, the group of kids doubles in size.

One cookie each, and not a cookie to spare! 

Thank God, the next time the doorbell rings...

...it's Grandma with more cookies!

(The only piece missing from the picture is grandma's cookie tray. I'm still figuring out how I'm going to create that piece. I printed out a second sheet of cookies, but it's too big.)

I was initially going to try memorizing the text of the book, but I ran out of time, so now I'll probably just read it straight through and use the flannel board to illustrate the distribution of the cookies. I'm also just really excited to have found these various faces. It's not easy to find free clipart of people online to begin with, and even harder to get a diverse group. I'll be looking for more ways to use these guys in the coming months!

This week's roundup is over at Loons and Quines. For more information on Flannel Friday, check out its official website.