Flannel Friday: Tommy Trout

 

If you follow me on Twitter, you have already heard the news that my daughter was born on Thanksgiving Day. Little Miss Muffet, as she will be known here on the blog, is now over a month old, and we are loving every minute we spend with her. Luckily, she is a very easy baby, so it seems like I will have time every now and then to blog and contribute to Flannel Friday.

The story I'm sharing today is called "Tommy Trout,"and it's a birthday-themed rhyming story by Ann Ingalls which was published in the July 2011 issue of Highlights High Five magazine.  (The audio version of this issue can be found here.) In a style similar to Drummer Hoff, the story lists who brought what to Tommy's birthday party, with a repeated refrain where Tommy himself blows out the candles. The story would work well with a preschool audience or with beginning readers. As it was basically impossible to find a decent set of clipart people that fit the cast of characters, I decided to focus on beginning readers so I could just show the characters' names without any visual representations. I then replaced each of the items brought to the party with an image of the item so that the story became like a rebus.

Here is what the presentation looks like in Google Drive.


If I were doing a beginning reader story time, I would probably use this presentation as is, either on the iPad, or projected onto the wall, depending on the size of the group. For preschoolers, I would probably try to scrounge up some people to use and actually tell the story on the flannel board. With both age groups, I'd encourage them to repeat each line with me, so they were effectively retelling the story as we went, and afterward, I'd introduce a matching activity to make the connection between the names and the objects with which they rhyme. I also included two slides at the end - one with candles lit, and one with candles extinguished to give the kids the chance to pretend to blow them out.

This week's Flannel Friday host is Lisa from Libraryland. For more on Flannel Friday, visit the official website. Also check out Flannel Friday's Birthdays Pinterest board for more ideas related to this theme.