Friday, November 4, 2011

Flannel Friday: Thanksgiving Post #1: Thanks a Lot

This is my first of three, possibly four, flannel boards for Thanksgiving.

Last year, during Fall and Winter I was still so new to this job, I had no idea what I was doing, and therefore didn't make any flannel boards at all to use for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. So though it might seem like overkill to do several for just one holiday, I am creating these now in the hopes of being prepared not just for this year's holiday season, but next year's too.

This flannel board idea was inspired by this Raffi song, which I remembered vaguely from my childhood. After tracking down the lyrics, I realized it would make a nice simple flannel board for my toddler groups, and maybe even for my preschoolers.

Here's what I came up with:
Thanks a lot
Thanks for the sun in the sky

 
Thanks a lot
Thanks for the clouds so high 

Thanks a lot
Thanks for the whispering wind
 
 Thanks a lot
Thanks for the birds in spring

Thanks a lot
Thanks for the moonlit night

Thanks a lot
Thanks for the stars so bright

Thanks a lot
Thanks for all I've got.

My thought is to avoid talking about pilgrims and Indians, despite how prevalent those topics seem to be on many of the sites I've visited, so I'm focusing more on turkeys, family, food, and giving thanks (in a generic, secular sense). I don't plan to play the recording, since I'm not sure the library has it, and I wanted to focus on the more concrete ideas, instead of the abstract ones at the end. I'm also trying to do more of my own singing, because I think it makes a difference to the behavior of my audience.

All clip art in this post comes from the Open Clip Art Library

This week's Flannel Friday host is Anne at  So Tomrrow. Don't miss the round-up! Also check out Flannel Friday's boards on Pinterest, and the list of previous Flannel Friday round-ups, also at So Tomorrow.

6 comments :

  1. Nice idea! I'll be borrowing it, but Raffi will be singing along with me. My voice really isn't strong enough to carry gentle songs like this so a CD does a better job keeping the kids engaged than I can on my own.

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  2. What a cool way to practice being thankful. I am not super familiar with Raffi's work (I mean, I've heard "Baby Beluga" and I used "The More We Get Together") so I might be busting out the CD player soon! Thanks for sharing!

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  3. I really like the idea of focusing on generally being thankful instead of Thanksgiving. If I did any holiday storytimes, I would totally do this! (But I might just use it for a "manners" theme instead!)

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  4. I was just googling "flannel board ideas raffi thanks a lot" and was thrilled to find this post. But, your images are not showing up :-( I would love to see what you came up with...

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  5. @ChaCha - The images are back! I knew they were down, but couldn't find the originals to re-upload. I finally just did. Enjoy!

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  6. Please don't try to be PC correct, please don't take the fun out of turkeys and pilgrims, native americans.

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