Flannel Friday: Color Rhymes (with Birds)

My Flannel Friday contribution for this week has a very Spring theme - birds!

A couple of months ago, some parents donated their entire collection of Highlights High Five magazines to my children's room. Since we don't have a lot of shelf space for magazines, and we don't subscribe to Highlights High Five, I opted to use them for their rhymes and activities rather than make them available to the public. Many things in those issues lend themselves well to flannel boards, and I have no doubt there will be other High Five inspired posts in the coming weeks and months. But this one was so perfect, I actually cut up the magazine pages to make the flannel board pieces.

The rhyme is called Color Rhymes, and in the May 2009 issue of High Five, it is written as a guessing game, where the colors are left blank for the kids to fill in.(You can hear the audio version of the rhyme on the digital edition of the magazine here.)

Here's what the pieces look like. (The art is by Judith Moffatt and Bill Hoffman).

And this is the rhyme that accompanies them:

Robin has a very dark head,

but the feathers on his breast are red.

Goldfinch is a happy fellow.

On his breast, he's sunny yellow.

Sparrows hops around the town

in his suit of gray and brown.

Noisy Jay looks fresh and new

as if he'd just been painted blue.

Pigeon is a handsome sight

in blue and gray and sparkling white. 

Text by Marilyn Kratz

This rhyme would pair well with any of the following books/activities:

• Chickadee song by Lisa Monet, from My Best Friend
• Birds by Kevin Henkes, illustrated by Laura Dronzek
• Chickadee Tree action rhyme by Sandy Long, from Highlights High Five, November 2009
• Five Little Birds Flannel Board
• Did You Ever See a Turkey? puppets
• Let's Say Hi to Friends Who Fly! by Mo Willems

I am this week's Flannel Friday host. Click here to read the round-up!