Flannel Friday: Night Creatures

While refilling my Dream Big - Read display last week, I discovered a non-fiction easy reader called Night Creatures. (It's by Wade Cooper and published by Scholastic. The ISBN is 9780545007191.) Though it's obviously a book intended for kids who are learning to read independently, I thought its simple text would also work well for my babies and toddlers, if the illustrations were more toddler-friendly. I immediately decided to adapt some of the pages into a flannel board.

 (All of the text below is quoted from Night Creatures, with the exception of the "I'm a(n) _______" sentences. I added those in to give the whole flannel board experience some structure.)  The clipart, as always, comes from Clker.com.

I have eyes

like the moon.

They sparkle at night.

I see my prey

in black and white.

I turn my head

from left to right. 

I'm an owl! 

 

By day I look like

moss or bark.

I open my wings 

when it gets dark. 

I'm a moth! 


I hang out in
a cave or tree.
My eyes can see, 
but in the dark.
I get around 
by using sound.
I'm a bat!


 
My fur is long
and black and white.
I walk in gardens 
late at night. 
If you scare me,
I will spray
a stinky smell. 
So stay away!
I'm a skunk!

There are other animals mentioned in the book, including a badger, a fox, a jaguar, and a kangaroo, but I thought those animals were less likely to be familiar to my audience, and I also worried about the concept of animals eating other animals and how that might be received by the parents of little babies. (The page about the fox is nothing but a litany of animals it eats. Like rabbits. And turtles.) So this last little verse is written by me, because I really wanted to have five animals.

 

On my face I wear a mask.

I wash my food before I eat.
I'll eat whatever I can find
with the long fingers on my feet.
I'm a raccoon!

(Source for raccoon information.)

This week's Flannel Friday host is Andrea. Follow all things Flannel Friday at the official website.