This week's flannel board came about when I was preparing last Friday's drop-in story time. I knew the letter G was coming up for weeks, and I really wanted to include gum as one my G words, but couldn't find anything that matched what I was looking for. Finally, at the last minute, inspiration struck. I remembered the old jump rope rhyme from when I was a kid - Bubblegum, bubblegum in a dish. How many pieces do you wish? - and realized that changing bubblegum to gumball would be enough to make it a very obvious G word. Here is the result:
Gumballs, gumballs in a dish.
How many gumballs do you wish?
Let's ask this boy up here.
Gumballs, gumballs in a dish.
How many gumballs do you wish?
How many gumballs do you wish?
He says he wants...
One gumball!
Let's count. One!
Now let's ask the girl down here.
Gumballs, gumballs in a dish.
How many gumballs do you wish?
How many gumballs do you wish?
She says she wants...
Two gumballs!
Let's count. One! Two!
Now let's ask the girl up here.
Gumballs, gumballs in a dish.
How many gumballs do you wish?
She says she wants...
How many gumballs do you wish?
Three gumballs!
Let's count. One! Two! Three!
Now let's ask the boy down here.
Gumballs, gumballs in a dish.
How many gumballs do you wish?
He says he wants... How many gumballs do you wish?
Four gumballs!
Let's count. One! Two! Three! Four!
Now let's ask the girl down here.
Gumballs, gumballs in a dish.
How many gumballs do you wish?
She says she wants...
How many gumballs do you wish?
Five gumballs!
Let's count. One! Two! Three! Four! Five!
No more gumballs in the dish.
Great job counting!
Sources: The faces, which I already had on hand from my adaptation of The Doorbell Rang, came from Clker.com, as did the dish. The gumballs are cut out from a photo I found on Google images. The speech bubbles were a last-minute addition, and I created those myself in Microsoft Publisher.
There are several reasons why I love this flannel board:
- It's simple. Half of the pieces are already on the board when I start, and very little movement has to take place between verses of the song. This makes it ideal for my large groups where lots of subtle little movements can't be seen by people in the back half of the room.
- It's adaptable. As long as I have 15 images of it, the possibilities for what can be in the dish are endless. I am definitely going to use it with cookies during the holiday season, and chocolates near Valentine's Day. It would also work with everyday food like sandwiches, and multicultural foods - tacos, dumplings, etc.
- It can work with or without the audience's help. I can stand in front of the room and do the entire thing without any input from the audience, which is often necessary at my big, nanny-filled story times. But in smaller groups I can ask the kids to decide how many to give each character (provided they choose between 1 and 5), or I can change it up, putting the numbers up in random order instead of numerically so that kids actually have to identify the number themselves by reading the word or recognizing the number.
- The speech bubbles. I never thought of using speech bubbles on a flannel board before, but it makes so much sense to me now. It would be great to have a set for colors and letters of the alphabet as well, so that I always have the opportunity for flannel board figures to request certain things. I have a feeling this idea will come up again in a future flannel Friday post.
- It works! I have only presented this flannel board once so far, but it went very well. Everyone said the rhyme with me and helped me count and they clapped excitedly when we were finished.