Story Time Secrets: Flannel Friday: Good Morning by Muriel Sipe

Today's Flannel Friday contribution is an adaptation of a poem by Muriel Sipe called Good Morning, which can be read here courtesy of Google Books. I read this particular poem to my daughter a lot because I like the repetition and the rhyme, and I think it would make a great weekly opening for a baby story time.

To effectively share the rhyme with babies, you need large, simple images, preferably in contrasting colors to the background you'll be using. In addition to showing the images on the flannel board, consider providing a set of stick puppets of the images to every child/caregiver pair in the group so the babies can see them up close. Another option would be to cut the animals out of construction paper and glue them to a black, blue, or other dark-colored background so they still stand out, but each pair can still hold their own copies. You could also give the materials to the adults along with a copy of the text so they can share the poem again at home.

Each of the four animals in the poem is shown below, along with the sound it makes. Each animal was created using a silhouette from Google Images which I recolored using MS Paint. You can download a set of the final images in a .pdf document here. Use them as is, or use them as templates for cutting out felt pieces.