After a week’s hiatus, I’m glad to be back with a VERY simple board idea for y’all.
A few weeks ago, I found myself browsing the $1 bins at Target (as I am wont to do ) and I discovered bags of plastic bugs. This was fortuitous, as the timing coincided perfectly with my annual bug storytime. I picked up a couple (each had different bugs) and decided what to do with them.
I put a small piece of velcro on the back of each:
I made a felt/paint label for each bug.
I told the kids we were going to figure out what the bugs are, and then put their names with them. I keep the bugs hidden and give them clues to guess what they are:
- Likes to visit picnics. Is small, sometimes black, and sometimes red (ANT)
- Makes honey (BEE)
- Hops; is long and green (GRASSHOPPER)
- Flies around our houses in summer, bothers us, and lands on our food (FLY)
- Is long and green and arms sometimes go together like this [praying motion] (PRAYING MANTIS)
- Flies around the water; has long skinny body and wide wings. Sometimes blue. (DRAGONFLY)
- Has eight legs (SPIDER)
- Red with black spots (LADYBUG)
- Lives where it’s hot; has pinchers and a long tail with a stinger on it (SCORPION)
They don’t always guess all of them, but they guessed many. I did have a few kids who were able to guess the harder ones, even!
When we’ve guessed, we put the bug on the board and add it’s name. This was a great print recognition/awareness activity as we talked about which names were longer, which had only 3 letters (Bee, Fly, Ant) and how Praying Mantis has two words in its name. I run my finger under the words from left to right. Several kids commented on first letters (“Hey! That B is my name!”).
In short, this was a fun, easy-to-make activity that the kids really seemed to enjoy. The moral of the story? ALWAYS check the Target dollar bins.
Today’s Flannel Friday roundup is being hosted by Angela at Valley Storytime. Check it out for all the flannel-y goodness! All past flannels are pinned on pinterest (click the felt words to the right) and all of MY past posts can be found under the tab above.
Happy flanneling!
missmaryliberry.com 
I’d be really impressed if you had worked all those words into a blog post on a bug flannelboard. Especially Cutter numbers!
True story: When I took cataloging in grad school, we had to practice turning our names (and maybe some of our friends’?) into Cutter numbers. Well, I was the only one who COULD NOT figure out how to do it based on the cheat sheet we’d be given. Turns out that McK names (such as my maiden name) don’t really fit into the scheme. If I remember correctly, my choice was to insert an “a” into my last name or I could use M45, which is a state highway here.
Fantastic use of realia! 🙂 And a great reminder that early literacy is everywhere. And a great example of the need for “I just need to look through the bargain bins, it won’t take me long at all–oh wow, look at that!”
Anne, after I wrote the sentences using the words “wont” and “fortuitous” I thought about making the whole post a jumble of big, pretentious words but then I got lazy. 🙂
Wish I’d put realia in there somewhere, though! And bildungsroman. And authority file. And Cutter number. And….
Love the idea of using realia on the flannel board. And I feel like I am really using my MLS today with the word “realia”. And goodness gracious Target is a dangerous place!