I Went Walking in West Hartford

Will you walk with me?

A long time ago I made a set of animals for my flannel board to go with Sue William's lovely book:   

Years later at the suggestion of my friend/librarian/former blogger, Kari Ann St.Jean, I added black felt to the back of these laminated animals and now, they are better than new.  

I went walking, right here in West Hartford, and what did I see?

...I saw a cow following me. 

I went walking, right here in West Hartford, and what did I see? I saw a cat following me.

I went walking, right here in West Hartford, and what did I see?

a horse...a pig....a duck

and a dog following me

I love this set and it has served me well for more than 25 years.  It also inspired the Dinosaur bucket of I went walking - always a hit at the library.

But we didn't stop at Dinosaurs...we added a supply of bugs for our bucket.  Take a look! I went walking, outside and around the library, and what did I see...whoa!

And then we have the Zoo animals in the bucket - that gets really loud in the library!

I went to the zoo and what did I see?  

I also created an "I went swimming and what did I see?" set of animals for the bucket.  Perfect for summer story times.  You'll have to wait for that photo!  

Alas the snow is melting in Connecticut and taking a walk in the sunshine will soon be a reality.  We'll tell Sue Williams story on the flannel board in story time and the little ones will guess the animals, and make their sounds.  I'll ask if anyone ever saw a cow on their West Hartford street. Sometimes they say yes!  I love it.   Imagination, creativity, books and storytelling - they rock our world.  

Amen ~ Piper & Jane

I Went Walking on Flannel Friday

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign!

We hope you've met Kaden, our newest friend.  He's on the flannel board with all those road signs.  We wrote about him here.  Piper and Kaden are enjoying books and snuggling and taking long long walks together.  I go with them because I'm their grown-up ... ut-oh "Jane is the grown-up"...hmmm,  maybe not be a good sign!

When we went walking the other day we saw this...yes! a STOP sign.  

S-T-O-P spells STOP!!!!! Yes! We liked the sign!  Yes! We shouted (((STOP))) again and again. We marched on the sidewalk and STOPPED!!   Then we all decided to walk and walk 

and walk in West Hartford and find more signs.  It was pretty easy to do.  

And then we made a flannel board story.  You can too.

I went walking ... did you go walking Kaden?  Did you go walking Piper?  Okay...let's all say this together...

I went walking and what did I see?  I saw a stop sign in front of me!

I went walking and what did I see?  I saw a ....

Curves in the Road sign in front of me!

I went walking and what did I see?  I saw a One Way sign in front of me.

I went walking and what did I see?  I saw a DO NOT ENTER sign in front of me.

There are lots of signs to see when you go walking and even more when you go for a drive.  We talked about the EXIT sign on the highway and the EXIT sign in the library.  Can you find them on Kaden's flannel board?

There's so much to learn about signs.  We see them, spell them, we read the pictures or the words.  We learn the colors and the shapes.  We learn the pointy part of the arrow.  We can point our pointy fingers...at things...but it's not polite to point at people, totally not.  We can draw arrows.  We can draw curvy roads.  We love signs.  

Just so you know - we found these signs on Google Images. (gotta love google)  I printed them out and taped cardboard to the back and then added felt with my tried and true tacky glue.  I don't have a laminator in my little branch so we'll take good care of these pieces.  Plus there are so many more signs to make...trains, planes, superheroes!  

So, do what we did...go sign-seeing in your neighborhood!  Maybe the grown-up could bring a camera and take pictures.  Now that would be smart!  You could place magnets on the back and tell the story on your "fridge" if you don't have a flannel board.

P.S. (Piper Script): lots of our friends know this song, it's from Ralph's World.  Check it out  Driving in My Car.  It's fun!  Lots of stopping!  Red light ((((STOP)))).  Wait! What? A stop light??? and a stop sign???  Omgosh...this is too good.

~ always grateful to Flannel Friday where we share, support, collaborate and create in a safe place.  Come visit our neighborhood!