Flannel Friday: Thanks a Lot

This one was a lot of fun!

Raffi has a song called “Thanks a Lot.” It’s a contemplative, quiet song, and while I was asking Twitter for help thinking of “thank you” rather than “turkey” ideas for Thanksgiving week storytime, @LibraryLady61 suggested that I simply play this song and have the parents and children hold each other and rock and snuggle. So I did! You can check out how the rest of my Thanksgiving storytime turned out over here.

Even though I used this for Thanksgiving, the theme of gratitude could work with different holiday storytimes as well.

I thought I’d make a flannelboard set to use while we were listening to the music, and put up each item as it is named in the song. One of the things mentioned is wind, so I knew I would probably want to indicate lines of movement…I thought of using a simple running stitch for this, then went ahead and added running stitches to almost all the other pieces too! I have to admit I love how it came out.

I played the Raul Malo cover of this song off the “Country Goes Raffi” CD. The things that are named are: sun, clouds, wind, birds, moon, stars, “the wondering me/the way I feel”, animals, land, and “people everywhere.” Check out the lyrics here.

Here’s a picture without the pieces overlapping:

Why does an elephant get to represent all the animals? Because (as Charlie’s sister Lola would say) they are my favorite and my best. So why is the elephant standing next to a type of tree it never sees in real life? Because I wanted a tall and skinny tree to fit on my board!

One more question: What piece did I forget to add in to the pattern?

Here’s my original sketch for this set:

Besides a bizarre bird with some extraneous body parts, you can see the heart shape that I meant to go along with the line “Thanks for the way I feel.” Of course, I completely forgot to make it or add it to the pattern. Fortunately, hearts are pretty easy to draw if you want to include one! The set worked perfectly fine without it, to tell you the truth–the person on the left just stayed up for both the “Thanks for the wondering me” line as well as the “way I feel” line.

Here’s the patterns! Please note that the sun, wind, cloud, and star are HALF SIZE on the pattern. Put them on your copier and enlarge 200% to get them to turn out the same relative sizes as in the photos. Have fun!

Pattern 1
Pattern 2