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Friday, April 26, 2013

Flannel Friday--Alligator Pie

 The very first storytime I ever did was Alligator themed. Why alligators? No idea. Unfortunately, I don't remember where I found the rhyme Alligator Pie, but it was part of that very first storytime outline.

When I did it in storytime way back when, it went ok, but it felt kind of awkward and didn't really go over well.

Now that I've been doing this for a few years, I've been revisiting some of those old outlines and decided to give Alligator Pie another chance. Because of all I've learned with Flannel Friday, I thought that some visual cues for my audience might make a big difference.



I used clip art and made these--the main rhyme is the size of four 8.5x11 sheets, and each verse is on legal sized paper. I leave the main rhyme up, and switch out the other pages for each verse (I laminated these and use them on the magnetic whiteboard side of my easel).

      


It was a great success! I do a clap rhythm (hand clap knee slap) while we recite it, and with the visual cues everyone participated with me--Hurrah! I will be adding Alligator Pie into my regular rotation.

 Email me if you'd like to share--they are Microsoft Publisher files.

Learn more about Flannel Friday here, and see the rest of this week's round up on Andrea's blog, Roving Fiddlehead Kidlit
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6 comments:

  1. KathrynApril 26, 2013 at 12:35 PM

    Love this idea!! Thanks for sharing...I'm gonna add it to my alligator file.

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  2. JenniferApril 26, 2013 at 5:00 PM

    Alligator Pie is by Dennis Lee. It's also the title of a book of poetry by Dennis Lee (which I've never read). I found it in Clifton Fadiman's World Treasury of Children's Literature.

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  3. UnknownApril 27, 2013 at 9:53 AM

    Great idea for making this poem more interactive!

    When I was growing up almost every young child knew Alligator Pie by heart - because Dennis Lee is (drum rooooolllllllll) Canadian :). He was the premiere Canadian children's poet back in the day.

    I would love to have a copy of this - my email is amandamaria32(at)yahoo(dot)ca
    Thanks for sharing, Anna!

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  4. UnknownApril 27, 2013 at 11:07 AM

    I would also love a copy of this: I lack a magnetic board, but I just so happen to have a cookie sheet.......I wonder. javaintheam (at) hotmail (dot) com. Thanks so much for sharing!!

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  5. UnknownApril 27, 2013 at 9:54 PM

    We use cookie sheets (and the fridge of course :)) for magnets all the time at home. If you want to make it more eye catching you can spray paint it a fun colour.

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  6. Storytime FunApril 28, 2013 at 8:29 AM

    Kristie, you can also glue a piece of felt on the back to make the words and pictures flannelboard-friendly. I would do a piece of stiff black felt that is big enough to frame the piece by about 1/8 to 1/4 inch on all sides. Really makes the pictures and words stand out.

    Anna, I love, love, love the way you took this poem and added to it to make it an awesome early literacy tool for storytime. I can see why everyone participated with you. It is a WINNER!

    Thanks for sharing! It is going on my TBM pile for sure!
    Enjoy your day!
    ~ K ~

    ReplyDelete