Flannel Friday--Waiting by Henkes

As soon as I read "Waiting" by Henkes I started thinking about those adorable nested kitties. I knew there had to be a way to do that with flannel! I knew it would be tricky, because it would be creating something that was nine layers of flannel deep, but after some tinkering I came up with a design that worked.

Once, there was a cat with patches.

What was the kitty in the story waiting for?

POP! Out came another spotted cat!

The whole family

Here they all are, with some perspective on size.

The teeniest kitty revealed--Just one spot!

I used this in my weather storytime recently when I read Waiting by Kevin Henkes. There were lots of delighted oohs and ahhs when I pulled out this flannel.

"Look! It’s a cat with patches. In the story she was waiting for something, do you remember what it was?

POP! Out came a kitty with green spots! Is she waiting for something? 

 

POP! etc."

We talked about the colors of each cat, and I used different vocabulary words like spots, patches, circles, and dots. After all were revealed, I took them down and put up two at a time so we could talk about size. "Which one is bigger? Yes, the one with purple spots!" or "Is the cat with green spots bigger or smaller than the cat with pink spots?"

I will use this one with our without reading Waiting, and it's a good fit for storytimes about size, families, colors, cats, or weather, so I will have a lot of chances to use it. 

You can see it in action here: https://vine.co/v/iQxgLLbMxDT

And, finally (best of all), I have a template to share in case you'd like to make your own. I'd love to see your version if you make one!

Flannel Friday is hosted this week at Adventures in Storytime. Make sure to check out the other awesome flannels this week! To participate in upcoming roundups, or just find out what's what, check out the Flannel Friday Blog.