Not a Flannel Friday: Leprechaun, Leprechaun!

Happy Flannel Friday! And Happy St. Patrick's Day, too!

First let me say that I really missed participating in Flannel Friday last week. It was such a BuSy CraZy week that I didn't have time to post any ideas. And I definitely missed it! I have plans to write posts for our Dr. Seuss Family Game Night and our American Girl event (the programs that had me very busy last Thursday and Friday) so I hope you will visit the blog again to see all the ideas from those two interesting programs.

But for now ~ let's celebrate the "Wearin' of the Green"!

In the past, St. Patrick's Day has been a tough storytime to plan for our littlest friends. Most books about St. Paddy's Day and Leprechauns are long and wordy and difficult to share in a large group.  But a few years ago, I decided to focus more on the idea of shamrocks and rainbows. 

Then ~ quite by accident ~ everything else started falling into place... 

My favorite St. Patrick's Day program is our puppet show featuring: 

Shaun the Leprechaun

I'll be sharing the details of the puppet show on the blog soon. (I'll link it here.)

Today, I want to share the newest addition to my St. Patrick's Day activities for our upcoming Sunday Spectacular: Leprechaun Fun!

I actually used this activity ~ for the first time ~ at Family Storytime last night and it worked out fantastically! The children loved it!

As mentioned before, I enjoy making new versions of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"

 Here is my Irish version:

Leprechaun, Leprechaun, What Do You See?

(Click title for a copy for the words.)



Isn't he a friendly wee guy?



The first thing our leprechaun sees is a BLACK hat.

For the story, I place the hat upside down so that the
other items appear to be coming out of it.

Our first item "flying" out of the hat is a RED ladybug. 
(She has a happy face but it is hard to see ~ dang that photographer! LOL)

Here's our ORANGE sun...

A YELLOW star...

A GREEN leaf...

A BLUE bird...

A PURPLE butterfly...

By this point, someone usually yells,
"It's a RAINBOW!
If no one does, then I would ask what we made
while making the ASL sign for rainbow.

Then I continue the story with:

"Purple butterfly, Purple butterfly, what do you see?

I see lots of children in front of me.

Children, Children, what do you see?

We see:

a RED bird,

an ORANGE sun,

a YELLOW star,

a GREEN leaf, 

a BLUE bird,

a PURPLE butterfly

Up above us ~ flying across the sky!

We see a RAINBOW!

And what does a Leprechaun hide at the end of a RAINBOW?


His Pot of GOLD!"

Here's our wee Leprechaun's pot of GOLD!

At the end of the story, our board looks like this:

I forgot to mention that my story this week was made for the Magnetic Board rather than the Flannel Board. You could easily adapt it by adding felt to the back of the items rather than a piece of magnetic stripping. 


The pieces were made by layering different colors of construction paper ~ to add fun details. I didn't have time to laminate them yet since I made them, literally, 30 minutes before my program last night. LOL! 

Nothing like a last minute idea, huh? :-O

There are a few more details that I will add before I do laminate them and a few that I'll add after I laminate them ~ like antennae for the butterfly and ladybug ~ which I'll add directly to the lamination with a black Sharpie.

Since this was a craft week for our Family Storytime, we actually made our own black hat so that the storytime friends could pretend to be Leprechauns at home. (Check back later this weekend for directions on making the hat. I will link them here.)

I think our wee friend just might be a PERFECT little Leprechaun! 
What do you, think?

I hope you enjoyed this week's Flannel Friday contribution. I had lots of fun creating it!


 It has also inspired me to make another St. Patrick's Day activity based on the Little Old Lady-type stories. I think you will be surprised in the direction that I take it. ;-) I'll be back to share it when it is done! 


Soooo much I want to share and just not enough time... LOL!

HAPPY READING TOGETHER!

This week's Flannel Friday round-up is being hosted by Linda at Notes from the Story Room. 


Round up archives and host schedule is at So Tomorrow. 

Visually scan all the Flannel Friday posts at Pinterest. 

Talk about storytime and flannelboards at the Flannel Friday Facebook Page. 

Follow Flannel Friday on Twitter with the #flannelfriday hashtag. (You don’t have to be on Twitter to check this out.) 

And, last but not least, if you’re a contributor, there is an awesome blog button from Melissa and you can grab it from the right hand menu at Mel’s Desk! 

***SINCE YOU ARE ALREADY HERE ~ WHY NOT MAKE A COMMENT BELOW?*** 

I will be doing a drawing next Thursday for a magnetic set of 

"Leprechaun, Leprechaun, What Do You See?" 

To enter, all that you have to do is make a comment below 

before next Thursday (March 15th) at Midnight. 

Easy Peasy, as they say!