Flannel Friday-Color Birds

It is always great to find a flannelboard rhyme that can double as a game. The Color Birds rhyme is a great example.  Originally published in Totline (May/June 1987), it can also be found online or in The Best of Totline Flannelboards.

Color Birds

Yellow bird, yellow bird, high in a tree,

How many yellow things can you see?

Blue bird, blue bird, high in a tree,

How many blue things can you see?

Red bird, red bird, high in a tree,

How many red things can you see?

Green bird, green bird, high in a tree,

How many green things can you see?

The birds are all made out of fun foam with permanent marker details.  The eyes are googly eyes.  If you get adventurous, you can also add more color birds, such as orange, brown, or purple.

This is a great rhyme for young children, because you are saying the color, then showing the color in the birds.  This helps to reinforce that words have meaning.  Then, if you let the kids answer the questions in the rhyme, they are taking the language skills to the next level and finding things, such as the carpet, pieces of clothing, story time props, etc., that match those colors.  (Just a side note-if you ask the questions, you have to leave enough time to listen to the answers.  Almost all of the kids will answer and it will probably all be at the same time!)