Flannel Friday-Matching Hearts

One of my big goals this year is to redo our Activity Room to add a larger early literacy focus and better signage.  We have a generous Friends of the Library group who gave me some money to start this project off.  The first thing that I bought was a flannelboard dedicated to this room.  After all, it is one of the kids' favorite parts of story time.  Plus, I have a lot of flannel ideas!

This week's project was inspired by My Storytime Life.  To make my own set of matching hearts, I cut felt on our die cut machine in different colors.  Then, I puffy painted different patterns on each pair or hearts.

I didn't stop there.  One of my goals is to give parents the "why" of why we do what we do.  Plus, this is something that they could easily recreate at home with paper, crayons, and scissors.  Our early literacy program at my library is called Play to Learn and is based on the five ECRR2 skills.  My next step was a sign.

As you can see, it gives an idea of what to do and why we do it.  Of course, kids could also just play with the hearts.

We also "bribe" kids with stickers to clean up when they are done.  To help with that process, I added a bin under the flannelboard called "Flannelboard Pieces".  While most of our kids won't be able to read that yet, their parents will.  You would be surprised at how well bribery works!

This week's Flannel Friday round-up is hosted by Lisa at Thrive After Three.  For more information about Flannel Friday, check out our official blog.  For great felt ideas, check out our Pinterest page.