A couple months back I blogged about How I Levelled Up My Toddler Storytime in my new position. Storytime is becoming more and more exciting for me; I’ve realized that there’s limitless room for growth. There are always new songs to learn, strategies to use, and kids to read to.

Which is why I decided to make my first ever flannel! Five Green and Speckled Frogs is one of my favourite songs to do because: I can play it on the ukulele (chords are G C D), it involves counting, and the imagery is super engaging and cute. If I was going to start using a flannel, I wanted it to be cute and pretty and fun.

I’ve never been into flannel – in fact I ran storytimes for over 3 years before giving them a real try! And now I get it. It’s fun, tangible, visual, and different than looking at a book or a screen. Especially with counting or colour recognition songs for toddlers – I’m on board.

I love that all the frogs are staring in different directions. They look uncertain. A little nervous, maybe, to be jumping in the pool. Totally cracks me up.

To make the log I just looked at a few line illustrations of logs, and tried to replicate the wood grain lines. We didn’t have any brown flannel, but I think the black / yellow / red works well. It looks like a wet log with some sunny highlights.

I cut a small pool out of blue paper, and place it on the ground near the board. Toddler volunteers come up and make the frogs jump right off the board and into the pool! You could also make a felt pool that sticks onto the board, but I like the extra visualization of the frogs leaving the board altogether. Now for the lyrics!

FIVE green and speckled frogs
Sat on a bumpy log
Eating the most delicious bugs
YUM YUM!

One jumped into the pool
Where it was nice and cool
Now there are FOUR green speckled frogs

To mix things up you can change the word “bumpy” from verse to verse to other two syllable words like: stinky, shiny, peaceful, slippy, perfect, quiet, happy, heavy, narrow, pleasant, sunny.

I usually pause after singing “now there are…” and we count the remaining frogs together. If you’re doing the song on a weekly basis with older toddlers you can try singing “TWO jumped into the pool” to change it up.

What is your favourite flannel to use in storytime?