Flannel Friday – Knock Knock

 

I made this flannel story at least 10 years ago, and it still looks good (and still works well in storytime).

I’m sharing this “oldie” because I still like to make flannel stories in this manner. Basically, I cut the background shape from one color of felt (I used white for this one), and then the details are made from fabric. If you are not a sewing person, find a friend or relative that does sew, and ask for their scraps. Or purchase cheap fabric in many colors to have on hand.I used a liberal amount of Elmer’s glue to attach the edges of the fabric, which not only holds them to the felt, but keeps the fabric from fraying.

The book that I adpated for this story, “Knock, Knock, Who’s There?”, by Anthony Browne (1988), is probably going to be hard to find. The basic premise — little girl is in bed waiting for her bedtime story, and an array of creatures knock on the door to ask to come in — screeching with, stomping gorilla, etc. At the end, it is Daddy with a cup of hot chocolate and a bedtime story, but she knew it was him all along… Kids can usually guess why she knew (hint: slippers).

You’ll also notice some cards in the corner — I typed the story onto index cards, which I taped to the back of my flannel board the first few times I told this story. Don’t need them now, but they sure were helpful in the beginning.

Here’s a close-up of one of the figures, so you can see the fabric details:

Knock, knock! Who’s there?

 

Advertisement