Flannel Friday: Polar Bear's Underwear

Did you know that preschoolers think that "underwear" is about the silliest thing there ever was? I found out this week, with a whole storytime devoted to the topic. It was non-stop giggles and a whole lot of fun!

So I thought I'd share my star flannel from that storytime: Polar Bear and his laundry full of underwear. It's based on the book Polar Bear's Underwear (which received strong praise from the kids and parents alike after reading it! They thought the ending was especially hilarious). In this case, I had the kids help me with two different tasks...

First up, getting Polar Bear's underwear out of the washer and organized.

I had volunteers pick out the laundry first. Then I called out each color and those kids that had that color would put their pair of underwear on the board. For some extra math fun, I then asked the kids questions like, "Which color of underwear does Polar Bear have the most?" "How about least?" Of course, you can do this with any amount of whatever—it was fun to introduce some math into storytime.

Second task (because I was having so much fun with Mr. Polar Bear) was to help him choose his underwear for the week. In this scenario, we practiced patterns!

Besides learning the days of the week, it was more math! My literary tip for parents was to find random times like this to practice simple math problems (like you would find in the book, Bedtime Math). The kids enjoyed it and especially liked it when Polar Bear tried on different pairs. It was a lot of fun!

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Mel at Mel's Desk is hosting the Flannel Friday round-up today. You can also check out the FF website, Pinterest, or Facebook! Or use #flannelstorytime on Twitter!