I created this activity to accompany the book Penguin and Pinecone by Salina Yoon.
In this sweet story of friendship and loyalty, Penguin and Pinecone become the best of friends. While reading the book aloud, I emphasized the ‘p’ sound at the beginning of both words, and wondered if one reason Penguin and Pinecone became friends was that their names started with the same sound. After we read the story, I got out some of my animals (someday, Flannel Friday, I will make myself some new animals, I swear) and identified them, emphasizing the first letter of their names. Then we found each animal a new friend, matching up the animals with an object that started with the same sound. Some of the kids didn’t really get it (I do an all ages drop-in storytime), but many of them were able to successfully complete the matches.
Animals and objects are laminated paper with magnets on the back. The objects are clip art (mostly from Open Clip Art Library, so they are free and in the public domain), and the animals are OLD and mostly from Liz and Dick Wilmes flannel board books.
Match!
Friends!
And now: (clears throat)
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Flannel Friday, happy birthday to you! May you have many more happy birthdays!
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