Use flannel board pieces to illustrate children's nursery rhymes such as "Humpty Dumpty," "Jack and Jill" or "The Itsy, Bitsy Spider." Since nursery rhymes have been passed down for generations, they may contain archaic words that are unfamiliar to modern preschoolers. Move the flannel board pieces while reciting the nursery rhyme to help children understand difficult words or phrases.
Fairy tales remain treasured works of children's literature. Use flannel boards to tell the classic stories of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," "The Tree Little Pigs" or "Hansel and Gretel." In addition to creating flannel board pieces for the characters, consider making backgrounds such as a cottage, a forest or a house made of candy. Point to the background to indicate details in the story's setting.
Some children's stories lend themselves to repetition, including "The House That Jack Built," "There Was an Old Lady" and "The Gingerbread Man." Place the character on the flannel board the first time it is mentioned in the story. For repeated verses, point to each character in sequence as the children join in the refrain.
Transform trade books such as "Corduroy," "The Little Engine That Could" or "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" into flannel board activities. Imitate the illustrator's artistic style as closely as possible, since many of these stories are greatly enhanced by their beautiful artwork. Read the book aloud as children place the pieces on the flannel board, or play a recorded version of the story as you move the pieces.
Incorporate the flannel board during math lessons by demonstrating number stories. Preschoolers can come up to the flannel board and add pieces for "Five Little Ducks," "Ten Little Snowmen" and other counting stories. Remove flannel board pieces one at a time while telling subtraction stories such as "Five Little Monkeys."
Create customized social stories using laminated pictures of the children in the classroom. Children can use the flannel board pieces to tell stories about daily play experiences. Alternatively, make generic boy and girl flannel board pieces and use them to tell stories about appropriate social behaviors such as sharing and problem-solving.