This week at Flannel Friday we’re spreading the love of Valentine’s Day!  I’m sharing a story I use often around this time of year, Vincent’s Valentine Animals.  It’s not too mushy, and the kids can make fun animal noises with it.

This is another flannelboard story that I got from my mother after her retirement from librarianship, so I’m not 100% sure on the original source.  It’s on page 28 of A Storytime Year, and while I haven’t verified to make sure this is the correct book (we don’t have a copy in my system) I think it is by Susan M. Dailey. 

Vincent’s Valentine Animals
One day, Vincent the toymaker received word from the King that he was to create a special toy for the Princess for Valentine’s Day.  Vincent knew a lot about making toys, but he had never made a Valentine toy before.  So he thought long and hard and finally had an idea!

He cut out hearts from wood, glued and painted them.  He made a Valentine cat, dog, mouse, pig and snake.

And to make them extra special, he gave them each a sound.  The cat said, “Meow”.  The dog said, “Arf”, the mouse said, “Squeak”, the pig said, “Oink” and the snake said, “Hiss”.

Vincent was very proud of his animals, and couldn’t wait to give them to the Princess.  But he was in such a hurry to get to the castle, he stumbled and all the heads and body’s became separated.

“Oh no!” said Vincent.  “Now I need to put them back together.  Let’s see.. here’s a mouse head. Does this head go with this body?”  Place the animal head on top of the wrong body.  Now here comes the fun part of the story – you place the head of one animal on the body of the other and make the new sound that results.  For example, with the mouse you would have it say:
  
The toy said “Sque-arf!” Oh no, that can’t be right!  What about the next body.  The toy said “Sque-Oink!”  No no no.  Let’s try this one… “Sque-Eow!”…  Continue doing this with the various pieces until you match the cat, dog, pig and mouse correctly.  Then continue the story.

But Vincent heard the King impatiently calling for him.  He couldn’t keep the King waiting!  In a hurry, Vincent gathered up all his Valentine animals (take all the animals down from the board and put them up momentarily as you name them one by one) and brought them to show the Princess and the King.  And they were both very pleased.  The Princess loved her Valentine Cat.  She loved her Valentine Dog.  She loved her Valentine mouse.  But here favorites were the Valentine pig-snake who said, “oin-hiss” and the Valentine snake-pig who said “hi-oink”.  When she heard those noises, she laughed and laughed.

Today’s Flannel Friday roundup is sponsored by Sarah at Read it Again.  For more information on Flannel Friday, visit the Flannel Friday blog or Pinterest page.