Worms re-visited

A few months ago I posted a worm flannel board to go along with the Dig into Reading Summer theme.  You can read about that here and you will see that I still had a few kinks to work out on the last post.  I finally had time to go back to this flannel board and fix the problems so that the worms will easily slide up and down the foam core board.

Originally I was trying to slide the worms along with a brad, but that did not really give a good enough grip to easily move the worms.  I figured out that a unwound paper clip would work.  It slides well and has a nice long 'handle' for moving worms.  So, I made some more exciting worms...

I took a small piece of foam (same color as the worm but smaller that its head) and poked the paper clip through the middle.  I left about a inch sticking out the back and bent that around and down on the top for a better hold.

I glued the foam/paper clip 'handle' to the back of he worm.  I made sure that the little 'hook' where the paper clip wrapped around was at the bottom so that it was less likely to pull out when moving the worms up.

Once all the worms were done I popped them into the board and moved them up and down several times to loosen the grooves.  I may add a little piece of Velcro to ensure they stay where the need to (it should unstick when pushing out on the handle and re- stick when pulling in),but the worms seem to stay put fairly well.  So, now they are just waiting for a story time debut!