Summer Reading #8: Dragon Tails

Hold on, it can't be...  Yep, it is already the eighth (and final!) installment of my summer reading ideas for the Tails and Tales theme!

The summer reading program is focusing on animals (tails) and stories (tales) this year.  Well, I've got plenty of both types of flannel boards that fit the bill--so I thought it would be fun to add some new songs and movement activities to the mix.

I've been adding new videos of these new songs to my YouTube channel and I've been posting them here on the blog, too.  

For my last new song, I've returned to my trusty old dragons.  They make me so happy with their cute faces and colorful wings.  They've bean soaring around in several other videos, but in keeping with the whole 'tails' theme, I decided to create one more song where we can wiggle our posteriors with abandon.  (There really isn't anything much cuter than a group of kids under the age of five wiggling their tails ;) )

So in this simple dragon song, I've decided to count up from zero to five.  So many of our songs start with five and count down--and don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with subtracting :)  But I'm all for addition, too.  

So this one has addition, color naming, rhyming, movement, pretending, direction and comparison words--just a bunch of good old early learning tucked under our dragon wings in a playful way.  Which is of course, in my opinion, the only way.

Here are the dragons:

Here's the video:

And here are the lyrics:

Dragon Tails ©Wendy Gerbi

To the tune of The Itsy Bitsy Spider 

 

No little dragons flying all around (shrug)

Along comes a blue one with a little roaring sound (roar!)

She wiggles her tail and roars a little more (wiggle and roar!)

She blows a little flame (whooo!)

Then up she soars! (flap wings!)

 

One little dragon flying all around (flap arms)

Along comes a red one with a little roaring sound (roar!)

He wiggles his tail (wiggle) and he roars a little more (roar!)

He blows a little flame (whoo!) then up he soars!

 

Continue, until… 

Five little dragons flying all around (flap arms)

They make a big ruckus with all those roaring sounds! (roar!)

They wiggle their tails and they roar a little more (wiggle and roar)

But now their wings are tired so down they soar!

And now you can make your own dragon cuties!

Summer Reading #7: Elephant Tails

 Here we go with the seventh installment of my summer reading ideas for the Tails and Tales theme!

The summer reading program is focusing on animals (tails) and stories (tales) this year.  Well, I've got plenty of both types of flannel boards that fit the bill--but I thought it would be fun to add some new songs and movement activities to the mix.

Over the remaining couple of weeks, I'll be adding new videos of these new songs to my YouTube channel.  I'll also post them right here on the blog. 

You might already know that I love elephants.  They are amazing creatures, which is probably why kids love them as much as I do.  Of course, they aren't actually quite as colorful as my set, but I do like to make things rainbow-ish ;)   Anyway, you also may have seen these beauties in some of my other elephant videos, but I wanted to add some opposite words to the mix. 

So here we've got opposites (short and long), a little math and rhyming, and friendship bundled up together.  You know:  all the good preschooly stuff we love :)  

Here are the elephants:

Here is the video:

And here are the lyrics:

Elephant Tails ©Wendy Gerbi

To the tune of Do Your Ears Hang Low 

One little elephant marching on her own

Her tails is pretty short, and her trunk is pretty long!

Along comes another one and joins in the fun

She holds her friend's tail and they march along!

 

Two little elephants marching one by one

Their tails are pretty short, and their trunks are pretty long!

Along comes another one and joins in the fun

He holds his friend's tail and they march along!

 

…continue, until…

Five little elephants marching one by one.

Their tails are pretty short, and their trunks are pretty long!

There are no more elephants left to join the fun

So they keep holding tails and they march along!

 

And let's not stop there!  If you'd like to make your own elephant set, you can find the pattern right here:

Summer Reading #6: Five Acorns Hidden

Here we go with the sixth installment of my summer reading ideas for the Tails and Tales theme!

The summer reading program is focusing on animals (tails) and stories (tales) this year.  Well, I've got plenty of both types of flannel boards that fit the bill--but I thought it would be fun to add some new songs and movement activities to the mix.

Over the remaining couple of weeks, I'll be adding new videos of these new songs to my YouTube channel.  I'll also post them right here on the blog. 

So, let's sing about squirrels and acorns, shall we?  We'll do a little counting, a little rhyming, a little tail-swishing and pretending.  Might as well tuck a bunch of early learning into one short song, right?  Right.  Off we go!

Here are the squirrel and acorns in question:

Here's the video:

And here are the lyrics:

Five Acorns Hidden ©Wendy Gerbi

(to the tune of Five Little Ducks or Over in the Meadow)

Spread out your acorns on the board, and tell the kids we are pretending that they are hidden underground.  Have the squirrel dig and search to find each acorn, and then she can either pile them somewhere else, or munch them up happily 😊

 

Five little acorns hidden in the ground

Along comes a squirrel, to see what can be found.

She swishes her tail, and she sniffs the air

And look, she finds an acorn—right over there!

 

Four little acorns hidden in the ground

Along comes a squirrel, to see what can be found.

She swishes her tail, and she sniffs the air

And look, she finds an acorn—right over there!

 

Continue, until….

No little acorns hidden in the ground

Along comes a squirrel, to see what can be found.

She swishes her tail, and she sniffs the air

She found all five acorns so she takes a nap right there!

Oh and hey--if you'd like to make your own squirrel set, the pattern is now available:

Summer Reading #5: Curly (Pig) Tails

Time is flying! This is the fifth installment of my summer reading ideas for the Tails and Tales theme!

The summer reading program is focusing on animals (tails) and stories (tales) this year.  Well, I've got plenty of both types of flannel boards that fit the bill--but I thought it would be fun to add some new songs and movement activities to the mix.

Over the next several weeks, I'll be adding new videos of these new songs to my YouTube channel.  I'll also post them right here on the blog. 

So, this week we're checking out my pigs.  These guys have starred in this Muddy Pigs video, and of course in the Clean version, too!  But since the theme is Tails, I decided to sing about their cute curly tails.  I love to count, and so do kids, so we're counting up to five, and we're counting down, too!  And we're rolling our hands, and sometimes we're jumping, and of course we're rhyming too.  Want opposites?  They're in there, too :)

And in our imaginations, we're getting nice and muddy and then we're getting nice and clean.  And please, invite your kids to jump in and out of the mud, and roll their arms vigorously, so you get those little muscles working along with their spongy brains :)

Here are the pigs:

Here are the videos (they are similar, but different enough from each other that I think it's very worthwhile to include both in your piggy repertoire!):

And here are the lyrics:

CurlyTails Count Down ©Wendy Gerbi

To the tune of Over in the Meadow 

Five curly tails on 5 cute pigs

Their tails are little but the pigs are BIG!

They roll in the mud, and they muck about…

Then one big pig just jumps right out!

 

Four curly tails on four cute pigs

The tails are little but the pigs are BIG!

They roll in the mud and they muck about…

Then one big pig just jumps right out!

Continue, until…

No curly tails on no cute pigs

Those tails were little, but the pigs were big!
They rolled in the mud and they mucked about

But now all the pigs have jumped right out!

 

CurlyTail Count Up ©Wendy Gerbi

To the tune of Miss Polly had a Dolly 

One curly tail on one cute pig

Her tail is little, but the pig is big!

She rolls in the mud right up to her chin

Then along comes a friend who jumps right in!

Two curly tails on two cute pigs

Their tails are little, but the pigs are big!

They roll in the mud right up to their chins

Then along comes a friend and he jumps right!

Count up, until…

Five curly tails on five cute pigs,

Their tails are little, but the pigs are big!

They rolled in the mud right up to their chins,

Now there aren’t any pigs left to jump right in!

And hey, if you love these piggies, you can make your own set with this pattern: