Sometimes you just need a quick counting song that fits a familiar tune and includes wingless birds!
I've got you covered:
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🍎📚FlannelBoardFun felt board story sets are multi-use circle time fun! With each felt set, you get the lyrics for three or more rhymes, songs and/or stories to use with it!
It's Pi Day! (Well, for me, any day is pie day ;) )
And I have a video just right for this mini celebration:
I love this one, because it gets the kids' imaginations working, along with their arms and fingers! When the kids are engaged and having fun like this, they're much more likely to retain all the information they're being fed (hee hee).
Five little friends went out today...out on the playground where they like to play!
Why is it still so hard to find classroom materials that are representative of various cultures, skin tones and abilities? I'm doing my part to take care of that problem! And now my All Together friends are going out to play on the playground together :)
It's to hard to learn all the tunes, so I like to re-use familiar tunes and rhymes as much as possible. Kids and educators benefit from this--we can all join in more easily :)
Here's the video of Five Little Friends Went Out Today--enjoy!
I've often referred to this collection of cuties as jungle animals, but I've seen the error of my ways and will henceforth be referring to them as Wild :) Upcoming videos will even mention their various habitats, like the savannah, plains, rainforests, etc....
In this counting rhyme I've included some related vocabulary like roar, swing, stomp, snap and dive. Let's keep things simple, right? We name our animals, we count, we name our numbers... Of course you can make this longer by pointing out various features of the animals, like colors, body parts, habitats, etc.
But sometimes you just need something short and sweet, and I think this short counting rhyme fits the bill. I hope you and the kids enjoy it!
This fun ghost felt board counting rhyme is all about not-so-spooky Halloween fun 😊 Get the kids counting down and having Halloween fun with this sweet little rhyme. The video shows simple ways to introduce Halloween concepts in a non-scary way.
Here are the ghosts (you can see lots more about them here and here, too!):
Yep, I'm on a roll with colors and counting this month! It's back to school time, so I suppose those are good concepts to be focusing on as the older preschoolers head back to school :)
This felt board set is absolutely one of my favorites. I've used it a zillion times, and I've written about it here.
But it's time to add more--I need this to be a multi-use set. Saves storage space, and planning time, and stress! So here we go with a new rhyme. Fans of building, construction, counting and colors are going to love this Six Colorful Houses finger play and felt board rhyme!
This fun Six Colorful house finger play and rhyme is so fun for kids (and teachers) at circle time or story time. House and construction vocabulary words are introduced or re-enforced; color naming and counting are sneakily tucked inside, too! Let’s play to learn!
Ah, colors, counting and construction. What could be better?
No time for a big intro on this one, but you can see these colorful trucks in this post, and this one too. Those two are great for early literacy skills like rhyming and naming letters, to name just a few.
But this new rhyme has the bonus of early math packed into it! Of course with all the rhyming involved there's early literacy in there, too. And it's just all around fun, especially for those kids who really love trucks, and construction, and all things road-related :)
Here's are the trucks (click the picture for all the details)
And here's the video of the rhyme:
(Ohh, and now there's also a pattern for these cuties! Just click below :) )
But now you can add this one to your squirrel repertoire! This sweet squirrel rhyme gets your kids engaged as they do the fingerplay movements, and reinforces early math concepts in a playful way.
It's another felt board activity in which we get to count UP, similar to this pig one, which I think you'll also like!
But anyway, let the acorn hiding begin! Come count and rhyme with me!
I never get tired of apples, and I never get tired of apple felt boards! And I never get tired of making up (or piggy backing) apple songs and rhymes to use at circle time...
It's been a long time, but I've written about this apple felt board set once before, right here. And in that post, I did include these lyrics, but it's not till now that I've finally got a video for you!
This apple circle time counting song is a great way to get the kids counting UP from 1-5. It’s all done in a playful way, so kids don’t even know they’re doing math 😊 Plus, there’s a little science thrown in, and color recognition to boot… Hello, apple circle time fun!
Need a fun song using animals and a bus? Well, here you go! (I used my Hickory Dickory Dock set for this one. You can see my other post about it right here.)
This bus and animal version of Down by the Station is counting and animal vocabulary fun. Plus there's naming of movements and speeds and other fun early math and literacy stuff tucked in there--your toddler and preschool kids will love this one.
And you could of course invite them to perform the movements of the animals with their hands or with their whole bodies...
Click the picture below to watch the video :)
Want some books to go along with this song? How about some of these...
I wrote this song to go along with my Five Ocean Critters set last year, but only now got around to making a video for it! I had a lot of fun with this one!
This ocean song is just a wee bit tricky in the math department, probably most understandable to older preschool kids. You'll see what I mean when you watch the video.
But it's SO fun for all the little ones: we get to do diving and splashing and all kinds of fishy movements!
And as usual, I've made it easy to learn and join in on by using a familiar tune--this time, it's the Five Little Ducks tune.
Take a look right here:
Hope you like that one! And I hope it makes any ocean, beach, or fishy themed circle time that much easier to plan for :)
I thought it would be fun to create some holiday sets for holidays that I don't personally celebrate. (I was right--it WAS fun, and wow, I learned a lot while doing research for these sets.) I'm so happy to be able to share these, as I think it's so important to expose kids to various cultures, and to share in celebrations with the kids who DO celebrate holidays outside of my own experience :)
I focus holiday sets on the parts of holidays that kids understand, so the concepts are about simple traditions vs. any religious themes that might be attached.
I also want them to be usable both as storytime sets-- where the adult is using the set pieces as props to support a rhyme, song or story--and as play sets for the kids--where the kids are re-enacting traditions, songs, and stories that they've learned about.
First up was Diwali, and now it's time for Kwanzaa!
Teach the kids how to do this as a call and response. As you sing about each piece, place it on your flannel board, or you may want to have some of them already positioned. It is Kwanzaa, it is Kwanzaa Seven days of light, seven days of light Candles in the kinara, candles in the kinara, They shine so bright, they shine so bright!
It is Kwanzaa, it is Kwanzaa Seven days of light, seven days of light Corn for all the children, corn for all the children, On the straw mat, on the straw mat.
It is Kwanzaa, it is Kwanzaa Seven days of light, seven days of light Lots of fruits and veggies, lots of fruits and veggies For our karamu feast, for our karamu feast!
It is Kwanzaa, it is Kwanzaa Seven days of light, seven days of light Pass around the Unity Cup, pass around the Unity Cup, We are all together, we are all together!
It is Kwanzaa, it is Kwanzaa Seven days of light, seven days of light Gifts for friends and family, gifts for friends and family Let’s celebrate, let’s celebrate!
Naturally, I also laminated a small Kwanzaa flag, so we can play a Kwanzaa version of the Little Mouse game. I'm sure you're surprised ;)
Why yessirree, I do like vehicles :) And, I love counting--counting up, counting down. It's all early math, and I love to do it in a playful way. So today, I've got my BIG Transportation set (which you may have seen here), and I'm using it to count UP.
Sometimes it's fun to count up, and sometimes its fun to count down... This time, we're starting with five, and counting down to none--how sad to see them go!
I like to sprinkle vocabulary words into my rhymes, so we're not only counting, we're building knowledge about the subject at hand. This time it's cat knowledge :)
I love nice, crisp, sweet apples on a nice, crisp, sweet fall day! I also love soft, adorable felt apples on any kind of day. That's why I made my APPLE bingo set, and it's never failed me yet.
But how did those apples even grow? Were apple blossoms involved in some way?? And now that we've got apples, shouldn't we count them? And wait, wouldn't it be fun to hide a worm behind the apples? Yes! Yes! Let's make a huge apple tree set that we can play with in all kinds of ways!
First, let's make them grow. We'll start off with a bare tree, with no little apples growing on it. And then an apple blossom starts to grow...and soon, it turns right into an apple!
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 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 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!
(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:
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