Summer Reading #3: Paddle, Paddle, Quack :)

Here we are--#3 in the summer reading series!

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.

This time, I've got my Five Little Ducks set again.  I have sung the Five Little Ducks 857 trillion times over the years, and I don't really get tired of it.  There are always ways to mix things up by adding fun voices and names to the ducks, or having them hide in funny places when they go over the hills and far away...  

But this time, we're going all out brand new.  The ducks will be used more as visuals while we get up and act out the song.  Kids who don't want to join in might be happy to just do the motions with their hands.  And of course, observers are always welcome--they just might need to get out of the way for the waddling feet and wiggling tails of their neighbors in this active song!

Here are the ducks:

Here is the video:

And here are the lyrics: 

Paddle, Paddle, Quack!  ©Wendy Gerbi

Spread out your felt ducks on the board and talk a bit about all the parts of the duck you see.  Have the kids test out their own feet, tails, wings, and bills.  Invite them to stand up and be the ducks!   Get active and flap your wings, paddle your feet, dip your bills, etc!

(This one is sung to the tune of All the Fish are Swimming in the Water)

The little ducks’ feet are paddling in the water,

Paddling in the water, paddling in the water.

The little ducks’ feet are paddling in the water…

Paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle…QUACK!

 

Their little orange bills are dipping in the water,

Dipping in the water, dipping in the water.

Their little orange bills are dipping in the water…

Dip, dip, dip, dip, dip, dip…QUACK!

 

Their little feathered tails are wiggling in the water,

Wiggling in the water, wiggling in the water.

Their little feathered tails are wiggling in the water…

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle…QUACK!

 

Their little yellow wings are flapping in the water,

Flapping in the water, flapping in the water.

Their little yellow wings are flapping in the water…

Flap, flap, flap, flap, flap, flap…QUACK!

 

The tired little ducks are snuggling with their papa,

Snuggling with their papa, snuggling with their papa…

The tired little duck are snuggling with their papa…

Snuggle, snuggle, snuggle, snuggle, snuggle, snuggle, SNORE!

 

Summer Reading #1: The Little Yellow Duck

Here's the first 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 we've got ducks this week, and lots of movement!  We're using the ducks as a visual to help identify the parts before we get moving :)  This song hits on a little math (numbers and color naming), some opposite words (up and down), some good old ducky vocabulary (waddle, bill, tail, etc.) and gets the kids active at the same time.  Win, win, win! Quack, quack, quack!

Here's a close up of the ducks in question:

Here's the video of the new song:

And here are the lyrics:

The Little Yellow Duck ©Wendy Gerbi

An action song (to the tune of The Grand Old Duke of York)

 

Oh, the little yellow duck, (stand with arms like wings)

she has two orange feet (waddle your feet)

She flaps her wings, and she wiggles her tail (do that!)

And she catches bugs to eat! (flap your hands like a bill)

And she quacks her bill right up, (quack your bill hands up)

And she wiggles her tail right down, (wiggle your tail toward ground)

She flaps her wings and waddles her feet (do it!)

And then she sits right down!  (Sit down!)

(Please do this song over and over until you are out of breath and your quadriceps hurt.  It's just the way you should do it ;) ) 

Quack Quack Went the Little Yellow Duck!

Old ducky friends get a re-fresh!  Here are my Five Little Ducks used as a little visual aid in a new song.  Perfect little finger play or whole body movement song...

Loving those ducks?  Have some duck fans in your life?  

You might like this blog post on all sorts of ducky fun:

Central Park custom set

I had a custom order from a lovely organization that needed a Central Park themed felt set for their multi-age playroom.  

We came up with this set, using patterns from some of my already-existing sets.  

Everything is assembled already (wheels on vehicles, eyes on frogs, shells on turtles), and they're double sided to prevent the younger kids from wanting to tear things apart, LOL.  

I should say almost everything is assembled.  The fish aren't attached to the ponds, and the flowers are all separate pieces, ready to be planted by some little fingers :)  

Ducks, ducks, ducks!

In my experience, preschool kids dig ducks.  And anytime a preschooler likes something, they’re bound to learn a lot as they play with that thing.  So let’s give them lots of duck stuff to do!  Preschool duck activities galore, right here for your viewing pleasure…

Click below to keep reading:

Five Little Ducks on YouTube

Perhaps you already know the tune and movements to Five Little Ducks.  But it's always fun to watch someone else perform, isn't it?  Come join me over on my YouTube channel for my little rendition!  And bring your kids with you for a few minutes of fun, with learning secretly tucked inside...

Week of the Young Child 2018

Well, somehow I missed the fact that this week was the Week of the Young Child!  But there's still today to celebrate all those little and amazing people (and then of course there's every other day of the year, too :) ) 

So how to celebrate?!  I'll pick two of my favorites from NAEYC's site...

NAEYC suggests fitting in an art activity or two, and has some nice guidelines to help parents fit it into their busy days.  I think these work for teachers and librarians, too, of course!  If you're scrambling for ideas, I've gathered a ton of ideas for preschoolers and toddlers over on my Pinterest Boards.

Here's my Preschool Art Board

And here are ideas for Toddler Art!

In the art area of my classroom, I had the following blurb posted, so that teachers new to my philosophy of "encouragement rather than praise" had some ideas for talking with children about their art...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What to say at the easel/in the art area:

Nothing!

Or...

You used lots of paint today!

That yellow is so bright!

Do you want to talk to me about your painting?

Your hands were moving in big circles when you made those marks…

Say what you see!

(and remember that it is ok to say nothing)

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One of NAEYC's other celebratory ideas is all about music.

As you probably already know, many of my flannel boards are musical, and if they aren't, I sing them anyway :)  Below are just a few of my favorites--I love the fact that singing and dancing with children builds so many skills--fine motor, gross motor, early literacy, math...the list goes on!  Best part?  It's FUN!

And here's a link to a bunch of my other song sets!

You can find lots of my felt board sets at my shop :)

And don't forget to check out Flannel Friday's Pinterest Boards and Tumbler Page for a zillion flannel board ideas!

Old MacDonald

This set, like my Hickory Dickory Dock and One, Two, Buckle My Shoe sets is from a Judy Sierra pattern e-book.  I actually didn't already have an Old MacDonald set--though I do often use my farm finger puppets when we sing it.  I also have a pop-up Old McD book.  But it will be nice to finally have a simple felt set to use with this classic little song. 

You can find lots of my sets in my shop-come take a look!

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Lisa at Libraryland.  For more FF fun and information, please visit the blog, Facebook page, or Pinterest page.  And share these links with your co-librarians or co-teachers. The more we share, the better!

Little White Duck

I've always loved the Little White Duck song.  I especially like this version of the book, but I only have a small board book copy which is hard to use with a large group, and which I believe is missing some of the pages from the larger copy.  

Sometimes I'll use my classroom's old, worn out, too-small felt set of Little White Duck, along with Ivan Ulz's version of the song.  But that set is so old, worn out, and too-small that I had to DO something about it!!  So, I did this:

Here's a video of these cuties in action:

                              

And here are the lyrics:

There's a little white duck, sitting in the water

A little white duck, doing what he oughter

He took a bite of a lily pad

Flapped his wings and he said, "I'm glad

I'm a little white duck sitting in the water

Quack, quack, quack!"

There's a little green frog swimming in the water

A little green frog, doing what he oughter

He jumped right off of the lily pad

That the little duck bit and he said, "I'm glad

I'm a little green frog swimming in the water

Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit!"

There's a little black bug floating on the water

A little black bug doing what he oughter

He tickled the frog on the lily pad

That the little duck bit and he said, "I'm glad

I'm a little black bug floating on the water

Buzz, buzz, buzz!"

There's a little red snake slithering in the water

A little red snake doing what he oughter

He frightened the duck and the frog so bad

He ate the little bug and he said, "I'm glad

I'm a little red snake laying in the water

Hiss, hiss, hiss!"

Now there's nobody left sitting in the water

Nobody left doing what they oughter

There's nothing left but the lily pad

The duck and the frog ran away, I'm sad

'Cause there's nobody left sitting in the water,

Boo, Hoo, Hoo!

These will be making their debut next week with my summer campers!  Can't wait to see what they think :)

Oh, and by the way:

Want to buy this set?  You can check it out at my shop right here.

Flannel Friday is being hosted this week by Bridget at What is Bridget Reading.  Check out the round up there, and don't forget to find more amazing flannel board ideas at Pinterest and Facebook and the Flannel Friday Blog!

Five Little Ducks

Five Little Ducks is a classic, and a song I've shared with every group of kids I've taught for the past 20+ years.  I started out just doing it as a finger play, and I still share the hand motions with the kids as we sing about the ducks.  I made a foam set for the flannelboard about 5 or 10 years ago, and we've been using that. But I felt like it needed to be freshened up, so I scanned my foam ducks and printed them out to use as templates for this felt version.  I also changed my old mama duck from yellow to white--because, um, mama ducks aren't yellow! 

I've made a video with this set so you can see all the moves and hear the tune!

Click here for yet another song to sing with these cuties!

Five Little Ducks

Five little ducks went out one day (hold up five fingers)
Over the hills and far away 

(move hand like it's going over hills, then hand to forehead as if you're looking far away)

The mama duck said"Quack, quack, quack, quack." (other hand quacks like the bill of a duck)But only four little ducks came back. (fold one finger down)

(count down till all the ducks are gone)

Sad Mama duck went out one day

Over the hills and far away

Mama duck said

Quack, quack, quack, quack

And all of the five little ducks came back!

Click here to buy this set at my shop!

Flannel Friday is being hosted by Melissa at Mel's Desk!  You can also find tons of ideas at Flannel Friday's Pinterest Pages, the Flannel Friday Blog, and Flannel Friday's Facebook page.

Flannel Friday: Little Mouse Variations

We've been doing Little Mouse variations for years in my classroom--it is always a winner with children ages 2-4.  Up until this year we had a little mouse who hid in a house, a little fox who hid in a box, and a little cat who hid in a hat.  They are well loved and still around, but recently I went a little crazy and made several new versions! (Update:  I now have a million more:  they're all here.

You can buy this set right here., or make it yourself with this pattern!

The chant is as follows, subbing the bold words as appropriate:

Little mouse, little mouse, are you in the green house? 

And then you use all kinds of dramatic techniques to check behind the house, act confused/disappointed/stumped/etc. as you seek out that crazy critter! We like to pat our legs as we do the chant, just to get the kids even more involved and aware of the rhythm...  And of course invite them to tell you which color to check under (sometimes just lightly touching the one YOU want to do next will send a subliminal message and they'll 'choose' it for you!)

Here's an example of this set in action (click to see the video!):

These guys are available for sale right here.

The little duck and the trucks above, and the little bug and rugs below, were made based on clip art.  (I often include the word "cute" in my google searches for various clip art samples.)

The Little Peacock/Clock set below is printed out on card stock and laminated, with a sticky square of Velcro applied to the back.  I have done the same with a dinosaur and a set of doors.

                Below is another variation called Piggy Piggy Pancake (I originally found this here.)

Pink piggy, pink piggy, let me see...

Do you have some yummy pancakes for me??!

(We do a lot of snorting and pretending to eat like a pig in this one--it's so much better that way :) We sometimes even have to hose off the syrup that gets all over everyone from eating so sloppily!)

*This particular set is for sale, and you can find it right here, along with many of my other sets.*

Have some extra time on your hands?  You can make these cuties with this pattern!

There are several other rhyming things to do with this (frogs and logs or clogs; bears and chairs; ants and plants), but an easier chant to use, in which you can just randomly pick animals and objects is this:

Little _______, Little _____________, 

Playing Hide and Seek, 

Are you in the (red) ________________?

Let's take a peek!

So really, you could just print out a bunch of small creatures and critters, and a bunch of slightly larger familiar objects, and have a hide and seek party!  

   

The Flannel Friday Roundup is being hosted by Lisa at Libraryland.  Be sure to check out more fantastic Flannel Friday ideas at Pinterest or the Flannel Friday blog!