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.
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...
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!
I presented a bunch of flannel board songs and games to a lovely group of librarians this past week, and on the drive back home I started down memory lane. I miss doing circle times! I love singing, dancing, reading, and playing with kids! (My cats just don't interact the same way ;) )
One of the songs that stuck out on that lane of memories is this fantastic version of Over in the Meadow. It's a Barefoot Books version, which I was introduced to by one of my past student's mom. I just love, love, love it. Here it is!
I have a felt set of this song, too. I couldn't do all ten animals--it was just TOOooooo much.
But I've got five parents, and 15 babies, and that's just right for me :)
(I ended up making a custom set for a lovely lady, and it does include all 10 parents and their wee babies. In case you're interested, here's what that looked like:)
And here's a video of my set in action:
I love combining books and music, and this one throws in math as well! Hey! Learning IS fun!
Happy spring!!
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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.
This school year I've been so focused on making flannel versions of new songs and stories, that some of my old favorites have been sort of forgotten. I've had a Three Green and Speckled Frogs flannel board set for many years. I actually like it a lot--I didn't really need to make a new set, but for the fact that one of our bugs (or at least one of its antennae) is missing.
But I wanted cuter eyeballs, and bigger everything...
And so, I made these adorable replacement froggies and buggies. And I wrote some other fun songs to go with the set, so I can use this a billion times instead of just a million :) (Here's Three Green Frogs on a Log, for example.)
Sat on a speckled log Eating some most delicious bugs. Yum! Yum! One jumped into the pool Where it was nice and cool Now there are two green speckled frogs--glub glub.
Two green and speckled frogs Sat on a speckled log Eating some most delicious bugs. Yum! Yum! One jumped into the pool Where it was nice and cool Now there is one green speckled frog--glub, glub.
One green and speckled frog Sat on a speckled log Eating some most delicious bugs. Yum! Yum! He jumped into the pool Where it was nice and cool Now there are no green speckled frogs--glub glub!
We have a music teacher in our school who sings "I Wish I Were a Little Bar of Soap" with the kids, so when I saw this song and flannel from Kelly at Welcome to Storytime I had to copy it! Even though Kelly said she wasn't happy with her lyrics, I thought they were adorable and I'm sure the kids will, too! In case you don't click on the link, here they are:
I Wish I Were (sung to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It")
Oh, I wish I were a floating butterfly, (2 x) I’d go flutter, flutter, fly in the bright blue sunny sky, Oh, I wish I were a floating butterfly. Oh, I wish I were a shiny little fish, (2 x) I’d go swimmy, swimmy, glide in the big blue ocean tide, Oh, I wish I were a shiny little fish. Oh, I wish I were a silver airplane, (2 x) I’d go soar, soar, soar as my engines loudly roar, Oh, I wish I were a silver airplane. Oh, I wish I were a tall, tall leafy tree, (2 x) I’d be a place to rest for the birdies in their nest, Oh, I wish I were a tall, tall leafy tree. Oh, I wish I were a green and speckled frog, (2 x) I’d go croaky, croaky, croak as I jump into the brook, Oh, I wish I were a green and speckled frog. Oh, I wish I were a bright and shining star, (2 x) I’d go twinkle, twinkle, spark in the nighty nighttime dark, Oh, I wish I were a bright and shining star.
This particular set isn't for sale, but please check out my shop with many of my other sets:
We used to have a copy of this book (Froggy Gets Dressed) in the classroom, but at some point over the past several years it went missing. Once again I was moved to do a flannel version based on Storytime Katie's perfectly snipped version :)
This particular set isn't for sale, but please check out my shop with many of my other sets:
