Did You Ever See a Lassie (Ocean Version!)

Whether you're prepping for your Ocean's of Possibilities Summer Reading Program, or you just like oceans critters as much as I do, or you like singing songs about ocean animals with small children--or any combination of the above...  This one's for you :)

As always, I'm on a mission to come up with as many way as possible to use each felt set in my collection.  My ocean set already has a bunch of songs to use with it (here's a whole playlist!), but I wanted more!

Enter Did You Ever See a Lassie, Ocean Version.  I love this one because you can do it sitting down as a finger play, or you can get up and move!  It teaches ocean vocabulary--and you can totally switch it up and let the kids come up with the movement words, too.  Plus, you most likely already know the tune, so it's suuuper easy to learn this one.

Anyway, enough talk!  Here's the video--enjoy :)

If you like singing and rhyming and generally having fun with kids, 

I think you'll love these songs strips:

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:

 

Summer Reading #4: Fishy Tails

Wheee--it's the fourth 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. 

This week I thought I'd put my ocean friends set to good use.  These fishy fellows have been used in several videos already...

But those tails....  We need to sing about the tails!  Of course fishy vocabulary (gills, fins, swim, dive...) abounds in this one, and so do color words and motions and rhyming.  Ah, kids' songs--I love 'em :)

Here are the fish:

Here's the Fishy Tails video:

and here are the lyrics:

Fishy Tails ©Wendy Gerbi

To the tune of Gray Squirrel. 

Blue fish, blue fish, swish your fishy tail! (swish your tail!)

Blue fish, blue fish, swish your fishy tail! (swish it again!)

Use your gills to get some air (raise your arms a bit from your side as you take a breath)

Flap your fins—steer here and there (flap your hands like fins and move about)

Blue fish, blue fish, swish your fishy tail! (swish it!)

Purple whale, purple whale, slap your whaley tail! (slap hands like a big tail!)

Purple whale, purple whale, slap your whaley tail! (again!)

Swim up high to breathe your air (pantomime swimming to surface)

Use your tail—steer here and there (swim around)

Purple whale, purple whale, slap your whaley tail!

Great white shark, great white shark, swish your sharky tail! ( swish your big tail!)

Great white shark, great white shark, swish your sharky tail! (again!)

Lurk around and hunt some fish (dorsal hand/fin up, sharky look)

Give your tail a great big swish!

Great white shark, great white shark, swish your sharky tail!

Tuna fish, tuna fish, swish your tuna tail!

Tuna fish, tuna fish, swish your tuna tail!

Swim so fast and dive so deep

Swim, swim, swim—you never sleep!

Tuna fish, tuna fish, swish your tuna tail!

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 #2: Dinosaur Tails

Here's the second installment of my ideas for the summer reading program this year.  The focus is on animals (tails) and stories (tales).  I decided to create new lyrics for some of the felt sets I've used year after year, to mix things up a little and put those tried and true sets to brand new use! 

Each week I'll post a new video on my YouTube channel, and right here on the blog, too. 

Without further ado:  Dinosaur Tails!

Here are the felt cuties:

Here's the video (please excuse the audio in some of the more active parts!):

And here are the lyrics:

Dinosaur Tails ©Wendy Gerbi

Dinosaurs used their tails for all sorts of things.  This fingerplay/rhyme helps kids become aware of some of the reasons dinosaurs had tails, and it’s also great for rhyme, rhythm and other early language skills.  I find it extra fun to let the kids stand up and act out some parts of the rhyme, and then stomp back to their places when you’re through 😊

One enormous dinosaur— (hold up one finger)

MUCH bigger than a table! (arms wide)

Some dinos needed tails like this (swish your tail😉)

to keep them nice and stable. (arms out to balance)

…along comes another one, and now…

Two enormous dinosaurs (two fingers up)

having lots of fun. (party hands 😊)

Some dinos used tails like this (swish your tail)

to help them quickly run! (run in place)

…along comes another one, and now…

Three enormous dinosaurs (3 fingers up)

hunting in the night. (tip toe sneak)

Some dinos used tails like this (swish your tail)

to help them in a fight. (roar!)

…along comes another one, and now…

Four enormous dinosaurs (4 fingers up)

running all around. (run in place)

Some dinos used tails like this (swish your tail)

to keep them safe and sound. (hug yourself)

…along comes another one, and now…

Five enormous dinosaurs— (5 fingers up)

they all lived in the past. (wiggle those fingers)

Some dinos used tails like this (swish your tail)

to help them swim so fast! (fast swimming motion)

But wait, there's more!  You can make your own dino set with the pattern:

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 ;) ) 

Five Presents Wrapped with Bows

 

Weee!  I'm loving this set for celebrating any number of gift-giving occasions.  

The video below is just one example of how to use these presents.

Five Colorful Elephants!

Ahh, elephants!  They are incredible animals, and there are lots of little facts about them included in this fun counting rhyme :)  Click below to watch the video.

You can also have your very own set of adorable elephants:

or you can even make your own set with this pattern!

And if you like that, I bet you'd like a free pattern!

Dragons with tired wings :)

 Yay--new felt sets!  These dragons are friendly, although of course they can be fierce, too...  

You can buy the set, already made for you...

Or you can make your own set with the simple pattern!

Anyway, I have several rhymes and songs to go along with them.  Below is the first one in the lineup:  Five Dragons Up So High.  (It's a good one to re-enforce position words and simple math skills like counting and color naming :) )

For more felt sets and video samples of each one, 

 visit FlannelBoardFun.com

Three Little Pigs Video

Ah, my cutie pies.  Pigs are one of my favorite animals.  I've written about them before here, but now I've put them on film :)

Here they are in all their cute glory:

And here they are on video:

Oink ;) 

(And if you're feeling a little crafty, you can make your own pig set using the pattern!)

Five Little Teddy Bears

I love this little counting rhyme! I've posted it before along with a Five in the Bed rhyme, but I only now got around to creating a video for it :)  Important PS--this rhyme is by Susan Pflug, 1998.

My sweet little bears:

Starring in their new video:

Oh and yep--now you can make your own set!  Click below for the pattern:

Can't wait to come up with more videos and rhymes for these cute friends!

Want notifications of new videos, along with preschool activity ideas and shop updates?

Three Green Frogs on a Log!

So we all know Three Green and Speckled Frogs.  It's a classic preschool song, and I love using it at circle time.  In fact, I've posted about it here. 

But I like to mix things up, so I'm using these froggies for a few new songs, to be posted here over the next several months.

Here's the first installment of my mini frog series :)

Three Green Frogs on a Log 

Here are the felt pieces I use:

...and here are the lyrics.  

(For the tune and a demo, click here or on the lyrics picture below :) )

Like all this cute stuff?  Get weekly preschool-based ideas, video announcements and shop updates:

5 Little Snowmen on a Sled--The Video!

Winter is coming!  Let's get out the sleds, build some snowmen, and do a little counting while we're at it...  You can see my post on this cute set right here, buy those cuties right here, and click below to watch the video!

Want more fun preschooly ideas and shop updates?  Click below!

5 Snowmen Felt Board Video!

I love this song, and this felt board set!   Here's my original post about this Five Little Snowmen Fat set, and below is my newest video.  Enjoy!

Penguins on Video!

Well, looky here!  Three cute penguins sliding around on the ice!  Enjoy :)

Hey Diddle Diddle Video!

Finally got around to making a video of this Hey Diddle Diddle set!  

You can check out my original post about this set right here.

T-R-A-I-N Video!

Looking for a way to build some early literacy skills through a fun and interactive song?  Especially for the little train lovers?  It's your lucky day ;) 

Not only are you introducing or reinforcing letter names in this song, but you're building musical skills as the kids keep the beat by rubbing their hands together.  You're reinforcing color concepts as you name (or have the kids name) the colors of the train cars.  There are motor and coordination skills being built as they attempt to make the 'choo' movement (and try NOT to sing the letter name!).  Plus--it's fun!

I have a bunch of other train related preschooly stuff over on my FlannelBoardFun.com blog, too.  You can check those goodies out right here:

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