Are you a tiny bit tired of the Wheels on the Bus? But the kids looovee it? And do you have an ocean felt board set that you need to put to good use?!
I've got you covered :) This one is simple to learn and the kids will love it--and they'll be able to join in because they already know the tune!
Stay seated and get those little finger muscles stronger if you do this as a finger play. Or stand up and swim around to build balance and large muscle strength. Either way, vocabulary and creative skills are off the charts :)
When I was teaching preschool, we used to use this tune to welcome the kids to circle time. "Somebody's knocking at my door--oh, Suzie, I hear you knocking..." It's actually an old hymn, but we went a little lighter with it ;)
I thought this tune would work perfectly with my ocean set. I think I was right :) I certainly had fun making this video and performing all the movements.
It would absolutely be super fun to make this a standing up movement activity! Do it!!
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 :)
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:
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 videos (they are similar, but different enough from each other that I think it's very worthwhile to include both in your piggy repertoire!):
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.
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 :)
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!
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…
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.
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:
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!
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