Flannel Friday - Two Little Blackbirds

I love using nursery rhymes in Baby Story Time! It is so vitally important to pass these on to our children, both for the history and tradition, as well as for their role in developing early literacy skills!

I found these simple finger puppets for Two Little Blackbirds (including a free template!) on Kids' Brain.  Their directions are very easy to follow!

 

Here's the rhyme:

 

Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill,

One named Jack, the other named Jill.
Fly away, Jack! Fly away, Jill!
Come back, Jack! Come back, Jill!


Here's my take on them:

 

Each bird is two pieces of black felt, glued together along the edges.  The edge of the beak is glued in between them.

 

I glued the wings at different angles so you could see both wings from either side.  For the eyes I used small sequins, one on each side.  I think they turned out pretty cute, and they were very easy to make!

Happy Flannel Friday!

Thanks so much to Linda at Notes from the Story Room for hosting this week! Flannel Friday is for anyone interested in finding and sharing great flannel board ideas!  You can learn more about Flannel Friday and how to participate here.

Kindergarten Story Time - Birds!

A Kindergarten class came to visit us today and we had a great time celebrating spring with a lively story time! (Miss Kristen can do something other than Baby ST, you say?? Yes, yes, she can!)

Action Rhyme: "My Hands Upon My Head I Place"

My hands upon my head, I place.

On my shoulders, on my face.
On my knees, and at my sides.
Then behind me they will hide.
Then I reach them up so high,
'Til they nearly reach the sky!
Now I clap them: one, two, three!
Now I fold them quietly.

Now are hands are in our laps - ready for a story! Pretty clever, huh? ;o)

1st Book: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems

Is there a child alive who doesn't LOVE this pigeon?

We used Miss Sue's fantastic Pigeon flannel set - each child got to hold the word "No."  I just had them hold the pieces up every time they shouted "No!" to the pigeon.  This was great fun!  See how she used this set with Preschoolers here.

Action Song: "Shake My Sillies Out" (from Raffi's cd More Singable Songs)
I gotta shake, shake, shake my sillies out,
Shake, shake, shake my sillies out,
Shake, shake, shake my sillies out,
And wiggle my waggles away!

2nd verse: Clap my crazies out
3rd verse: Jump my jiggles out
4th verse: Yawn my sleepies out
5th verse: Shake my sillies out

2nd Book: Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard

This book and its mate, Boo Hoo Bird, are both hillarious!

Action Song: "I've Got Two Hands" (from Peter Allard's cd Sing It! Say It! Stamp It! Sway It! Vol. 3)
I've got two hands that I can clap,
I can clap a song for you,
I've got two hands that I can clap,
Clap a song for you!
Clap, clap a song for you,
Clap, clap a song, it's true,
Clap, clap for me and you,
Clap, clap a song!

2nd verse: I've got two hips that I can wiggle
3rd verse: I've got two legs that I can march
It goes on and on - a really fun song! I've done this with toddlers as well, and just stopped after 3 verses.

Fingerplay: "Wiggle Your Fingers"
Wiggle your fingers just like so,
Wiggle them high, wiggle them low.
Wiggle them left, wiggle them right.
Wiggle your fingers out of sight!

3rd Book: There is a Bird on Your Head by Mo Willems

The kids had never read this book, but they predicted the ending - little smarties!

Rhythm Time: Rhythm Sticks!

"Mama Duck" (from Peter Allard's cd Sing It! Say It! Stamp It! Sway It! Vol. 3)
We tapped our sticks every time we said "Quack!"

Here comes the Mama duck - Quack! (one tap)
Here comes the Mama duck - Quack! (one tap)
Here comes the Mama duck and 1 little duckling - Quack! (one tap)

Here comes the Mama duck - Quack! Quack! (two taps)
Here comes the Mama duck - Quack! Quack! (two taps)
Here comes the Mama duck and 2 little ducklings - Quack! Quack! (two taps)

The song goes up to five, which we discovered is pretty tricky to do! I always sing this song without the cd, so I can control the speed, and stop for directions between each verse.  It's lots of fun! See how I do this song with babies here.

"We are Tapping" (to the tune of "Clementine") (from 101 Rhythm Instrument Activities for Young Children by Abigail Flesch Connors - you NEED this book!)
We are tapping, we are tapping,
We are tapping with our sticks.
We are tapping, we are tapping,
We are tapping with our sticks.

It's as easy as that! Try more verses:
-We are scraping...
-We are drumming...
-We are pounding...
-We are rolling...

Action Song: "If You Wanna Hear a Story" (borrowed this from Miss Sue!)
If you wanna hear a story clap your hands.
If you wanna hear a story clap your hands.
If you wanna hear a story, if you wanna hear a story,
If you wanna hear a story clap your hands.

4th Book: Spring is Here by Will Hillenbrand

Not about birds, but a wonderful spring book! I was worried it would be a little too young for them, but they really enjoyed it! Teachable moment: they didn't know what a mole was!

Letter Box: The letter "B"
What was inside??
A bird!
You can buy these from Lakeshore Learning, but the bird was something I added - it was supposed to be a beach ball.

Closing Song: "List of Dances" (from Jim Gill's cd Jim Gill Makes It Noisy in Boise, Idaho)
Make your own list to display while you dance to this great song!

What a fun group! A big shout out to Miss Carol, our teen librarian, from whom I stole the "bird" theme for story time!

Want to see a "bird" themed story time for babies? Check out mine here.

Baby Story Time - Birds!

Greetings from Baby Story Time! Last week our theme was "Birds," which included ducks, hens, owls and more!

Books we read:

Duckie's Rainbow by Frances Barry

I LOVE this book for babies and toddlers!  It's so bright and colorful.  By the end of the book, the borders of the pages have formed a rainbow, so you can have everyone say the names of the colors aloud.  Someone in our department made a simple rainbow felt set to go with this book, but I didn't use it today.

1, 2, Buckle My Shoe by Anna Grossnickle Hines

What does this nursery rhyme have to do with birds, you ask?  Why, a big, fat hen, of course!  Hines' version is so visually interesting, made with fabric and buttons instead of illustrations, and is a really nice, simple counting book.

 



In My Nest by Sara Gillingham

This series of board books all have a little finger puppet in the middle, which you can wiggle as you read.  These are nice books to end a baby story time with because they are very short and sweet.

Activities:

After our "hello" song and name song, we always start with a "Wake-up Rhyme," which may or may not have anything to do with the theme, but gets the babies bouncing and awake!  Today we did a familiar one, "Way up high in the apple tree."  I guess I was thinking birds live in trees, right?

Apple Tree (adapted from Linda Ernst's book, Baby Rhyming Time)
Way up high in the apple tree,              
     (raise baby's arms over head)
Two little apples did I see.                    
     (hold up two fingers)
So I shook that tree as hard as I could,  
     (jiggle baby!)
And d-o-w-n came the apples,              
     (lower baby between your legs to the ground)
Mmm! They were good!                       
     (rub baby's tummy and hug)

After reading Duckie's Rainbow, we did a fun guessing game that I totally stole from Mel's Desk.  With a few simple felt eggs, we "guessed" which egg the baby duckling was in, saying, "Baby duckling, are you in the --- egg?"  I borrowed a little felt duck from a different felt set, but made my own eggs.  This was fun and easy, and a nice little break from your typical fingerplays or rhymes.

Next we sang a fun song called "Mama Duck" from the Peter Allard's cd Sing It! Say It! Stamp It! Sway It! Vol. 3.  Rather than play the cd, I often just sing songs myself.  That way if the song is too fast or too long, I can control the pace and the length.  Anyway, we bounced (on parents' laps) every time we said "quack."

Mama Duck
Here comes the Mama duck - quack!
Here comes the Mama duck - quack!
Here comes the Mama duck and one little duckling - quack!

Here comes the Mama duck - quack quack!
Here comes the Mama duck - quack quack!
Here comes the Mama duck and two little ducklings - quack quack!

Keep going up to five - five fast bounces is really fun to do and gets a lot of giggles from the babies!

After reading 1, 2, Buckle My Shoe, we said the nursery rhyme again, acting out the actions.  On "nine, ten, a big, fat hen," I got out our beautiful hen puppet!  Ok, maybe it's a rooster.  Either way, we clucked around the circle so each baby could touch it.  This is one of my favorite puppets to use because it always gets lots of "oohs" and "aahs."

Next we did a quick counting rhyme, which I also borrowed from Mel's Desk.  I liked that this was repetitive, so I didn't have to try to remember a different rhyme for each verse!  I used a felt set of owls that I made several years ago.

Five Little Owls
Five little owls sitting in a tree,
One flew away! How many do you see?
One, two, three, four.

Four little owls sitting in a tree...

If I do several rhymes in a row, then I throw in a song to get everyone's attention back on track.  This time we sang "Open, Shut Them," a classic story time song!

Open, Shut Them
Open, shut them, open, shut them,                        
     (open and shut baby's arms)
Give them both a clap, clap, clap.                          
     (clap hands)
Open, shut them, open, shut them,                         
     (open and shut baby's arms)
Put them in your lap, lap, lap.                                
     (pat your lap)
Walk them, walk them, walk them, walk them      
     (walk your fingers up baby's arm)
Right up to your chinny, chin, chin.                       
     (tap baby's chin)
Circle around your little mouth, but...                    
     (circle your finger around baby's mouth)
Do not let them in!                                                  
     (tickle!!)

After our last book, In My Nest, we passed out shakers and shook to "Shake My Sillies Out" from Raffi's cd More Singable Songs.  I really like this version because it is quick - only about one minute long.  After that, we shook our shakers to our various body parts - heads, toes, tummies, etc.

We usually end with "If You're Happy and You Know It," but in honor of our "birds" theme, I played "Kookaburra" on my guitar.  I even added a verse about Kookaburra visiting story time!  After that I sang my "goodbye" song, we did our "thank you" rhyme, and it was time to play!

How it went:

This was a little bit of an ambitious story time, but it went really well!  I had about 15 babies with their parents, and several new faces this week.  While two or three activities between every book might seem like a lot, each book was short, as was each activity, so we really kept the ball rolling and kept the babies' attention.  I have found that quick transitions are super important because babies get restless! See you next week!