Ducks!

This past week I did a Ducks theme with my toddler story time.  It was fun, but I was suprised to learn that none of my parents knew either of my songs.  We sang "5 Little Ducks" and "Little White Duck."  It was our first Toddler Tuesday after a two week break (where we changed the entire children's area and created a space for middle schoolers!), and I had completely revamped the program, but I think it went pretty well.

We had a decent sized group, around 8 kids I think.  I'm encouraging parents to join in with their babies and play with us, but not all do yet.  The kids seem to enjoy watching all that we do, so it's a start.  :)  I've started including some Early Literacy Activities at the end of the Toddler Tuesday handout (which includes all our activities), which is something I've never tried before.

Onto the Ducks theme! 
 
Clap and Sing Hello
Wiggle Rhyme
Open Them, Shut Them
5 Little Ducks (we will sing for 3 weeks in a row)
Our first story of the day was Cold Little Duck, Duck, Duck, which is about a duck who arrives at his pond a bit too early and finds everything frozen.  It is definitely a cute story.

Normally after our first story we'd sing "Shake My Sillies Out," but I'm still waiting for my Raffi CD to arrive, so we did a few rounds of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes instead.  The music and dancing offer a nice break in the sitting and listening part of our program.  It gives the kids an opportunity to move and stretch.  (I'm also thinking of incorporating scarves somehow, but don't really have any ideas there yet.)
After our movement we did a new rhyme/fingerplay called The Duck Song.  It has minimal actions, but some repetition and we sung it twice.

The Duck Song

I see a duck.

The duck sees me.

I like the ducks.

The ducks like me.

Big green ducks.

One, two, three.

I like the ducks

and the ducks like me

Our second story of the day followed our rhyme and was I Kissed The Baby.  Not my favorite, but the kids seemed to enjoy it.

Our flannel board activity followed our story, and I was really disappointed to find that no one knew Little White Duck.  I do love Little White Duck.

I made all the pieces out of layered felt based on clip art images.  I even cut out a little piece of the lily pad so the duck could have his bite. :)

After the flannel board we sang our rotating fingerplay (one of four we will cycle through).  This week's was Eensy Weensy Spider, which we sung twice.  I love Eensy Weensy Spider.
This was our last song of the morning, so we sang our closing song (Clap and Wave Goodbye) and had free-play.  Our program was a bit longer than last session, but this incorporates more into a similarly timed program.  I think this format will work well.

Early Literacy Activities included:

• Talk about the word “Duckling” sound out the different parts of the word “duck-ling”  -  say them separately and then together again, first slowly and then faster.   Clap once for each syllable of the word.   Do the same thing with words like “gosling, chicken, rooster.”
• Help your child think of words that start with the “D”- “Duh” sound as in duck  (dog, dinner, daddy, doll, dig, dinosaur, dish, dime, door, dump)
• Help your child think of other names for baby animals (colt, calf, kitten, puppy, piglet, fawn, eaglet, owlet, kid, tadpole, kit, joey, cub, pinkie, lamb, spiderling). Learning these names is a great way to expand your child’s vocabulary!  
• Try this website for a wonderful list of animal parents and babies.

We won't be having any story times next week due to a week of meetings for me.  One of them is a story time workshop, so I'm hoping to get some good tips.

(All featured books, songs, rhymes, and flannels will be collected on their respective pages)