5 little ducks (and a penguin).

I was preparing for my animals-themed storytime, and planning to use the “5 little ducks” song/fingerplay.  So naturally, I went looking in my office for the ducks.  I have a set of folkmanis’ baby duck finger puppets, very fluffy and cute (they generally elicit lots of “aahhhhs”, especially from the teachers).  I found 1, 2, 3…. only 3 baby ducks.  Now, you can’t very well sing “5 little ducks” with only 3 ducks.  Something’s fundamentally wrong with that.  What to do?  I looked in my fingerpuppet bag again and pulled out a penguin and a rooster.  They would have to do.  At least they’re birds, right?

Turns out, the escape of the extra ducks has been a good thing!  The kids think it’s quite funny when I pull out a penguin and announce he’s duck #4.  They enjoy correcting me, I feign disbelief, and then they magnanimously agree to pretend with me that the penguin is a duck.   We play out the scene again with the rooster, and then, with all 5 “ducks” in place, we go on to sing the song.

I may let those extra ducks stay missing!  I’ve never had such excellent participation in a sing-along fingerplay!

Wherever those ducks have waddled to, I hope they’re having fun.  I know that we are.

By the way, here’s the rest of my animals storytime.  It’s a great one for the beginning of the school year, when lots of the kids are new to school, some are only barely 3 years old, and attention spans are short.  There’s lots of group participation, and most of the stories are short and not heavy on text.  I don’t read all of these books every time, but I like to have options so I can modify things as necessary based on the crowd, time, etc.  I do bilingual (Spanish/English) storytimes, so I’ve indicated which books are available in Spanish too.

Campbell, Rod.  Dear Zoo.  The kids guess what may be inside, and I read the words on some of the boxes as a clue (running my finger under the word to build print awareness).

Carle, Eric. From Head to Toe=De la cabeza a los pies.  The kids do the animal motions, but we skip the donkey kick page.  To much potential for disaster in small spaces.

Hill, Eric.  Where’s Spot?=Dónde está Spot?.  A perennial favorite.

Butler, Jon.  If You See a Kitten.  Lots of opportunities for making noise.

Staake, Bob.  Pets go Pop! Not much of a story, but it’s a pop-up book, so I’ve had requests to “read it again!”