On Tuesday we explored the splishy, splashy world of ponds and wetlands. It was a lot of fun because with a Pond theme, there were lots of traditional children’s songs I could use and we sang them with a CD. First we made a beautiful picture out of ovals, rectangles, diamonds, and something I call “Pacmen” for lack of a better name:

pond shapes

Then we played “I Spy” and found a duck, a turtle, and a frog, the main characters of our storytime today. We read an adorable photograph picture book called Swim, Duck, Swim by Susan Lurie with photos by Murray Head. I tried to help comprehension by having my duck puppet act out the story.

Swim Duck Swim

Then we sang “Five Little Ducks” and counted down from five to one with a flannelboard:

five little ducks

Five little ducks went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mama duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack,”
but only four little ducks came swimming back…

Four little ducks went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mama duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack,”
but only three little ducks came swimming back…

Three little ducks went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mama duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack,”
but only two little ducks came swimming back…

Two little ducks went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mama duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack,”
but only one little duck came swimming back…

One little duck went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mama duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack,”
but no little ducks came swimming back…

No little ducks went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mama duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack,”
and all five ducks came swimming back.

We brought their “friend,” the duck with a feather, and sang another song:

six little ducks

Six little ducks
That I once knew
Fat ones, skinny ones,
Fair ones, too
But the one little duck
With the feather on his back
He led the others
With a quack, quack, quack

Quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack
He led the others
With a quack, quack, quack

Down to the river
They would go
Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble,
To and fro
But the one little duck
With the feather on his back
He led the others
With a quack, quack, quack

Quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack
He led the others
With a quack, quack, quack

Back from the river
They would come
Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble,
Ho, hum, hum
But the one little duck
With the feather on his back
He led the others
With a quack, quack, quack

Quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack
He led the others
With a quack, quack, quack

We did another flannelboard activity and song about Five Green and Speckled Frogs:

five green and speckled frogs

Five green and speckled frogs sitting on a speckled log
Eating a most delicious fly — YUM YUM!
One jumped into the pool where it was nice and cool
Then there were four little speckled frogs.
Four green and speckled frogs sitting on a speckled log
Eating a most delicious fly — YUM YUM!
One jumped into the pool where it was nice and cool
Then there were three little speckled frogs.
Three green and speckled frogs sitting on a speckled log
Eating a most delicious fly — YUM YUM!
One jumped into the pool where it was nice and cool
Then there were two little speckled frogs.
Two green and speckled frogs sitting on a speckled log
Eating a most delicious fly — YUM YUM!
One jumped into the pool where it was nice and cool
Then there was one little speckled frog.
One green and speckled frog sitting on a speckled log
Eating a most delicious fly — YUM YUM!
He jumped into the pool where it was nice and cool
Then there were no little speckled frogs!

We did another movement song, this time about a turtle named Tiny Tim:

I had a little turtle (make turtle with fist — thumb is the head)
His name was Tiny Tim
I put him in the bathtub
To see if he could swim.
He drank up all the water (glub, glub)
He ate up all the soap (munch, munch)
And when he woke up next morning
He had bubbles in his throat
(make bubbly noises)
(see video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCPSlEfE9Qs)

Then we read our second book, Turtle Splash by Cathryn Falwell. We counted down from ten to one and learned about the other animals that live in ponds.

Turtle Splash

We learned one more cute song about turtles:

I had a little turtle
He lived inside a box
He swam in the puddles
And climbed up on the rocks
He snapped at the mosquito
He snapped at the flea
He snapped at the minnow
And he snapped at me
He caught the mosquito
He caught the flea
He caught the minnow
But he didn’t catch me!
(see the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txgnxKBjYWI)

Our video for the day was “In the Small, Small Pond” based on the book by Denise Fleming. It’s available for checkout on the DVD Antarctic Antics.

In the Small Small Pond

We wrapped things up with our song cube and goodbye song. Hope everybody had a happy, hoppy day, and I’ll see you next week!