Today we read about baby animals and the kids got to meet a cute kangaroo puppet and her joey!
Books We Shared
Next To You: A Book of Adorableness, by Lori Haskins Houran and pictures by Sydney Hanson, gives a laundry list of cute, big-eyed, fluffy baby animals and explains how they’re all nowhere near as cute as the speaker’s child–except…. a baby giraffe?? Who knew baby giraffes were so cute???
Step by Step, by Loren Leedy, introduces baby animals with a footprints guessing game. You see the animal’s footprints and hear one or two facts about them, and try to guess whose footprints they are.
Ocean Babies, by Deborah Lee Rose with illustrations by Hiroe Nakata, demonstrates the vast diversity of the ocean by looking at the way animals in the ocean come into the world. Lots of different kinds of life with different origins–live birth, or hatching from an egg, spending time with one’s parents or being on one’s own right away.
Flannel Board
I took some of the existing animal flannelboards I have made (and one that we own) and made up a new version of the old song “Over in the Meadow:”
Over on the beach
In the sand in the sun
Lived an old mother crab
And her little crab one
“Snap!” said the mother
“I snap!” said the one
And they snapped all day
In the sand in the sun
Over in the meadow
In a stream so blue
Lived an old mother frog
And her little froglets two.
“Hop!” said the mother
“We hop!” said the two
And they hopped all day
In the stream so blue
Over in the woods
In an old oak tree
Lived an old mother bat
And her little pups three
“Flap!” said the mother
“We flap!” said the three
And they flapped all day
by the old oak tree
Over in the river
In the sand by the shore
Lived an old mother duck
And her little ducklings four
“Waddle!” said the mother
“We waddle!” said the four
And they waddled all day
In the sand by the shore
The kids noticed that there weren’t just “one” crab–there were two–and there weren’t just “four” ducks–there were five! They were keenly aware of the mathematical dissonance, singing a song about “the four” when there are clearly five ducks on the board! It bothered them!
So we made a math thing out of it. 1 mother duck + 4 ducklings = 5 ducks! 1 mother bat + 3 bat pups = 4 bats! 1 mother frog + 2 froglets = 3 frogs!
Songs and Rhymes We Shared Without Music
Goodbye Friends (song in sign)
Click here for video: Goodbye Friends
Goodbye friends, goodbye friends
Goodbye friends, it’s time to say goodbye.
Baby Shark
I asked parents to send me videos of the song which all of the little kids participated in, “Baby Shark” from the famous Pinkfong video! A few parents did but I haven’t gotten the emails yet, and I wonder if the city’s email server rejected the message size. Sigh. Oh well. Just want to say thank you for trying!
I guess you had to be there–seeing all the little preschoolers and toddlers do this dance was amazing! Anybody happen to put it up on YouTube? That might be another way I can share it. I think I started it off with the wrong hand gestures but it was okay, the kids played it like cool baby sharks and “went with the flow”!
Baby shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo (fingers open and shut)
Baby shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Baby shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Baby shark!
Mommy shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo (open and shut palms out in front of you, bending at the wrist)
Mommy shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Mommy shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Mommy shark!
Daddy shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo (open arms wide in front of you and snap them together)
Daddy shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Daddy shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Daddy shark!
Grandma shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo (open and shut palms out in front of you with fingers in a fist, bending at the wrist)
Grandma shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Grandma shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Grandma shark!
Grandpa shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo (open arms wide in front of you and snap them together, but with fingers in a fist)
Grandpa shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Grandpa shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Grandpa shark!
Let’s go hunt, doo doo doo doo doo doo (palms together over your head)
Let’s go hunt, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Let’s go hunt, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Let’s go hunt!
Run away, doo doo doo doo doo doo (run!)
Run away, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Run away, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Run away!
Safe at last, doo doo doo doo doo doo (wipe forehead with back of hand)
Safe at last, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Safe at last, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Safe at last!
It’s the end, doo doo doo doo doo doo (wave hands)
It’s the end, doo doo doo doo doo doo
It’s the end, doo doo doo doo doo doo
It’s the end!
Music from CDs We Shared
“Clap Your Hands,” “Los Pollitos,” and “I Was a Bird” from Wiggleworms Love You by Old Town School of Folk Music
Video We Shared
We watched “Is Your Mama a Llama?” based on the book by Deborah Guarino and illustrated by Steven Kellogg. In it, a young llama learns the names of animals as he asks them if they have llamas for mamas!
Continue the Fun
Want more stories about baby animals? Check these out at your Pasadena Public Library branch:
