ROCK ON WITH RHYMES

APRIL FOOLS!  But myApril website is no fool!  Justlots of great ideas and skills that you can integrate with nursery rhymes.

And, there’s a free download of the “NurseryRhyme Marathon” song just for you! No fooling!

FUNNY BUNNY FINGER TALES

Here Is a Bunny

Here is abunny         (Hold up index and middle fingers.)

With ears sofunny.   (Wiggle fingers.)

And here is his

Hole in theground.     (Make hole with fist of the other hand.)

At the slightestnoise he hears,

He pricks up hisears,  (Wiggle fingers.)

Then hops to his

Hole in theground!      (Pretend to hop bunny ears into the hole.)

Where Is MyBunny?

Where is mybunny?   (Put hands behind your back.)

No one can see.         (Shake head.)

I think that mybunny

Is hiding fromme.      (Lookover shoulder.)

Here is my bunny.       (Hold up 1 thumb.)

He’s found afriend.    (Hold up otherthumb.)

Look at all theothers.  (Slowly stick up fingers.)

Now there are ten!      (Wigglefingers.)

BunnyBasket - Foldthe sack in half lengthwise as shown.  Draw ears on the sack.  Cut onthe lines and then cut off the sides.  Open the sack.  Staple the toppoints to make ears.  Put a face and cotton tail on your bunny basket.

HandBunny - Tracearound each child’s hand and cut out. Cut off the middle finger. Fold down thepinky and thumb. Glue on a sheet of paper and add a mouth, whiskers, eyes, andnose.

IT'S BUNNY TIME!

Flip, Flop, Hop

(Tune:  “Wheels on the Bus”)

The ears on thebunny go flip, flop, flop  (Puthead over head

Flip, flop, flop,                                            andwiggle.)

Flip, flop, flop.

The ears on thebunny go flip, flop, flop,

Flip, flop, flop.

The nose on thebunny goes twitch, twitch, twitch…(Wiggle nose.)

The eyes on thebunny go blink, blink, blink…       (Blink eyes.)

The tail on thebunny goes wiggle, wobble, wobble… (Wiggle bottom.)

The feet on the bunnygo hop, hop, hop…   (Hop upand down.)

BunnyEars - Makeheadbands to wear as you sing the song. First cut a strip of paper to fitaround each child’s head. (Sentence strips work well for this.) Next, letchildren trace, color, and cut rabbit ears similar to the ones shown. Staple tothe headbands and hop, hop, hop!

DrawingRabbits -Teach children how to draw a bunny from two circles. Add detail to the bunny asyou sing the song. Hint! You can also make rabbits out of play dough.

POPCORN TREE

Popcorn Tree

(Tune:  “Turkey in the Straw”)

I looked out my window   (Hand over eyes.)

And what did I see?      

Popcorn popping on my cherry tree.  (Hands on hips.)

What a surprise spring left for me.

Popcorn popping in my cherry tree.

Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.  (Wiggle hips to the beat.)

Pop! Pop!   (Jump up twice.)

Sing faster…faster…super fast!

PopcornTree - Tracearound the child’s hand and arm on a sheet of paper to resemble a tree trunk.Color or paint the tree. Glue popcorn or cotton balls on the branches to looklike blossoms.

Hint! If you shake popcorn in asack with a little dry tempera it will look like pink blossoms.

FlowerBookmark -Grow into a book with this idea! Each child will need to collect small flowers,petals, and leaves outside. (Remind them to only take things off the ground andnever pull live flowers from a plant!) Give each child 2 pieces of selflaminating paper cut in 8” x 2” strips. Children take the back off one sheetand place it sticky side up on the table. After they arrange their naturalobjects, they place the second sheet on top and seal. 

Hint! You can also use widepackaging tape to make these book marks.

WRITING STANDARDS

“Use acombination of drawing, dictating, and writing to composeinformative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing aboutand supply some information about the topic.”

What better way tonurture the above goal than with this nature book!  Children will have fun making it, drawing in it, labelingpictures, writing in it, reading it, and then taking it home to share withtheir families.

First, you willhave to go on a stick hunt.  Eachchild will need a stick approximately 7” long.  (If you ask them to find a stick that’s as long as theirelbow to their wrist that should work.) Next, fold three sheets of paper in half.  Punch 2” from each end as shown.  Push one end of a rubber band through the top hole andinsert one end of the stick through the loop.  Insert the other end of the rubber band through the bottomhole and slide it in the stick. 

*You can use thebook to follow up a nature walk, to record plant growth, as a journal forscience experiments, for nature vocabulary words, for taking notes as anon-fiction book is read, or for creative writing.

READ A BAG

Save your fast food andshopping bags and turn them into a learning center.  *Younger children can take magnetic letters and match themup to letters on the bag. 

*Children can use magneticletters to write words on the bag.

*Children can write wordsthey find on the bag and use them in a story.

*How many words can thechildren make using the logo on the bag?

*Hole punch bags and putthem together with a book ring to make a book.

LET IT BE! LET IT BE!

There’s somethingon my mind that’s been troubling me. Sometimes we take a book and chew it up, hack it, and TEACH it todeath.  Children can’t enjoy thestory for all of the questions about beginning, middle, and end.  Not to mention how that book is likeone we read last week….And all the direct vocabulary instruction…Oh, andpunctuation…Don’t forget the main idea, yada yada!

Wouldn’t you hateto answer questions about every book you read or every movie you watched?

Don’t take mewrong.  I agree that literature isone of the most effective and powerful ways to develop reading skills.  However, I think we need to balance itwith pleasure.  Squeeze in at leastone story a day that you and your students can ENJOY together.  Read it, savor it, feel it, and then letit be!