Finally ... Spring!

Spring has been a long time coming here in Minnesota. When I originally planned for storytime on this date, I thought we'd be well underway with birds, flowers and green grass. Instead, the last of the snow is slowly melting away. Still, it was time to celebrate all things spring this morning at storytime.

Books We Shared :

Wake Up, It's Spring!  by Lisa Campbell Ernst

Spring is Here  by Will Hillenbrand (complete with a snoring bear ...)

Forever Friends  by Carin Berger

I do not consider myself a super crafter ... but when I saw the instructions for creating these flannel rabbit fingerpuppets online, I could not help myself and accepted the (internal) challenge to make five of these little guys to use at storytime.



Of course I had a song/rhyme that went with these little fuzzy guys ...

tune = "Five Little Ducks That I Once Knew" 

(can be found on Raffi's CD More Singable Songs)

(spoken) :

Once upon a time there were five bunnies.

They lived with their momma in a tree stump.

One day ...

(sung) :

Five little bunnies

One spring day

Went to the carrot patch

Far away.

Momma bunny called
"Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!"

stomp foot on ground

But only four came back to their stump ...

count all the way down until there are zero bunnies

last time :

Sad mother bunny

One spring day ...

Went to the carrot patch

Far away ...

Momma bunny went ...

thump ... thump ... thump ... thump ...

and ALL of her bunnies came back to their stump!!

I considered (briefly) using a large rabbit puppet for the mother but realized I needed both hands free to remove the bunnies behind my back one-by-one and (more important!) put them back on at the end.

For those crazy enough as I was to pursue this "craft" here is a link to the template :

Felt Bunny Finger Puppets

If you put in the time, I promise you will NOT regret it!