Fish Beanbags

I made these out of felt. I had ten in all - two of each color for the base. So, two reds... each with a different accent color. Then, I had five of them swimming one direction as a "school" and the other five (one of each color) facing the other direction. These can be used for SO many things.

I taught a week of preschool about fish and the ocean. During circle time, I would toss a fish to a child that had something to say. We talked about schools of fish, and how we are like a school of fish and always stay with our group (good before a field trip). We talked about the different colors. For example, which one is red and orange? Which one is green and red? Before I made them, I planned out how the colors would work so there were no two fish with the same two colors.
We got partners and tossed the fish back and forth, getting further apart as we went. Sometimes I think gross motor skills are overlooked.
We used these with almost every fish song we sang that day:

1. One little, two little, three little fishies, four little, five little, six little fishies, seven little, eight little, nine little fishies, ten little fishies in the sea.

2. One, two, three, four, five... Once I caught a fish alive.
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten... Then I let him go again.
Why did you let him go?
Because he bit my finger so.
Which finger did he bite?
This little finger, on the right.

3. Five little fishies swimmin' in the sea,
Splishin' and a splashin'...happy as can be,
Along comes mister shark, quiet as can be (whisper)
And SNAPPED (loudly) that______ (color)fish right out of the sea!

Dinosaurs fingerplay

DINOSAURS

Five enormous dinosaurs Letting out a roar--
One went away, and Then there were four.
Four enormous dinosaurs Crashing down a tree--
One went away, and Then there were three.
Three enormous dinosaurs Eating tiger stew--
One went away, and Then there were two.
Two enormous dinosaurs Trying to run--
One ran away, and then there was one.
One enormous dinosaur, Afraid to be a hero-- He went away, and Then there was zero.

You can use your fingers, or puppets/stuffed/plastic diosaurs. You can also draw the dinosaurs on pellon and make this a flannel board story-letting the children remove one dinosaur at a time.

This little Piggy

I think we all know this one

This little piggy went to market (Touch the big toe)
This little piggy stayed home (Touch the second toe)
This little piggy ate roast beef (Touch the third toe)
and this Little piggy ate none (Touch the fourth toe)
And This little piggy went . Wee.. Wee.. all the way home ( Touch the pinkie toe and wiggle it)

This is a good opening activity or a good "toe play"

5 Green and Speckled Frogs

5 Green and speckled frogs,
Sat on a speckled log,
Eating the most delicious bugs.
Yum, Yum!
One jumped into the pool,
Where it was nice and cool,
Now there are 4 green speckled frogs
Glub, glub! (Instead of the glub, glub I have heard "on the log")

You can do actions to this song or you can draw a log on a piece of posterboard with a slit in the water that the frogs jump into. You could velcro the frogs onto the laminated posterboard. I made the frogs and log out of pellon and grabbed a blue flannel blanket and used that as my flannel board. The kids came up when I pointed to them and made the frog jump off the log and into the "water".

Here is the Beehive

Here is the beehive, (Hand in a fist out in front of you)
Where are the bees? (shrug shoulders)
Hidden inside, (point to your fist)
Where nobody sees. (Cover your eyes)
Soon they'll come creeping, ("creep" with your fingers on your other hand)
Out of their hive,
1,2,3,4,5...BZZZZ! (Pop your fingers out of the fist 1,2,3,4,5 then tickle the kids or pretend the bees are flying around)

I have made big bees and stapled them to craft sticks. I choose 5 children to come up in front and stand close together (in a circle or "hive"). At the end of the song when the bees come out, the children raise the bee high in the air and buzz as I touch them on the head.

Way Up High in the Apple Tree

Make a picture of an apple tree and laminate it. Have 5 apples with smiley faces on them laminated also. You have to be able to remove them. Put velcro on the apples and stick them to the tree.
Way up high in the apple tree.
I saw 5 apples smiling down on me.
So I shook that tree as hard as I could.
Down came 1 apple, mmm mmm good.
(You remove one apple at a time until they are all gone. I let my children take turns shaking the paper and removing the apples.)