Miss Cassie Had a Little Lamb

I created this set of sheep based off of a template from Making Learning Fun.   One of the first flannel sets I ever made, Baa Baa Black Sheep, has been a storytime favorite ever since its creation and was thinking about continuing the song with "Baa Baa Purple Sheep", etc.  This did not turn out as well as I had hoped it would during my Wonderful Ones storytime.  With each color, I sang only the first stanza of the song, ending with "Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full" and moving on to the next color, because I thought 6x Baa Baa Black Sheep in its entirety would be way too long and repetitive. Singing it this way, however, felt awkward and clumsy, especially when parents and caretakers were trying to sing the rest of the song lyrics.  It was just confusing.

So today, I tried something else (for Toddler Storytime).  I told them I knew a girl named Mary who had a little lamb, and its fleece was as white as snow, BUT,

"Miss Cassie had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb!
Miss Cassie had a little lamb, whose fleece was ________ as _________!"

The little ones caught on to identify the colors right away, but it was the parents and caretakers shouting out color comparisons, like "purple as grapes", "blue as the sky", "green as grass", and "orange as pumpkins".  One little girl in the front row did sing "red as strawberries" so that made me happy.

Today's toddler storytime was a large group of kiddies on the younger side of the tiny tot world, so I may try this again with Preschool Storytime. Today, it was still a little awkward.  I usually shy away from singing songs that parents and kids either don't know at all or can't quickly catch along to because I think it's so important for them to sing along.  But I also want to give them to opportunity to think and use their imagination, and identify different colors instead of just doing the same old song.  (Nothing against Baa Baa Black Sheep, I am just trying to shake things up, and build on their learning!)

Any suggestions on successful sheep/ lamb song variations you have used during storytime would be much appreciated!

Read? Read.

I created a simple display and reference/ tribute to John Green's best selling The Fault in Our Stars on the window of our "quiet study room" in Teen Space.  Hazel Grace and Augustus, the star crossed lovers of the novel, use "Okay? Okay." as terms of affection and the expression can be seen in blue and white clouds all over t-shirts, phone cases, and book bags.  Although it killed me a little that we didn't have a white window crayon, I still thought it was worth modifying and creating an image that teens would recognize.  So far, it's gotten a lot of compliments in spite of my inclination to despise it because it's not perfect.