This Little Piggy ...

I started this flannelboard a few years ago, and as you will see from the pictures I never finished it, but I recently came across an idea that has motivated me to get it out again. I found the original idea in Flannelboard Stories for Infants and Toddlers (Bilingual Edition) by Ann & Mary Carlson, and liked their suggestion of doing flannelboards on interfacing with the pictures and words paired together. Even though I don't work with a Spanish speaking population, I also liked that the book included both the English and Spanish text for all their ideas. The book is full of patterns that can be traced and using the interfacing made that easy, since you can see through it.

The process is pretty simple, you lay a piece of interfacing (make sure to use the sew-in interfacing, not the iron-on or fusible type) over top of the image and trace, then go over the tracing with a permanent marker. To color in the pictures I experimented with paint markers and crayola fabric markers, and they worked okay, but where a little frustrating, and the reason why I didn't finish - then looking for something on the internet the other day I found where someone suggested using crayons, I tried it and they worked very well.

Below are the pictures for each verse of "This Little Piggy", in various states of doneness, the first two I had done with different markers, the third I have started with crayon and the last two haven't been colored in yet.

There's a Wocket in my Pocket ...

Last week I posted my Yottle in a Bottle, this week I am showing you My Wocket, who today, will live in my pocket. I made him the same way I made the Yottle (copied a page from the story, taped it up on a sunny window and traced the image onto orange and green construction paper, then laminated him). You don't really need to laminate the Wocket, since he will be safely tucked into you pocket, but just like the librarian from the Black Lagoon - I do enjoy laminating things :)

In the story, the Wocket is in the little boys back pants pocket, however, the picture below is actually the Wocket in my front shirt pocket (it just made the picture taking process easier and less embarrassing) and he seems to be happy - as long as he can be in a pocket.

Enjoy ...

Yottle in a Bottle ...

This isn't a flannel board, but with Dr. Seuss's birthday coming up, I thought it would be fun to share.

I used the illustrations from There's a Wocket in My Pocket, to make my own Yottle. I made a copy out of the book, taped it up to a sunny window, traced the picture onto a piece of orange construction paper and colored the black parts black. Then I laminated the Yottle, it's important to laminate it, as this makes it much easier to put into the bottle without ripping, plus it makes it stand up straight. When I cut out the Yottle, after laminating, I made sure to leave an 1/8 - 1/4 inch of laminate as a boarder around the edge of the Yottle, and didn't cut the laminate out between his legs.

I took a 20 oz soda bottle and made a slit in the bottom with a utility knife, then I carefully slide the Yottle up into the bottle. I left a little bit of laminate sticking out the bottom of the slit, folded it over onto the bottom of the bottle and taped it down.

Taa-daa! A Yottle in a Bottle!!!

















Last March when I did my Dr. Seuss storytime, I had the Yottle and several other creatures form There's a Wocket in My Pocket, hidden around the storytime room, the kids had fun searching for them after storytime. I even had a Wocket in my pocket - I pretended I didn't know it was there - and when we got ready to start storytime one of the kids yelled out "Hay, there's something in your pocket!". I acted scared and refused to look down at my pocket, asking them if what was in my pocket was scary looking. They told me things like "it's sleeping", "he's cute", "it's not scary", until one kid yelled out "It's a Wocket!", and we all had a good laugh. Unfortunately all my creatures are at work, so I will have to get pictures of them tomorrow and post those on Sunday.

Enjoy!

Three Little Kittens

I love mittens, and today is a mitten day! So, here are my three little kittens, who lost their mittens, found their mittens, ate pie in their mittens and got them dirty, and washed their mittens to make mother dear happy.

I start with just the plain kittens on the flannelboard, then when they find their mittens, I put them on their front paws and give them their pie. The pictures below are the kittens, in their mittens, with goo from the pie on them.











Then I take off the mittens, remove the goo from the pie (just little pink blods cut out of felt), and hang them on the line to dry.











I know you can find this rhyme just about anywhere and it may be one of those things that many of us just know, but I found the words very nicely typed out on KIDiddles.com, you have to register for the site, but they have tons of lyrics for all kinds of songs.

I made myself a snowball ...

A few adorable little kindergartner's taught me this song and I liked it so much I decided to turn it into a flannelboard. First the song:

"I made myself a snowball as perfect as can be.
I thought I'd keep it as a pet and let it sleep with me.

I made it some pajamas and a pillow for its head.

But late last night it went away but first it wet the bed!"

(giggle - giggle - giggle)

This flannelboard is still in the developmental stages, hasn't been tested during storytime yet, but I think my plan will work. First, I made myself a snowball (out of white felt), and I plan to place it on the flannel board before storytime starts, so that hiding underneath it is a puddle of melted snow (out of light blue felt). As we sing the song I will give the snowball some pajamas, a pillow for his head and tuck him up in a blanket. I plan to put some scotch tape on the inside of the blanket, so it sticks to the pajamas and on the inside of the pajamas, so they stick to the snow ball. Then when the snowball goes away and I lift up the blanket, the pajamas and the snowball will be stuck to the inside of the blanket and the only thing left on the flannelboard will be a puddle of melted snow. Below are some pictures of my pieces and the process:

"I made myself a snowball as perfect as can be.

I thought I'd keep it as a pet and let it sleep with me."

(underneath the snowball is a blue felt puddle of melted snow)

"I made it some pajamas ..."

"... and a pillow for it's head."
(not the best picture, but there is a yellow pillow under there - better seen in person)

(no line in the song for this picture, but it is tucked in bed & all stuck together)

"But late last night it went away but first it wet the bed!"

(when I pull up the blanket, with the tape the pajamas and snowball are stuck to it and all that is left is this little puddle of melted snow - again not the best picture, better seen in person and on a different color background)

And that is "I made myself a snowball", which goes through my head constantly these days :)

The Hat

Just as with The Mitten flannel board I did last week, I found the animals at Jan Brett's website: http://www.janbrett.com/, specific page - http://janbrett.com/hat_coloring_page.htm. I colored and laminated the animals and put a piece of velcro on the back of each, then I used felt, ribbon and markers to make all the different pieces of clothes the animals put on as hats. I hung them on a clothes line across the top of my flannel board and began the story.

As I come to each animal in the story I take a piece of clothing off the clothes line and dress-up the animal.

If you notice, I don't have the star of the story, Hedgie, or the red & white woolen stocking he gets stuck on his head, because I used a hedgehog puppet and a red & white sock for his parts of the story. The kids thought it was all pretty silly.

I also found a reader's theater activity, with masks that you can print out for all the animals and some guidelines on how to put on a play of The Hat: http://janbrett.com/the_hat_play.htm

The Mitten

A co-worker and I sat for a while one day and tried to figure out how we could make an expanding mitten, one that would get bigger as the different animals snuggled in - we couldn't come up with any good ideas, so here is what I made instead.

A mitten out of card stock, with a pocket in the back that I could slide the animals into as I told the story.

If you go to Jan Brett's web-site: http://www.janbrett.com/, specific page - http://janbrett.com/tell_your_own_mitten_story_animals.htm you can print off a picture (black & white outline) of the animals from the story. I colored and laminated them to use for this flannel board. I also used them for an arts & crafts after storytime once. I cut mittens out of construction paper, punched holes all around the edges and let the kids use yarn to sew their mitten together, then they each got a print out of the sheet I linked above so they could fill their mitten with all the animals too.

Hey, Mr. Snowman

A co-worker gave me this rhyme last winter, it goes well with All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle. Depending on how many kids are at storytime, you can hand out all the pieces and let the kids put them on the snowman as you say each verse.

Hey, Mr. Snowman

I went walking

through a winter wonderland

and spied a frosty snowman

who needed a hand.

Hey, Mr. Snowman, what do you need?

"I need BLACK EYES. Put them on me."

Hey, Mr. Snowman, what do you see?
"I see an ORANGE CARROT. Put it on me."

Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?
"I see a BLACK TOP HAT. Put it on me."

Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?
"I see some BROWN STICKS. Put them on me."

Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?

"I see a GREEN SCARF. Put it on me."

Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?

"I see some PINK MITTENS. Put them on me."

Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?

"I see some BLUE BUTTONS. Put them on me."

Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?

"I see some YELLOW BOOTS. Put them on me."

Hey, Mr. Snowman, now what do you see?

"I see the coolest snowman ever. Me!"

I changed a few things from the original rhyme my co-worker gave me, such as the color of some of his accessories, so make it your own and change or add what you like.

There was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow

Well, I finished up my Old Lady from I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie, and promptly made her another story - There was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow by Lucille Colandro, and in honor of, hopefully, our first real snowfall later today, I thought it a fitting post for this Friday. Below is a picture of the Old Lady, with arms & legs this time. I taped a large clear expandable file (the office supply stores call it an "expanding wallet file") to the back of the hole in her tummy and I just put the things in there as she swallows them. It worked out very nicely!!! The file is very sturdy, everything packed in well and you can also store everything in the file when she is not in use.




















For her legs, I stuffed an old pair of socks and then put a smaller pair of black socks on for shoes. I used a large needle to sew in some ribbon for shoelaces and attached the legs to the body with hot glue, plus a few safety pins for extra support. For her arms I cut the legs off of a little pair of tights, stuffed them and tied them off at the open end; then I hot glued the excess above the knot onto the back. For her hands I stuffed the fingers of a pair of gloves and fit them onto the end of her arms. I used a few safety pins to pin the back of the gloves to her dress, so her hands weren't flopping around and since they are just pinned, I can change their position if I want. The last thing I did was attach the clear expandable file, and for this I just taped the sides on with packing tape.


















For There was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow, I made some paper snowflakes, a scarf, a corncob pipe and a black hat, collected a few sticks outside and grabbed a few pieces of charcoal from the garage. Then for the end when she hiccups twice and a snowman pops out, I made a little snowman out of extra foam core and kept him hidden behind her until the end of the story. Below are pictures of everything ...


















ENJOY!!!

Reindeer Cookies

I can't remember exactly where I found this cute little rhyme, I am pretty sure it was on the internet somewhere (I really need to start writing this stuff down), if anyone knows, please post in the comments so I can give credit to the author or the site.


The rhyme is called "Reindeer Cookies" and instead of putting the 5 little cookies up on the flannel board, I tape them to a festive Christmas plate and hold it up in my lap for all the kids to see.


Reindeer Cookies
"5 little cookies sitting on a plate
waiting for Santa
but he was running late.
Along came a reindeer and guess what he ate?
One of the cookies sitting on the plate."


(go through the rhyme until all the cookies are gone)

"No little cookies sitting on the plate,
because that's what Santa's reindeer ate!"

I made gingerbread men cookies (pictured below) but any cookie will do - I don't think the reindeer are too picky :)

I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie

If we all thought long enough, we could all write a story about what an old lady swallowed, but for this, not really flannelboard, I used I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson. Unfortunately due to no-shows and scheduling changes I have never actually gotten to use this "flannelboard", but I have several ideas on how to present it. My original plan was to use a doll/puppet the library had gotten that went along with I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, then I found a giant lady made out of cardboard with a clear tummy, at the main branch, but she was almost as tall as me and the pieces of food I made where pretty small comparatively speaking. I have since moved and don't work with that library system anymore, so I am making my own combination doll & cardboard lady, of a slightly smaller size, to sit in my lap while I tell the story. If you don't have an old lady, or time to make one, you can just put the food up on the flannelboard as you read the story, or even hand it out to the kids before and let come up each time she eats something. I had memorized the story and wasn't planning on even using the book, just the old lady and the food.

To create the food from the story I goggled the food images, printed them out the size I wanted, then traced and colored them in myself, so they would all match (I have a thing about stuff matching). But it could be done much quicker if you just used the goggled images, or you could even look for pictures of the food in magazines or grocery story circulars. I also briefly though of trying to find plastic food for a kid's play kitchen to use with the doll/puppet. Here is the food I made:

Below is the old lady I have made, she is still a work in progress – I plan to give her arms & legs and I need to come up with something a bit more sturdy than a piece of laminate film, to cover the whole in her tummy (any suggestions would be welcomeJ). She is made out of foam core, wrapped in a piece of flannel fabric and hot glued to the back. I goggled the image for her face, enlarged it and glued it to another piece of foam core, then I accessorized a bit. For her legs, I stuffed an old pair of socks and am going to try and make some shoes by putting a pair of black ankle socks over the foot part and giving them laces or a bow to make them look like shoes. For her arms, I am on the lookout for an old pair of white gloves to stuff.

I can hide all the food she ate by taping it to her back, then as I tell the story I will move the food to the clear window in her tummy so everyone can see what she ate. It gets a little crowded as the story goes on, but whose tummy wouldn't get a little crowded if they ate a whole turkey, the cooking pot and an entire cake for goodness sake!

Happy Thanksgiving – don't eat too much, and save some of the pie for others! J

White Feather, White Feather

This flannel board came out of Puppet & Flannelboard Stories for Seasons and Holidays by Teacher Created Materials, and is a spin-off of Brown Bear, Brown Bear. I actually got this from a former supervisor, and I believe the pattern for the turkey and the feathers were both in the book. However, if you aren't able to get a hold of the book you can Google a turkey and feather image.

(I made more feathers than was needed; I must have gotten a little carried away.)

The rhyme goes like this:
"White feather, white feather, what do you see?" (place the white feather on the turkey's back)
"I see a gold feather next to me." (place the gold feather on the turkey's back)
"Gold feather, gold feather, what do you see?"
… and it goes on from there with which ever color feathers you would like to use.

Short and sweet – and nice to use with a Thanksgiving themed storytime.

How Grandmother Spider Stole the Sun

This flannel board is actually a work in progress, so I don't have any pictures to show it.

Once upon a time I found the story "How Grandmother Spider Stole the Sun", in a book titled Keeper's of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children by Michael J. Caduto & Joseph Bruchac. The story is an old Muskogee (Creek) legend that explained how the sun and light came to the animals and people. When I first started using this story, I used the necklace pictured below to tell the story and then the kids would make their own necklace afterwords for the art project.















However, there are more characters in the story than the ones on the necklace and I wanted to include them as well. Unfortunately, that would have made the necklace too crowded - so I decided that I should make the story into a flannel board, I just haven't gotten around to it until now. The other characters I want to include are an opossum and a fox, who just like the buzzard, go through a physical change during the story, and with a flannel board I can show the kids that change. For example, the second animal to try and steal a part of the sun is Possum, who thinks she can hide the piece of sun she takes in her bushy tail - - "Wait!?" you say, "Opossum don't have bushy tails, the have skinny little tails that are bare." Why yes they do - Now; you see the piece of sun Possum took burned all the hair off her tail and that is why to this day opossums have bare tails. So my plan is to have an opossum with a bushy tail, but the bushy tail will just be some felt over the real tail, which I can easily remove. I plan to do the same thing with Buzzard, have a section of felt feathers over his red head and neck which I can remove; and with Fox, I will have a section that I can add to show how his mouth was burned.

This may sound like a bunch of gooble-dee-gook until you read the story, which should then hopefully shed some light on my ramblings above. If you are unable to locate the book through a library, the full text is at Google Books and the story is on pages 49 & 50.

Enjoy and I promise next week I will be more coherent :)

5 Little Owls

I made up this little rhyme, trying to come up with something not too Halloweeny - for Halloween :) I actually made the owls over the summer when I saw a flannel friday post on
http://rovingfiddlehead.com/kidlit/?p=429, called Five Hoot Owls - I thought they were totally cute!!! (The original pattern for the owls came from http://sunflowerstorytime.com/2011/03/22/owls/)

5 Little Owls
5 little owls swooping through the night
gliding and diving in the moon’s bright light.
Dipping and flipping, it was quite a sight …
until one little owl swooped out of sight.

4 little owls swooping through the night
gliding and diving in the moon’s bright light.
One little owl flapped with all his might,
and one little owl swooped out of sight.

3 little owls swooping through the night
gliding and diving in the moon’s bright light.
A bat flew by and gave a little fright,
and one little owl swooped out of sight.

2 little owls swooping through the night
gliding and diving in the moon’s bright light.
A mama owl hooted, “It’s time to say good night”,
and one little owl swooped out of sight.

1 little owl swooping through the night
gliding and diving in the moon’s bright light.
Then the moon began to fade and the sky got light,
and one little owl swooped out of sight.

I didn't picture it here, but I have a bat puppet to fly by in verse #3.

5 Little Apples

This isn't exactly a flannel board, but it could be made as one.

I actually use it several different ways depending on the groups "level of excitement". I have 5 apples, taped onto popsicle sticks, with the numbers 1 - 5 on them. If the group is relatively calm, I have 5 children come up, each gets to hold and apple and do the motions. If the group is a bit more active, I hold all the apples and have the kids stand up and do the motions with me.

The song is called "5 Little Apples", I am not sure of it's original origin, I got it from a former co-worker.

Five little apples swinging in a tree

I sure wish one would fall to me

One fell down

And hit the ground

Now how many apples do you see?

(keep singing until all the apples have fallen down)

If I call up 5 volunteers to hold the apples and sway, the entire group sings, and the each time an apple falls off the tree, one of the volunteers sits down. I try to get them to sit down in backwards, numerical order, so we can all count together at the end of the verse to see how many apples are left.

If I hold all the apples, I have the kids stand up and sway back and forth for the first two lines, then fall down on the ground when the apples fall off the tree. I make one apple at a time (again backwards in numerical order) fall out of my hand, so we can count together at the end of the verse to see how many apples are left.

It's fun either way - just depends on your group. Enjoy!

Little Stegosaurus

This weeks Flannel Friday, doesn't involve a flannel board, but it's still pretty fun. A co-worker found the song "Little Stegosaurus" in the February/March 2009 Preschool Edition of The Mailbox magazine and I turned the Stegosaurus and T-Rex from last weeks Paleontologist, Paleontologist, What Do You See? Flannel Friday post into puppets (taped a popsicle stick on the back of each) and used them to sing this song during storytime.

Little Stegosaurus
sung to the tune of "Little Bunny Foo Foo"
by Lisa Quinones, Family Life Program, Downer Grove, IL

Little Stegosaurus tromping through the forest,
Munching on the green plants from morning until night.

Down came a T. rex, and it said,
"Little Stegosaurus,
I don't want to see you
Munching all the green plants from morning until night.
I'll give you three chances,
And if you don't do as I say,
I'm going to have you for dinner - yum, yum, yum!"

*Each time you sing through the entire song, decrease the number of chances, until Little Stegosaurus has no more chances.

** I changed it a little for my storytime. Instead of the T-Rex having Little Stegosaurus for dinner, I have him turn Little Stegosaurus into something:

"I'll give you three chances,
And then I'll turn you into a ______________!"

The first time through the song, I let the kids yell out what T-Rex is going to turn Little Stegosaurus into, I pick the craziest suggestion, and then we use that for the entire song. When Little Stegosaurus has no more chances, it goes something like this:

"I gave you three chances,
And now I'll turn you into a ______________!
POOF"

You could choose what T-Rex is going to turn Little Stegosaurus into before hand and have it taped to the reverse side of Little Stegosaurus and then flip him around when you say "POOF". You can also add motions to the song for the kids to do.

I don't have pictures for this week, but if you look at Paleontologist, Paleontologist, What Do You See? from last week, you will see the T-Rex & Stegosaurus, and again I will be happy to forward the PDF to anyone who would like my patterns for all the dinosaurs.

Paleontologist, Paleontologist, What Do You See?

I don’t exactly remember where I got the idea for this Flannel Board, even though it was just this past spring. Of course it is a spin-off of Bill Martin Jr. & Eric Carle’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, but as I was searching the internet to make sure I gave credit where credit was due, I found a similar version called “Dinosaur, Dinosaur, What Do You See?” on Little Book Lane’s website: http://www.littlebooklane.com/Dinosaur.pdf So, if anyone else has seen this somewhere – I will be happy to give the proper credit.

Paleontologist, Paleontologist, what do you see?
I see a green Stegosaurus looking at me.

Stegosaurus, Stegosaurus, what do you see?
I see a purple Brachiosaurus looking at me.

Brachiosaurus, Brachiosaurus, what do you see?
I see a red Pteranodon looking at me.

Pteranodon, Pteranodon, what do you see?
I see a yellow Triceratops looking at me.

Triceratops, Triceratops, what do you see?
I see a blue Apatosaurus looking at me.

Apatosaurus, Apatosaurus, what do you see?
I see an orange Tyrannosaurus Rex looking at me.

Ahhhhh- a Tyrannosaurus Rex!!!

I was informed during story time that I had the Apatosaurus and Brachiosaurus either mixed up or named wrong. I did do some searching to make sure I had everything correct (because we all know 5 year olds know more about dinosaurs than we do), and I thought I had it right, but I guess I need to look into it again. You could use any dinosaurs you want, although I have a PDF with the patterns for the six dinosaurs I used and could e-mail it to anyone who wants. I simply searched for dinosaur clip art and then traced and modified them a little so they looked like they all went together. All the dinosaurs have a piece of Velcro on the back so they stick right to the flannel board. I also wrote the name of each dinosaur on the back, and in the case of the Pteranodon, the phonetic spelling. Hope everyone enjoys!

“When Goldilocks Went to the House of the Bears”

I found this very cute song over the summer and created the flannel board pieces and the kids sang along with me while we did the flannel board. I am not sure who originally wrote the song, but I found it on several web-sites and most seemed to be from across the big pond. I won't post the lyrics here, but I found them written out on: http://www.teapartydiva.com/when-goldilocks-went-to-the-house-of-the-bears-song/

Plus, the British Council web-site: Learn English Kids, has lovely children with English accents signing the song: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/when-goldilocks-went-the-house-the-bears

A co-worker helped me find the clip-art for the bears, bowls of porridge, chairs and beds in an old "The Mailbox" magazine – August/September 2008 issue.

The Three Little Penguins

Sometimes when I can't find a good flannelboard to do with a storytime, I write my own. A few times this past year I have used classic tales (fairy/folk) and transformed them into my own unique versions, below is one I did for my Penguin Storytime.

The Three Little Penguins came about as a result of three ideas all merging together. First, back in the winter someone posted a penguin flannelboard and I thought the penguins they created for the flannelboard were so cute, I had to make a few of my own and come up with something to use them in. I found the penguin they had used to create their pattern in an Internet clipart search and quickly made myself a few, because … second, I was putting together a Penguin Storytime. And third, while I was looking for Penguin books to read, I came across a book "totally made up by" Ashley Spires called Penguin and the Cupcake, in which Penguin leaves his home in Antarctica to travel to the Northern Hemisphere in search of a pink icing-topped cupcake. It's a fun book, but also an environmentally informative book – and inspired me to write my own little penguin story with a bit of an environmental twist. I used The Three Little Pigs as the basic concept of my story, but instead of having to deal with a big bad animal, since really penguins are the only animal in Antarctica, the penguins had to deal with global warming. I am not going to post the whole story here, but basically the penguins head out on their own, each builds a house, but the first two little penguins have to flee their houses because the houses are melting. Below is a picture of my three little penguins - Brody, Jimmy & Max.

It was a fun to create and I enjoy writing my own little stories. Happy Friday!

3 Short-Necked Buzzards

This week's post is a sort-of flannel board that goes along with a song that has movements, and is from a Silly Bird storytime I did last fall. I read four silly books about birds, including I'm not Cute by Jonathan Allen and Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard, plus we sang several silly songs about birds and did this flannel board. It was a very fun storytime with a lot of giggling and goofiness – the kids enjoyed it too J I will share the entire storytime plan in a post in a post next week, so everyone can be a silly bird!

"3 Short-Necked Buzzards" is a camp song I use to sing back in my former life at the YMCA and various Nature Centers.

I searched clipart on-line for a buzzard, which I printed, colored and laminated.

Instead of using a flannel board for this one, I use a chalkboard and drew a dead tree on it. Then I just taped the buzzards up and removed them and put them back up as the song went on.

Three Short-Necked Buzzards (hold up three fingers and scrunch shoulders) repeat 3x's
Sittin' on a dead tree. (make a tree shape with arms)
One flew away. (flap arms)
What a shame. (shrug and lift hands)
How many left?

Two Short-Necked Buzzards (hold up two fingers and scrunch shoulders) repeat 2x's
Sittin' on a dead tree. (make a tree shape with arms)
One flew away. (flap arms)
What a shame. (shrug and lift hands)
How many left?

One Short-Necked Buzzard (hold up one finger and scrunch shoulders)

Sittin' on a dead tree. (make a tree shape with arms)
One flew away. (flap arms)
What a shame. (shrug and lift hands)
How many left?

No Short-Necked Buzzards
Sittin' on a dead tree. (make a tree shape with arms)
What a shame. (shrug and lift hands)
But one has returned.
Let us rejoice!

One Short-Necked Buzzard (hold up one finger and scrunch shoulders)
Sittin' on a dead tree. (make a tree shape with arms)
What a shame. (shrug and lift hands)
But one has returned.
Let us rejoice!

Two Short-Necked Buzzards (hold up two fingers and scrunch shoulders) repeat 2x's
Sittin' on a dead tree. (make a tree shape with arms)
What a shame. (shrug and lift hands)
But one has returned.
Let us rejoice!

Three Short-Necked Buzzards (hold up three fingers and scrunch shoulders)