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Caterpillar songs and poems

The Little Caterpillar
(Sung to Itsy Bitsy Spider)

The little caterpillar crawled up in a tree
Spun his cocoon and slept so quietly
All through the winter he didn’t make a sound
Her dreamt of his new life when he’d be flying ‘round

While he was sleeping the snow did gently fall
Winter came and went, then he heard the robin’s call
Come on Mr. Butterfly, out of your cocoon
Spread your wings and fly for me, while I sing my tune.

Caterpillar Change
There was a little caterpillar crawling all about. (Walk with fingers on arm)
He worked and he worked without a doubt. (Wiggle fingers)
Wrapping himself in a snug cocoon. (Wrap other hand around fingers)
Waiting and waiting, will it be soon? (Hold fingers)
Look, he’s coming out, my oh my! (Raise arms in excitement)
For now he’s a beautiful butterfly! (Cross thumbs and flap hands like wings)


The Life of a Butterfly
(sung to Skip to My Lou)

I’m a caterpillar, wiggle with me
I’m a caterpillar, wiggle with me
I’m a caterpillar, wiggle with me
What will I be, my darling?

I’m a chrysalis, curl like me
I’m a chrysalis, curl like me
I’m a chrysalis, curl like me
What will I be, my darling?

I’m a butterfly, come fly with me
I’m a butterfly, come fly with me
I’m a butterfly, come fly with me
That’s what I am, my darling!

Now all together, let’s do all three!
A caterpillar (wiggle), a chrysalis (curl), a butterfly (fly), three!
Move your body like this, with me,
The life of a butterfly, darling! (flying all around)



Caterpillar
(Sung to Itsy Bitsy Spider)

Creepy crawly caterpillar
Looping up and down,
Furry tufts of hair along
Your back of golden brown.

You will soon be wrapped in silk
Asleep for many a day;
And then, a handsome butterfly
You’ll stretch and fly away!


Once I saw a butterfly
(sung to Twinkle, twinkle little star)

Once I saw a butterfly
Dancing in the clear blue sky
Through the meadow he would go
Flying high and flying low.
Once I saw a butterfly
Dancing in the clear blue sky.

(Source: www.prekfun.com/ThemeA_F)



The Birds and the Bees… and Butterflies Too.

Robin in the Rain (song)
Robin in the rain such a saucy fellow
Robin in the rain mind your spots of yellow
Running through the garden on your nimble feet
Digging for your dinner with your long strong beak

Robin the rain you don’t mind the weather
Showers always make you gay
But the worms are wishing your would stay at home
Robin on a rainy day!

Five Little ducks and Five Little Quail – a rhyme
Five little ducks went out to play (wiggle five fingers on one hand)
The met five quail that were going their way (wiggle five fingers on the other hand)
The five little quail went to get a snack
And the five little ducks went quack, quack, quack! (use hand to form a duck-bill)


Lucky Duck – a poem
OH it was a bit of luck
That I was born a baby duck
With yellow socks and yellow shoes
That I may go wherever I choose!
Quack, quack, quack, quack!

Source: www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/bugs/songs.htm

Five Little Robins

Five little robins waiting for spring,
The first little robin started to sing,
The second little robin flapped its wings.
The third little robin said “Tweet, tweet, tweet,”
The fourth little robin sang so sweet.
The fifth little robin Sid, “It’s a beautiful day,”
Then all five robins flew away.


Five Baby Birds
(Sung to “Five Little ducks”)

Five baby birds hatched out one day.
Inside their nest they wiggled away.
With a peck, peck, peck and a peep, peep, peep.
One little bird fell fast asleep.

(Repeat the verse for four, three, and two;
Then sing the verse below.)

One baby bird hatched out one day.
Inside his nest he wiggled away.
With a peck, peck, peck and a peep, peep, peep.
No one to play with, I may as well sleep.


Bees on the Wall

5 bees were on the wall (Hold up all five fingers)
How could they hurt me, they are so small! (Shrug shoulders and put hands out)
I’ll spray some water so they will fall (Pretend to spray a spray bottle)
Uh oh! I’d better run! They’re after me, five bees in all! (Wiggle fingers)

Buzzing Bees
Bees, bees, bees, bees
Buzzing in bushes and buzzing in trees
Buzzing around, wherever they please
There’s nothing so sweet
As sweet as a honey bee.


Bee Hive - a rhyme

This is my bee hive (put hands out together)
But where are all the bees?
Hidden inside where nobody sees
One, two, three, four, five (raising up fingers)
There they go - off to the trees!


OH Ladybug, Ladybug!

Ladybug
 
The ladybug's a beetle.
It's shaped like a pea.
Its colour is a bright red
With lots of spots to see.
Although the name is "ladybug",
Some ladybugs are "men"
So why don't we say "gentleman bug"
Every now and then?


Five Little Ladybugs

Five little ladybugs climbing on some plants,
Eating the aphids, but not the ants.
The first one said, "Save some aphids for me."
The second one said, "They're as tasty as can be."
The third one said, "Oh they're almost gone."
The fourth one said, "Then we'd better move on."
The fifth one said, "Come on, let's fly!"
So they opened up their wings and they flew through the sky.


Ladybug

Ladybugs all dressed in red
Strolling through the flowerbed.
If I were tiny just like you
I'd creep among the flowers too!
Maria Fleming


Ladybug

Lady bug wears
An orange cape.
It opens up
And changes shape -
Now two wings lift her
into the air.
I wish I had
Such a cape to wear!
Dee Lillegard


Little Red Bug

Little red bug, oh so cute,
Here's a black spot for your suit.
Now you go and have some fun
With your spot, your very first one.

Little red bug, oh so cute,
Here's a black spot for your suit.
It's so nice to own a few,
So enjoy these lovely two.

Little red bug, oh so cute,
Here's a black spot for your suit.
We are very pleased to see
How nice you look with all three.

Little red bug, oh so cute,
Here's a black spot for your suit.
You might feel that you need more,
So we proudly give you four.

Little red bug, oh so cute,
Here's a black spot for your suit.
Heaven, heaven, sakes alive,
Look at you, you're wearing five!

Susan M. Paprocki

Source: www.canteach.ca

Summer Pretend Play Ideas

Birds and Bees and Butterflies too. 

·       Using hair bands, add some pipe cleaner antennae. Twist and curl colours together, make any shape you would like.  Add ping pong balls on the ends for safety, dab on some glue to hold them.  Encourage the children to be a bee, or a (wrapped in a nice cloth, comforter or scarf) a caterpillar.  Sing or say some of the rhymes and songs below, and do the actions.

 ·       Use old sheer curtains to create scarves, capes or wings that you can use in pretend play.  Fly like the wind!  (Make sure all curtain hooks are removed.) 

 ·       Use the music from the Flight of the Bumble Bee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (from his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, 1899-1900) to inspire dance and movement. 

 ·       Act out the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Use real food that you actually eat, or pretend food or even photographs. 

Pretend Play Outdoors

Take some costumes or props outside and use the physical environment as a basis for pretend play. Hills, gullies, play structures are good beginnings to create a scene, or fort etc.  Make sure that your costumes are not too long, or tied around the neck.

Climbing in costumes can be dangerous.

Science and pretend play

Have a prop box with a Professor Bugilicious lab coat, magnifying glass, specimen jars, labels, insect identification posters or books, etc.  You may add fossils and photos of nature.  Encourage the children to observe and gather information on how the insects behave.  Talk about it.  Make notes.  How many bugs can you find in a square of grass 3 ft X 3 ft?   Are they more bugs at the front of the lawn in the sun, or at the back, in the shade?  Make a graph.  ON rainy days, watch some movies about insects – animated movies or non-fiction.  Learn more about your favourite bug characters. 

Here are some excellent summer pretend play ideas from www.perpetualpreschool.com/dramaticplaythemes.html

(If you would like to add your ideas, or see more, visit this great web site.)

Literacy-based pretend play

Be sure to provide a variety of literacy materials in your dramatic play area. I built a child-sized desk that holds a keyboard, phone, and adding machine. I also include planning books, calendars, phone books, pens/pencils, phone message pads, papers, maps, or whatever else I can find. Make sure to clean out the used papers and trash to keep the area attractive and inviting. Watch how creative your kids will be while practicing pre-literacy abilities!

 Construction Zone

We have used this idea with our class and they love it! Provide the children with large and small blocks, play tools, tool belts and hard hats. Make some signs i.e. "kids at work" or "danger construction zone" and the kids have a great construction zone dramatic play.

Garage

We have a "Garage Prop Box." Actually, my husband collected these things for me. There are old gas filler nozzles with hoses attached, air pumps, grease guns, safety glasses, tools galore, clip boards full of car diagnostic papers, neat car service diagrams, estimate sheets,flashlights, receipt books, car magazines, tool catalogs, car advertisements from the news paper, he even got patches from Chevron and Ford that I sewed on white shirts.

Painters Unite

I purchased inexpensive nail aprons, disposable paint hats, empty paints cans (pint and quart sizes)and a variety of paint brushes from my local hardware store. My class "paints" the classroom. When the weather warms up, we bring the paint cans outside and fill them with water. The children paint the side of our brick building with water. They love it!

Pretend pool-time

Purchase an inexpensive blue table cloth and tape to the floor, this is your pool.   Add rafts, balls etc.

Safari

Do a "camp safari" theme. Set up tents in the dramatic play and create your own jungle in your preschool room. make giant stuffed animals by letting the children decide what animal to draw, cutting two shapes of that animal out, stapling or taping it together, and stuffing it with newspaper. Hang them all over the room and create your own zoo!!

Space

With each unit we change our dramatic play area. For example we changed it into a space ship for our sun, moon and stars unit just by hanging space pictures and putting in an out dated computer that the kids could punch around on. You could use old ice cream containers with a box cut out as helmets... Backpacks are great space packs and old soda containers are perfect oxygen tanks. The ideas are endless and it doesn't take much time to do a quick make over for any unit.

Apples

I recently made two trees using construction paper and hung them in our dramatic play area. I attached paper apples of various sizes with velcro. The children are allowed to pretend to apple pick. I left our baskets to sort the different sizes. You could also use different color apples. It was a great way to reinforce classifying objects.

When studying apples, we read the story, How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. I then put white and red playdough in the dramatic play area along with lots of cooking utensils and the recipe for the apple pie out of the book. Students could then pretend to make apple pies. It was amazing how detailed their pies really were!

Wild West

One of my favourite Dramatic Play themes is Pioneers or The Old West. We take our rectangular art table and turn it into a covered wagon using flexible tent tubes, a large white sheet, and lots of tape. We put two rocking horses (or you can use saw horses with stick horse heads) in front of the covered wagon and away they go! We add bails of hay, hats, boots, a pretend camp fire with wood scraps and orange and red tissue paper and a grate from our art room drying rack. Put sand and water in the water table along with "gold" nuggets and "pan" for gold. Hang a rug over a string and use a rug beater or paddle to "beat" it clean. Great fun!

Camping

When you think of summer you think of camping.  For our camping unit we rolled up newspaper into paper logs and tied them with rubber bands. The children then painted them brown. After they dried(the next day) we set them up for our campfire adding red and orange cellophane and a flashlight to the middle. We sat around the "campfire" singing songs and telling stories. The children loved it.We ended our campfire time by eating 'smores. It was great!

Island Fun

Another great theme idea for the dramatic play area is to create an island. The children can call it Queen Charlotte Island, Hawaii, Anticosti Island, etc. Get a few grass skirts, sunglasses, toy cameras, make palm trees, add shells and a sand box and for extra fun add your water table with blue food coloring for the island water. Your kids are sure to have a blast!

Ice Cream Store

My Preschool and Pre-K kids love our ice cream store dramatic play area! I made yarn pompom balls in "ice cream colors" for scoops of ice cream, ice cream cones out of cardboard covered in burlap, plastic ice cream scoops, play money, aprons, menu signs, and added lots of containers donated from a local ice cream place. Lots of neat interactions happen in this center!

Pretend House – washing dishes

After showing the students how to do this activity, I place a tub of soapy water, clean water, and a towel in the dramatic play area for students to wash dishes. They love this! It is also helpful to have them wear a vinyl type apron or smock as to not get too wet.

Folding Landry

place clean, unfolded towels and cloth diapers in the dramatic play area for the students to fold. I also provide a rebus type picture sequence that outlines how to fold in 1/2 and then in 1/2 again. Folding is something that has been presented to them both in circle time and individually. This is good for motor skills as well as for fractional concepts.

Adpot-a-theme

I have my dramatic play area reflect the theme we are studying if at all possible. For example, while doing a unit on Clifford, the Big Red Dog, I put a Dr. Kit along with a leash, dog toys, dog bones and some stuffed animal dogs in the dramatic play area. The kids could then pretend to be a vet, or to just take their pet for a walk.

Favourite story act along

Turn your dramatic play into the three bear's house. Make some ears (either construction paper or if you sew fake fur) and attach them to headbands. Get a little girl's headband with a bow on it for goldilocks. Set up your housekeeping area like normal with a few exceptions: make sure you put 3 sets of everything in if possible in the different sizes. Use coloured masking tape to make a "path" for the bears to follow when they leave their house. Reinforce the dramatic play area by reading the story Goldilocks and the three bears during circle time.