Finger Puppets

I was in the middle of writing a different blog post this afternoon when it started to snow… then snow… and then snow some more.  This is not normal Tennessee weather for February and has me ready for spring to come now!  Because I am not the type who loves cold weather I decided to switch paths for a day and write about an activity we did last spring to get us out of the cold weather blues.

I have about 30 different animal finger puppets.  The ones pictured here are a frog, cow, pig, and bumblebee.  A few years ago I found a felt barn at the $1 section of Target that has housed my finger puppets ever since.  The kids adore it and love putting the animals “back in the barn” after they are finished playing with them.

As you know there are thousands of animal songs to use with toddlers but because most of my preschool enrichment classes follow the school curriculum this particular day we danced around with our animal puppets pretending we were a participating in a barn dance with the animals in Bill Martin Jr.’s book.

We made up our own barn dance to Turkey in the Straw which is a classic American folk song from the 19th century, dancing with our animal puppets and friends in class.  There are many square dance moves but I listed a few below that I’ve used with the children before.  Be sure to keep in mind the age and ability level of the children in your music group and make the dance steps closer to each other or further apart if need be.  This will allow the children enough time to perform (and enjoy) a dance step before moving on to another one.

Verse 1:

As I was a-goin’ [circle to the left]
On down the road
With a tired team
And a heavy load
I cracked my whip [circle to the right]
And the leader sprung
I says day-day
To the wagon tongue

Chorus:

Turkey in the straw [lock arms and swing with partner] 
Turkey in the straw
Roll ’em up and twist ’em up
A high tuck a-haw
And hit ’em up a tune called
Turkey in the Straw [clap hands]

Verse 2:

Went out to milk [move forwards]
And I didn’t know how
I milked the goat
Instead of the cow
A monkey sittin’ [move backwards]
On a pile of straw
A winkin’ at
His mother-in-law

Repeat Chorus