Conejito!

Books Shared or Recommended:

Brown                    The Golden Egg Book

Brown                    Home For a Bunny
Brown                    The Runaway Bunny
Gag                         The ABC Bunny
Henkes                   The Little White Rabbit
MacDonald            Conejito
Wells                      Bunny Cakes
Willems                  Knuffle Bunny

 



We found bunny finger puppets in the storytime apron pockets during the month of April.  At first I just had five bunnies because that's all the fingers I have on one hand, but the children were bothered by the two empty apron pockets, so I added two more as the month went along.  I put the bunnies on my fingers and recited:

 

Five little bunnies sitting by the door,

One hopped away and then there were four.

Four little bunnies moved under a tree.

One hopped away and then there were three.

Three little rabbits drinking morning dew.

One hopped away and then there were two.

Two little rabbits resting in the sun.

One happed away and then there was one.

One little bunny alone isn't any fun.

He hopped to join the others and

then there were none!

Then, I read Conejito, a folktale from the country of Panama.  The children love the singing included in this story:  Oh lala!  And all of the hispanic children at my pre-schools loved hearing a story which included spanish words:  "Gordito!  Gordito!  Gordito!"
 

 

Little Peter Rabbit

Music:  Battle Hymn of the republic

Little Peter Rabbit has a fly upon his nose.

Little Peter Rabbit has a fly upon his nose.

Little Peter Rabbit has a fly upon his nose

And he PHHTH and it flew away.

Ask children to name other body parts

Of the rabbit and repeat the song.

We sang this song with our rabbit ears up on our head (two hands) and used 'conejito' instead of 'Peter Rabbit'.  The kids liked picking where the fly lands on conejito...his tail, his nose, his shoulder.

 

Then, it's time for our visitor:  a bunny puppet.

I use the bunny to tell the story of the Golden Egg:

 

 

 

Once there was a little bunny.  He was all alone.  One day he found an egg.  He could hear something moving inside the egg.  What was it?

 

Maybe it was a little boy, maybe another bunny, maybe an elephant, maybe a mouse.

The bunny pushed the egg with his foot.  He jumped on top of the egg.  He climbed a tree and threw nuts at it.

Pick.  Pick.  Pick.  Something was trying to get out of that egg.  The bunny sat very still and watched through his shining eyes.  He sat very still and listened with his big soft ears…Pick.  Pick.  Pick.

Then the little bunny began to yawn.  And he yawned.  And he yawned.  The egg was very quiet.  He curled up all sleepy and warm close to the egg and went to sleep.  He went to sleep because he was so sleepy.

Pick.  Pick.  Pick.  And Peek!  Peek!  Peek!   And crackety CRACK!  Out jumped a little yellow duck!

“Well, what is this?”  said the little duck when he saw the bunny.   “What could this little fur thing be?”

The bunny was very sleepy, so he was still asleep and didn’t’ wake up.

“Inside the egg,” said the duck,” I thought I was all alone in a small dark world.  Now I find myself alone with a bunny in a big bright world.  And the bunny won’t wake up.”

So the duck pushed the bunny with his foot.  And jumped on top of him.  And threw a little rock at him.  And rolled him down a hill.

And the bunny woke up.  “Where is my egg?” said the bunny.  “And where did you some from?” 

“Never mind that,” said the duck.  “Here I am.”  So the bunny and the duck were friends.  And no one was ever alone again.