All About Turtles! Turtle Felt Board Poem and Turtle Preschool Song

Turtles are always a fun topic for young children anytime of the year! The following blog entry provides a poem, song and links for a turtle theme.

Felt Poem: 5 Little Turtles

One turtle with nothing to do
Called for his friend, then there were two.
Two turtles strolling by a tree,
Saw their buddy, now there are three.
Three turtles, a log for their floor,
Made room for a pal, now there are four.
Four turtles warming in the sun,
Saw a fifth friend, and said, "what fun!"

Preschool Song: I Had a Little Turtle

After running circle time with two and three year old children just recently, I have been reminded how much they like the song, "I Had a Little Turtle".

Lyrics:
 
I had a little turtle, his name was Tiny Tim

I put him in the bathtub, to see if he could swim

He drank up all the water,

He ate up all the soap

And now my tiny turtle has a bubble in his throat



Sign for Turtle

I use to sing the song when I taught Baby Signs as I could incorporate the sign for turtle, water, bath and bubbles. With the felt pieces, the signs and the song itself, it keeps the children's interest. I sing it a couple of times, and the older children quickly learn the words.

For further ideas:

Turtle Preschool Theme


Online Early Childhood Workshops with Circle of Ideas

Fall Leaves for the Felt Board

These felt leaves for the felt board can be used as props for singing songs about fall as well as activities to learn concepts about sorting.  Each child can be given a leaf to bring to the board to place into the appropriate category or row at circle time. Afterwards, the children can then be asked to come back to the flannel board to remove a leaf according to the teacher's request, such as "please hand me the biggest red leaf on the board". This latter activity works well as a transition out of circle time. When the leaves are coming onto the board, the teacher can remind the children of the words used for sorting size: big, bigger and biggest as well as small, smaller and smallest. A further step is to ask the children to repeat these words to encourage language development.

Fall Leave Poem:

Five little leaves so bright and gay
Were dancing about a tree one day
The wind came blowing through the town
And one little leave came tumbling down...

Fall Leave Song (To London Bridge:)

Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down
Autumn leaves are falling down, red, yellow, orange and brown

Online Early Childhood Workshops with Circle of Ideas