There Were Ten in the Bed...

I have always loved the song "Ten in the Bed" but do not often have 10 children to play it with... So, today we used our stuffed friends!

One way to encourage otherwise timid kiddos to sing and get involved in action songs is to have them do it with a favorite stuffed animal (K calls all his stuffed animals "puppets" even though none of them are puppets... I think it's cute, though).

The boys had a great time with this song/activity - wanting to do it several times. Unfortunately (or fortunately, for mom) nap time beckoned them away.

If you're not familiar with the song (*gasp*), go here to learn it.

Here's what we did:

1. Collect your "puppets"

2. Arrange animals on a bed where they can "fall out." We had to use the guest bed since their beds are up against the wall.

K counted to make sure we had 10:

3. Start singing through the song and when you get to the part where one falls out, let one drop to the floor.  K wanted to make sure his teddy was at the far end so he got to "sleep" at the end of the song. J got to put his at the end the next time through.
It would be rather tedious for all involved to "roll over" each animal individually, so we pushed from the far end until one fell off. It was fun to call the one that fell off by name too ("...so they all rolled over and Scout fell out...").

J sometimes wanted to just knock them all off the bed, so mommy had to intervene once in a while, but for the most part, we all sang and played and had a great time. :-)

K singing and motioning, "roll over, roll over..."

Little Buddy Teddy (the white bear's name) stays on the bed!

...much to the dismay of the others. :-)