Bookbug Session Plan: Hen in the Bed

The Hello Song

Benefits

Familiar start – lets everyone know a Bookbug Session has started.

Tips

Smile and use names if you know them. Clap or tap along to the beat and use signs if you know them.

Round and Round the Garden

Benefits

This rhyme is great for positive touch, interaction and building anticipation and excitement.

Tips

This rhyme opens up opportunities for older children to take turns in tickling each other. If you’re looking for something more active, you could encourage children to move around the room as you say ‘round and round the garden’. When the rhyme indicates taking steps, ask the children to take giant steps or baby steps towards a friend before ending with a tickle.

Finger Rhyme (Ae finger, twa fingers, three fingers, fower…)

Benefits

We love sharing Scots rhymes at the Scottish Book Trust and this rhyme gives us lots of opportunities to count up from 1, using our fingers to support understanding.

Tips

When sharing this rhyme with babies, let them see your fingers wiggle as you count, or gently wiggle their fingers as you say the rhyme. For older children and toddlers, encourage them to move their own fingers and join in with the words.

Old MacDonald

Benefits

A great song to explore different animals and experiment with sounds and movement.

Tips

Encourage the toddlers and older children to share their ideas of what animals they might find on the farm. Babies find beat comforting and soothing, when sharing this energetic song with babies, you can gently tap their back to the beat, gently rock them in your arms or bounce them on your knee to the beat.

I wonder what’s in my bag today?

Benefits

Builds anticipation and captures the attention of the children.

Tips

Use Bookbug to help engage the children in singing the ‘I wonder what’s in my bag song’. Use Makaton to support different communication needs.

Sing the song to the tune of ‘Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush’
‘I wonder what’s in my bag today, bag today, bag today
I wonder what’s in my bag today, come and take a look,
At Bookbug’s favourite book.’

Hen in the Bed by Katrina and Guilherme Karsten

Benefits

Hen in the Bed is full of great opportunities to explore numbers and counting. There are lots of opportunities to include sounds and the repetitive text will help the children build on their vocabulary.

Tips

Hen in the Bed is inspired by the well-known children’s song 'Ten in the Bed'. Families familiar with the song can sing along with their children. Use the illustrations to inspire conversations and discussions as you discover what happens to each of the animals as they tumble out of the bed.

Five in the Bed

Benefits

This is a fun and interactive song encouraging the children to count down.

Tips

This is a great song to share with the sparkly blanket. You could use the puppets or similar items to bounce up and down on the sparkly blanket, taking one away each time.

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Benefits

A good song for early counting and developing speech sounds. This song gives children to explore the ‘b’ sound so being face to face with babies and toddlers when sharing this song will give them the opportunity to see how your mouth moves as you create this sound.

Tips

Actions are a great way to help children understand and participate in the session. You could use some Makaton to add some actions to this song when you share it with the children and their families.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Benefits

A soothing song to share at quite times or nap times. The actions will help children to develop their fine manipulative skills, moving/wiggling their fingers and creating shapes with their hands to make a diamond.

Tips

Gently rock your baby in your arms as you share quite times together, or share this song sitting face to face. You can do the actions with your own hands and let them see how they are moving. For older children, encourage them to copy the actions you are doing.

The Goodbye Song

Benefits

Tells everyone the session is coming to an end.

Tips

Wave, smile and use names if you know them. If you know Makaton you can support this song with signs.