"I'm Not Scared!" Revisiting Jonathan Allen

Back in 2012, I told Jonathan Allen's I'm not Cute! and now in 2014, celebrating the spookiest month of the year, I decided to tell the companion, I'm not Scared! I like to add books about feeling scared or anxious into my October story time themes because Halloween can be a scary time for small children.


Puppets:
Three owl puppets.
I was able to use different sizes: a finger puppet for Owly,
a Folkmanis snowy owl for Baby Owl, and a large owl for Papa Owl.

We don't have a badger puppet on hand, so I used a rat instead.
Bear
Bat

Props:
A bed for Papa Owl to tuck Baby Owl into.

 

 

 

 

 

I followed the book pretty closely, the biggest change being changing the badger to a rat. I had the children help me with the "but I'm not scared!" response of Baby Owl as the animals he encounters on his walk assume he's scared.

 

 

An easy puppet adaptation.

 

 

Happy day,

Miss Lisa

 

Who's in the Red Barn? Toddler Song

I fell in love with this FAO Schwarz plush toy and saw the opportunity to use it for a simple toddler story time stretcher. 

It has a set of double barn doors that close with Velcro and the back opens via a zipper. It's the perfect size for a small glove puppet or finger puppet. 

I use it with a song:  "Who's in the Red Barn?"

Who's in the red barn, the red barn, the red barn?

Who's in the red barn?

I don't know. 

Let's find out!

Then I open the doors to reveal the puppet. The children really enjoy it when an unexpected animal is inside, like a dinosaur or iguana. Then I can segue into a dance song to get us moving. 

Super simple. Super effective. Best used with a small audience.