Back with another early math makeover of an old favorite flannel! Have you heard Down Around the Corner at the Bakery Shop? It goes a little something like this:
Down Around the Corner
Down around the corner at the bakery shop
Were five little cookies with sprinkles on top.
Along came someone with a nickel to pay.
They bought the pink cookie and they took it away!
CREDIT: MEL’S DESK
There’s a lot to love about this flannel rhyme already (as evidenced by how many times it’s made the Flannel Friday Rounds). I especially like the idea of exposing preschoolers to the concept of money/exchange in this way! But when I switched library systems recently and finally had to make my own set, I took the opportunity to make some changes. Besides being the spice of life, variety is the secret flannel ingredient for building early math moments into storytime!
Here’s how I gave this flannel an early math makeover:
- Made 12 cookies
- Used different cookie shapes
- Added a variety of sizes
- Frosted with different colors
- Made some cookies with sprinkles and some without
These small changes give us so many more opportunities for math talk! We can count, compare, practice recognizing shapes/colors, build descriptive vocabulary, and more. Here’s some sample math talk:
- HOW MANY cookies are there?
- We had four cookies and cow ate one. Now how many do we HAVE LEFT?
- How are the cookies the SAME?
- How are they DIFFERENT?
- Which kind of cookie do we have the MOST of?
- Which kind of cookie do we have the LEAST of?
- Do we have MORE cookies with sprinkles or MORE without sprinkles? HOW can you tell?
- HOW MANY cookies should cow eat if she is very hungry?
- HOW MANY cookies should cow eat if she is just a little hungry?
- HOW MANY cookies should cow buy if she wants to get a cookie for herself and a cookie for her friend?
- Which cookie is the BIGGEST?
- Which cookie is the SMALLEST?
- Which cookie should cow eat if she is super hungry? WHY?
- Which cookie should cow eat if she is just a little hungry? WHY?
I also adjusted the rhyme so that no money is needed for exchange. You can start with however many cookies you would like (and also have your puppet eat more than one at a time):
Down Around the Corner
Down around the corner at the bakery store
Were four sugar cookies with frosting galore!
Along came a cow looking for a treat…
She saw those cookies and she took one to eat!
CREDIT: ORIGINAL LYRICS
The kiddos loved when my puppet pals looked for treats around the room! They especially cracked up when my dog puppet sniffed all around the rug and kept looking in the wrong places. When my puppets finally spied the cookies, they gasped and then gobbled a cookie with great noisy delight. If you use a cow puppet, this rhyme sets the stage great for reading The Cow Loves Cookies!
Here’s a handy dandy free downloadable template if you’d like to make one of your own:
Here’s some links to fellow flannel cookie bakers:
And here’s some other fun adaptation ideas:
Flannelboard Fun: Five Little Cupcakes
Literary Hoots: Five Little Donuts
Mel’s Desk: Down Around the Corner Variations
I hope to make another set soon with cookies around the world. Stay tuned!
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Storytime in the Stacks 
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