Flannel Friday: Three-fer Flannel Hen Rhymes

Move over, Hickety Pickety Bumblebee. There’s a new rhyme in town!

Kudos to my fabulous teammate Vanessa for introducing me to this version when I started at my new library system… in 2019! Told you I’ve got a looooong backlog of posts to catch up with! 🤣 Thank goodness for motivation from Flannel Friday Round Ups.

Here’s how the rhyme goes:

Hickety Pickety

Hickety Pickety, my brown hen.

She lays eggs for Farmer Ben.

Farmer Ben comes every day

To count how many eggs lie in the hay!

CREDIT: BBC TEACH

As soon as I saw this rhyme, I couldn’t wait to combine it with an old favorite I learned from Mel’s Desk:

Five Eggs and Five Eggs

Five eggs and five eggs.

That makes ten!

Sitting on top is Mother Hen.

Crackle crackle crackle!

What do I see?

Ten fluffy chicks

As yellow as can be!

CREDIT: MEL’S DESK

When I do these rhymes in storytime, we say the Hickety Pickety rhyme first, then remove Mama Hen and count the eggs sitting underneath.

Here’s some early math talk we might engage in:

• How many eggs do you see in the hay?
• Let’s count and make sure!
• Can you show me five fingers?
• Can you show me the number five another way? What if we used fingers on both hands to make the number five?

But when we take those first five eggs out of the nest, there’s more eggs hiding underneath! GASP!

We compare the two piles:

• How many eggs are in this pile?
• Are there more eggs in this pile than in the first pile? Less eggs?
• How do you know?
• How many eggs do we have when we add both piles?
• That’s right, ten eggs! Show me ten fingers.

5 eggs and 5 eggs… that makes ten! Sitting on top is Mother Hen…

Because A Ram Sam Sam adaptations are always on my mind, I also came up with this fun little ditty for a baby/toddler storytime:

A Big Straw Nest

Tune: A Ram Sam Sam

A big straw nest, a big straw nest.

(hold hands far apart)

Little white eggs in a big straw nest.

(curl hands into a circle, then spread far apart again)

A big straw nest, a big straw nest.

Little white eggs in a big straw nest.

A cracking sound – CLAP!

A cracking sound – CLAP!

And some fluffy baby chicks in a big straw nest!

CREDIT: ORIGINAL LYRICS SET TO PIGGYBACK TUNE

And there you have it! One flannel, three fun rhymes to use with it.

Want to make your own? Pick up the FREE pattern by clicking on the image below!

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How are you gearing up for Summer Reading? Are you a CSLP Tails and Tales Library, or do you make your own theme? Either way, I hope you’ll take up your scissors and craft with Flannel Friday all summer long during the #FFSummerReading21 Round Up!

Aaaaaand I just noticed, after taking all these pictures, that one of my baby chick’s beaks has fallen off! 🤦