Which Came First? The Chicken or the Egg?

Having just done an Easter Egg program, I've got eggs on the brain! Maybe my brains are 'scrambled?' cue the laugh track...  Anyway, I thought I'd share these two cute little chicken flannels that I've had a loonnggg time!  I can't remember where I got the rhymes or the idea for the nest and mother hen's movable wing.  I've used Nancy Tafuri's book, Five Little Chicks and Hurry! Hurry! by Eve Bunting when I do a chicken and/or egg theme.  I also like A Big Fat Hen by Keith Baker.   Another good egg book that's not necessarily about chickens is First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger.
When I do these rhymes I always do the Five and Five Eggs rhyme first with the mother hen.  Then I  read a book, sing a song and do the other rhyme, Sleepy Chicks, with the same mother hen, but a different nest.

Five and Five Eggs 

Five 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!  


I made two nests and stacked them on top of each other.  When I say the crackle line, I take off the top nest and ...ta da! there are the 10 yellow chicks!  Even the caregivers laugh when they see the surprise! The chicks are made of yellow cottonballs with little google eyes and orange felt beaks glued on.

Sleepy Chicks

"Come little children,"

calls mother hen.

"It's time to take your nap again."

So under her feathers the small chicks creep,

and she clucks a song till they fall asleep.

I start with just the mother hen on the nest.  I put the chicks under her wing when she calls and finish the rhyme by closing her wing.   We play peek-a-boo a few times with the mother hen's wing which is always a big hit with my youngest preschoolers.  We do a lot of clucking and peek-a-booing; and a lot of giggles!

Chickens are a lot of fun at Storytime!