I have stumbled upon something I can only describe as the best thing I’ve ever done with puppets in my career as a children’s librarian. I can’t even remember how I stumbled upon this video, but it has changed my storytimes. Dear friends, I present to you the greatest puppet version of a book I have ever witnessed.
Over the past few months I have tried this puppet song with all sorts of groups, some as old as Grade 1 students. It has been a hit with every single group. What I love about it:
- You can use any puppets you want, especially those weird or unusual puppets you rarely break out
- You can make it as long or as short as you want
- You can get the whole audience chanting and clapping along with you
- You can make it super silly
- You can get the kids to help you make up reasons for sending back the animals
- It gets kids to practice executive function skills by asking them to remember why you sent each animal back
- All the puppets are packed away nicely at the end
- It’s based on a book that a lot of families know already
My only gripe is that I generally avoid books and songs about zoos for ethical reasons. Because this story is already so well known and veers into fantasy for me I have made an exception. One parent liked it so much they had me email them the video.
Gloria Bartas, wherever you are in the world, thank you for sharing your genius with the rest of us!
This is brilliant! Thanks for sharing — will definitely try at our next Storytime. Can’t thank you enough for all that you give to the library community and how much I’ve learned from you and this blog. It is my #1 resource, and I wish I could send you a thank you present (a million thank you presents, actually!). (Also shout out to Gloria Bartas, whose songs and videos are mesmerizing!)
Aww, Nicki, thank you so much for your kind words! No presents needed – your blog comments keep me going and let me know that there are people out there who read and enjoy what I share. I appreciate you!
So good! Love this idea and the catchy tune. My group will love it! Thank you for sharing.
The tune is SO GOOD.
I don’t have enough variety of puppets, but I WILL be using felt animals for this song next week!
Oh my gosh, genius! I am embarrassed to admit that I never thought about doing this with felts too. See, this is why I share things on the blog. You are all so smart.
Love the Dear Zoo puppet idea! I will be trying it out soon.
Thanks for sharing.
I hope it goes over splendidly!
I love it! I will be trying it. I love the use of the drum, too. My favorite puppet idea that I have used for years and years and years is to have puppets “taste kids fingers” and then the puppet guesses what they had for breakfast (or lunch). Kids go wild. It does take a bit of time but is great if you’re doing a school visit and you could do it as the kids line up to leave. I find it works better with preschool and older because the humor element can be understood a bit more.
I’ve been clapping it out rather than use the drum because navigating the drum and the puppets was too tricky for me. I love the tasting fingers idea! As long as kids are cool with putting their hands in, I am sure it is a hoot.
Thanks for sharing this! I can’t wait to try it. What a fun thing to do for letter Z, which is a struggle to make really fun! Thanks for all you do. My storytimes would not be nearly as fun if you didn’t publish this blog with all of its great ideas.
Well I’m just sharing the brilliant ideas of other people half the time, haha! I hope you have a zappy and zestful storytime!
Holy moly I came on here looking for a new idea for using puppets in my baby lapsit storytime and THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED.
THANK YOU for reading my mind!
haha, happy to be of service! I hope the babies loved it.
So fun! So versatile! Thank you for sharing your find!
We had a lot of fun with this today! Sincere thanks for sharing this idea, and all you do!
Gloria Bartas was a children’s librarian with the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, MD until her fairly recent retirement. Gloria is charismatic, imaginative, and she is always happy to share her ideas. She was an excellent Mother Goose on the Loose facilitator. In fact, when I decided to film a MGOL program as an example for others to follow, I chose her program! If you’d like to see Gloria doing “Toddler Jumps” you can find it here: https://youtu.be/qP7VBBV2vFQ?si=TYGTeW3kTUBvXGhO
To see a list of many different rhymes with Gloria, feel free to check out the MGOL Playlists on YouTube and search for “Gloria Bartas”: https://www.youtube.com/@MotherGooseontheLoose/search?query=Gloria%20Bartas
Thank you for sharing this information, Betsy. I can’t wait to watch these videos!
I was incredibly lucky to work with Gloria and be taught by her how to do storytime. She is fantastic! I still use some of the songs that she came up with, including a sung version of “Dear Zoo.”
This is genius. I’ll be using this one this summer!
I swear it’s the gift that keeps giving!
My kids loved it! I’ll be adapting it with a dinosaur theme for the summer, loosely based on “Eggasaurus” by Jennifer Wagh and featuring puppets of egg-laying animals
I used this at 2 Family Storytimes today. Since there was no school, I had babies up to elementary school and everyone was enthralled. Our upcoming Summer Reading Challenge focuses on Dinosaurs, so I made the last animal a dinosaur and kept it. Thank you, Gloria and Lindsey!
Finally got to try this today at Storytime. Everyone clapped with the drumming and it was a total hit. Thank you Gloria and Lindsey!
Awesome, Megan! I forgot to say that I don`t even use a drum. I just teach everyone how to clap to the rhythm so I can focus on the puppets.
I tried this today in my toddler storytime and it was a hit! The tune was easy to remember and got the audience involved in the clapping. The kids couldn’t wait to see what puppet was coming out next. So glad to find this…I love using puppets and glad to get something new to me.
The anticipation from the kids is the best part. They get so into it!
This is wonderful!!! This song will be perfect to mix in with a puppet show at our library too! Thank you so much
I agree, it would go great with a puppet show!