Five Little Squirrels Activity

For your ToddlerI had two different ideas about how to use this adorable little rhyme:

Five Little Squirrels

Five little squirrels sitting in a tree. (Hold up five fingers.)
The first one said, “It's getting cold for me.” (Hold up one finger.)
The second one said, “The leaves are falling to the ground.” (Hold up two fingers.)
The third one said, “Let's get busy; there are nuts to be found.” (Hold up three fingers.)
The fourth one said, “We better not wait.” (Hold up four fingers.)
The fifth one said, “Fall is really great!” (Hold up five fingers.)

I thought I could color and cut the squirrels and put them on Popscicle sticks to do the rhyme with my toddler, and then I got the great idea to use flaps since those are his new favorite kind of books.

I will tell you how I did my craft, but you could use the rhyme in anyway you like. This craft is a little more time consuming, but Thomas is enjoying it, and to me that is all that matters.

To make this craft you will need:

• Green construction paper
• Brown construction paper
• Scissors
• Glue Stick
• Tape
• Squirrel pattern

There are tons of squirrel patterns on the web for you to use, and I will share one below. The one I used was extremely small and I actually traced all five squirrels by hand after blowing it up in Microsoft Word (which made it even more grainy, thus my tracing).

I simply colored my squirrels with coloring pencils (you could color with whatever, or find a colored squirrel pattern and print it out saving you a ton of time, or you can let your child color the squirrels!.

I used two peices of green construction paper and taped them together and then cut out a tree shape free-hand. I free handed a trunk with one sheet of brown as well.

Before I added my trunk to the bottom, I cut each squirrel out placed him face down to the BACK of my tree top, taping it around the edges. I used a sheet of carbon paper from Gracie's pretend waitress pad and placed the carbon paper under the tree top, and drew a door opening around the edge of the squirrel from the back. (Basically you need to make sure you have a door/window to open to see the squirrel. I made my flaps open in several different directions so they didn't all go the same way, and I cut them out.

If you don't have carbon paper, cut your doors (flaps) out of your tree top FIRST and then tape your squirrel to the underside (which in hindsight was probably a much easier way to do it!!).

Add your trunk to your tree top.

I used the left over brown paper to make my little handles for the flaps. I cut thin strips and rolled them into a tight curl. I taped them closed and then used good glue to add them to the flap door.

I made a copy of the rhyme to add to the bottom so that we can open the doors one by one as we read about each squirrel.

Now whether you have the time and energy to do this craft or not, you will want to share the rhyme with your preschooler. You could use stickers, or make felt squirrels and add to a winter glove. There are tons of ideas out there--use your imagination!

Squirrel pattern: