(not a) flannel friday: 5 Little Valentines

I have had this rhyme in my files for many years:

Five Pretty Valentines waiting at the store.
(name) bought one and then there were four.
Four pretty Valentines shaped like a “V”
(name) bought one and then there were three.
Three pretty Valentines said “I love you”
(name) bought one then there were two.
Two pretty Valentines, having so much fun.
(name) Bought one and then there was one.
One pretty Valentine says “buy me and run”,
(name) did just that, and then there were none.

I wasn’t planning on using the rhyme, UNTIL…

I bought these.

They are the cutest knitted finger puppets!  I bought them from a local store, and they had so many I could barely choose which ones to buy. I settled on these, with more to come, I’m sure.

Anyway, while trying to figure out how to use these puppets in storytime, I remembered this rhyme. I thought that instead of using a (name) in the rhyme, I could use a puppet.  I wanted to use the pink glove to fit into my Valentine’s theme. The hearts (the Valentines from the rhyme) are attached to the glove with velcro dots, and I was ecstatic to see that the hearts (or rather the velcro dot on the back) stuck to the knit finger puppets!!!

So, it took a minimum of finagling, but here’s how it worked. I put on the glove with the hearts attached, and had the finger puppets on the table next to me.  I said the rhyme, had the kids show me the numbers with their fingers, and when I got to the (name) part of the rhyme, instead of a name I said the name of the animal, who then took a Valentine off the glove.  Fun!