Printable Animal Puppets & Nursery Rhymes for Toddlers

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Repetition is an important way for children to learn something new, like counting. It is pretty typical to start counting from 1 to 5, when kids are first starting out. Repeating this over and over will help them learn it. We ask them to count birds in the sky, apples on trees, snacks on their plate, etc. Singing songs and reciting poems are also a fantastic way to help kids learn.

We have the alphabet song that most everyone knows, because we sang it so many times as a child. So. Many. Times. These 4 poems will help kids practice counting to 5 in a fun way!

Printable Counting To Five Animal Puppets & Poems

It is important to teach our kids critical skills but that doesn’t mean it has to be boring and only pencil to paper type learning. We can add excitement to our learning easily with activities such as this. Not only is it more fun for kids, many times they won’t even realize they are learning, but it is beneficial for the pace of learning as well.

This printable set is incredibly easy to prep. There are four poems and animal puppet sets in all. Each one comes with a poem and the corresponding puppets. There are also number tiles that you can turn into puppets as well.

You will need

Popsicle Sticks
Cardstock
Glue or Tape

The printable can be downloaded below by clicking the image.

Check out our Skip Counting with LEGO.  

The first thing to do is to print out the sets.

Cut out each of the pieces. This includes the animal puppets, number tiles, and poem. You could optionally laminate, but this is not required. Next is to secure a popsicle stick to the back of each piece, except for the poem.

You can read the poem alone and then add the puppets in. Either you can hold the puppets or your child can, or both.

When you have all of the poems read and practice, it is fun to pretend play with the puppets. You can still incorporate the numbers into your play, whether you use the poems or not.

If you love puppets, check out these Farm Animal Felt Puzzles.