piggies, froggies, doggies, and other toe animals
I'm sure you're all familiar with the classic children's toe-grabbing rhyme, "This little piggy...". Well, after the first 20 or 30 times, that rhyme gets pretty darn boring. So I came up with a few variations.
First, here's one that my mom actually taught us to help us learn left from right. Piggies are always done on the right foot; Froggies are always done on the left foot:
This little Froggy broke his toe--
This little froggy yelled "Oh no, no!"
This little froggy laughed, and was glad.
This little froggy cried, and was sad.
But this little froggy, who was kind and good,
Raaaaaaan for the doctor as fast as he could!
(on "Raaaaaan", run your fingers up your child's leg and tickle.)
Here's one I came up with:
This little doggy went "Woof woof woof!"
This little doggy went "Bow wow wow!"
This little doggy went "bark bark bark!"
This little doggy went "Meow, meow!"
And this little doggy went "Hey, that was no doggy, that was a kitty cat! AaaaAAaAaaaHHHhh!"
This one is my daughter's new favorite:
This little monkey went "aah aah!"
This little monkey went "eee eee!"
This little monkey went "ooo ooo!"
This little monkey went "oh oh!"
And this little monkey went "Oo ee oo ah ah, ting, tang, walla walla bing bang!"
For most animals, there's a lot of repetition, with just the final critter getting the special behaviour:
This little hippo went "bloop"
This little hippo went "bloop bloop"
This little hippo went "bloop blip blop"
This little hippo went "bloop blup blip blerp"
And this little hippo went "BLARRRRRRARRRRRARRRRRRERERRRRRRRTT... oop, I think I farted!"
This little chicken went "cluck!"
This little chicken went "cluck! cluck!"
This little chicken went "cluck! cluck! cluck!"
This little chicken went "cluck! cluck! cluck! cluck!"
And this little chicken went "buk-buk-buKAW! buKAWWWW! BUKBUKBUK! BuKAWWWWWW! I laid an egg!"
And then my favorite, which my daughter doesn't really like too much, is:
This little octopus went "Schlerk!" (grab child's leg at the knee with each "Schlerk!")
This little octopus went "Schlerk! Schlerk!"
This little octopus went "Schlerk! Schlerk! Schlerk!"
This little octopus went "Schlerk! Schlerk! Schlerk! Schlerk!"
And this little octopus went "Schlerkity schlerkity schlarrrrk schlap schlup schlerk!" (generalized tickling)