Skeletons (Bones)

Last fall two books appeared that called out to my slightly twisted side:  SKULLS by Blair Thornburgh and GIVE ME BACK MY BONES! by Kim Norman.  It was October & what's spookier than bones?  I started looking and came up with more than enough books for a storytime that was more STEM than spooky but still lots of fun.  This would be easy to expand with stories on fossils as well as skeleton bones.

In the fall of 2020, I found a skeleton garland that I took the string out of & then used the white felt skeletons for a flannel board story.  I found it at Dollar Tree, so quick & cheap.

I wrote a rhyme that I started originally with the traditional "five" but then switched to "six" and instead of counting down & up by one, we did it by two.  (You can easily switch back if you prefer).

SIX SKELETONS    (tune: Three Blind Mice)

Six skeletons, six skeletons

Dancing all around, dancing all around

Two fell down!  BOOM!    

(Boom is shouted & I slap my hands hard against my thighs)

Four skeletons, four skeletons....

Two skeletons, two skeletons...

No skeletons, no skeletons

Dancing all around, dancing all around

Two jumped up!  HURRAY!

Two skeletons, two skeletons...

Four skeletons, four skeletons...

Six skeletons, six skeletons,

Dancing all around, dancing all around

Dancing so fast, they danced     right    out    of     town.

When I first did this is fall of 2019, I used the plastic skeleton but then found the jointed felt skeleton (both at Dollar Tree) later.  I used the felt one for my virtual storytime in 2020.

For action verses, I used "The Skeleton Dance" from Super Simple Songs-Halloween and "The Spooky Pokey" (I called it the Boney Pokey since I was emphasizing bones as my theme) from Cape May County Library Kids blog.  You'll need to scroll through to find it, but while there check out their Fall Movement Cards.  Shake dem bones!