K2 Drama – Term 1
Stories & Rhymes
Lesson 8 – Over In The Meadow
Learning Aim:
 Students can listen to a rhyme or story and add details to the characters to re-enact
storylines.
Introduction to Topic:
 Warm-up game: See Resource 4: Buzzy Bee circle game.
 Show the children the cover of Over in the Meadow or watch one of the youtube links
 Invite the children to point to and identify the pictures on the cover. See Resource 1 for
the characters; mothers & babies
 Show the pages, and identify the characters and vocabulary words used for those
 characters.
 Read the rhyme, giving children time to look at the pictures to focus the children’s
 attention on the characters.
During Reading
 Invite the children’s engagement with discussions, prompts, and questions.
 Pause to allow the children’s participation. While the children are seated with their legs
 crossed, have them do a brief motor activity that is connected to the book. For example,
 you might lead them in the “Two Little Bluebirds” finger play: Two little bluebirds,
sitting on a branch. One named Jack and the other named Jill. Fly away, Jack; fly
away, Jill. Fly back, Jack; fly back, Jill.
 Discuss movements the characters performed in the text.
After Reading
 Discuss the qualities (characteristics) of different kinds of movements, see Key
Vocabulary & Resource 2.
 Engage the children in a discussion of characters.
Main Activity: Mime and Movement
 As a group go through the rhyme and act it out with the appropriate actions – stick only
to actions at this point (see next bit!).
 Talk about what sounds those animals make and add them to the actions so the
students are doing an action and making a sound at the same time.
Key Vocabulary:
Additional Activities:
 Dig, run, sing, play, hum,
 See resource book for more warm up games.
build, swim, wink, spin, hop
Reflection/Extension:
 Read the story again or ask students to act out the story in their own words.
 Play the other games in Resource 4.
 Use Resource 3 – the alternative rhyme - to add some extra animals to the original
rhyme.
 Use the rhyme character pictures to make puppets or play a matching game.
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Kindergarten Curriculum – K2 Drama
Term 3
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K2 Drama – Term 1
Stories & Rhymes

See Resource 5 & 6 for math vocabulary activities – students can practice using the
vocabulary.
Closing:
 Carpet time: ask children what they have learnt today.
 Sing the song
Resources:
 Resource 1: Rhyme characters
 Resource 2: Over in the Meadow rhyme
 Resource 3: Alternative rhyme with sounds
 Resource 4: Warm-up & activity games
 Resource 5: Math activites using target vocabulary
 Resource 6: Baby animal pictures
Websites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2jY886FzPI
follows story in book by John Langstaff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6ljGXMMB-g
Barefoot books
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSXLDuYIrGI
Edewcate english rhymes - Over in the Meadow Nursery Rhyme
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Term 3
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Resource 1: Rhyme characters
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Resource 2: Over in the Meadow rhyme
Over In The Meadow
Traditional
Over in the meadow in the sand in the sun,
Lived an old mother turtle and her little turtle one.
"Dig," said the mother, "I dig," said the one,
So he dug and was glad in the sand in the sun.
Over in the meadow where the tall grass grew
Lived an old mother red fox and her little foxes two.
"Run," said the mother, "We run," said the two,
So they ran and were glad where the tall grass grew.
Over in the meadow in a nest in a tree,
Lived an old mother robin and her little birdies three.
"Sing," said the mother, "We sing," said the three,
So they sand and were glad in their nest in the tree.
Over in the meadow by a tall sycamore,
Lived an old mother chipmunk and her little chipmunks four.
"Play," said the mother, "We play," said the four,
So they played and were glad by the tall sycamore.
Over in the meadow in a new little hive,
Lived an old mother queen bee and her honeybees five.
"Hum," said the mother, "We hum," said the five,
So they hummed and were glad in their new little hive.
Over in the meadow in a dam built of sticks,
Lived an old mother beaver and her little beavers six.
"Build," said the mother, "We build," said the six,
So they built and were glad in the dam built of sticks.
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Over in the meadow in the green wet bogs,
Lived an old mother froggie and her seven polliwogs.
"Swim," said the mother, "We swim," said the ‘wogs;
So they swam and were glad in the green wet bogs.
Over in the meadow as the day grew late,
Lived an old mother owl and her little owls eight.
"Wink," said the mother, "We wink," said the eight,
So they winked and were glad as the day grew late.
Over in the meadow in a web on the pine,
Lived an old mother spider and her little spiders nine.
"Spin," said the mother, "We spin," said the nine,
So they spun and were glad in their web on the pine.
Over in the meadow in a warm little den,
Lived an old mother rabbit and her little bunnies ten.
"Hop," said the mother, "We hop," said the ten,
So they hopped and were glad in their warm little den.
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Resource 3: Alternative rhyme with sounds
Over in the meadow in a pond in the sun,
Lived an old mother duck and her little duck one,
“Quack” said the mother,
“Quack, quack” said the one,
And they quacked and were happy in their pond in the sun.
Over in the meadow in stream so blue,
Lived an old mother fish and her little fish two,
“Bl-bl-bl-bl-bl” said the mother,
“Blp-blp” said the two,
And they swam and blew bubbles in the stream so blue.
Over in the meadow in a nest in the tree,
Lived an old mother bird and her birdies three,
“Wr-wr-wr-wrii” said the mother
“Whr-whr-whr” said the three,
And they sang and were happy in their nest in the tree.
Over in the meadow on rock by the shore,
Lived and old mother frog and her little frogs four,
“Ribbit” said the mother,
“Ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit” said the four,
And they croaked and were happy on the rock by the shore.
Over in the meadow big bee hive,
Lived and old mother bee and little bees five,
“Bizz” said the mother,
“Biz-biz-biz-biz-biz” said the five,
And they buzzed and were happy in the big beehive.
Over in the meadow in the noonday sun,
There was a pretty mother and her baby one,
“Listen” said the mother “to the ducks and the bees,
To the frogs and the fish and the birds in the trees”,
Biz-biz-biz-biz-biz said the five,
Ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit said the four,
Whr-whr-whr said the three,
Blp-blp said the two,
Quack said the one,
And the little baby laughed just to hear such fun!
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Term 3
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Resource 4: Warm-up & activity games
Buzzy Bee circle game
Play the “Buzzy Bee” circle game, in which one child is the bee and
all the others are trees. The trees stand in a circle, and the bee moves in
and out of the circle by walking in a curved path through the trees.
While the bee winds through the trees, the children chant,
“Buzzy, buzzy, buzzy bee.
Moving in and out of the trees.
Buzzy, buzzy, buzzy bee.
Please, oh please, don’t buzz near me!
Buzzzzzzzzzz.”
At the end of this last buzz, the bee stops, and the child closest to the bee
takes a turn at being the bee.
Other Games
Bird hop station: Children take turns to travel a distance of 6 feet by
hopping and then balance on one foot while picking up a beanbag. It works
this way: Four birds sit in a hole in a tree. Mother Bird or Father Bird travels
a 6-foot distance by hopping away from a group of three baby birds to pick
up a beanbag (worm). The parent bird hops back to the baby birds on the
opposite foot and places the beanbag (worm) in front of one of the
babies. That baby becomes the parent bird and repeats the hopping pattern.
Movement continues until all children have a turn feeding the baby birds
their worms.
Jump frog pool station: Children travel as frogs in a zigzag pattern from
point to point by jumping from a squat position, raising arms upward,
landing, and returning to a squat position.
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Kindergarten Curriculum – K2 Drama
Term 3
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Resource 5: Math activity / target vocabulary
Activity 1: Numerical Order and Addition
After reading the story, Over in the Meadow, students will put the mixed up baby
animal pictures in correct numerical order. Then together as a class add the total
number of baby animals in the story. Resource 6 for pictures.
Activity 2: Graphing; Who Has More?
Group work: using a picture graph, the children will be able to sort the pictures and
compare how many different types of baby animals there were in the story and answer
the following questions:
Which animal had the most babies in the story?
Which animal had the fewest or least number of babies in the story?
Individual work: the children can continue to practice graphing by coloring a graphing
worksheet with instructions to color in one block to represent every baby animal found
in the story beside the picture of that animal (i.e. for example there should be 5 blocks
colored beside the picture of the frog to show that there are 5 baby frogs).
Activity 3: Subtraction:
As a class they have added the total number of baby animals in the story and found it
to be 55 baby animals in all during activity 1. Now the teacher will take away some of
the baby animals and the children will count together and see how many are left. You
can end this activity by practicing counting backwards from 55 as a class as we put
away all the baby animal pictures.
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Term 3
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Resource 6: baby animal pictures
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