During Spring Break, I found five finger puppets that were donated to me. I have several students that have counting to five as part of their IEP goals. I decided to write a story to go along with the finger puppets. Students could use their low vision devices and/or low-tech materials (i.e. slant board) to read along as we worked on counting.
While I wrote the story, I thought I’d turn it into a book to practice turning pages. That meant I needed images. At first, I thought I’d use the finger puppets I had and my hand, but I didn’t like how the photos were turning out. So, I did a Google search for free images. Sometimes I couldn’t find what I wanted. I decided to give AI images a try. Under the Google search bar, I looked at the AI Mode to see what was available there and was pleasantly surprised by what I found. I will say, look at the images carefully as a friend noticed that the original image I used for “3 rabbit finger puppets” had no pinkie finger in it.
Typically, the first read is my reading it out loud while modeling the putting the finger puppets on my fingers. The second reading is either my reading it out loud and student then acts out the action. If they are able to read, then we read it together with them acting out the action.
I tried the book for the first time today and my student was excited to see it was something I wrote. I promised her when she’s ready to move on to counting to 10, we’ll write the next book together with her helping me to find the images to use!
Story: Five Little Bunnies
By Elizabeth Eagan
One sunny morning, Emma sat at the picnic table with her five little bunny finger puppets lying beside her. Emma smiled and decided today was the perfect day to learn how to count to five using her bunnies.
“Let’s count together!” Emma said, holding up the first bunny on her thumb. “One little bunny.” The bunny wiggled happily on her thumb.
Emma added the second bunny on her index finger and counted out loud, “Two little bunnies hopping by.”
Emma added the third bunny on her middle finger and counted out loud, “Three little bunnies hopping by.”
Emma added the fourth bunny on her ring finger and counted out loud, “Four little bunnies hopping by.”
Emma added the fifth bunny on her pinky finger and counted out loud, “Five little bunnies hopping by.”
Emma closed her eyes and then opened them. She smiled and began counting again, pointing to each bunny and saying the numbers in the right order. “One, two, three, four, five,” she counted with confidence.
By the end of the day, Emma knew how to count to five. The little bunnies had made learning fun and easy, and Emma couldn’t wait to count even more things tomorrow!
