Books

While the World is Sleeping by Pamela Duncan Edwards
Daylight Starlight Wildlife by Wendell Minor
Little Owl’s Night by Divya Srinivasan

Animals at Night (tune: Wheels on the Bus)

The fireflies at night go blink, blink, blink
Blink, blink, blink, blink, blink, blink
The fireflies at night go blink, blink, blink
Out in the field

(repeat with)
The owls at night go hoot hoot hoot
The bats at night go flap, flap, flap
The crickets at night go chirp chirp chirp

Adapted from: King County Library

Five Little Bats (tune: Six Little Ducks)

Five little bats went on a flight
by the light of the moon one night
Mama bat said squeak squeak squeak swack
But only 4 little bats came back

(count down)

No little bats went on a flight
by the light of the moon one night
Mama bat said squeak squeak squeak swack
and five little bats came flying back

Black Bat (tune: Teddy Bear Turn Around)

Black bat, black bat fly around (flap arms)
Black bat, black bat touch the ground (touch the ground)
Black bat, black bat fly up high (flap arms on tiptoes)
Black bat, black bat touch the sky (reach arms up)

Just Like an Owl (tune: London Bridge)

Flap you wings and fly around, fly around, fly around
Flap your wings and fly around, just like an owl

Open your eyes big and wide, big and wide, big and wide
Open your eyes big and wide, just like an owl

Land on the ground and hop along, hop along, hop along
Land on the ground and hop along, just like an owl

Turn your head and say who, who, who, who, who, who
Turn your head and say who, who, who, just like an owl

Little Bat, Little Bat

(hide the bat under one of the hats and let the children guess which color hat the bat is under)

Little bat, Little bat are you under the (color) hat?

Sleeping Bag Chant

I was lying in my sleeping bag, I couldn’t get to sleep (pretend to sleep)
When the wind began to howl, and the bugs began to creep (wave hands and creep fingers)
So I rolled to the left, and I rolled to the right, (roll arms)
And I heard every sound that you hear at night (cup ear)

(repeat with)

I hear an owl, hoo, hoo (make circles around eyes)
I hear a bat, flap, flap (flap arms)
I hear a coyote, arooo, arooo (cup hands around mouth)
I hear a ghost, BOO

Source: Verona Story Time

Craft

For the craft I had bats and moons precut out on cardstock. If you have an older group of children they can do this step themselves. Next we lightly taped the bats onto black paper and put the paper in a box. I put drops of white paint into the box (you can put the marbles in paint instead) and let children put the marbles into the box and roll it around. After they were done with the paint we put the moon down using the wet paint as glue. This project didn’t go exactly how I envisioned. You need a lot of glue to cover the bats and make them visible. Next time I might go with sponge painting instead.

I got the idea from ABCs of Literacy but I used a different technique for the painting portion.