Thursday 25 August 2011

Flannel Friday - 3 Craws sitting on a wa'

Three Craws Sitting on a Wa'

Although I don't have a Scottish accent I try to incorporate some Doric or Scots rhymes into my librarytimes.  One of my favourite books for little ones is Katie's Coo: Scots rhymes for wee folkThe illustrations by Karen Sutherland are fun and bright and can be seen from quite a distance.  She has also illustrated Rabbie's Rhymes which is the only book featuring Robert Burns' work, I'm aware of, that is fun for the 1 to 4 age range!


Katie's CooKatie's Coo by James Robertson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Rabbie's Rhymes: Robert Burns for Wee FolkRabbie's Rhymes: Robert Burns for Wee Folk by Robert Burns
My rating: 4 of 5 stars





I started off wanting finger puppets to perform the song Three craws sat upon a wa' (Three crows sat upon a wall) from her Katie's Coo book.  It's a traditional rhyme/song, and I have reproduced it here in full, this version came from Rampant Scotland and has an unusual 4th verse (I think the concept that 'The fourth craw wisna there at aw..' in the original, is beyond the ken of the little ones!):

You can hear the song here, the crow sounds at the end are great - I'll have to work them in!

Three Craws

Three craws sat upon a wa',
Sat upon a wa', sat upon a wa',
Three craws sat upon a wa',
On a cauld and frosty mornin'.


The first craw was greetin' for his maw,
Greetin' for his maw, greetin' for his maw,
The first craw was greetin' for his maw,
On a cauld and frosty mornin'.


The second craw fell and broke his jaw,
Fell and broke his jaw, fell and broke his jaw,
The second craw fell and broke his jaw,
On a cauld and frosty mornin'.


The third craw, couldnae caw at a',
Couldnae caw at a', couldnae caw at a',
The third craw, couldnae caw at a',
On a cauld and frosty mornin'.


An that's a', absolutely a',
Absolutely a', absolutely a',
An that's a', absolutely a',
On a cauld and frosty mornin'.


Meaning of unusual words:
craws=crows
wa'=wall
cauld=cold
maw=mother
I used this template for a Raven finger puppet and transformed it into a blackbird ...


... and then into a crow (I had forgotten that crows don't have yellow legs)!


The crows are made of dark brown card faced with black felt.  This way I thought they would work as felts as well as finger puppets, having realised I could only fit one puppet on each hand, and couldn't manage 3 crows at once (dumbo!).

Here are pics of the crows in production:



BTW, I made the wing tips more pointy, the finger holes smaller (and attached legs/feet) and made the beak and eyes bigger. 

I could also use 2 of these for Two little dickie birds sitting on a wall.  And I'm sure with slight alterations they could be different types of birds; robins, eagles etc.  I feel a bird-themed Storytime coming on!


7 comments:

  1. Love that you used a traditional Scots rhyme and it turned out so cute! Great job!

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  2. Super awesome! I, too, love that you used a traditional rhyme -- your patrons will surely benefit and adore it! :D

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  3. Thanks Anne and storytimekatie! I'm looking forward to using it soon!

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  4. This is such a cute idea! Like the others have pointed out, I love that you used a traditional Scots rhyme. I think the final result turned out great, and I'm sure your storytime kids think so too!

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  5. There's a version that has 3 crows, but the 3rd crow "wasna there at'a".
    I'm not using the pattern to make 2, with finger holes and am going to do that version!

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  6. Hi, Having performed this since my original posting, I think you're right to use the shorter version. BTW I love the phrase "was a there at a'"!

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    Replies
    1. Just noticed that auto correct jumped in and changed my phrase. I think you'll know what I meant though.

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