Book: Let's Sing a Lullaby with the Brave Cowboy by Jan Thomas
Puppets: Cow, Sheep, Wolf
Props: Cowboy Hat, Flower, Pillow and/or Blanket
Presenters: One (also works as a two-person act-out)
Audience: Toddlers (1-2 years); also works with Preschool
My Toddler Time group is for ones and twos and I try to choose material accordingly, but every once in a while I just have to try a story that’s more of a 2-3 year old choice. Let’s Sing a Lullaby with the Brave Cowboy fits that description. In the book, Brave Cowboy tries to sing the cows to sleep, but gets scared by things that aren’t really scary: a flower that he thinks is a stick, for example. For preschool kids, you can really play up the mock-scariness of the story, but everything for ones and twos has to be pretty gentle.

I sing the lullaby to the tune of “Home on the
Range” (the “Oh give me a home…” verse part, not the “Home, home on the range…”
part). Sheila and Terri worked that out
when they did this story for older kids. I had to write it like this: "It's time for little cows to rest their heads / It's time for little cows to-go-to-bed," with the dashes in the last bit so I remember to run those together and match the rhythm of the song.
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The same sequence repeats: Cowboy sings the song; Thinks he sees a Large Lumbering Bear; It’s really a Sheep. The book also has a bit with a Snake / Stick, but I decided we only needed two Cowboy errors with toddlers, and then could go right into the last bit.
The ending wraps it all up nicely, as Cowboy sings the song to Cow and Wolf and they finally make it to the closing line of “It’s time for us to say: Goodnight.” In the end, this one worked the way slightly-too-old-for-Toddlers books often do: They enjoyed it, even though they might not have fully grasped the humor of a Cowboy who claims to be brave but really isn't. But...there's a storyteller in a cowboy hat, some puppets doing silly things, and a nice little song, though, and you can't go wrong with all that.
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