Tanka Tanka Skunk

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The leader starts some happy music and shouts out the name of an animal. Children must then dance or move, pretending to be that type of animal. Actions involve bending, balancing, dancing, hopping, stretching, skipping and jumping. 26 Music and Movement Activities for Preschoolers When asked for ideas on how to solve a problem in real life or in imaginary situations, such as in a story, they can often express their ideas more easily through movement and physical expression. Creativity and Imagination An old favourite, Little Bunny Foo Foo tells a funny story in song. Kids take part by singing and adding hand movements. 4. Scarf or Ribbon Dancing Make a collection of hats and put each one inside a cardboard box. Label the boxes ‘HAT belonging to the CAT’.

Read The Cat in the Hat and talk about the games the Cat dreams up. He doesn’t write stories or paint pictures, but he’s still being creative. Give each child a box and explore what’s inside. Where could the Cat have found this hat – and what could it help him invent? Fiction can explore things we wouldn’t want to happen in real life. Read some traditional stories such as The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids. Talk about safeguarding and why we shouldn’t open the door to strangers. You can find more recipe ideas, such as ‘Beautiful Schlopp and Pink Ink Yink Drink’ at Seussville. A load of old nonsense How could you record your ideas so that you don’t forget them? In writing, in pictures, as audio recordings, with labelled diagrams or a mixture of everything? Is it difficult to think of ideas while you’re sitting still? Where and how might you have better ideas? Talk about ideas and where they come from. Like Dr Seuss and the Cat, put your hats on and dream up some new ideas (questions you’d like answered, ideas for stories or pictures, inventions that solve a problem, new ways of doing things).

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Affectionately known as ‘The American Poet Laureate of Nonsense’, Dr Seuss, born Theodor Geisel, might not have been a real doctor, but he was a thoroughly authentic and original author who understood his young audience and produced book after book that they adored.

Kids practise sounds of the letters of the alphabet along with Dr. Jean. Singing along, they use their bodies to show the actions, such as cutting, digging and hopping. 11. Musical Letters To play freeze dance – also called musical statues– play musical favourites for the kids as they dance or move around the room as specified. To music, kids pretend they are acrobats and practise balance and coordination while walking heel-to-toe across the rope. 23. Shake My Sillies Out

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A fun goal could be to finish cleaning up in less than 5 minutes so kids can gather and count down together at the end. Then the other person takes a turn, and so on, which often ends up in giggles. 18. The Farmer in the Dell They also gain a new or wider appreciation for the tunes and movements of their own cultures. Pre-Maths Skills This is a somewhat different take on “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” The If You’re Happy activity combines singing, motor skills and exploration of emotions. 2. We are the Dinosaurs

They call upon their memories and past experiences each time they meet a new opportunity for movement and song. Problem Solving

Curriculum

This is a cute Raffi song for which kids join in to sing and take part in the movements. They shake, clap, jump, and finally yawn. This song is also available as a picture book. 24. Move to the Beat The Once-ler lives in a Lerkim. Design your own Lerkim and label its special features. Perhaps you could build a Lerkim den in the school grounds – or make one in your reading corner using a clothes airer and old curtains! A den needs gadgets. What can you invent? Make a whisper-ma-phone using cans and string, and send messages. Can you improve it in any way? Write instructions for the Once-ler, telling him how to make and use a whisper-ma-phone. The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools. Children often are unaware of feeling upset. If they express themselves through song and movement, they can get control of their emotions and learn new coping skills to be drawn upon in the future.

Have a go at swaying like a Truffula Tree, humming like a Fish and singing like a Swomee- Swan, then show what happens when they meet the Once-ler – “He was shortish, and oldish. And brownish. And mossy. And he spoke with a voice that was sharpish and bossy…” This kids’ favourite combines singing and performing movements with both hands. In addition, Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes also enhances body awareness in youngsters. 26. Clean Up Song Read Scrambled Eggs Super and explore the impact of adding extra ingredients to your egg mix. Peter T Hooper went for things like ginger and prunes – but you might prefer grated cheese. Why not turn your eggs and ham green, or even blue, with a little colouring? Design an investigation to discover what people think about food that isn’t the right colour, then display your results as graphs and charts. Tanka Tanka Skunk by Steve Webb is one of my personal favourites. Tanka is the elephant and his friend Skunka a skunk. The book doesn’t follow a story or plot of some sort, but is more about words, musicality and rhythm. Combining easy yoga movements and music, Yoga Song for Kids combines stretching, music and counting. This is a great one to use for helping kids to become calm. 21. One Potato, Two PotatoesMusic and movement offer opportunities to enhance those strengths through activities such as playing musical instruments and taking part in finger plays. Large Motor Skills Moving to music encourages brain development, vocabulary growth, social skills, and stress regulation in children. Using chanting, singing, and movement, preschoolers transition from one activity to the next, clean up their work/play spaces, and experience both lively and calm moments.