Friday, May 25 I did my last Musical Kids class before baby and I had my favorite visitor join me: Sadie! As it turns out, it has been over two years since I featured my "middle group" in a Musical Kids blog post! And now that I have a "middle group"-aged kid myself, it seems like the perfect opportunity to discuss them! They are such a fun, sweet group that seem to range so much in their 12-month span of ages. In fact, I've always found this group the hardest one to plan for because of their varied levels of abilities and understanding. Even with my own kid falling in this range, it's still a hard group to accommodate fully-- at least the way I'd ideally like to.
That said (and I hate to sound biased but I totally am), it's currently my favorite group because... well, honestly, my favorite group is just whichever one Sadie is in.
Anyway, here's my playlist for the week (red = ipod, blue = sing):
1. A New Way to Say Hello by Big Jeff
2. We're Going To Kentucky by Bob McGrath (shakers)
3. Spaghetti Legs by Jim Gill (shakers)
4. This is the Way We Wash Our Arms (scarves) *
5. The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Suzi Shelton (scarves) **
6. If You're Happy and You Know It
7. Rocketship Run by Laurie Berkner (rockets) ***
8. Whole Lotta Lovin' from Fats Domino (drums)
9. Can't Buy Me Love by The Beatles (tambourines)
10. The Grand Old Dukes of York (parachute) #
11. Ring Around the Rosie (parachute) ##
12. Slow and Fast by Hap Palmer (parachute + balls) ###
13. Blow a Kiss by Laurie Berkner (parachute + balls + bubbles)
* This is the Way We Wash Our Arms: To the tune of So Early in the Morning, for this song, we pretend our scarves are washcloths and "wash" different parts of our bodies. So the first verse goes:
This is the way we wash our arms, wash our arms, wash our arms
This is the way we wash our arms so early in the morning
Then we come up with other body parts to sing about, usually doing about 5 in total. Simple and fun, plus great for getting kids in this age group to reinforce the names of body parts.
** The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Suzi Shelton: This is a fun one! I use the scarves and have everyone pretend that they are lions and their scarves are are blankets or pillows. When the song starts, everyone is "sleeping." Then, when Suzi Shelton says, "Wake up lions!" we all dance around and wave our scarves. It's fun and I also just love this version of this song.
*** Rocketship Run by Laurie Berner: I write about Rocketship Run every time I blog about my middle or oldest Musical Kids group because it's an absolute essential with these kids. I can't do the class without it. When I do this song, I hand out rockets-on-sticks (which I made, probably, four years ago at this point) for them to zoom around with, and then also, I hold up signs for all the places that we "travel" to. Here is a picture of my gear:
When I hold up a given sign, the kiddos all run up and touch their rocket to the sign, like they're really "going" to the sun/moon/etc. I'VE NEVER TOLD THEM TO DO THIS, and yet every week, it happens. It's so funny! They totally invented it and it's continued on from week-to-week and from class-to-class. For years! In fact, I saw my own daughter run up and touch the sign with her rocket for the very first time during this class and it made me crack up in the middle of the class. It was SO cute and funny. Additionally, this song always gets the loudest end-of-song cheer from both the children and the adults. A++ for Rocketship Run! Here are a few pictures of the kids last week as they "traveled" to the stars. There's mine right in the mix of it!
# The Grand Old Duke of York: If you're not familiar with it, the lyrics to The Grand Old Duke of York can be found here. The song references "up" and "down" and "top" and "bottom" a couple of times, making it a super easy and intuitive parachute song-- just follow along with the lyrics!
## Ring Around the Rosie: This is a great kids-on-top-of-the-parachute song. We seat them all in the middle, then the adults walk around in a circle, holding the parachute handles as we sing the first verse. For the second verse ("Cows are in the meadow eating butter cups, ashes, ashes, we all jump up!"), the adults shake the parachute quickly around the kids then snap it up around them when we sing the words "jump up!" I usually do the whole thing twice since it's short.
### Slow and Fast by Hap Palmer: Usually for this song we bounce the balls around in the parachute slowly and quickly. It's fun because the song changes tempo and we have to keep up. However on this particular Friday, I let the kids sit on top of it instead and they just kind of played with the balls while the adults shook the parachute around them. This group of kids were just kind of all about sitting on the parachute, so I went with it.
What worked least: Me. Really. This class was the first time ever that I sat down for a large part of Musical Kids. I felt kind of guilty at the time but, looking back now, I was just days away from going into labor so I can give myself a pass.
What worked best: No surprise here-- Rocketship Run is always the highlight of this program. And I LOVED seeing Sadie in the mix with all the other kids. It was so cute!
Even though I am almost 7 weeks into maternity leave, I won't be back at work again until October. So happy summer, everybody! I'll be back in the fall!
