Going to the Zoo!
/There are many to choose from so I decided to keep things simple and start of with The Turtle Song and Old MacDonald which allowed us to review some familiar song material while warming up our voices. I was working with a very excited, yet focused, group of participants today, so we were able to cover a lot of songs, some of which were new, including Johnny Didn't Have Any Breakfast, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Six Little Ducks, Sleeping Bunnies, and The Ants Go Marching.
We also Rolled The Ball and followed that activity with Passing The Bean Bag. It was a real delight to see how each child could pass the bean bag and attempt to keep the beat WHILE sharing with their neighbor. Quite the multi-tasking activity!
I brought along three Wooden Frogs from Thailand for the Instrument of the Week and demonstrated how to use the instrument by rubbing the mallet along the spine to make a ribbit sound. It was fun to illustrate that as the frog shrinks in size the pitch changes, going up higher and higher. The baby frog was clearly the favourite as it made its way around the room pausing at each child for longer than the last.
After putting the frogs back in the pond, we went to the zoo (Going To The Zoo) for the jam session and saw all sorts of animals there including crocodiles, elephants, ducks, owls, bats, monkeys and black bears. We also went Down In The Valley taking all the instruments high up above our heads on the line "Rise, Sally Rise."
We finished off with the parachute, and once we put it away someone from the staff yelled out "Ohhhh, are we done ALREADY?!" I laughed out loud and thought it was fabulous that the newest staff resident enjoyed the class so much. He assured me that he would return the next week and encourage more moms to attend with their little ones. I loved this enthusiasm and hope to see him and all my friends again next week for another amazing class!