Three Wintery Action Songs & Dances: The Freeze & more

Looking ahead to January, it's time to enjoy some action songs to burn off all those Christmas sweets & cooped up energy!

Last year I found two wonderful seasonal activity songs from Bananas in Pajamas: "Bumping and a Jumping" CD, which is out of print but you can find it used on Amazon, Ebay, CD Universe or perhaps your library.
The kids really enjoyed these last year, so I am looking forward to using them again.

http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1518759/a/bumping+%26+a-jumping.htm

"Walking in the Snow" is a perfect circle movement song, we just move around the circle as the song directs: walking, marching, skipping, running (not too fast!) sliding, slipping, and finally falling & sitting in the snow. Just silly enough.

"Skating" is a descriptive song in a waltz rhythm that I like to use for scarf dancing time. Lyrics like "Swishing, twirling and turning" help give some direction, but generally I use this is a free style creative movement piece. Here is a short sample of this song on track 4.

And of course, we must do "The Freeze". I like Wee Sing's recording. Everyone loves this dance.

The Freeze Game

Wee Sing  Wee Sing Games, Games, Games

December Action songs: Hava Nagila and the Reindeer Hokey Pokey

December Action Songs give us much needed breaks from rehearsing our program.

 Hava Nagila Dance -- of sorts ---

What Child Is This?/Hava Nagila  Jingle Cats Meowy Christmas
Seriously, I love the Jingle Cats. It's a silly CD, but a terribly creative one, and that makes me happy. Anybody can arrange Christmas music for traditional instruments. It takes an extra bit of genius to make it work with cats & dogs.

I use the second half of this track, so it starts right on the introduction to the Hava Nagila portion. Three year olds are generally not ready to dance the Hora, so we just do a fun, easy dance.

First 8 counts: holding hands, we walk to the right
Second 8 counts:  holding hands, we walk to the left
3rd -- We "scoop" our hands low as we move to the center & then stand up tall on 4 counts, then move backwards "scooping" low, and stand tall again.
4th -- repeat going in & out of the circle
on the "uru achim" we stomp our feet
last section of the song -- I am never sure how to choreograph! Yesterday we tried a modified skipping to the right & then to the left. I would love to do a step -kick, but it proved way too difficult last year.

(to teach this I sing the melody of the Hava Nagila using words like
"To the right, we're walking to the right, we're walking to the right, and now we'll go the other way--"
"To the left, we're walking to the left, we're walking to the left, and now listen to what I say"
"Scoop to the middle, stand up tall, Scoop to the back and stand up tall"  etc....

The Reindeer Hokey Pokey

Accom. the Hokey Pokey

Bill Evenhouse  The Folksinger Sings Songs for Children and Learners of English

This album offers many accompaniment tracks. I use this instrumental recording of the Hokey Pokey because it does not go too fast. The range is quite low for my voice -- I often speak/sing here & there to give my voice a break. It has a really long intro -- or no intro depending on how you look at it!

Because it's an accompaniment track, you could use it to make up all manner of Hokey Pokeys!
Here's how we use it:

You put your red nose in
Put your red nose out
Put your red nose in, and shake it all about
Do the Reindeer Hokey Pokey (at this we put our hands on top of our head like antlers)
And turn yourself about
That's what it's all about! (clapping)

Other verses:

Front hooves (both hands)
Back hoof (one foot)
Other hoof (other foot)
Antlers (hands on top of head)
Little Tail (hands held together behind back, wiggle for a little tail)
Whole Self

December's Welcome Song: Christmas is Coming, the Goose is Getting Fat!

Today we enjoyed our penny toss game, a welcome song/game I made up for December, using a very familiar carol.

Every child is handed five pennies, and while we pass them out, I instruct the kids to count the pennies very carefully to make sure they have 5. They love this.

I set the rules: where a penny lands, it stays! No one is allowed to touch a penny once it has been tossed. (Oh this is hard, but following directions is such an important skill to learn)

Each child has a turn to gently toss their 5 pennies one at a time toward the center of the circle while I sing:

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat
(use child's name) put a penny in the old man's hat
If you haven't got a penny, a half-penny will do,
If you haven't got a half-penny, God Bless You!

I used to bring some hats to place in the center of the circle, and that was fun, but we now have a beautiful carpet for circle time that has a brilliant sun in the middle. It makes a perfect target.

The object is not to score points by hitting the target -- the kids are praised for taking a turn & following directions. Their motor skills are all over the map at this age! Some will improve their ability to do this as we play this again, but everybody can have fun.