I’m sure most ofyou are familiar with this song. The children love it, and they don’t realize they are learning as theydance and sing.
Nicole Bueno sentme this link for a YouTube video she made to go with it:
*I appreciate thefact that she asked permission before putting the music up there. Many people don’t realize that my musicis copyrighted and that I have to get permission from Progressive Media andMusic. The arrangements all belongto Mark Dye.
A fun activity togo along with this song is to have the children stand in a circle. When the letter that their name startswith comes up in the song, they get to jump in the middle and break dance.
You could alsomake paper crowns and let each child decorate one with a different letter. The children could wear these and thendance in the middle of the circle when their letter is sung.
How about a rappernecklace? Give each child a 6” cutout of a letter. Let them decorateit with markers, stickers, glitter, etc. Punch a hole, tie on a piece of string, and you’re ready to dance.
Use sign languageor the signs from Animated Literacy, Visual Phonics, Jolly Phonics, ZooPhonics… as you sing.
Make a book forchildren to follow along as they listen to the song.
However, myfavorite idea for this song came from some teachers who performed it for an endof the year program. They askedthe children to bring in old white T-shirts, which they decorated withspots. They made puppy dogheadbands (ovals stapled to a strip of paper) and then they painted eachchild’s nose black. They pinned alarge letter on each child so they could run through a paper doghouse (squareand rectangle with an arch cut in it pinned to the stage curtains) as the song was fun.
