Submitted by Wynne Alexander
Idea posted June 13, 2006
Mostly out of necessity (i.e., a lack of materials) with my kindergarteners, I have been doing piggyback songs and using different words for different seasons. We have used the songs "I'm A Little Teapot," "The Hokey Pokey," "The Wheels On The Bus," "Frère Jacques" (which lends itself to echo), etc. It's great when students can identify the song and they say, "Hey isn't that ___?"
I also like songs in which they have to think up a word. For example, the song "Friends In The Ocean" that I got from the Internet is to the tune of "On Top Of Old Smokey." "I went to the ocean and what did I see? A beautiful _____ waiting for me." I had each child fill in the blank. They loved it.