Submitted by Tami Mangusso, Aurora, Colorado

Idea posted April 21, 2003

I did "Dancin' On The Rooftop" (from Music K-8, Vol. 2, No. 4, also available as a Singles Reproducible Kit), and here is what we did:

  • For the very beginning, I started off stage and I was wearing a top hat, sunglasses, black coat, and tie, and I had a cane (the students were on stage). I walked on stage twirling a cane for the first 8 counts. Then, I swung the cane onto my shoulder (4 counts) and walked towards a stool for 4 counts. At this point, I was facing the audience. I put both hands and lifted my top hat off (there's a big chord hit in the music at this point), and then I twirled the hat in a circle motion and placed it on the stool (cymbal crash in the music). Then I took my sunglasses off and twirled them in a circle motion and laid them on the stool (another cymbal crash). Then I turned around for 4 counts to face the singers.
  • At this point, the singers will join me in the movements (there are four cymbal crashes in a row): extend right arm out, then left arm out, fold right arm up at 45°, and then the left arm goes up at a 45° angle (now you have made a triangle that represents the "Rooftop").
  • On the phrase "Rooftop, Rooftop, Rooftop," we bent at the waist to the right, to middle, to the left, and back to the middle.
  • For "Heel and toe," we extended our right foot out to the right side and showed heel and toe.
  • On the phrase "Swinging on the treetop" we swung both hands above our head side to side.
  • For "Watch me go" we pointed both pointer fingers to our eyes for "Watch," both thumbs to our shoulders for "Me," and both palms up with elbows bent off to the sides for "go."
  • "The weather's fine..." hands up in the air.
  • "Birds are dancin' too" flap arms like a bird (we bent our arms and flapped our elbows).
  • "Come down to the ground" we extended our arms above our head and fanned them.
  • When the drums and instrumental part started, I had some students with saxes, trumpets, and trombones off stage and they walked on stage and sat on a chair during the drum break. I had three students on each instrument (12 total), and we had 12 chairs in a straight row across the stage. They came on stage in a single file with trumpet, trombones, and saxes. They would stand up when we sang their part (this is the scatting section), and as soon as the scatting part was done, they all walked off stage with the saxes leading them off. Then we went back to the same routine as before.

In case you're wondering, I made the instruments out of cardboard and covered them with yellow butcher paper. I made them extra large so everyone could see them. They worked very well. I plan on making them again out of wood or something more durable... some of the instruments got a little bent out of shape. At the time I didn't have the money to make them out of wood, so I used materials that I had available.

Hope this all made sense.

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