Teach "Old Dog" by rote or by reading the song. If your students are able to read the rhythms have them read the rhythms of the song. If students can read the solfa notes have them sing the song using Solfa notes and hand signs.

If the students are not ready to read the song than teacher by rote instead.

“Old Dog, Full of Fleas” is a reading song. Have the students read the rhythms, lyrics, and if they have been learning solfa, read the melody from the projectable slides. If you don’t teach solfa, have them show the high and low notes with arm motions. Sing the song and play the game.

Denise Tips: I’ve named my “flea” Florence. When I pull Florence out of my pocket she tells me all kinds of things. Florence “whispers” in my ear and tells me things like, “Your Grade 1s are really singing well today!” or, “Someone in this class sang the song really well in tune!” My students really sit up and listen when I tell them what Florence said.

Form a single circle. One to three students hide their eyes in the middle. While you sing the song, pass a “flea” around the circle. Another way is to have a beat keeper go around the outside of the circle with the flea. This has been a better way for keeping the beat than passing it from student to student. You can go to the dollar store and buy a package of the ugliest bugs you can find to be the “flea.” At the end of the song, all students hide their hands behind their backs and the students in the middle guess who has it.

Playing and Creating: Give the students packages of plastic bugs or pictures of different kinds of bugs or creepy crawlies and have them make word patterns. Use 4-8 bugs. Play the rhythm of the word chain on pitched or nonpitched instruments as an introduction or B section.

This song is included to reinforce the concepts high/low and fast/slow. Teach the chorus of the song by rote. The song has a lot of words and moves quickly, so you may want to just sing the chorus and play along with an instrument to the verses. If the students really like the song, they can learn the words in spite of the difficulty.

Create movements for this song. You might create a circle dance or a line dance to the music.

Sing and move to "Shake It!"

A kids demo follows, if you need movement ideas.

This demo video is to give you movement ideas for "Shake it!"