Learn the movements with John as he sings "Get Up! Get At 'em"

This is a singing game from Hungary. It is an excellent song for reading rhythms and melody and for teaching form. It will also provide an opportunity for students to create and play accompaniments, and dramatize a song. Teach the song either by having the students read it, or by rote, and play the game.

One student pretends to be the wolf and hides. Form a circle with the others and circle around the room. At the end of the song the students ask, “Wolf, are you there?” The wolf makes up answers like, “I’m brushing my teeth,” or “I’m
combing my hair.” When the wolf says, “I’m coming to eat you!” he runs toward the students, trying to catch one, while they try to reach the safety of the “den.” The student who is caught then becomes a wolf too, and the game continues
until all the players have been captured.

Denise Tip: In my classroom we’ve adapted the game so that the wolf has a time limit (seven seconds) to eat (tag) as many students as he can. Each student that is tagged sits down so we can count how many students the wolf ate. Then we choose a new wolf. We keep score, and the wolf who tags the most students is the winner.

Watch the video. Say the vegetable rhythms and clap right after the teacher.
You'll say the rhythms with the students on the recording.

Listen to one verse of the song. Teach that verse by rote. On the board, write the words carrots, dinner, spaghetti, __________, dinner. As you sing verses 2-7, point to the food that is eaten in that verse. Ask the class for suggestions of what to eat in verse 5.

Make up actions for the "Eat! Eat! Yum! Yum!" part of the song

Create your own vegetable rhythms!

The pdf with vegetable cards is in the resources of this lesson. Copy it to cardstock and cut out the cards. (or have students cut them out). Give each student or groups of students a set of cards and let them create their own word rhythms. Choose instruments to play your rhythms. You could label one sound on a beat or two sounds on a beat using your preferred counting system. (ta, ti-ti, du du-day, etc)

Have students compose fruit or vegetable patterns. There is an interactive and a printable manipulative in the song activities to have students create a composition with carrot and corn. Create this composition in call and response form. Have the students create their patterns and decide how to perform them with body percussion or instruments.

Have a student say and perform a 4 beat pattern and have the class echo them. If students are seated in a circle, go around the circle giving everyone a chance to perform their pattern.