Move to the beat of "Gavotte" by J. S. Bach.

Clap or tap the beat as the music plays.

Use a big beat when the music is loud.
Use a small beat when the music is quiet.

Play the Loud Quiet game.

Create and perform a Loud Quiet pattern.

With the loud/quiet cards, you and students can create and perform loud/quiet patterns in the same way that you did in the interactive activity. Make patterns and say/clap or play them. Try out new patterns. Try playing on different instruments.

How to create loud quiet patterns.

Game 1: One student, the “bear,” sits with his eyes closed, facing away from the class. As the class sings the song, one student sneaks up and taps the “bear,” and returns to place. On “UP!” the bear opens his eyes, turns and has 3 tries to guess the tapper.

Game 2: Choose one child to be the “grumpy grizzly.” Choose another student to be the one to wake the grizzly up. The grizzly lays down on the floor with eyes closed pretending to be asleep in the center of the circle. The student who is going to wake up the grizzly walks around the outside of the circle. The students sing the song. The student on the outside of the circle tiptoes quietly in the quiet parts but should shout “up” as loud as possible. On the word “up,” the grizzly jumps up, creates an opening in the circle (breaks through gently) and tries to tag the student walking around the outside of the circle before that student gets to the opening and gets inside the circle. The teacher can then choose a new student to be the “grumpy grizzly” and another new student to be the one outside the circle.

Game 3: Students stand in a circle. Designate the wall or another spot as “safe.” One student, the “bear,” sits in the center of the circle and pretends to be asleep. As the song is sung, students sneak toward the “bear.” On “Up!” the “bear” wakes up and tries to tag someone as all run to the safe place. The tagged person chooses the next “bear.” If no one is tagged, the “bear” chooses the next one.

(Teacher note: We are still looking for a kids demo for this song. Please review our kids demo requirements and consider sending us a demo from your classroom! Requirements: https://help.musicplay.ca/can-i-submit-a-kids-demo)

Sing the song and perform the actions as indicated in the next procedure.

As each finger is sung about, do the action that is suggested by the words of the song. On the words “dancing all around the town” I raise alternating hands in time to the music. On the words “tuck them into bed,” I tuck my hands underneath the opposite armpit. Even Kindergarten students are aware of the symbolism of the middle finger, so when the “bad one” is sung about, I show ALL fingers and wiggle the middle one. The music slows for the “hard one,” because it often takes young students a long time to isolate that finger.

This gives you another opportunity to talk about how music goes fast and slow, and why the composer might have slowed down the music at that part. Finger plays like this song help students to develop finger dexterity essential to learning good printing skills or to learning to play piano or guitar.

Listen to song "Can't Wait to Hibernate".

Make up movements to go with the chorus. For example:
"Can't wait" - clasp hands together (beg)
"to hibernate" - motion sleeping
"great!" - throw hands in the air

Invite students to choose an instrument to play along with the verses.

Play again and sing along on all the choruses.

A demo video follows.

Copy the movements and play along with #39 "Can't Wait to Hibernate".

Teach the song "Kumbayah" by rote. The repetitive lyrics in this song make it easy for students to learn. Invite the students to choose instruments and play along with the song. Actions are available in the song activities.

Sing our closing song, "Skinnamarink".