Sing hellos in different ways, pat the beat or play on guiro.

Teacher plays a beat on a drum. The kids move in place to show beat/no beat.

When they hear the beat - they move.

When there is no beat on the drum - they freeze in place.

Echo what Bobo sings.

Watch Mrs. Herro tell the Letter X story and teach the song.

OR - read the story and teach the song yourself.

Ox and Fox lived in a field. The field didn’t have many trees, and there weren’t any good places to hide when it rained. One day there was a big windstorm and a very big box blew into the field.

“Oh,” thought the fox. “This would be a very good house for me.” The fox ran to the box and jumped in. It was nice and dry in the box.

Unfortunately, Ox thought that the box looked nice and dry. Ox decided that he wanted to go inside the box too. The fox fit quite well in the box, but Ox did not. The box was squished and so was the fox. “Ow!” said the fox. The fox hurt his paw and had to go to the animal hospital for an X-ray. The next time that Ox wants to climb into a box, he was going to have to be extra careful!

Sing the Letter X song.

Copy the actions for the song.

Sing and do the movements.

Optional: If you have a printer, copy the worksheets and complete them.

Alternate activity: Give each child a piece of paper and have them practice printing the letter x.

Then have them draw 2 things that use the letter x.

Say the poem and demonstrate the actions for them. Ask the children if there were parts of the poem that you said in a quiet voice (hidden away where nobody sees). Discuss why you might say that part of the poem quietly. Invite the children to say the poem and do the actions with you.

Dramatize the poem. Choose five children to be the “bees” and have the other children make a circle around them to be the “hive” (or cover the five children with a large scarf). Say the poem, and when the bees come out of the hive the children “fly” out and around the room, buzzing like bees.

Watch and copy the movements in the demo video.

Form a circle. Have each of the children hold hands out. Tap each of the
children’s hands in turn with bumblebee puppet or toy. When you come to the last child, give the child the bumblebee puppet and he “flies” around the circle buzzing high and low, moving the bee puppet to show the high and low sounds. If you have a very small class you may be able to give every child a turn to be the “bee.” If you have a larger class, you may want to have four bumblebee toys that you can give to four children. Give them out on beats 4, 8, 12 and 16. Then all four fly around the outside of the circle at the same time. Have the children sit down when they’ve had a turn. If you don’t have bumblebee toys, make pipe cleaner finger puppets.

Sing or play the song for the children and have them sing the echo parts. After hearing the “together” part of the song when all sing, the students may be able to join in. Create actions for this song.

Option 1 - choose instruments and play the beat.

Option 2 - choose leaders to create movements to the beat while the class copies.

There are 3 sections, so you can choose 3 leaders.

Invite the children to tell you how the music changes in the selection. (faster, higher)