Shake, Shimmy, & Dance: 11/11

The Plan

Book
If You’re Happy and You Know It by Jane Cabrera
I had pulled another, newer book for Shake, Shimmy today and I just wasn’t feeling it. I will definitely use that book in the future, but reached for a tried and true favorite with If You’re Happy and You Know It. I know that it definitely lifted my spirits and I hope that it did for my families as well.

Props
Parachute!

The Playlist

Hello & How Are You? — Old Town School of Folk Music
When I Woke Up Today — Laurie Berkner
Get Your Move On — Mr. Jon & Friends
Clap Your Hands — They Might Be Giants
Take the Sun — Caspar Babypants
Popcorn — Joanie Leeds
All You Need is Love — Caspar Babypants
Wheels in the City — Laura Doherty
Shake Hands With Friends — Ella Jenkins

How It Went

As long-time readers know, I generally do not use the parachute during the school year because many of my preschool and kindergarten friends are not at Shake, Shimmy to help hold it up for our baby and toddler friends. But when Shaky, Shimmy coincides with a day off of school, it’s time to break out the parachute!

Our first song was “When I Woke Up Today” which is off of Laurie Berkner’s new album. I love the positive energy of this song and I have to admit that I do get excited about Shake, Shimmy mornings and seeing my kiddos. Our next two songs: “Get Your Move On” and “Clap Your Hands” are tried and true Shake, Shimmy hits. Also, the kids stomped so loud that our security monitor came upstairs from the Adult Services department to see what was going on!

On to the parachute songs! During “Take the Sun”, we raised the parachute up and down. I normally save the song for raising the parachute as my last song for the day, but decided to change things up. It definitely got the caregivers involved from the beginning! “Popcorn” included my traditional white crumpled paper as popcorn on the chute, but I asked the kids to go underneath and pop the popcorn up. This worked out so much better than just shaking the chute!

“All You Need is Love” was our third parachute song (if you take the parachute out, make it worthwhile!). I had caregivers place the chute on the ground and passed out foam hearts. The kids walked on top of the chute and passed around hearts to each other. If you ever need a life-affirming moment, I highly recommend this activity. It was a privilege to watch the children sharing representations of love with each other in such an open way.

I should have skipped our last parachute song because we were over time and I could sense that the crowd was nearing its endpoint. It was also a rocky transition to get the kids off of the parachute and to pick it back up to pass around in a circle for “Wheels in the City”. Lesson learned!

(For an example of the Powerpoint and handouts that I made for each Shake, Shimmy please visit the original post.)