Shake, Shimmy, & Dance: 7/18

The Plan

Book
I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont
This is will forever be one of my favorite books for Shake, Shimmy, & Dance. I love modeling that this book can be sung to, that this book has a strong rhyme prediction sequence for kiddos, and that we’re practicing body identification while reading it together. It’s also one that works well in our large-group setting!

Props
Shaker Eggs!

The Playlist

Hello & How Are You? — Old Town School of Folk Music
Take the Sun — Caspar Babypants
Jump, Jump — Joanie Leeds
Silly Dance Contest — Jim Gill
If You’re Happy and You Know It — The Learning Groove
Super Shaker Song — Culture Queen
Fruit Salad Salsa — Laurie Berkner
Shake Hands With Friends — Ella Jenkins

How It Went

A quartet of some of my favorite songs kicked off the start of this edition of Shake, Shimmy, & Dance. I used Take the Sun as a stretching song (though I’ve also used it as a parachute song as well). It worked well to get everyone ready to make large group movements. I also provided a modification for grown-ups to use their babies as the “sun” and lift them up and down.

Jump, Jump got us up and moving, practicing our gross motor skills with large movements like spin and shake. That brought us to Silly Dance Contest. This song lets us practice our patient waiting skills as we freeze when the lyrics tell us to. It also some really fun opportunities for me to freeze in a very silly position as I know when the freezes are coming.

And finally, a rock/funk version of If You’re Happy and You Know It to round out the non-prop portion of the program. Then, it was time to break out the shaker eggs!

Two songs today: Super Shaker Song which has some great instructions built into the music. I will say that this song was a bit long for the end of the program. (I tend to aim for 2 or 2.5 minute songs once the props come out.) Fruit Salad Salsa is a favorite of the group and we practice shaking fast and slow depending on how the music sounds.

All in all, another fantastic high-energy program!

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