Summer (Special Needs)

We have been visiting a comprehensive needs classroom all year, and wrapped up with this fun, musical ode to summer.

Opening Song: “I Am Here & You Are Here” by Peter & Ellen Allard (on Sing It! Say It! Stamp It! Sway It! Vol. 3)

Story: Jump, Frog, Jump! by Robert Kalan.  We liked the repetition in this one.  Some of the kids are non-verbal, so we made frog puppets by taping die cut frogs to craft sticks so that everyone could participate by making their frogs jump.

Finger Play: “Five Hungry Ants”  We chose this one because, really, who doesn’t love fake sneezing?  But it turned out that one of the kids in the group really, really loves it.  I have never seen a kid laugh so hard.  Definite hit.  The teacher even asked for the words so they could do it again in class.

Story: Butterfly, Butterfly by Petr Horáček.  This one was not really tandem-able, so one person read while the other prepped the flannel.

Flannel Song: “Going on a Picnic” by Raffi (on Corner Grocery Store).  For this group, we have found that a good way to get participation is to have a flannel song where everyone gets to bring up a piece.  I made this one a few years ago when we did a food theme for summer reading.  I took photos of foods, cut them out, laminated them, and backed them with felt.  We worked with the teacher to choose foods the kidsknew (hot dog, carrots, apple, cookie) and handed each child one piece.  We also adapted the words a little bit.  Instead of “Did you bring the cookies?”  “Yes, I brought the cookies!”  we sang “Who brought the cookies?” “Joey brought the cookies!”  This allowed the verbal kids to participate in each verse, even if it wasn’t their turn to bring something up, and didn’t specifically call out the non-verbal kids.

Story: Old Black Fly by Jim Aylesworth.  This is such a fun one to sing.  One little guy who particularly loves music danced along.  For the repeated chorus of “Shoo fly, shoo fly, shoo!” we had them sing and/or pretend to shoo flies away as we turned the page.

 

Ending Song: “Wave High, Wave Low”

 

 

“Five Hungry Ants”

Five hungry ants were marching in a line.
They came across a picnic where they could dine.
They marched across the sandwich,
They marched across the cake,
One marched across the pepper –
Uh oh! That was a mistake!
AH-AH-ACHOOO!!!!

Repeat for four, three, two, one.