I'll Walk With You - Egg Shakers

Older Children

Prep: paper bags with 10 shakers each under the teacher's chairs.

Tell the children "Here's the pattern." (They don't have the shakers yet.) Demonstrate shake, shake, tap, shake, around the back, hold.

Tell the children "Follow the pattern, pretending to hold a shaker." Start doing the pattern, and once you have done it once, start to sing as you shake the pattern. "If you don't walk as most people do, some people walk away from you. etc." Continue singing and doing the pattern until you can see that most of the children can do the pattern. Stop singing and ask the teachers to pass out a shaker to each child. Even before each child has a shaker, start the pattern, asking the children to follow you (this transition keeps the children who already have a shaker interested and engaged).

Sing the song as you shake the pattern. Occasionally as you reach the end of the phrase, call out "Freeze!" Then start back into the pattern and the song. This gives the children who might be struggling a chance to catch up, keeps the children for whom this is easy on their toes and watching, and keeps the group together.

The children are engaged moving to the gentle beat, concentrating on the pattern, and letting the words of the song slip into the backdoor of their memory.