• For teaching about different colors your child is wearing, use the following words to the above tune. Use your child’s name.
  Kathy’s wearing a blue dress
  Blue dress, blue dress,
  Kathy’s wearing a blue dress
  All day long
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• Substitute different colors for whatever else the child is wearing (e.g. yellow ribbon, red socks, white shoes…)
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• Also sing about patterns such as stripes, polka dots, flowers, plaid, checkered…(Jimmy’s wearing a striped shirt, …).

• For learning about different colors the children are wearing, use the following words to the above tune:
  If you are wearing blue today,
  Blue today, blue today,
  If you are wearing blue today,
  Please stand up.
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• Substitute other colors that the children are wearing so that all have a chance to stand up.
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• For learning about different patterns, use the following words:
  
  If you are wearing stripes today,
  Stripes today, stripes today,
  If you are wearing stripes today,
  Please stand up.
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• Substitute other patterns that the children are wearing (e.g. polka dots, plaid, …) so that all have a chance to stand up.
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• For learning about different articles of clothing the children are wearing, use the following words:
  
  If you are wearing jeans today,
  Jeans today, jeans today,
  If you are wearing jeans today,
  Please stand up.
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• Substitute other styles that the children are wearing (e.g. tennis shoes, a skirt, cords, a sweater …) so that all have a chance to stand up.
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• This is a good song to feature a birthday child by singing about what he/she is wearing on his/her birthday. Use the child’s name (Tommy’s wearing…)

• Children at a very young age are usually exposed in some way to musical instruments. They are curious about the sounds they make and how they are played.
• Find some pictures of individual instruments to share with your child or take them to hear a real band or orchestra
• Discuss how different instruments are held and what sounds they make.
• “The Finger Band” (tune: “Mulberry Bush”) is a fun and easy song for children to sing as they pretend to play various instruments and hold them correctly.
• For fun, share the book and tape Wee Sing and Learn ABC with the class. It has full color pictures of animals playing a variety of instruments. The instruments are being held in the correct playing positions and the real sounds of the instruments can be heard on the accompanying audio.

• Children at a very young age are usually exposed in some way to musical instruments. They are curious about the sounds they make and how they are played.
• Find some pictures of individual instruments to share with the class.
• Discuss how different instruments are held and what sounds they make.
• "The Finger Band” (tune: “Mulberry Bush”) is a fun and easy song for children to sing as they pretend to play various instruments and hold them correctly.
• For fun, share the book and tape Wee Sing and Learn ABC with the class. It has full color pictures of animals playing a variety of instruments. The instruments are being held in the correct playing positions and the real sounds of the instruments can be heard on the accompanying audio.

• A good sense of rhythm aids in reading skills, athletic skills, music skills, and other skills requiring coordination
• Ball bouncing, clapping games and jump roping are excellent for developing a sense of rhythm which will be beneficial throughout life
• Wee Sing and Play has many rhymes specifically suited for these activities, but any familiar rhyme (e.g. nursery rhymes) or song will work
• Younger children (preschoolers) are usually not ready for jump roping, but can master simple ball bouncing and clapping exercises
• Older children (K-4) will enjoy the challenge of these games and feel a sense of accomplishment and self confidence when they are mastered
• It’s never too late to begin helping your child feel rhythm. The earlier you begin, the easier it is as the child gets older.

• A good sense of rhythm aids in reading skills, athletic skills, music skills, and other skills requiring coordination
• Ball bouncing, clapping games and jump roping are excellent for developing a sense of rhythm which will be beneficial throughout life.
• Wee Sing and Play has many rhymes specifically suited for these activities, but any familiar rhyme (e.g. nursery rhymes) or song will work.
• Younger children (preschoolers) are usually not ready for jump roping, but can master simple ball bouncing and clapping exercises.
• Older children (K-4) will enjoy the challenge of these games and feel a sense of accomplishment and self confidence when they are mastered.

• With babies or toddlers, a parent can sing and do the motions for the first verse of the song while the child watches.
• After the words "and he flicked it 'til it flew away," the parent keeps moving his/her fingers (the fly) and makes them land on another part of the child's body (e.g. head, knee, ankle, nose, elbow...).
• The parent (and the child if old enough) sings the song again and does the motions using the word for the new body part (e.g. "Little Peter Rabbit had a fly upon his head").
• Continue, having the "fly" land on different parts of the child for as long as the child's attention span holds.

• The class sings the song and does the motions suggested for the first verse of the song.
• After the words "and he flicked it 'til it flew away," the class stops and the teacher keeps moving his/her fingers (the fly) and makes them land on another part of any child's body (e.g. head, knee, ankle, nose, elbow...).
• The class sings the song again and does the motions using the word for the new body part (e.g. "Little Peter Rabbit had a fly upon his head").
• Continue for as long as the attention span holds, or until the fly has landed somewhere on each child in the class.

• Clap a short rhythm pattern that your child must echo.
• Continue until you have his/her attention.
• The easiest patterns are in beats of four, such as:

X     X    X    XX    XX   X    XXX  XX   X    XX     X   XX   X

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• Clap a short rhythm pattern that the class must echo.
• Continue until you have the attention of the class.
• The easiest patterns are in beats of four, such as:
  X     X    X    X
  X    XX   X    X
  XX  XX   X    X
  X     X   XX   X

• Use homemade rhythm instruments (pots and pans for drums, wooden or metal spoons for mallets and sticks…) or real rhythm instruments.
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• Decide what words best describe the sounds of your child’s instrument (e.g. “boom, boom” for drums, “rattle, rattle” for maracas, “click,click” for sticks, “ring, ring” for bells, “clang, clang” for a metal spoon on a pot…).
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• Sing the following words to “Old MacDonald” while your child plays the rhythm instrument throughout the entire verse. Substitute the name of your child’s instrument and its sound for the words in parentheses. Old MacDonald had a band,
  ‍
  E-I-E-I-O,
  And in this band, he had a drum,
  E-I-E-I-O,
  With a “boom, boom” here, and a “boom, boom” there,
  Here a “boom,” there a “boom,” everywhere a “boom, boom,”
  Old MacDonald had a band,
  E-I-E-I-O.
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• For the next verses, sing about other instruments you may have available (e.g. wooden or metal spoons make good rhythm sticks). …And in this band he had some sticks, E-I-E-I-O, With a “click, click” here…
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• Others in the family can join in the band and play their instruments for more verses.

• Each child chooses a rhythm instrument.
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• Have the children sit in groups according to their instruments (sticks together, drums together, maracas and other shakers together, bells…).
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• Decide what words best describe the sounds of the different instruments (e.g. “boom, boom” for drums, “rattle, rattle” for maracas, “click, click” for sticks, “ring, ring” for bells,…).
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• Sing the following words to “Old MacDonald” while all play their instruments. Where the X’s are written, children sing the sound of their own instrument.
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  Old MacDonald had a band,
  E-I-E-I-O,
  And in this band, he had some instruments,
  E-I-E-I-O,
  With a “XX” here, and “XX” there,
  Here a “X,” there a “X,” everywhere a “XX,”
  Old MacDonald had a band,
  E-I-E-I-O.
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• For the next verses, have individual groups of instruments featured (…And in this band he had some sticks, E-I-E-I-O. With a “click, click” here, and a “click, click” there…) while just members of that group play their instruments.
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• Each time a new instrument is featured, go back and play the previous instruments in the same format as when singing the original Old MacDonald.
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• When all instruments have been featured, end with everyone playing together and singing the last two lines of the verse above.