Quack, Quack...We're Back!

Our first day back after winter break is almost always a shortened day.  The elementary students don't have school at all today, so we have the school and that long hall all to ourselves!  I decided to pull out our giant  parachute while we spent time with the larger classroom in the gym.  The other day, I remembered a game one of our wonderful music therapists had originally done with the children.  While we were doing parachute play and singing, she would have them move sideways for one part of the song and then up and down for another part. 

Miss Meaghan, Miss Kristen and all the kids doing the Old McDonald game!

I decided to extend this game a bit by adding some accessories!  We sang "Old McDonald" while holding on to the parachute.  We started by placing our cute little ducks on top of our parachute (sorry, can't see them in the picture since our parachute is so giant!) and holding on with our hands.  We then began moving the parachute back and forth, singing "Old McDonald had a farm."  When we sang "e-i-e-i-o" we moved the parachute up and down...and made those little ducks fly up and down!  We alternated back and forth and up and down throughout the song.  Only going up and down when we said "e-i-e-i-o".   (to keep things simple and easy to remember) 

Here we are singing Old McDonald and moving the parchute back and forth!

When we are going back and forth across the body and up and down, the children are crossing the mid-line of their body.  We are also creating a movement pattern while we play this game and, of course, working on saying "quack, quack."  Now, we just need to find a few more farm animals to add to this game to make it that much more fun to play!

We really did have those little ducks flying in the air!  You just can't see it in these photos!

*Just a note:  Thanks to everyone who has stopped by this blog so far!  I have learned so much from reading all of the other wonderful blogs that are out there!  Hopefully, you are able to learn something from our experiences here as well!  I LOVE to hear comments and suggestions so please feel free to leave comments- I will almost always post a response.  However, I am not as techie about blogs as some of you out there are so I don't know how to post a response to your actual comment!  I'll just post a comment after yours! ...be patient, I'll figure it out! 
Thanks for visiting! 
Pam