Snail, Snail is a simple song and circle game that you can use to review or practice mi, so, and la. It would also work for rhythm practice with quarter and barred eighth notes. You can show this brief video as an introduction to snails. Kids love slime, so you really can’t go wrong with this topic!
TOOLS FOR CIRCLE GAMES
There are several reasons why students don’t like to hold each others’ hands. And it only takes one time of grabbing someone’s mysteriously wet hand before you understand their hesitation. There’s also the issue of overzealous students accidentally yanking on the arm of their partner.
One tool you can use the avoid these issues is scarves. If you already own scarves for the purpose of movement activities, then those would work perfectly. If you don’t, some alternatives might be hankerchiefs or flour sacks, both of which are inexpensive and easy to launder.
Each student can grab the end of a scarf with less concern for going home with the stomach flu. An added benefit is that, if a student pulls too hard, the scarf is pulled out of their partner’s hand, rather than their shoulder socket.
CIRCLE GAME
- Students stand in a line with joined hands/scarves.
- The lead student begins moving in a circle, spiraling up around the person at the end of the line.
- Once the spiral becomes tight like a snail, the lead person moves away from the circle to unwind the spiral.
After you’ve modeled the game, give more students a chance to lead by breaking your class up into several small circles. From there, each student in the circle can take turns being the lead.
NOTATION
If you’re hoping to play this piece with Boomwhackers™ or Orff instruments, use this colored notation as an aide.
