If you follow my Instagram Stories, then you know that today’s idea for Old Mister Rabbit involves a little bit of crafting. This song is perfect for teaching about tonal centers, and the simple notation makes it easy to transfer to recorders or ukuleles.
Student Choice
This song has a wonderful tonal range for your youngest singers. Here are some ideas to include while teaching the song:
- Ask students what else the rabbit might eat from the garden (a traditional practice for this song)
- Sit in a circle and pass around a rabbit puppet and have the person holding the rabbit sing the new food item
- When doing this, always give the option for them to sing the same word as you, this is helpful for shy students who aren’t yet ready to improvise on the spot
- Pass out Boomwhackers™, mallet instruments, or bells. Have students play A on the words “rabbit” and “habit”.
Circle Game – Feeding Old Mister Rabbit
- Sit in a circle with your students
- Pass out cards with different vegetables or fruits on them to each student
- Keep one of each food in front of you
- Sing the song and hold up one of the foods in front of you
- Students with the matching card will “feed the rabbit”
- As you repeat the song, encourage students to sing along; making sure to hold up your food in advance so they know what food is coming next
I crafted this rabbit game using an old gift box. Here’s how:
- I created the rabbit template using lines and shapes in PowerPoint
- Download the free template by clicking the Download button above
- I printed it and cut it out, including a hole for its mouth
- I placed the cutout on the gift box and traced the outline of the mouth
- Then, I used an x-acto knife to cut along the outline to create the hole in the box
- Finally, I attached the rabbit to the box with some double-sided tape