Going Places Level: Early Grades - Introductory

One Two Buckle My Shoe - three ways!

Pulse

A rhyme for going places! It's ideal for doing actions or for tapping knees in time with the pulse. You'll need to model keeping a steady pulse by doing big actions for the children to copy. Here's how it sounds:

Rhythm

The children encounter the same rhythms again later in this unit, in the Creative Music section so this chant is good preparation, followed by later consolidation. Once the children know the words, they can tap out the rhythms too - I suggest you do this just one line at a time in a First Me, Then You way.

Pitch

You can also sing-song this rhyme:

• One two, buckle my shoe
• Three four, open the door
• Five six, picking up sticks
• Seven eight, go through the gate
• Nine ten, say it again!

On the Bus - for developing listening skills

This is an active listening game, good for expending some energy. First, lay parallel lengths of skipping rope to make the 'road', the 'bus' and the 'train'. With the children facing you, show the 'road' in the middle, the train on one side and the bus on the other side and have a little practice moving from one to the other. To play the game, call out in random order:

• 'On the bus'
• 'On the train'
• 'In the road'

It's surprising how much fun this game can be!