Gardens & Growing Level: Key Stage 1 - Skills & games
In and Out the Dusky Bluebells
My mum taught me this singing game from the North East of England. Depending on where you live, the words and the game tend to be different so you may come across alternative versions.
- In and out the dusky bluebells
- In and out the dusky bluebells
- In and out the dusky bluebells
- Follow the leader
- __
- Pitter pitter patter on my shoulder
- Pitter pitter patter on my shoulder
- Pitter pitter patter on my shoulder
- Follow the leader
Plant Sticks
Show the children how to make their own stick-music-scores to show the word-rhythms of different flowers or trees. The sticks represent rhythms - two close together shows a two-syllable word and one on its own is a one-syllable word that takes up the same length of time. Choose a range of one- and two-syllable plants and trees in advance so that you don't run into complications such as 'Western Red Cedar' (yes, it is a real tree name!). Show and play to model this activity for the children, giving them plenty of practice clapping your stick-rhythms, making sure they understand the relationship between your sticks and your plants.
When each child has created a music score, they swap with a partner, who plays the rhythm on a percussion instrument. To make this more challenging, try asking the children to draw just the sticks without writing in the names - this must be done evenly spaced to it's best to provide printed grids with four boxes for filling in, as in the picture.
