Monday Music & Movement: I Was Walking to the Circus…

The Circus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Welcome to the second song in the Circus Theme we’re sharing from Toneworks! Our first post was a song designed to meet the academic and kindergarten readiness goal of identifying basic shapes using singing. I came up with today’s song “I was walking to the Circus” to meet goals of recall and sequence. I got the idea from this song from my amazing co-intern who had a similar song “Walking in the Jungle”.

If you can’t read music, it’s easy enough to chant the lyrics of the song. I like to use rhythm sticks during this therapeutic music intervention, but I think it would work with just hands or anything that you can tap together. I also like to incorporate movement and singing together to get a kinesthetic learning experience so in the lyrics you’ll see how to incorporate that into the song.

“I Was Walking to the Circus”

I was walking to the circus and what did I see?

Many people rolling out the tent. [roll the sticks on the floor]

Roll, roll, roll. Roll, roll, roll. Roll, roll, roll. Roll, roll, roll and freeze!

I was walking to the circus and what did I see?

Many people hammering down stakes. [hammer one stick atop of the other]

Hammer, hammer, hammer….etc.

I was walking to the circus and what did I see?

Big, grey, elephants dancing on their feet. [walk the sticks vertically on the floor]

Dance, dance, dance…etc.

I was walking to the circus and what did I see? Fancy ladies brushing down some horses. [scrape sticks against each other]

Brush, brush, brush…etc.

I was walking to the circus and what did I see?

A crowd full of little children clapping with glee. [tap sticks]

Clap, clap, clap. etc.

{sorry for the picture instead of pdf…technology problems at Toneworks today!}

I usually sing through the song 2-3 times. After that, there are several ways to ask the children to recall what they did during the song. You can simply ask them what they saw while walking to the circus. Another way is to ask how they moved the sticks during the song and then follow up with what the movement represented. After every correct answer, it’s fun for the children if you reinforce what they said by leading the group through the particular movement again (e.g. just sing the “hammer, hammer, hammer” line). For sequencing, you can have clipart pictures printed out that the children must match to numbers 1-5 or just place in order correctly.

Thanks for reading and we hope you can use this song with your little ones!