Image via West Music

Scarves are a great way to motivate children to move in order to meet gross motor goals during music therapy session. Not only for gross motor movement, there is a sensory aspect to using scarves as children feel the light touch of the scarf on their bodies. In addition, children use their eyes to track the movement of the scarf so there is hand-eye coordination involved.

There are so many songs we love to use with scarves during sessions. Our song today also encourages imagination and cooperation during pretend play while “on the way” to the circus!

“We’re Going to the Circus” is a call and response song and the lyrics lend themselves to easy substitution for the interests of your little ones. During the chorus, pretend to drive by holding the scarf  with both hands and moving the scarf as a steering wheel. Older children may be able to handle moving around in a circle together while “driving” as well.

Here’s how we like to move during the verses:

Man on a tightrope = hold the scarf in front of you like a pole for balancing and walk forward and back

A girl on a horse jumping up and down = wave scarf up and down with one hand while jumping

A seal spinning round and round with a ball on his nose = ball up the scarf, hold on nose, & spin!

And an elephant dancing on his tippy toes = stretch arms and scarf up while dancing on tip toes

Here is the sheet music for the song. We hope you have fun moving around with scarves to this song and adapting it to your clients or children!