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Post by Alexa Rosenbaum, Toneworks intern

The kids in our ECSE classrooms love playing peekaboo with their scarves, and we are always looking for new ways to incorporate this game into our sessions.  This take on an old classic addresses goals such as color identification and peer interaction in addition to the peekaboo element.  This activity uses the tune of the children’s song “Oh Where, Oh Where Has my Little Dog Gone?”, and can be modified to include colors of different clothing items or colors of instruments as well!

Oh where, oh where has my friend gone?

Oh where, oh where can he/she be?

His/her shirt is (color) and his/her scarf is (color)

Oh where, oh where can he/she be?

Start this activity by having all of the kids in the group put their scarves on their heads. The leader can then pick a child and sing the song above, inserting the color of their shirt and their scarf.  After singing through the song, the kids can guess which friend the leader is talking about based on the colors listed in the song.  Then the group can say “Peek-a-boo!” together and the child can pull their scarf off.  Do this with every child until all the scarves have been taken off.  If some kids have trouble waiting for their turn, have everyone pull off their scarves together and put them back on their heads each time.