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Post by Alexa Rosenbaum, Toneworks intern

Shakers are always a hit in our ECSE classrooms, and we are constantly looking for new tunes to pair with them to address imitation and self regulation goals.  This idea comes from our very own Andrea Yun, and uses the classic tune of “La Cucaracha”, a song often sung in Spanish about cockroaches.  Despite the icky subject matter, this repetitive and simple tune works great for moving shakers in different ways.  The words we use are below:

Shake your shakers, shake your shakers

Shake ’em shake ’em all day long

Shake your shakers, shake your shakers

Shake ’em shake ’em all day long

You can change these words super easily, using different motions such as “tap”, “roll”, or “rub” and kids love giving ideas of different ways to move their shakers.  You can also address peer interaction goals by letting kids choose a peer to go next and make up an action.