5-4-3-2-1… blastoff! – A Gross Motor Intervention

Hello everyone!

For this week’s blogpost, we want to share with you an intervention that our kiddos have been requesting NONSTOP lately, “Rocketship Run.”  All credit goes to the Laurie Berkner Band  for creating such a fun song with so many different applications. Don’t worry moms and dads, you can do this one at home!

Below are some of the movements that we encourage our clients to do while we play this song. We typically use this as a scarf activity…(you’ll see why!) Feel free to change or adapt in any way to fit the needs of your client/child.

1. First, you’ll need to open the link to Laurie Berkner’s recording of “Rocketship Run” on YouTube. You can also find a recording on Spotify here. For music therapists (or guitar playing parents), here is the chord sheet and printable lyric sheet!
2. Next, grab a scarf for yourself and for your little one. (The more scarves, the better!) (If you don’t have scarves…use any soft household item that you can find, such as socks or ribbons..)
3. Scrunch up the scarves into a little ball in your hands and count down. 5-4-3-2-1…..
4. BLASTOFF! (Throw all of the scarves high into the air!)
5. Grab the scarves from the floor, scrunch them up, and get ready for another blastoff!
6. Verse 1: Take me to the sun. (Make big circles with a scarf)
7. Verse 2: Take me to the moon. (Dance around with the scarves)
8. Verse 3: Take me to the stars. (Wave scarves up and down)
9. Verse 4: Take me to the earth. (Rub scarves on the ground)
10. then……BLASTOFF! (repeat until your kids get tired of the magical scarf wonderland)

As you can see, this activity is super simple, cute, and fun. We love that it can be adapted for both individual clients and groups. Try this one out and let us know how it goes!

Lacey Reimnitz  |  Toneworks Music Therapy Intern