Go Bananas!! A Motor Activity For Your Picky Eaters!

Happy Wednesday! We are currently providing music therapy services for the Autism Society of Minnesota’s Wahode Day Camp. We introduced this activity to our campers and it was a huge hit!

We all go through it: the picky eating phase. If you’re the parent or caregiver of a little one, there are probably some days when you feel lucky if you can get them to eat their meal at all! This week’s activity would be awesome for kids who are learning about different types of food, especially if they’re going through a picky eating phase! There’s nothing better than getting your kiddos moving, grooving, and learning while they’re at it! This fun song could also be used to work on a whole range of other goal areas too, like gross motor movements, following directions, creativity (if you encourage your kiddos come up with their own ideas!), and much more!

For a video of this song, click here. If you are a musician or a music therapist, you could probably find a way to make this music a little more exciting, but the song is great as is too!

Begin by standing or sitting up straight.

“Form the banana, form, form the banana” (Slowly raise one arm up to your ear)
“Form the banana, form, form the banana” (Slowly raise the other arm up to your ear)
“Peel the banana, peel, peel the banana” (Slowly lower one arm back down to your side)
“Peel the banana, peel, peel the banana” (Slowly lower the other arm back down to your side)
“Go bananas, go, go bananas” (Freestyle dance!)
“Go bananas, go, go bananas”
“Go bananas, go, go bananas”
“Go bananas, go, go bananas”

“And freeze!”

Repeat the actions for the following foods and actions:

• Form the potato, peel the potato, mash the potatoes (Stomping feet)
• Form the mango, peel the mango, do the tango (Tango dance/freestyle dance)
• Form the apple, slice the apple, do the snapple (Snapping fingers)
• Form the orange, peel the orange, squeeze the orange (Move hands like you’re wringing out a towel or repeatedly squeeze hands together)

How do you encourage your little ones to try new foods? Have fun with this song, and let us know if you think of any other fruits and veggies to add to it!

– Alannah Forstner, Toneworks Music Therapy Intern