Monday, January 11, 2016

Easy Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes


Part I


Part II

A fun song we probably all remember from growing up, used to teach us movement and our body parts is Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.  Kids often enjoy this one with all of the movements and the gradual increase in tempo that is sometimes included. Adults...maybe not so much with all of the bending over.  Who is still that flexible?? The only issue with this version is that when teaching it to toddlers for the first time, or anyone with a speech/motor delay, it must be taught at a very slow tempo. 

When my oldest child was a toddler, we attended Library Story Time here at one of the public libraries. Our wonderful librarian, Yanira, taught us this song instead to the tune of Frere Jacque.  This version is wonderful because it focuses on only two body parts with one move with a repeat before moving on to the next two.  In the other version, four parts were introduced and the only part that was repeated was knees and toes. The tempo is also much slower in this new version.  Definitely works well for anyone who takes  more time to process speech.  

Our baby sure smiles when we sing to him.  At 4 months he seems to remember melodies which he shows by smiling big on the songs we do frequently.  When introducing a new song, he still smiles, but he looks as if he is doing more listening to process the new song. I did not realize the video was in two parts until posting so I have the song split up in to Part 1 and Part II. Hope many more can enjoy this one!

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