Alligator in the Elevator

Activity Guide

I Love Mud

The sign for mud translates as “wet dirt”. Try making the signs for mud each time they occur during the chorus. Point to yourself on the word “I” and give yourself a big hug on the word “love”. Wave your hands in front of you on the word “wild”. Make up your own signs for some of the other words and phrases such as “go around” (I usually draw an imaginary circle in front of me) and “go through” (I usually hold my hands in front of me at waist level and slide one over the other). Sing the song using all the signs you’ve learned and/or made up.

Have a CELEBRATE MUD DAY! Plan activities that focus on a mud theme. For example, do some finger painting using chocolate pudding; make a mud print of some things in your yard; make a bakery full of mud pies; read and write stories about mud.

Read The Mud Puddle by Robert Muench or The Marvelous Mud Washing Machine by Patty Wolcott. Read my book I Love Mud. You will really like the illustrations by Heidi Stetson Mario.

Make some MUD PUDDING. You will need 2 pkgs. instant chocolate pudding. Follow the recipe. Add ½ to 2/3 pkg. crushed Oreo cookies to the mixture. Mix and pour into a 9" square pan. Add gummy worms and raisins. Top with remaining crumbs. Voila! Mud before your very eyes.

Tiger’s Cage

Get some fabric or small paper bags. Make hand puppets of each of the characters in the song – a person, a tiger, an alligator, a puppy, a rattlesnake, a monster and a grizzly bear. Get behind a puppet stage and have the puppets act out the lyrics as the song is played.

Make this song your own by creating some original verses using real or imaginary ideas. For instance: “If you (add your idea here)” and finish each verse with “You’d better be careful that it doesn’t bite you”.

Recently, I saw a friend of mine, Nancy Call with her two daughters -Helen & Audrey. One of them is a “Make A Wish” child. She shared a rewrite with me of one of my songs called “Tiger’s Cage” that I thought might inspire you. Here are a couple of the verses.

If you make a wish to go to Disney World (Repeat 3x)

You better be careful or it might come true! (Yell:” Hi Mickey”!)

If you make a wish to meet a superstar( 3x)

You better be careful or it might come true! (Wow-wee!)

A lyricon is an electronic woodwind-like instrument that sounds something like a saxophone.

Al, My Alligator

This neat song was composed by Sarah and Catey Draper, ages 9 and 11 from North Andover, Massachusetts. They participated in a songwriting workshop that I presented to the children in Parsonsfield, Maine during August, 1984. Thanks Sarah and Catey for sharing with me such a funny and clever little song.

I Always Leave The Crust

This song is dedicated to all crust haters who will never have curly hair.

Add the sign for sandwich each time it occurs during the chorus. Place hands like a beak and with fingers pointing toward you; bring them to your mouth. Open and close them on the word “sandwich”. On the word “crust”, bring the thumb and index finger together and make the shape of a small piece of crust. (See illustrations above.)

Have a sandwich making contest. Think of some different sandwich combinations that might taste good. Decide on a couple and put them together. Cut them all into bite-size pieces so everyone gets to sample each other’s creations. Vote for the winning sandwich.

Make some silly sandwiches out of paper. List all of the crazy sandwich ingredients on small slips of paper. Put them in a basket. Pull out five ingredients. What crazy sandwiches can you come up with?

Using colored construction paper, draw and cut out each ingredient and paste them on a white sheet of paper in a stack between a drawing of two pieces of bread. (See drawing.)

Hot Air Balloon

I was on my way to school one beautiful & crisp October morning when I happened to come across a color photo of a hot air balloon floating through the air above the Saco River. I thought to myself: That’s what I would like to be doing right now instead of going to work. I went to work but I kept that image of floating through the air in a hot air balloon with me throughout the day. Being a music teacher at the time, I shared that image with the children I was teaching and we wrote this song. What are some of the things you would like to see if you were floating across the sky in a hot air balloon? Draw a hot balloon. Glue a photograph of you looking out of the hot air balloon. Draw a picture of how things would look from way up there.

Make a model hot air balloon. You will need one balloon, a long piece of string, a 6” x 6” square of construction paper, transparent tape and felt markers. Inflate and knot the balloon. On the square of paper, mark every 2” on all sides, draw lines connecting marks from side to side, cut out corner pieces and fold on dotted lines to form a box. Tape sides together at corners. Cut the string into five equal lengths. Tape a piece of string to each side of the balloon; then attach to basket. Decorate the balloon using the felt markers. Use the last piece of string to display your hot air balloon.

If you are with a group of people, form a circle. Join hands and imitate the movement of a hot air balloon while the song is playing. Explore various movement possibilities using different levels such as stretching high or crouching low. If a large parachute is available, create a sequence of movements to accompany the hot air balloon song.

Eenie Meenie Mynie Mo (The Reaching Out Song)

Notice how the third line of the song is different from the familiar childhood chant. What are some of the ways that we can make our world a better and happier place for every person? Write a poem that begins with the words “Peace is…” Draw or paint a picture to accompany your poem.

Read the book If Peace is. . . by Jane Baskwill that came out in 2003, published by Mondo Books. It’s beautifully illustrated by Stephanie Carter.

Helping Hands. This would be great to do at school. Work in groups of two. Trace each others body on large sheets of paper. Cut them out. Add clothing. Color and decorate. Fasten them to a wall in your classroom or in a hallway with hands touching hands. (See drawing.)

Pretend you are in a spaceship. Draw a picture of your spaceship with you inside.

Opposite Words Are Fun

Add the four clapping sounds on the first two phrases of the chorus. These will be very fast claps. See how quickly you can learn all of the opposites.

After you are familiar with the song, act out the words with a partner. One person acts out the first word in the pair (i.e. “up”) and the partner does the opposite (i.e. “down”). Some of the opposite words are more abstract. So be inventive.

As another group activity, copy all of the opposite responses (i.e. yes – no. Print the word “no” on a card.). Pass the card out to members of the group. Raise your card when your opposite word appears in the song.

Alligator in the Elevator

Thanks go to my son, Jacob. He was the inspiration behind this song that poses an imaginative situation in which a person confronts an alligator in the elevator. He inspired me to write this song when he misunderstood me; I want him to walk around the corner a get inside the elevator. He thought I had wanted him to go inside an alligator. He was only two years old at the time.

Get involved with this song. During the chorus, each time the word “alligator’ is sung, form alligator jaws by using your hands and arms and clapping them together two times. On the word “see”, throw your arms up in the air and open your mouth like you are really surprised. On the words “making eyes”, form circles with your thumbs and index fingers and bring them up to your eyes as if you were looking through a pair of binoculars. (Or turn them inside out!) Clap in the places indicated by the words. Also hold up the correct number of fingers, each time a floor number is mentioned (i.e. “number three” – hold up three fingers.). Invent some of your own verses. Change the floor numbers.

Read my book “Alligator in the Elevator”. It’s the lyrics of the song cleverly illustrated by Heidi Stetson Mario.

Using a wooden spring-loaded clothespin, construct an alligator model. Cut out a small alligator tail from a piece of green construction paper. Attach it to one end of the clothespin so that the clothespin forms the head. Add any other features you would like in order to make it look like an alligator e.g. eyes, teeth, legs, bumps. Use your imagination.

The Pony

Look at some photos of horses and ponies. Draw a picture of your favorite one. Put yourself in the drawing. Decide where you would like to be with your pony and add these ideas to your drawing.

Write an adventure about a special day you would spend with your pony. Here are just a few things you might wish to write about. Where would you go? What would you bring along for food? How long would you stay? What would you do and see?

As you listen to the song, add pony-like rhythms and move either on the beat or to a galloping rhythm. Act out the lyrics and sing along with the recording.

Staple In My Sock

Special thanks to Judy Wilcox and her imaginative first grade class at the Cousens School in Lyman, Maine during the winter of 1984.

This is a very silly song that’s lots of fun to sing. It’s challenging too! Listen to the song. What do you notice about the ending of each phrase? They each end with words that have “-ock” as their root, except for the word “doc”. Imitate the sound effects and act out the words. After the word “sock”, shout out the word “ouch”. Flap your arms on the word “flock” and say “Quack! Quack!” Pretend to be dialing a phone on the word “doc” and say “Ring! Ring!” After the word “knock”, knock on your head saying “Knock! Knock!” After “one of clock”, hold an index finger in the air making a one and say “Bong!” After the word “shock”, let out a scream. After the word “rocks”, pretend to be setting down a very heavy rock and make an ahhhhhhh sound, a sound of relief. During the “running” section in the last part of the song, run in place or clap your knees really fast.

Pancakes

This song was composed by Joshua Gurley, age 12, from Parsonsfield, Maine during the month of August 1984. Thanks Josh! It’s a great little breakfast song.

I Hate To Clean My Room

Here is a song that celebrates the joy of being messy. Take some time to enjoy the song before thinking and talking about the need for order. What are some of the positive and negative aspects of having a messy room? Develop a strategy that could make cleaning your room fun. What are a few ways that you might be able to convince your parents or teachers that messiness can be enjoyable, even if only once in a while.

What do you think about the ending of the song? Would you have ended it differently? Draw a picture of your room and how it really looks most of the time.

Have everybody in your class take a snapshot of their rooms. Bring them to school and talk about them.

I Can Be Most Anything I Try

Did this song mention anything that you might like to be? What are some of the professions that you have thought about working towards and why? What kinds of skills would you need to develop? Discuss this with other children and compare your choices with those of others. Write a short story about your choice of a profession. Do you feel that you can be most anything you try? Are you already living your dream?

Make up an original verse with your friends or classmates. Include all of the things that each of you might like to choose to be.

It’s A Rainy Day

This is a very quiet song. Imagine that you are standing b y a window and looking out into the rain. It’s quiet all around you. All you can hear is the sound of rain.

Each time the word “rain” occurs during the chorus, sign it by lifting your hands up and then wiggling fingers while lowering your hands.

How does the rain benefit us? What do you like to do on a rainy day?

Create your own rain storm. One group begins by snapping fingers softly to a steady beat. The next group begins by rubbing their palms together. The third group then lightly taps fingertips on table or desk tops. Finally the last group enters by patting their knees with their hands very rapidly. Have everyone close their eyes. See it if sound like heavy rain storm.