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Itsy Bitsy Spider: Listening and Repeating

Purpose/Skills

  • To listen to the words of a song and repeat them
  • To match movements with words
  • To build vocabulary

Materials
Picture cards that show a spider, sun, and rain

Vocabulary
spider listen
sing move
waterspout     up
down out

Literature Suggestion
Read any book that includes a spider.

Warm-Up
  • Get children ready to use their fingers and arms.
  • Show them how to make their moving fingers look like spider legs.
  • Have them move their hands and fingers down like rain falling. Tell them to lift their arms high into the air like the sun.

Procedure

  • Ask children to watch and listen carefully. Sing the "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" song, using hand motions to act out the spider, rain, and sun.
  • On the second round, invite children to join in. Give extra guidance to children who are having difficulty with the words or the hand motions.
  • Repeat the song at least once more, with everyone joining in. Invite children to have fun using broad, dramatic movements.
  • Help English Language Learners understand the vocabulary by showing or drawing pictures of a spider, a waterspout, rain, and the sun.
Enrichment
Teach children the song and motions to "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn Around" or "I'm a Little Teapot." Do the finger plays often, until children know them by heart.

Observation Assessment

  • Proficient - Child can sit calmly to listen to and watch the teacher, and can repeat the song and motions.
  • In Process - Child has difficulty paying attention to the song and actions, but does so enough to attempt to sing and do the hand motions.
  • Not Yet Ready - Child is inattentive and does not yet sing or follow the motions.

More on: Activities for Preschoolers

Excerpted from:

Excerpted from School Readiness Activity Cards. The Preschool Activity Cards provide engaging and purposeful experiences that develop language, literacy, and math skills for preschool children.