Building Community in Your Classroom with Singing and Dancing

Today I'd like to share a song and dance I use in the beginning of the school year to build community: Little Tommy Tucker's Dog.  This is a fun brain break, and if you use Responsive Classroom, this makes a great activity for Morning Meeting.

What are the benefits of singing and dancing in your classroom?

1. It gets the students out of their seats and moving.
2. It gets students interacting with each other in a non-threatening situation.
3. You can put the lyrics in poetry folders to practice fluency.

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Learn the dance

Stand in a circle. Assign partners very quickly. Assure them that they will have lots of different partners during this activity so it does not matter who they are partnered with. Students stand sideways facing their partner.

1. Bow, wow, wow (Stomp your feet, one stomp per word.)
2. Whose dog art thou? (Lift your hands up in a questioning way.)
3. Little Tommy Tucker's dog, (Hold hands with your partner and turn so you change places.)
4. Bow, wow, wow, (Stomp your feet, one stomp per word.)
5. Turn around to face the person behind you. That person is their new partner.

When teaching this to my class, I first teach the song by having them echo sing. Then I ask for a volunteer to help me teach everyone the dance. We stand in the center of the circle and model the dance. After modeling, I quickly walk around the circle assigning partners.

When we start doing the dance together, I remind the students of the upcoming actions after each line. When the song is over, I tell them, "don't turn around, but just turn your head and peek behind you to see who's standing there." Once everyone has looked behind them, I say, "Turn around and look at the person behind you." That person is their new partner! We repeat the dance until students eventually end up returning to the partner they started with.

Community building tip

To get the students talking to each other in a non-threatening way, I give them quick things to say to their partner each round.

• Give your partner a high five and say, “I'm sure glad you're my partner!”
• Shake your partner's hand and say, “This is so much fun!”
• Wave at your partner and say, “Partner, those are some cool shoes!”
• Smile at your partner and say, “Howdy partner, you're lookin' good today!”

This tip is from a Kagan training I attended. It helps "break the ice" and get kids talking to each other. It's safe for shy students because it's highly structured. It can be used anytime you are assigning partners.

See and hear Little Tommy Tucker's Dog song and dance 

Below are some videos I found of people singing and dancing. The actions sometimes vary slightly from mine. You can alter them to suit you.

I've played this game successfully with end-of-year kindergarteners and beginning of the year first graders.

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