This is one of our favorite songs. The audio on this video is not great, so I've posted the words below. If you can't get the tune, this can always be enjoyed as a fingerplay (with no music).
Up the tall dark candlestick went little mousey Brown
But when she got to the very top, she couldn't get back down
So, she called to her grandma (grandpa, momma, daddy, brother, sister, etc.)
"GRANDMA! GRANDMA!"
but grandma was in town.
So she curled herself into a ball and she rolled herself back down.
during Family week we sang lots of songs about our families, and then pretended to be babies. We rocked each child to sleep and then played 10 in the bed. Here's a sample:
And here are the hand motions when we're not rolling across the floor:
There were 5 in the bed and the little one said,
Roll over
I'm squishy!
So they all rolled over and 1 fell out
KER-
PLUNK!
(repeat)
And then we talked about music families. To simplify we stuck with 3 basic music families:
strum (for stringed instruments),
blow (for brass and woodwinds) and
tap (for percussion instruments)
i was amazed at how intuitive the kids were on sorting all sorts of instruments into families based on how they are played. We played a matching game and tapped our clave's again to a chanting story about a Daddy Teddy Bear (loud), Mommy Teddy Bear (medium) and Baby Teddy Bear (soft)