One of the best ways of using this song is in a small group setting.
You can try including props, like 2 or 3 lengths of very fine coloured fabric, or chiffon scarves, that will waft gently in the air.
This song is ideal for call and response singing. For example you could start this by singing the first word as a "call" and immediately ask for a one word response. The song is equally effective sung straight through. It works well unaccompanied, but a simple guitar chord backing might give the song more "space" in which to work.
All the participants in the group get to choose what colour fabric they would like to hold when it is their turn. Some of the ways they can choose are by using signs, symbols, an AAC voice output device, by reaching, looking or speaking.
We then sing the song to each person in turn. Another helper can sign the key words as they are sung.
This song can be flexible and include the specific colour words. You can insert the colour label in the echoed phrase e.g.
Waving (the blue one) see the colour fly
Floating (the blue one) gently through the sky
Gliding (the blue one) over you and me
See the blue one all around
There are lots of opportunities for learners to make choices, using symbols. A learner using a PECS system could place ‘I want / waving / blue scarf’ on her/his sentence strip.
Why not try asking an AAC singer to sing the whole song, using a sequencing voice output switch (e.g. Sequencer, Step by Step, Big Step by Step) or a 4 cell overlay device (e.g. 4Talk4, Eclipse)? Remember to record silence after the first word, as then the rest of the group could sing the echo before the AAC singer completes the line.
If a learner’s AAC voice output device (e.g. Go Talk 9) has enough cells to include photos and names of all group participants, it is possible for him/her to be in charge of saying who will have the next turn. In musical terms, s/he then becomes the conductor! That learner also needs to observe who is in the group and who might be absent that day.
A good way to introduce a bit of musical ‘interpretation’ is to ask an AAC singer to choose how the song is to be sung, e.g. ‘Let’s sing it quietly’, ‘A bit faster this time’, ‘Mrs Smith could sing it all on her own’. These words could also be represented by symbols.
Multisensory possibilities
Sometimes other learners in the group like to position themselves under the fabric to feel the wafts of air and the fabric moving over them. Each learner can be given a choice if s/he would like to do that.
The fabrics can be further differentiated by using different perfumes for each one.
