This song is written in the familiar ‘burst-pause’ format and can be used effectively with groups or individuals. There is a burst of activity and then a pause as we sing the first three lines. On the last line,
‘Play and play until …… we…..drop,’ we raise our shakers or whatever we are singing about higher in the air, and then drop our hands down to the floor.
You can make large symbols for ‘play’ and ‘stop’ in order to teach learners the words and their meanings. If you use a Velcro fabric apron, then you can place the symbols on your front and point to the appropriate action.
An AAC ‘conductor’ can use a simple voice output switch or other communication aid to direct the activity. The sequence of messages would be something like:
AAC singer ‘We’re going to … Group ‘Play and play and play and stop
AAC singer ‘And now we … Group ‘Play and play and play and stop’
AAC singer ‘And again we’ll … Group ‘Play and play and play and stop’
AAC singer ‘And then we’ll … Group ‘Play and play until – we – drop.’
I always offer each learner two shakers, so they can choose which they would like. And all adult helpers should have shakers too, so we all participate and are involved on an equal footing.
Shakers can be cheaply made from small containers like vitamin containers and clear plastic bottles (ones from ‘The Body Shop’ are particularly good). After you have washed them, put in some suitable beads or seeds or small coins. Use super glue to fix on the cap. Then cover with holographic sticky back covering.
The song is flexible as you can introduce other actions. You can make symbols for these actions, or make an overlay for an AAC device, so learners can choose what to do next. Other actions that work well are
clap, stamp, wave, nod, smile (when you get to ‘stop’ put on a really cross face!), tap, bang, sleep (sing the line sleepily, then look wide awake at ‘stop’) drive (pretending to drive a car) and anything else you can think of.
