This is a traditional song from Arkansas, USA.
It can work well both with individuals and class groups of 4-8 learners.
It enables learners to be physically active while joining in the song and to make choices. This might be by looking, reaching, showing interest in a sound or even just reacting to a sound.
You can sing it to a young child on your lap using smooth movements for the chorus and bouncing movements for the verses.
In larger groups the chorus can be sung slowly and ‘floatingly’. I have made a long ‘river’ out of green and blue ripstop fabric. I also put a perfume on it so we can smell the river, too. This fabric is passed around the group or waved up and down to simulate the flowing water.
All the learners have the opportunity to choose what they might see, hear or feel by the river.
Their names and the things they chose are inserted into the song e.g. ‘Jacob felt the slippery fish, and you can’t jump Josie &c.’
You can use all sorts of attractive things to represent the things by the river. I found a plastic hula skirt in one of those ‘cheap’ shops (it cost me 50p), which is perfect for rustling rushes.
An AAC singer can sing the repeated line ‘To the Ohio’ using a voice output device. The rest of the group can then sing the line again after the AAC singer.
