This song is based on a Traditional shanty. I have sung it with very large groups (e.g. 20-30) as well as smaller groups of children who have varying levels of ability. It works well because no one is excluded from choosing what to sing in the verses and then everyone can ‘roll round’ in the chorus.
During the chorus, we all move (in the same direction!) around the Hall or other space. Some learners will be walking and some will ‘roll’ in their wheelchairs. As we sing, we sign ‘roll’ continuously until we get to ‘hold on’ and then we sign that.
This is a flexible song – the verses can come in any order and you can easily make up verses to suit your learners.
I make large A4 symbols to represent the key word in the verse e.g. a penguin to represent ‘Walking like a penguin won’t do us any harm’.
During the verse, we all stand still and imitate the action suggested. Then we all start rolling again for the chorus.
All learners can have a turn at choosing the verses. They can choose by eye pointing to the symbols or to objects that represent the key word in the verse. Other learners can choose by speaking or pointing to written words which may or may not have symbols written with them.
If they use AAC devices, overlays can be made with symbols to enable them to choose what to sing in the verses.
A simple voice output device can be programmed with a prompt phrase that sets the chorus going e.g. ‘And now we’ll ……..’. This gives an AAC user great control over the actions of the whole group and is lots of fun.
Another way of using an AAC device is to pause after the phrase ‘And we’ll …’ and then an AAC singer sings the ‘all hang on behind’ part, which is then repeated by everyone else.