1st Graders learned a fun action song called "One Elephant." This silly song is about an elephant that went out to play on a spider's web. Not only did this song help us practice singing with expression, but once we got up and moved, we worked on moving to the steady beat.
The song goes like this:
One elephant went out to play
On a spider's web one day.
He had such enormous fun,
He asked another elephant to come.
Two elephants went out to play
On a spider's web one day.
They had such enormous fun,
They asked another elephant to come...
First, students needed to learn the song. They did this by listening over and over. To keep it interesting, students made a spider's web with yarn while they listened to Mrs. Hiltz sing.
After we had heard the song many times, we were ready to sing it ourselves. From our careful listening, we all knew the song. Hear Miss Carroll's class sing it by clicking the link:
One Elephant
When we could sing the song, then we got to play. We played a game called "Tails and Trunks" while we sang the song. Each elephant had a tail (a scarf) and a trunk (their arm held up to their nose). As an "elephant" walked around our circle, they got to choose another friend to join them. They would grab their "tail" with their "trunk" to make a chain. We played until everyone was involved!
We even got to listen to this song in Spanish. We learned that this is a popular children's folk song in both English and Spanish-speaking countries. The words in Spanish are:
Un elefante balanceaba
Sobre la tela de una arana,
Como veia que resistia,
Llamo a otro elefante.
Dos elefantes balanceaban
Sobre la tela de una arana,
Como veian que resistia,
Llamaron a otro elefante.
The translation to this version is similar to our English version:
"One elephant balanced on a spider's web.
When he found out it would hold him, he asked another to join him."
Did your child sing you this song from their Ask Me sheet? Let Mrs. Hiltz know by filling out this form. Your child will earn a sticker!
