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Want a fun little song that gets the wiggles out while enforcing phonemic awareness skills? I thought you might be, so here it is!
It’s a very simple song, but kids love it! To the tune of “Shortnin’ Bread”:
“We go wiggle waggle, wiggle waggle, wiggle waggle”
“We go wiggle waggle, wiggle waggle, STOP!”
As the children sing “wiggle waggle” they wiggle their bodies, but on STOP, they freeze. Next, have them specify one part of their bodies to wiggle. Say, their heads. This time, instead of wiggle waggle, use the same beginning sound, in the case of heads, higgle haggle.
“Heads go higgle haggle, higgle haggle, higgle haggle,
Heads go higgle haggle, higgle haggle, STOP!”
Continue with other parts of the body, and ask the children before you start, what you will say in the place of “wiggle waggle”. They will quickly catch on to the pattern.
Bellies go biggle baggle,
Noses go niggle naggle,
Legs go liggle laggle
A personal favorite:
Tongues go tiggle taggle (It’s always fun to sing with your tongue sticking out!)
For words that begin with a vowel sound, simply omit the beginning consonant sound (w) of wiggle waggle:
Arms go iggle aggle, etc.
Besides being silly and fun, this is a great phonemic awareness exercise. Changing the beginning sounds is called phoneme substitution, and is a skill that develops as children become more aware of the sounds in words and more able to manipulate them. All of these skills help in preparing children to read. Additionally, this is a wonderful transition song because it has plenty of movement and gives children an opportunity to be active, helping them to focus afterward. It also enforces an awareness of the names of body parts as well as the controlled movement of them.
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