"The Swimming Song" is a beach-theme music game sung several times. Sing the song once through with all the motions. After that, each time the song is sung, one line of the song is lip-synced without sound and only the motions are completed. The song continues with the next line lip-synced until the song has become motions only. The tune is "Sailing, Sailing": Swimming, swimming in the ocean blue (swimming motion)/When days are hot and days are cool (Wipe forehead for hot and hug yourself for cool)/In the ocean blue (Make an ocean wave motion with your hands). Breast stroke, side stroke (Make a swim motion in front of the chest, then a swim motion to the side)/Fancy diving, too (Hold nose with one hand and dip the other hand down and up)/Oh! don't you wish you didn't have anything else to do (Clap hands).
Movement is a natural part of music, and this imaginative beach-theme music game teaches movement control with several partners. The children sit in a circle pretending to be swaying seaweed. One child walks around the circle and mimes swimming motions. This first child is the leader of what will become a moving chain of children or "school of fish." At the end of the song, the child sings out the name of another child to join him. That child puts both hands on the shoulders of the first child. At the end of the song, the second child chooses a friend to join them. That child puts both her hands on the shoulders of the second child to connect. The game continues until all the "seaweed" have joined the "school of fish." They sing: In the bottom of the sea/All the fish are swimming/Here and there and everywhere/oh, Susan, Susan (sing each child's name when it's his turn)/We (clap) love (clap) you.
Little shell, little shell/tell us of the ocean/little shell, little shell/tell us of the sea. Prepare for this game with passing a large seashell around in a circle for the children to listen. Encourage a group chorus of the seashell sounds. Seat the children in a circle with one child in the middle. The child in the middle makes a shell shape with her body. As the children chant, "Tell us of the ocean," the "seashell" makes a sound like the ocean's sound. As the children chant, "Tell us of the sea," the seashell child uses a triangle to illustrate the sound of the sea. Or use a beach ball for a rolling ball game. The "me" in the game is the teacher, who begins the game by rolling the ball to each child. Children can be seated in a line or a circle. They sing: Roll the ball, roll the ball, roll the ball to me/Roll the ball, roll the ball, roll the ball to me.
Mermaids, whales, sharks and dolphins can substitute for the fish characters in the "Bottom of the Sea" game. Encourage children to decide the kind of sea animal they would like to be. Visit an aquarium to listen to the musical sounds of the sea animals and observe their movements. Invite the children to dance in imitation of the movement and sounds of the sea animals.