Going to the Zoo!
For my first intervention to share on the blog, I thought I would go back to an old standby of mine. I learned this song in my internship, and through the years, have developed several different adaptations to make this work with kids of any age! I have used this song for assessments, the first time working with a group, and sessions throughout the year because of how accessible and flexible it is.
For a typical group session, I would preface this song by passing out animals to my students. These could be hard plastic figurines, hand puppets, small stuffed animals, or even realistic pictures of animals found at the zoo. As I passed out the animals, I would either tell the student what animal they have or I would ask them to tell me what they have. I would start the song (and change the lyrics slightly to say "We're all going to the zoo..."). I would then go around the group and ask each student various "wh" questions about the animal and then incorporate that information into the song.
For example: Student X has a zebra. What animal do you have? What colors is your zebra? Does your zebra have stripes or spots? How many legs does your zebra have? Does your zebra fly in the air or run on land? Etc. Then, I would create a lyric about the zebra and add it into the song based on what the student could answer.
Look at the zebra's black and white stripes
Black and white stripes, black and white stripes
Look at the zebra's black and white stripes
We're gonna stay all day.
This song is a great workout as a therapist because I really try and improvise lyrics on the spot to fit in the information my kiddos give me! However, if you don't feel comfortable with that, you can pre-compose verses based on the animals you have available!
5 Ways to Adapt this Song:
Ask child who may be lower functioning to choose [animal X] from a choice of two/three.
Have students with augmentative communication (iPad/Dynavox/PECS/etc) to answer "wh" questions with their device.
Have higher functioning students create their own lyrics for their animals! You could even have them perform it for the class.
Rewrite the song to address other groups of animals! "We're all going to the farm tomorrow..." "We're all going to the ocean tomorrow..."
Have your students act or dance like the animals!
