My Hands

Here's a delightful little echo song that can help your youngest singers learn all about their own hands. Each phrase of the verse is sung by one group and echoed by another, so you'll want to break up your class into two groups. There are many different options for hand movements, too, most of them spelled out in the lyrics themselves. You don't have to use these, but with little kids, it's quite natural. The one exception is at measure 10 when the movements are more suggestion than direction. You can adapt these however you like or leave them out at this part.

The tune has a bounce to it and the undercurrent is triplet based (like a swing tune). There's a sweet accompaniment on the recording that uses whimsical instruments like bass clarinet and muted brass to give it that old-fashioned "little kid song" feeling.

If your students are young enough that doing all of the lyrics is too challenging, you can use the same verse each time at measure 5 to simplify things. You could also use the full performance version of the song so that there is a reminder of what comes next that your kids can sing along with.

One other thing: If the way you do this tune has students touching each others' hands at any point, don't forget to have them wash their hands before and after to be safe.