Music Teaching Idea Display

Guacamole! Movements

Submitted by Daniel J. Fee, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

Idea posted October 12, 2004

We did these in a FOOD program last year:

"Guacamole!" from Music K-8, Vol. 12, No. 4

Every student has a sombrero. I asked them to bring one from home if they had one. The majority came from my other school's PTO. (Don't ask me why they had 36 sombreros!) The students don't wear the sombreros, which helps eliminate the whole lice, germ, "Who's hat is this?" thing.

MOVEMENT

"Guacamole" - Everyone holds the sombrero out in front of his/her chest, sort of like a steering wheel. You turn it back/forth to the beat and "bop" up and down in your knees until....
"I really, really like" - You shake your head "yes" a few times. (Open your eyes wide!)
"mole, I do" - You shake your head side-to-side to the rhythm of the words.
Repeat "Guacamole" movement.
Repeat previous movements for the same music.
"Take a Chip" - You reach your hat out with your right hand, making it a chip.
"Dip it" - Hat goes down/up in front of you every time you sing "Dip."
"Take a Chip" - Repeat movement with left hand.
"Dip it" - Repeat movement with left hand "dipping the chip."
"Guacamole" - Shake your hat with your left hand.
The music repeats for the rest of the song, and so do the movements.

At the end, where there's one last shout of "Guacamole," we tossed our hats in the air. We had to practice this, obviously, trying to anticipate the problems. (Hats tossed too high, hats thrown toward the audience, what to do when someone's hat landed on you, etc.) The kids handled it really well, and the song was fun!