Vroom! Vroom!

Our theme this week is CARS!

BOOKS:

We read Bing! Bang! Chugga! Beep! by Bill Martin Jr and Michael Sampson and Duck in the Truck by Jez Alborough.

WARM UPS:

We warmed up with “Drive, Drive, Drive Your Car” which I learned from Jbrary.

“Drive, Drive, Drive Your Car”
to the tune of “Row Row Row Your Boat”

Drive, drive, drive your car
All around the town
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Up the hills and down

Turn, turn, turn the key
Make the engine roar
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Let’s go to the store

Press, press, press the pedal
Give the engine gas
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Now we’re going fast

Turn, turn, turn the wheel
This is how we steer
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Make a right turn here

Push, push, push the brake
Make the car slow down
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Now we are in town.

I stumbled across “5 Dinosaurs Driving in Cars” by Nancy Stewart and it might be one of my new favorite storytime songs of all time.

There were five dinosaurs ridin' in cars
(pretend to be driving)
Havin' a "wheely" good time
They said, "Step on the gas"
(step forward with one foot)
We'll go really fast!
(push one hand out in front of body)
And they did until one had a flat tire
Ca-chunk, ca-chunk, ca-chunk, ca-chunk
(roll hands unevenly as if rolling a flat tire)
Woosh!
(sink down to crouch position while making air sound)
And he said "Go on without me!"(cup hands around mouth and shout upward)

Repeat this with descending numbers of dinosaurs. Nancy has a really great section at the end about putting on a new tire, but I usually just end with “And he went around and picked up all his friends” which 100% doesn’t scan, but works for little kids.

Then we listened to “Red Means Stop” by Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang (though I really wanted to listen to “Electric Car” by They Might Be Giants, but the kiddos were a little too rambunctious for it today)

PROP & INSTRUMENT SONGS:

We used THREE different props today - the tambourine, rhythm sticks, and scarves.

Use your tambourine as a steering wheel as you sing “Driving Round the Village”
to the tune of “Go In and Out the Window”

We’re driving round the village
We’re driving round the village
We’re driving round the village
As we have done before

2. Tap on your car horn
3. Roll down the window

I am not sure if the version of “I’m Driving My Car” was the one I had originally found, but we went with it anyway. I will definitely tweak it if I use it again. We tapped our sticks together in rhythm as we sang.

“I’m Driving in My Car”
to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell”

I’m driving in my car
I’m driving in my car
Beep, beep, toot, toot
Beep, beep, toot, toot
Driving in my car

2. I’m driving very fast (tap your sticks fast!)

3. I’m driving very slow (tap your sticks slowly!)

4. The lights have all turned red. (slow way down and then stop tapping)

We then listened to “Wash It” by The Laurie Berkner Band and pretended to wash our vehicles with our scarves.

FREEZE DANCE AND STRETCH:

It’s really hard to go wrong with “Drivin’ in my Car” by Ralph’s World for a car freeze dance. It’s one of those unicorn songs that have the freeze built right in. Highly recommend. Also Minnesota shout-out in there too!

For stretching, we pretending to be parts of the car - windshield wiper side stretches, bend forward to reach for the steering wheel, small back bend as you recline your seat.