Cleaning Up Our Songs

Last year, I did a really fun singing time to review the songs we had learned up to that point for our program. I came into the room with a great big feather duster, a handkerchief tied in my hair, wearing an apron and rubber gloves. I was carrying a basket of cleaning supplies. I told the children that today we would clean up our songs. I had a mirror and I took a tube of toothpaste and wiped the toothpaste on the mirror. I asked some of the children to look at it and tell me what they could see. It was difficult to see, obviously. I told them that that was what it was like when people couldn't understand what they were singing. So we practiced the songs we had learned. The title of each song was attached to some bottle of cleaner in my basket. The children took turns picking them out of the basket. Each time we improved a line, I would wipe off some more of the toothpaste on the mirror, showing them how singing more clearly improves our ability to understand what they said. The children really had fun with it, and I think the leaders did too.
One suggestion - Don't use too much toothpaste. It can be a little difficult to remove.