Kangaroos! A Fun Name-Learning Song

 This is a great activity for the beginning of the year, when you and the children are learning each other’s names. This gives you a fun and very bouncy way to do it!

Choose two children to be kangaroos. They’ll jump around in the middle of the circle while the class claps to the beat and sings to the tune of “Jingle Bells”:

                 Kangaroos, kangaroos, jumping kangaroos,
                Kangaroos, kangaroos, jumping kangaroos!

Then sing to the tune of the “Dashing through the snow” part:

                 One day these kangaroos,
                 Met another kangaroo,
                 A very nice kangaroo,
                Her name was (Sahasra) Roo!

(Name a child in the circle, who will jump up and join the other jumping kangaroos.)

Continue until the circle is full. Continue playing if more children need turns to
kangaroos!

“Kangaroos!” helps develop locomotor skills, active listening, auditory memory, and responding to auditory cues.

The song helps children remember their classmates’ names, but it’s also so much fun they’ll want to play it all through the year!

“Kangaroos!” is from my book Shake, Rattle and Roll: Rhythm Instruments and More For Active Learning (Gryphon House, 2015).