| Each
Hot Diggity Dog CD comes with a free activity
chart that describes the motions and activities you
and your children can do with each song. These
charts are a fantastic teaching tool for parents and
teachers.
In
them, you'll find illustrations and step-by-step instructions
on how to teach your child finger play, hand motions,
body movements and simple percussion parts that accompany
the songs.
|
 |
 |
Parents
and teachers love our activity charts. Each chart comes
free with your purchase. Use it as a
way to encourage your child or your students in their fine
and gross motor development, or, use it as a fun way
to interact with them.
Many
of the gestures on our charts are used like sign language.
They communicate a word, a thought, or an idea. When
children are taught to combine gesture with language, their
communication skills are strengthened.
Stop
in at any nursery school and observe their song time.
The teachers always use finger play, hand motions and body
motions with the songs because they know the children enjoy
it, plus it helps them develop their movement skills.
When it comes right down to it, young
children are really energy in motion (you
already knew that!). They need to wiggle, squirm, bounce, clap,
dance, jump, sway, wave their arms, and do anything else
that expresses their natural need to move.
Without
the green light to move around, your young child will most
likely become restless and frustrated in just a matter of
a few seconds. It’s just not natural for them to sit still
for longer than a few minutes.
Therefore, in any good pre-school music
program, you will find songs that are accompanied by:
- finger
play motions (small motor motions using fingers
and hands - a standard feature of any good pre-school
song)
- hand
motions (small motor motions using hands and arms
- also a common feature of pre-school songs)
- body
movements (gross motor movements one does with
their whole body, i.e. bounce, jump, sway, dance, stand
up, sit down)
- simple
percussion parts (rhythm sticks, wood blocks,
triangles, maracas, tambourines, drums, etc.)
The more you can incorporate this natural
tendency for motion into a child’s activity,
the more they will naturally enjoy it. So, in promoting Hot Diggity Dog on the internet,
one of our challenges was:
|
"How
can we make sure that everybody knows that it’s
GOOD |
|
to
wiggle and squirm to Hot Diggity Dog?" |
Eureka!
We
decided to include our activity charts for free
when you purchase any Hot Diggity Dog CD.
We
realized that with just a few helpful hints, parents, teachers,
children’s librarians, nurses, and everyone else that uses
Hot Diggity Dog, could demonstrate to their children
some fun things to do with their fingers, hands and bodies
while they listen to the music. And since most folks
who come to our website from various parts of the world
haven't seen us perform live, and therefore have no
clue that there were lots fun things to do with your body
during each song, making up a chart of all the motions seemed
like a really good idea to us. Our charts are clear
and easy to understand, so that, at a glance, you can see
how to do each of the suggested movements.
Here’s
how it works…
As
soon as you have a spare 5 minutes, take a minute to look
over each of the motions and percussion parts on the activity
chart. Familiarize yourself with them and try them out with
your fingers, hands and body. Believe us, it really
only takes 5 minutes because the motions are:
- simple
- designed for a young child
- very repetitive
Then,
when you and your child decide to listen to your new Hot
Diggity Dog CD, take out your chart and show
your child how to do the motions and percussion parts. Your
child will naturally imitate you. And even if your child
doesn’t do exactly what’s on the chart, moving their fingers,
hands and bodies in any repetitive way to
the songs, is the goal. Moving around to music, in
any way they can, is fun
and exciting
for young child. It doesn’t matter what movements they make! Then,
the next time you play your Hot Diggity Dog CD, your
child will automatically use their fingers, hands and bodies
while they sing along. Keep your chart handy...in
a classroom desk...in a kitchen drawer... on a bedside table.
That way you'll always know where to find it.
And,
as we said before, no matter what motions they do, its going
to be fun and captivating for them. And remember,
at this age, the more they can incorporate movement into
their activities, the more natural it will be and the more
fun it will be! Read more
details about the motions and
percussion parts that accompany each song and listen to
audio samples on our Sound Bites
and Bits page.
CDs:
$12 cassettes: $8
|
is...