Today’s podcast is short, sweet, and familiar! My friend Evelyn and I share Row Row Row Your Boat with some fun and silliness!

Hopefully this sparks your creativity to write some more silly verses.

We use our imaginations to pretend we’re in a boat, or sit facing a partner holding hands and rocking back and forth as if in a boat.

Row row row your boat

Gently down the stream

Merrily merrily merrily merrily

Life is but a dream

Row row row your boat

Gently to the shop

And if you see a kangaroo

Don’t forget to hop

Row row row your boat

Gently to the swamp

And if you meet an elephant,

Don’t forget to stomp.

Row row row your boat

Gently down the stream

And if you see a hungry shark,

Don’t forget to scream.

This activity and many others come straight out of our Summer music course which is inside our membership but also found in our "Four Seasons Music and More Curriculum."

Click here to read more about what is included inside the summer course and to see if the Four Seasons Curriculum is right for your family.

How to adapt and extend the activity found in this episode:

• Make up new verses with your child. Ask them which animal they would like to meet, what the animal does (ie: stomp, hop, etc) and then come up with a location word that rhymes with the animal’s action.
• Imaginative play: take an imaginary trip on a rowboat with your child. As you meet the various characters in the song, imagine what you/they might say, and what types of adventures you may have together.
• Create more variations incorporating musical concepts: Example: Row, row, row your boat softly down the stream (piano!), then loudly down the stream (forte!). Row smoothly or bouncily down the stream (legato/staccato), slowly or quickly (adagio/allegro).
• Ukulele: learn how to play the C chord, and sing this song while strumming the C chord If you have a few older singers in your family, try singing this song as a round with 2 or 3 groups. One person or group starts the song and continues while the next group starts singing, one phrase later.

What your child is learning:

• Cooperation
• Gross motor skills
• Body awareness
• Steady beat
• Phonemic awareness (rhyming and repetition)

Music credit: Row, Row Row Your Boat: Traditional American nursery rhyme, credited to Eliphalet Oram Lyte