Read more about Donna's Camp Song Collection in this blog post.

Also, see sample pages of the 79 page document you will get when you purchase this collection.

Tongue Twisters - more great songs to include around the campfire!

Use camp songs at the beginning of the school year to “break the ice” and encourage students to join in singing. They are more likely to participate if their nervous laughter is covered by the laughter resulting from a silly song.

Camp songs can be used as warm-ups. Canons and rounds that are delightful around an evening campfire are also lovely as an easy harmony exercise and vocal warm-up. Action songs get students singing and moving to warm up (or wind down!) physically before singing.

Use camp songs as an end-of-year activity. Students anticipating the end of the school year may find it difficult to settle. Camp songs have a good combination of fun and exuberance to handle attitudes at this time of year.

Use camp songs to give your students a library of songs they can share in summer social settings when someone says, “Let’s sing something!” As much as the students learn from singing games and pedagogical songs, they are not the type of songs a student would suggest when they are contributing to a sing-along.

Read the lyrics carefully before using any camp song in this collection or anywhere else. Some lyrics that are acceptable to some may be considered inappropriate for others. You will need to make your own assessment of what is appropriate for your unique setting/school. “When in doubt, leave it out,” has always been sage advice.

Ask the students if they have a favourite camp song to share. Again, this is best done with some monitoring from the teacher!

Camp songs are fun to sing and can leave a lasting impression. I remember with great clarity being at camp and hearing "The Bear Song” for the first time. I listened in horror as that bear closed in on the singer. I could see that huge tree and the branch so far from the ground. When the runner jumps and misses, my heart was racing and I couldn’t figure out how this could possibly end well. The twist at the end when the singer actually missed the branch on the way up, but caught it on the way down was funny and a relief all at the same time. Fast forward to decades later, and I still love sharing this song with my students. The call and response format makes it accessible for the students with no words to remember (it’s all up to you, the song leader!). It is still a relief when the safe arrival on the branch concludes the song.

I also remember the crackle of the fire, darkness settling slowly and gently around us as we sang and roasted marshmallows. Singing songs in this setting is such a great memory.

Music and singing was a huge part of family life when I was growing up. My love of music has carried on to become my chosen profession, what I enjoy for fun, and my greatest joy. Perhaps young singers will learn a silly camp song, discover that they enjoy singing and include music in the activities they pursue for the rest of their lives. That’s a pretty big mandate for the lowly camp song, but you never know!

Use simple dances while students are entering and exiting the music room. Students simply do the actions as they walk, stopping now and then to do a fancy step or two. It gets them listening from the moment they enter the room.

Students who do not want to clap hands with a partner can do the clapping motions in the air. They are still participating but they are not being forced into an activity they find uncomfortable.

Use simple movement songs and adapted dances to fill the time when students are waiting (e.g. at a school assembly while waiting for all the students to arrive). Teachers and administrators will love the fact that the children are engaged and not getting into mischief. You will look like a magician in addition to being a musician!

Use dances and movement to create variety in a music class, providing a break from focused mental activities and from sitting for long periods of time. Use dances and movement to prepare or practice beat, phrase lengths, listening to instructions and responding to music. These are all music curriculum outcomes (just in case an administrator asks you to justify having so.much.fun.)

For “littles” use marches, fiddle tunes and other songs with simple musical forms and create your own dances with your students.

Older students appreciate moving to music that is more complex. Use movements that keep the beat without making any sound (tapping shoulders, winking, bending knees, etc.). Let the students be the leader, changing the actions for each new phrase – a great listening exercise!

Although I didn’t compose any of these four dances I had fun arranging them to use with my students. And I do have some dancing stories to share!

When I was a student, we didn’t have a music room in my small elementary school. The music teacher would travel to each classroom to teach music (sound familiar?) so we didn’t have much space for things like dance and movement activities. However, dance was part of our gym classes. Our teacher would bring out the record player that looked like a square box. The top was the speaker that would detach and be set up to amplify the scratchy 45 rpm record so we could dance. Those of you who are 50 years or younger may have to go online to read up on what a 45 record looks like! That scratchy little record allowed us to have great fun dancing to A-hunting We Will Go and Seven Jumps (among others). When I was teaching in my first school, among the resources I found in my room was an old 45 rpm dance record that included Seven Jumps!  Although I use a version of the music I created on my keyboard, the essence of that early recording has been preserved as closely as I could remember it. My students enjoy this dance as much as I did, and I STILL enjoy doing it with them, although I am not as limber as I was when I was eight years old!

Irish Polka and Clap, Clap Bow were songs that I discovered during my early years of teaching and they became a staple movement activity with my students. They work well as a greeting song as students enter the music room and any time we need a movement break. I also discovered that they could be pressed into service to keep students engaged (and out of trouble) when they were waiting for a school assembly to begin. I taught at a K-8 school with over 600 students. For an all-school assembly, the “littles” sat in the front which meant they arrived in the gym first. They would sit and wait for the rest of the students to arrive and be seated which sometimes took up to 15 minutes. This was long enough for them to become restless and get into mischief. I started doing simple music activities to keep them amused. We did follow the leader/keep the beat activities to lots of lively music. We also had some songs that I taught every class in the lower elementary grades so we could sing a few things while waiting. Then I discovered that Irish Polka and Clap, Clap Bow could be done while remaining seated. The students loved having something to do, the teachers were thrilled to be relieved of managing restless pupils and the principal was delighted with the wonderful behaviour of the students. Music for the win!

Sasha is a dance I discovered late in my career. I wish I had known about it earlier as this quickly became one of my students’ favourite dances (and mine also). The minor tonality and the lively music are a great way to perk up sluggish students, getting them moving and greeting others in the class. Although it is meant to be a partner dance, it also works to do the actions “in the air” if a partner has not been located in time, or if a student is needing personal space and doesn’t want to touch anyone else. I traced my hands and cut out the shapes using spongy craft material. Students without a partner could use my spare pair of hands on the nearby wall. (This is also a great adaptation for those who are averse to touching or being touched by others). Sasha was also a song that was used in the “waiting-for-the-assembly-to-start” rotation of songs.

Dance is such a great way to teach children to listen to instructions, move to the music, feel the beat and phrases, learn about respectful touching of others, and learn dances from other cultures. I didn’t know I was learning all those things when I was in elementary school. Dancing was just fun, and it still is!

Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for Jiggle Wiggle Freeze.

Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for the extended version of Jiggle Wiggle Freeze.

The following teaching tips are explained in more detail in the PDF download.

• Use the Donna & Andy performance track and have students concentrate on moving freely and freezing without being responsible for singing the words.
• Discuss the actions that will accompany each of the word combinations: jiggle wiggle, zigga zagga and wishy washy.
• Suggested actions are provided in the PDF download. However, students will have fun contributing their own movement ideas.
• Create your own silly movement words to include in the song.
• Add instruments when singing the move and freeze game versions.
• Create a tongue twister activity. Have students practice saying the tongue-twisty words before they attempt to sing them.
• Create a rhythmic ostinato and add it when singing Jiggle Wiggle Freeze.

Two melody/lyric options are provided for the extended version of Jiggle Wiggle Freeze. Choose the simplified melody for very young singers. The notes can be sung with a bit of a swing or the notes can be sung with even quarter notes. Since the students will be learning the song by rote, the teacher can make this decision and present the song whichever way works best for the students.

Jiggle Wiggle Freeze is an excellent repertoire choice for a concert performance. Students love to share their creative freeze poses and audiences enjoy the energy of this piece!

Jiggle Wiggle Freeze

Sometimes a composer writes a song because of an inspiration, a funny thing they have seen, a beautiful sunset, or a heartfelt sentiment they wish to convey. Other times, the need for a song is a practical thing. Such was the case for Jiggle Wiggle Freeze. I had a wiggly group of young students who were expected to perform at the school concert in December after being in school for only a few months. They were not really ready to sing, and they were a lively bunch. I decided to write a movement song for them. I had fun playing with words that had similar sounds, almost like a tongue twister. Students at this age also love to freeze dance, so I added that element into the song. It worked well in our December concert with its connection to the season being the “freeze” part and a small reference to winter weather. The “littles” are always a highly anticipated addition to a school concert and Jiggle Wiggle Freeze allowed them to deliver a simple song, some fun actions and do what they do best – be entertaining for family and friends.

Older students also love to move and freeze, so Jiggle Wiggle Freeze has been pressed into service throughout the year with classes of various ages as they arrive in the music room. We certainly have had fun doing jiggle wiggle, wishy washy, and zigga zagga dance moves, and of course, staying very still for the “freeze” parts!

Part 2 of the story….

In addition to being fun in the classroom, as time went on, Andy and I included Jiggle Wiggle Freeze in our Donna & Andy concert performances at schools and festivals. We created a longer version of the song with instructions that were very clear and easy for children to pick up right away. We also sang the song at a faster speed because one of my super powers is that I can sing lots of words quickly and I find it fun to show off my impressive tongue twister talent!

We went to the studio to record Jiggle Wiggle Freeze with fabulously talented musicians. It was a blast to record this accompaniment in a Dixieland style. It was recorded as we sing it in concert, at a faster speed, which suits my ability to sing rapid-fire lyrics, and we also swing the eighths. We were delighted with the end results and I knew kids will LOVE to move along with this track. However, I was concerned that young singers might find the speed challenging, SO, I simplified the lyrics and the melody to create less repetitions that should be easier for young singers. This way they can enjoy our smoking new studio tracks AND sing along.

I hope teachers will find a version of this song that works for the students in their classrooms and that everyone has fun singing, moving and freezing with Jiggle Wiggle Freeze!

When you have enjoyed singing this song and doing the activities with your students - please drop by again and leave a Review of Jiggle Wiggle Freeze. Thanks!

Please send us your performing video - we might be able to post it on this page!