Share Your Experiences Using These Three Songs

I used the Just Like Me song last night with my son (22 months) while getting his jammies on. He loved it. He’s recently learned body parts and likes to point them out on others (and his stuffed animals) as well. We smiled and giggled as we labeled what body parts we both have – which corresponded to which body part we were putting in the pajamas.

Thanks for sharing this story, Liz. I sing this one with my granddaughter now!

I especially enjoyed using the song, “A car on my knee” but I substituted the car for an elephant puppet. I then varied the lyrics depending on where the child placed the elephant, e.g. on her head or foot. The child that I was working with enjoyed placing the toy on my shoes and laughed every time that I ended the song with a silly elephant trumpet sound.

I really like the song “Just Like Me!” because of the ability to adapt it to so many various body parts. I am going to a preschool group tomorrow, so I will be using it. As I practiced it I adapted it in my own ways and discovered that the use of repetition will be enhanced with a space. For example, “you have two feet just like me… just like me, just like me. you have two ________” and leave a pause for a response, also keeping in mind that combined with body language, the music can speak for itself. There’s the inclination to go down from the ^3 to ^1 so not only will the space motivate and the anticipation of the word, but also the musical contour of the melody allows for that response.

I loved the “Car On My Knee” song so much. Like Meghan said, it definitely has space to change the lyrics and body parts that you can place the car on, or whatever object is used, to work more on body identification. I would love to use this song with my kids at the daycare center!