Musical Alphabet Chairs

Introduction

Play a game of musical chairs with a new alphabet and word twist!

Materials:

• chairs from your kitchen or dining room table
  
  
• music player
  
  
• instrumental music (optional)
  
  

Directions:

• Depending on how many kids you have, you will need to have one less chair than there are children. So if you have 5 children playing the game, you need to have 4 chairs. Put the chairs back to back so that there are two chairs facing in one direction and two chairs facing the other direction.
  
  
• Have the kids stand around the chairs.
  
  
• Now, play the music and sing the Alpha Pig Alphabet Song. Have all the children walk in a circle clockwise around the chairs.
  
  
• During the song, stop singing and stop the music. Try stopping at vowels or the letters of the kid's names who are playing. Example: If the children's names are Tom, Sally, Mike and Beth, stop at B, M, S and T.
  
  
• When you stop the song, everyone has to find a chair. The child who is still standing and did not get to a chair on time is out. The last one sitting in a chair is the winner.
  
  
• To make the game more suspenseful, you can slowly say part of the song and then speed up at parts which will be very funny as well.
  
  
• *You can find the Alpha Pig ABC, Sing with Me song in the music video section.
  
  

Take it further:

• Play Rhyming Chairs! Tell your child to sit when he or she hears an -air family word. Say words from different word families while playing instrumental music, but make sure to include stair, fair, air, hair, chair as cues for your child to sit. Take it further by playing with different word families; -at, -all, -ail!
  
  
• bell, fell, yell, shell, smell, spell, swell
• cake, bake, rake, lake, brake, shake, flake
• cat, rat, bat, hat, mat, sat, flat, that
• dice, mice, rice, nice, price, slice, ice
• mail, snail, pail, nail, rail, sail, tail, trail
• wall, ball, tall, fall, mall, small
  
  
• Wonder Red Musical Chairs! Say the following Wonder Red word family song: "Airs, chairs, stairs. Wonderific you're terrific. Pairs, fairs, hairs. Wonderific you're terrific, airs!" Try using other rhyming words to make your own Wonder Red song. *You can also play this game using the Rhyming Time music video.
  
  
• Banana Fana Fo Song! Play musical chairs by singing the Banana Fana Fo Song! For example, if you are using the word chairs, your song would be: "Chairs chairs bo bairs banana fana fo fairs, me mi mo mairs, chairs!" If you were using the word jump, your song would be: "Jump jump bo bump banana fana fo fump, mi mi mo mump, jump!" Make sure to stop at different parts of the song so it is a surprise to the kids. For example: "Chairs chairs bo" ..stop.. "bairs banana fana fo" ...stop..
  
  
• Sing your favorite SUPER WHY song. Be sure to visit the music videos section of Super Stuff to play and sing songs for musical chairs.
  
  

Talk About It:

• What kind of music does your child like to listen to? Ask your child hat his or her favorite song is? What was your favorite song when you were a child? Talk to your child about the importance of music.
  
  
• In the episode Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Goldilocks made a mess in the three bears' house. She learned that she has to 'clean up' when she makes a mess. Ask your child what he or she should do when they make a mess. Talk to your child about the importance of cleaning up after you are done playing with toys or when you make a mess.