Elementary Activity Idea: Cinco Ratoncitos

An Improving Early Language Programs (Ñandutí) listserv user recently suggested the following activity for elementary classes:

---
The traditional song, "Cinco Ratoncitos" merged with Four Corners!

Cinco ratoncitos, de colita gris
Mueven las orejas, mueven la nariz (act these lines out)
1,2,3,4,5 corren al rincon (The kids move to one of four designated "corners" where there is a color assigned.)
Porque viene el gato a comer raton (You can pick a color out of a hat, or have a student hiding his or her eyes and say a color. Those in that color corner sit down. Start again with 4 ratoncitos.)

I use a cat puppet and when we reach the part of the song where I sing "corren al rincon"...I pause and they run to one of the four corners of the rug where I have placed four colored squares. I have the four colored mice in my left hand and the cat puppet in my right hand. Once I start singing again, they have to stay in their chosen corner. I sing "porque viene el gato a comer raton" and I pick one of the mice with the cat puppet and whoever is in that color corner sits down and sings during the next round.

Kranz, S. [nandu] IDEAS!. Improving Early Language Programs listserv (nandu@caltalk.cal.org, 21 Apr 2012).

Here is a link to the lyrics and a video of the song: http://www.spanishplayground.net/cinco-ratoncitos-%E2%80%93-a-traditional-rhyme-2