The Giant Dance Scrunchie

Once upon a time, I attended a Jim Gill early childhood workshop and he brought out a giant dance scrunchie.  He showed off how he used his scrunchie and it was a lot of fun!  Fast forward about 10 years to when I had extra money in my programming budget and my library got our own giant scrunchie.

I will admit that giant scrunchies are not necessary to putting on a quality story time.  There are many supplies that I would get first (such as books, shakers, and scarves), which is why it took 10 years for me to get one.  There is a lot of good that you can do with them, though, in a group environment.

The scrunchie that I bought is from Bear Paw Creek.  There are various sizes that you can purchase, depending on your needs.  I use the XL stretchy band that they say works with 11-14 people, but I can easily fit 25 2-year-olds around it.  While it would be possible to make your own, this one is brightly colored and durable.

My ideal group to use this with is with kids ages 2-5.  I have tried it with the babies (under 24 months) and they like to squish it.  They just aren't ready for the movement that this entails.  With my 2-year-olds, we used to do Ring Around the Rosie and hold hands in a circle.  My kids here don't like to touch so we would end up with a snaky shape, rather than a circle.  They will hold the stretchy band though.

When looking for songs, I look for ones that use a circle, similar to what I would do when planning parachute activities.  Up and down, fast and slow, and colors all work well too.  Here are some of my favorites:

Ring around the rosie,

A pocketful of posies,

Ashes, ashes,

We all fall down!

While the kids work together on their circle, promoting cooperation and following directions, we all know that falling is the best part of this song.

London bridge is falling down,

Falling down, falling down.

London bridge is falling down,

My fair lady.

Take the keys and lock her (them) up,

Lock her up, lock her up.

Take the keys and lock her up,

My fair lady.

This one works best for me if the parents hold the ring up tall while the kids walk around the room.  When you get to the second verse, have the parents bring the ring down to trap the kids.  You will get a lot of giggles as everybody wants to be trapped.  Since the ring is stretchy and there is some give in it, it isn't scary like being trapped.

The wheels on the bus go round and round,

Round and round, round and round.

The wheels on the bus go round and round,

All through the town.

The people on the bus go up and down,

Up and down, up and down.

The people on the bus go up and down,

All through the town.

For the first verse, we spin the circle as we walk with the scrunchie.  For the second verse, we bring the scrunchie up and down.  While there are more verses to the song, my 2-year-olds can't handle more and continue to pay attention.

Here we go round the mulberry bush,

The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush.

Here we go round the mulberry bush,

So early in the morning.

This one is just a spinning circle song with the scrunchie.

Row, row, row your boat, 

Gently down the stream.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a dream.

Row, row, row your boat, 

Gently down the stream.

If you see an alligator,

Don't forget to scream.

For this one, we sit on the floor in a circle and row the giant scrunchie.  Since there is some tension in it, we are working the kids' arm and hand muscles.  At the end of the second verse, we all do our fake scream.

These are some songs to get you started.  Which ones work best for you?