Song Of The Month: The Ants Go Marching

This song of the month is “The Ants Go Marching One by One.”

I have a wide variety of children on my caseload: babies, wild toddlers, shy toddlers, babies on oxygen, and babies with vision loss. Each child’s goals are individualized, and I cater my activities to each one. (As we do!)

Singing Action Songs for Early Intervention

I find that singing songs with actions is a strategy that is applicable to almost every single child—not every, but almost! Using the same song for all children helps me be consistent but also allows me to be individualized. Changing the song each month keeps me from going insane and adds variety to the children’s routine as well.

I have changed the lyrics somewhat because… well, you’ll see. 
“The ants go marching 1 by 1; the little one stopped to suck his thumb–“

‘I changed to “show his thumb,” because I don’t want to encourage thumb-sucking.  No, thanks. Let’s don’t open that can of worms.  
“The ants go marching 2 by 2; the little one stops to tie his shoe.”

Little ones can’t tie yet, so I change the words to “show” his shoe.

“The ants go marching 3 by 3; the little one stops to climb a tree,”

I changed this to “touch his knee” because I like more tangible and literal actions for early intervention. You can’t really climb a tree in the living room, but you could pretend to climb a tree. Your choice.  

“The ants go marching 4 by 4; the little one stops to shut the door.” 

I stop at verse 4. The rest of the verses are pretty abstract and too high-up to worry about counting or holding attention. Take a dive? Pick up sticks? Pray to heaven? Uhhhh, nevermind.

Here are some ways I make this month different, yet the same,  with “The Ants Go Marching One by One.”

1. Gross Motor: Marching and Dancing.
   • During the chorus of “Hurrah, hurrah” the arms go up. More choices include:
     • I can help them put their arms up.
     • Children can copy my arms going up.
     • We can give a high-five instead.
2. Repetition.
   • In this song, “hurrah, hurrah” and “boom, boom” provide opportunities for repetition which in turn provides opportunities for working on the child’s goal, which brings me to the next one.
3. Pairing Motor Movement with Sounds.
   • I see it work every day. This song gives you an opportunity to pair a movement with “hurrah” and “boom.” You can get creative. 
     • For a child who is working on weight shifting while standing, I might gently shift their weight each time we go, “Hurrah.”
     • We may do something playful, like taking their hands off the couch and bringing them up for the “booms.”
     • For a little one on his tummy, I can help him roll off his tummy at the “hurrahs” and then kick his legs for the “boom, booms.”
     • For a toddler running around the room, I will model the traditional marching motions, stomping extra loud with a deep voice (like a giant) for the “booms” to make them laugh and want to join.
     • For a child playing with blocks, I bang the blocks together for “boom, boom.”
4. Counting on Fingers.
   • I don’t push letters, colors, numbers, or shapes on 2-year-olds with language delays. I just don’t. I know parents find that stuff important, though. I will incorporate some of that when it is tangible and appropriate in our play. For this song, counting on fingers for a child who is ready for it is something I am OK with.
5. Vocabulary.
   • Naming body parts and objects is a language milestone. For a child who is not talking yet, we can simply point to the shoe, knee, and door. For a child who is working on talking, we can model the words several times and then encourage them to imitate the “shoe, knee, and door,” Following instructions. 
   • Show his thumb, touch your shoe, touch your knee, and shut the door. These are GREAT little opportunities to work on following instructions with and without physical/visual prompts. 
   • What better way to teach the concept of down than bending down, touching the floor, and crouching down? “And they all go marching DOWN to the ground to get out of the rain.”
6. Art. 
   • I happen to have an ant-shaped hole punch that is easy for children to use and makes perfect shapes to pick up and glue. The tiny ant shape it produces is still a challenge to the pincer grasp, but a do-able challenge.
   • If you don’t have this whole punch, you can tear snippets of black construction paper and pretend they are ants.
   • Parents get excited when their baby makes art!
   • Squeezing a glue bottle is good for building strength, too. If you are working with a toddler who has no problems with strength building but struggles with self-control, you may want to use a glue stick. Also, children with tactile sensory defensiveness can work on tolerating the stickiness while doing art with a glue stick.

Using the simple song “The Ants Go Marching” is a great way to both be individualized and consistent in your own lesson planning. You can address a wide variety of goals as well as keep your planning simple. What are some other strategies you can do with this song?

The ants go marching one by one,
hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching one by one,
hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching one by one,
The little one stops to show his thumb
And they all go marching down
to the ground
To get out of the rain,
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The ants go marching two by two,
hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching two by two,
hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching two by two,
The little one stops to fix his shoe
And they all go marching down
to the ground
To get out of the rain,
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The ants go marching three by three,
hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching three by three,
hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching three by three,
The little one stops to touch his knee. 
And they all go marching down
to the ground
To get out of the rain,
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The ants go marching four by four,
hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching four by four,
hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching four by four,
The little one stops to shut the door
And they all go marching down
to the ground
To get out of the rain,
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

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