"Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime?"

This week I wanted to have some fun with the season and sing "Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime?" (CS 245).

I figured some simple "role playing" maybe even with props would be fun. I found the following idea on SurgarDoodle.net:

A fun song we are doing next week is "Oh, What do you do in the summertime?"  I have done a little prop and role playing in the past, and it has worked great.  Choose different children to come up front for each verse. The children remaining can mimic the movements of those in front.  The props are easy to find and make, but the children remember them for a long time.  The props make the actions a lot more fun for even the oldest of Primary children.

Verse 1

"Do you fish...?" Child 1 holds a dowel with a string and a toy or paper fish attached to the end.

"or lazily dream..." Child 2 sits in a chair, with legs stretched out in front, hands behind head. Looks up slightly.

Child 3 Holds a cloud over the other's head. Cloud can be made with poster or stiff board, cut like a cloud and batting glued on.

Verse 2

"swim in a pool" child 1 (from next group) holds or wears swimming prop (tube, goggles, beach towel, or snorkel) and makes swimming gesture

"swing in a tree..." child 2 sits in chair and  pretends to swing with arms

child 3 holds a branch over the childs head.

Verse 3

"march in parades" child 1 (from third group) holds a flag or wears a festive hat and marches in place

"drink lemonades" child 2 pretends to drink or sip from a brightly colored plastic cup

"count all the stars..." child 3 sits in chair and points to ceiling and pretends to count stars

child 4 holds black paper or poster with star stickers all over it.


What I am going to do is pretty similar:

1. Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green? = I may or may not have someone stand up with “questioning” arms (you know, putting your elbows to your sides with your palms up) and another hold a green ball or something green…probably not though.
Do you fish in a stream, or lazily dream on the banks as the clouds go by? = Same as SugarDoodle (SD)
Is that what you do? So do I!

2. Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green?
Do you swim in a pool, = same as SD
 to keep yourself cool, =fan self with hands
 or swing in a tree up high? = sit in chair and pretend to swing
Is that what you do? So do I!

3. Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green?
Do you march in parades, or drink lemonades, or count all the stars in the sky? = same as SD minus black paper
Is that what you do? So do I!



Report: This ended up being really fun! Our senior primary ended up being on the smaller side that day, so I had them sit in a circle and had the "actors" do their thing in the middle as it got to their part. It was fun and kept everyone engaged :)