For teachers

Lesson plan: «Si tú tienes muchas ganas de aplaudir»

Children do the moves that «Si tú tienes muchas ganas de aplaudir» (the Spanish “If You’re Happy and You Know It”) names (clap, walk, move their heads, spin and jump), answer in the question game and change pace when the song goes very quiet or faster.

Ages: Ages 2–5
Time: 25 minutes
Areas: Movement and the body · Attention and self-control · Language and communication

Opening

Ask: «¿Qué hacemos cuando estamos contentos?» (“What do we do when we’re happy?”). Welcome every idea and try them out together: clapping, jumping, dancing…
Show the five cards and do each action once, slowly: clap, walk, move your head and shoulders, spin and jump with bent knees.
Watch the video once, together, and notice the order of the actions. Then turn the screen off.

Main activity

Sing the first verse slowly, without the video, and clap on «¡Palmas, palmas! ¡Una, dos!» (“Clap, clap! One, two!”). Pause before «aplaudir» (“clap”) so the group says it.
Go on with one verse per action. Before each one, a child holds up a card and the group says what comes next: walking, moving, spinning or jumping.
Play the question game: the adult asks «¿Manos arriba?» (“Hands up?”), «¿Una palmita?» (“A little clap?”), «¿Da una vueltita?» (“A little spin?”), and the group answers «¡Sí!» (“Yes!”) while doing the action.
On «Ahora muy bajito» (“Now very softly”), sing in a whisper and take tiny steps; on «Más rápido ahora» (“Faster now”), speed up the claps and the steps. Then switch again: soft, fast, soft.
At the end, run through all the moves in a row, like the song does: claps, steps, a turn and a jump.

Closing

To wind down, sing the clapping verse very softly, with claps you can barely hear, until everyone is still.
Talk about it: “What did you like best: clapping, spinning or jumping?” Each child shows it once.
Have children draw their favorite action and tell how to do it.

Materials

A clear space to move around
Five cards with a picture of each action: clap, walk, move your head, spin and jump
Paper and crayons

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What to observe

Does the action the song names: clapping, walking, moving their head, spinning or jumping.
Answers «¡Sí!» (“Yes!”) and does the action in the question game.
Moves slowly and quietly in the soft part, and speeds up when the song asks for it.
Remembers the order of the moves in the final run-through, with or without help.

Adaptations

With 1-year-olds, sing it with the child on your lap: clap their little hands, sway on «caminar» (“walk”) and lift their arms on «saltar» (“jump”).
For children who don’t speak yet or who use AAC, the action cards are their support: they can point to the one that comes next before each verse.
For children who need to move less, everything works sitting down: patting their legs to walk, head and shoulders as in the song, a turn with the hands and arms up to jump.
Make up new verses with the group’s ideas: «Si tú tienes muchas ganas de reír…» (“If you really feel like laughing…”), «…de estirar…» (“…like stretching…”).

For families

Ask families to sing «Si tú tienes muchas ganas de aplaudir» at home and let their child choose the action for each verse.

If you teach Spanish as a new language

Teach the action verbs with gestures (TPR): «aplaudir» (clap), «caminar» (walk), «mover» (move), «girar» (spin), «saltar» (jump).
Many students know “If You’re Happy and You Know It”: the Spanish line «Si tú tienes muchas ganas de…» (“If you really feel like…”) works the same way, and only the action changes.
Use the question game as call and response: ask «¿Manos arriba?» (“Hands up?”) and students answer «¡Sí!» (“Yes!”) while doing the action.

ACTFL World-Readiness Standards: Communication (interpretive and interpersonal), Cultures (a traditional game is a cultural practice; the song, a cultural product) and Comparisons (Spanish sounds and words next to your students’ languages).

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