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Lesson plan: «Un elefante se balanceaba»

Children sing «Un elefante se balanceaba» (“One Elephant Was Balancing”), adding one more elephant every verse, count from 1 to 6, sway along a line on the floor and invite someone else to play.

Ages: Ages 3–6
Time: 30 minutes
Areas: Numbers and counting · Movement and the body · Getting along and feelings

Opening

Mark the line on the floor and explain that it’s a spider’s web. Put the toy elephant on it and ask: «¿Un elefante podría caminar sobre una telaraña?» (“Could an elephant walk on a spider’s web?”). Welcome every idea.
Walk around the room like elephants: slow and heavy, with one arm swinging like a trunk.
Watch the video once, together, holding up one more finger each time a new elephant arrives. Then turn the screen off.

Main activity

Sing the first verse slowly, without the video. One child is the first elephant and walks along the line, swaying, with one arm swinging like a trunk.
On «fue a llamar a otro elefante» (“went to call another elephant”), the elephant picks someone who hasn’t played yet, who joins the line holding their hand or waist.
Before each verse, ask: «¿Cuántos elefantes hay ahora?» (“How many elephants are there now?”). Count together, pointing to each elephant, and notice that there’s always one more.
The children waiting their turn sit around the line, sing and show on their fingers how many elephants there are so far. One child holds up the number card for each verse.
When you reach six, start another round with six new elephants, until the whole group has walked on the web.

Closing

To finish, the elephants sit down one at a time while the group counts backward, softer and softer: six, five, four, three, two, one.
Talk about it: “How did you stay on the line? How many elephants do you think the web can hold?”
Color a page from the song’s coloring book and count together how many elephants are in each picture.

Materials

A thick rope, colored masking tape or chalk to mark a long line on the floor (if it’s a rope, keep it flat and within an adult’s sight)
Six large cards with the numbers 1 to 6 and their dots
A toy elephant (or a picture of one)
Crayons

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What to observe

Says how many elephants there are before each verse.
Shows on their fingers how many elephants there are so far.
Walks along the line, swaying to the beat of the song.
Invites someone who hasn’t played yet and waits for a turn.

Adaptations

With 2-year-olds, skip the line: the adult is the first elephant and calls one more child every verse while the rest clap.
For children who don’t speak yet or who use AAC, use the song’s pictogram sheet and point to the number in each verse; to call the next elephant, they can point to a friend or look at them.
For children who need to move less, they can travel the line in their wheelchair or sway from their seat, swinging an arm like a trunk; they can also be the one who holds up the number card.
If the group speaks other languages, count the elephants in those languages before singing each verse in Spanish.

For families

Ask families to sing the song at home and, before each verse, to ask how many elephants there are now.

If you teach Spanish as a new language

Teach the key words with gestures (TPR): «elefante» (elephant), «araña» (spider), «tela de una araña» (spider’s web), «llamar» (to call: wave a friend over) and the numbers from «un» (one) to «seis» (six).
Model one line at a time and let students echo it: only the number changes from verse to verse, and «se balanceaba» becomes «se balanceaban» once there’s more than one elephant.
Ask «¿Cuántos elefantes hay?» (“How many elephants are there?”) before each verse; students answer with the number and their fingers: «¡Tres elefantes!».

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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