At the beginning of the school year, I always sang Hickety Tickety Bumble Bee with my young students. Using it to learn their names and encourage them to sing by themselves. Unfortunately when my classes were large, I would end up singing the song 20-25 times because everyone's name had to be sung! So finding Bumpity Bumpity Yellow Bus in the Song Play book was a nice surprise. It works very similar to how I used the other version but in the Song Play book, movement was a main focus. My students enjoyed adding the movements while singing the song. But the primary focus here was on the individual student and how important their name is and how they say their name. They all wanted us to hear and say their names. I noticed though when some students would say their names, we didn't always echo it back the same. So we would stop, and really listen to their name and their voice and repeat it back just as they had said it. You could see on that child's face the pleasure in hearing their name said in the same way.
We also tapped the names as we said them, listening carefully to how many times we would tap for the names. Sometimes we would practice a name a few times to make sure we had it correct. We also listened to the strong sounds in the names and tapped them harder in our hands.
Playing with their names was a fun activity for the students. A person's name gives them an identity and it is important to let children know their name is important. It is equally important to say their name as they say it.
