Two Little Blackbirds
Did you know?
When children hold a block, push a button, color with a crayon, and eventually write, they are using their fine motor skills. Many Music Together songs, including “Two Little Blackbirds,” give children the opportunity for “fingerplay”—they make small movements with their fingers and hands as they play. These activities build important fine motor skills by exercising the small muscles in the hands and coordinating hands and eyes.
Try this activity at home:
Make each of your hands into a “bird” by using your thumb and first finger to represent a beak. Sing about the birds as your hands dance in the air to the beat. One hand can be “Jack” and the other “Jill.” Raise them up as you sing their names, make them “fly away” behind your back; then make them reappear again, according to the words of the song.
Try to move your “blackbirds” in different ways: they can fly away quickly or slowly or in a bumpy or smooth way. You can also try “flapping” your hand—palm and fingers—as if they were a wing.
As a child explores the variety of ways in which to “fly” his fingers, he is working on his fine motor skills, all while having fun.
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