Spring Music and Movement Activity “My Little Garden”

Here’s a spring music and movement activity for “My Little Garden”. Spring music and movement activities are a fun way to help children grow their coordination, rhythm, and creativity. In this blog post, you’ll find playful ideas to get your students moving, singing, and celebrating the joy of spring!

SPRING MUSIC AND MOVEMENT ACTIVITY “MY LITTLE GARDEN”

I’m sharing how to do the movement actions to the song “My Little Garden”. There are nine verses and each verse of the song will feature a different character and movement. Be ready to challenge your students with this activity. There’s lot’s of directional movement as well as fast/slow dynamics.

Make your spring lessons more interactive with action and movement songs. Music and movement activities will help your students learn and stay highly engaged and help them make important musical connections.

“My Little Garden” has nine verses, and in each verse, a different character from the garden or springtime scene performs a fun action. We start with a simple, two-line repeating refrain at the beginning of each verse, then introduce a new character and action.

The melody is a combination of two familiar nursery rhymes: “The Farmer in the Dell” and “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.” This makes it super easy to learn and start using right away!

WHY USE SPRINGTIME ACTION SONGS?

Songs like “My Little Garden” provide many developmental benefits:

• Exercise both gross and fine motor skills
• Connect movement, music, and literacy
• Build vocabulary with springtime words
• Strengthen verbal and linguistic skills
• Encourage creativity and imagination
• Foster connections to nature

Including fingerplays and action songs in your curriculum supports children’s musical, physical, and cognitive development.

LISTEN TO THE SONG

“MY LITTLE GARDEN” SONG LINKS

Click on the image to get the song links to your favorite music station.

“MY LITTLE GARDEN” SONG BY SING PLAY CREATE

The sun comes up. The sun goes down. The flowers in the garden are dancing all around. Dancing, dancing all around. All around, all around. Dancing, dancing all around. In my little garden.

HOW THE SONG STRUCTURE WORKS

Each verse follows this pattern:

• Begin with: “The sun comes up. The sun goes down.”
• Then feature a new character and action
• Repeat the refrain with simple, rhythmic movements
• End with: “In my little garden.”

There is also a brief time signature change to 6/8 for the “dancing” or other action parts, giving the song a lilting, energetic feel.

MOVEMENT ACTIONS FOR EACH VERSE

Here are the characters and actions for each verse:

1. FLOWERS – Dancing
2. TREES – Twirling (spread your arms and twirl)
3. BEES – Buzzing (make fists and buzz around)
4. BUNNIES – Hopping
5. BIRDIES – Flying (use your arms as wings)
6. BUTTERFLIES – Swirling (big, cross-body movements)
7. SNAKES – Slithering (use hands or arms to mimic a snake)
8. CLOUDS – Raining (wiggle fingers like falling rain)
9. SEEDS – Growing (scatter seeds, then grow up tall

SONG LYRICS

Listen to the song and pat knees on the beat.

The first part of each verse repeats at the beginning of all consecutive verses.

“The sun come up, the sun goes down”.

Then a “character” does an action. There are nine verses in the song and each verse has a different action.

The end of each verse is the same and we’ll take a big breath afterwards as we roll our hands as we sing “In my little garden”.

Teach each verse an action separately. Allow children to move freely and use their own actions.

1

The sun comes up

The sun goes down

The flowers in my garden

Are dancing all around

Dancing, dancing all around

All around, all around

Dancing, dancing all around

In my little garden

2

The sun comes up

The sun goes down

The trees in my garden

Are twirling all around

All around, all around

Twirling, twirling all around

In my little garden

3

The sun comes up

The sun goes down

The bees in my garden

Are buzzing all around.

Buzzing, buzzing all around

All around, all around

Buzzing, buzzing all around

In my little garden

4

The sun comes up

The sun goes down

The birdies in my garden

Are flying all around

Flying, flying all around

All around, all around

Flying, flying all around

In my little garden

5

The sun comes up

The sun goes down

The bunnies in my garden

Are hopping all around

Hopping, hopping, all around

All around, all around

Hopping, hopping, all around

In my little garden

6

The sun comes up

The sun goes down

The butterflies in my garden

Are swirling all around

Swirling, swirling all around

All around, all around

Swirling, swirling all around

In my little garden

7

The sun comes up

The sun goes down

The snakes in my garden

Are slithering all around

Slithering, slithering all around

All around, all around

Slithering, slithering all around

In my little garden

8

The sun comes up

The sun goes down

The clouds in my garden

Are raining all around

Raining, raining all around

All around, all around

Raining, raining all around

In my little garden

9

The sun comes up

The sun goes down

The seeds in my garden

Are growing all around

Growing, growing all around

All around, all around

Growing, growing all around

In my little garden

HOW TO PLAY THE CIRCLE GAME

1. Form a big circle with all the students sitting down.
2. Assign each child to a specific verse character.
3. When their verse comes, they go to the center of the circle and perform their movement.
4. Encourage them to create their own version of the action to boost creativity!
5. You can sing with or without music, adjusting the speed as needed.

Pro Tip: If you have a large group, divide students evenly among the nine verses. You can also have everyone be “seeds” at the end if needed.

TEACHING TIPS

You may want to sing and practice the actions one verse at a time.

Sing the song acapella so that it’s slow enough for the younger children to learn.

Challenge older students in 3rd grade to create their own actions for each verse of the song.

CLASSROOM TIPS

After learning the song and actions, you can extend the activity by:

• Having students return to their seats for a springtime writing or vocabulary activity
• Listening to a spring-themed storybook
• Using it as a circle game!

FREE SPRING ACTIVITIES

It’s Spring! And it’s the perfect time to bring movement, music, and imagination together in your classroom with the “My Little Garden” activity song!

Designed especially for PreK through 2nd grade, this original movement song captures students’ attention with familiar melodies, creative play, and joyful movement.

There’s a FREE RESOURCE with the sheet music, lyrics and coloring pages and links to the music.

GET THE FREEBIE BY CLICKING THIS LINK

MORE SPRING ACTIVITY TUTORIALS

SPRING MOVEMENT ACTIVITIES FOR YOU

Bunny Writing, Coloring, Craft, Activities & Song “Funny Little Bunny” PreK-1

Spring Body Percussion Rhythm L1 Play Along Music Lesson & Activities

Scarf Movement Activity Song “My Little Garden”: Music, Movement, Literacy

Stretchy Band Music and Movement Activity Lesson “My Little Garden”

Parachute Movement Song Activity: “Flying High and Low”

Parachute Movement Song Activity for young children, “Flying High and Low” is an easy to learn parachute routine for children to learn via the video, music tracks and teaching presentation. Students will love waving, bouncing, high and low as the butterfly, honeybee and dragonfly fly through the garden.

Scarf and Ribbon Streamer Movement Song Activity: “Rainbows in the Sky” TpT Link

Scarf and Ribbon Streamer Movement Song Activity: “Rainbows in the Sky” Web Shop Link

READ THE BLOG: SPRING MUSIC AND MOVEMENT ACTIVITIES

Fun and Easy Music Activities with Balls

Fun and Easy Music Activities with Balls

Spring Music and Movement Activity “My Little Garden”

Spring Music and Movement Activity “My Little Garden”

Mother’s Day Song “Mother’s Day is Just for You” Children’s Action Song

Mother’s Day Song “Mother’s Day is Just for You”

Spring Parachute Activity “My Little Garden”

Spring Parachute Activity “My Little Garden”

Stretchy Band Music and Movement Activity “My Little Garden”

Stretchy Band Music and Movement Activity “My Little Garden”

Spring Scarf Movement Song “My Little Garden”

Spring Scarf Movement Song “My Little Garden”

FINALLY…

This is a super fun and easy spring movement activity for any classroom with young children. I hope your students will enjoy singing, moving, and imagining their own little garden!

Thanks for reading this post!

Please share!