Ants in My Pants: Book & CD

Albrecht's signature blend of humor and smart pedagogy shines throughout these 13 songs. Young singers stay engaged not just through the melodies but through the clever movement cues and classroom activities that turn singing into full-body exploration, and the included reproducible pages give you immediate flexibility for your own teaching context.

Joyful, silly, and full of motion. Each song bubbles with personality as your students inhabit worms, otters, spiders, and other creatures, their bodies becoming part of the music. The whimsy never feels forced; instead, it feels like permission to be exactly who you are at that age.

Primary-grade general music teachers and classroom instructors working with students in Pre-K through Grade 3 who want singing experiences that honor how young children learn best: through movement, imagination, and play. This collection works equally well for classroom exploration and onstage performance.

• Introduce each animal with its corresponding movement before teaching the melody; kinesthetic learners will remember the song faster when their bodies know the action first.
• Use the full performance recording as a model for energy and pacing during your first listen-through, then transition to the accompaniment tracks for student singing.
• Space out your movement activities over several lessons rather than staging all the choreography at once, allowing students to build confidence with both words and gestures gradually.
• Invite students to create additional movements for each animal beyond the printed suggestions; ownership of the staging deepens both memory and enthusiasm for performance.

Open a spring concert with a medley of these songs to establish an atmosphere of play and wonder from the start. You might also use individual songs as energizers between more formal concert pieces, or incorporate them into a thematic assembly celebrating animals and nature.

• Singing in unison with accurate rhythm and pitch
• Coordination of movement and melody
• Expression and character portrayal through gesture
• Following musical cues while moving
• Building confidence as an ensemble performer