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Clap Your Hands: an action song for toddlers who will not sit still
What is in our two-minute Clap Your Hands video, the three movements it asks for, and how to use it as a brain break at home or in a classroom.
Some songs are for sitting. This one is not. Can You Clap Your Hands runs two and a half minutes and asks a child to do three things: clap, jump and dance. That is the whole song. That is also why it works.
What happens in it
The narrator asks a question, "Can you clap your hands?", and answers it: "Clap your tiny hands." It asks three times. Then it changes: "Now jump, jump!" Then, to anyone still moving, "I like the way you're dancing." Then it is over.
The characters do not speak, so there is nobody on screen to watch instead of doing the action. Mr and Mrs LuvBug move; the child copies them or copies you. Either works.
Three movements, in order
- Clap. The easiest movement a toddler has. Most can do it before they can say it. Start here so everybody succeeds in the first ten seconds.
- Jump. Harder. Under-twos will bend their knees and stay on the floor. That counts. Say "jump" as they do it, whatever it looks like.
- Dance. No instruction at all. Whatever they do when the music is on is dancing, and the song tells them it likes it.
The order is not an accident. It goes from the thing they can already do, to the thing they are learning, to the thing nobody can get wrong.
Using it as a brain break
In a classroom, this is a two-minute reset between two sitting activities. Stand everybody up, play it, sit everybody down. Because it is short and always the same, children stop needing instructions after the second time. They hear "Hello LuvBugz!" and they are already on their feet.
At home it does the same job before a nappy change, a car seat, or anything else that goes better with the wriggles got out first.
If you are teaching English
"Clap", "jump" and "hands" are among the first verbs and nouns a young learner can act out, which makes this a total physical response song without anyone having to plan one. Say the word, do the action, play the song. The colour, counting and alphabet videos on the teachers page work the same way.