If you have not purchased Canta Conmigo! by Dr. Rachel Gibson, add it immediately to your next order. She is absolutely brilliant and truly an amazing resource for authentic music from Spain, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. 

I learned this song through a session that she presented at an OAKE conference a few years ago. Again, if you have not attended a conference, this is also high on my list of recommendations. It's in Chicago this year! 

If you're anything like me, trying to incorporate authentic music from cultures and languages that are not my own is terrifying. Primarily, I want to make sure I'm offering my students the best experience of the music. I teach in a large hispanic population and often have a few kids in each grade that only speak Spanish. Seeing their faces light up when they recognized the language, even if my pronunciation wasn't perfect, was all worth it! 

To set my students up, I had them all seated in a circle. I started by just singing the first part and making a slithering motion with my hands pressed together as I walked around the circle. I asked them what they thought serpiente meant and based on my actions. After they answered snake, I sang it again and added a motion as if I was looking for something. I asked them what they thought the snake was looking for. Then I would sing it one more time, making it obvious I was looking for my tail. So, at this point, they've heard the melody 3 times at least. 

I then teach them the spoken part and tell them that it's asking if they would like to be part of my tail. We review that this is a yes/no question, but, since the song and question are in Spanish, we should learn in Spanish. 

Then, we play the game completely. 

This song works great for fast and slow because students can manipulate how fast the snake moves physically as well as singing it fast or slow. You can also have students adding to the tail move based on how the snake moved to them. 

I hope this brings your students as much joy as it has mine!