Tideo: socially distant movement lesson

I, along with many other music teachers I'm sure, use the song "Tideo" as a way to introduce barred sixteenth notes. For the last few years I've done a folk dance with the song to get students experiencing the rhythm, but with covid protocols still in place I needed a movement activity that students can do independently. Here's what we did!

I actually used to use this movement activity with the song before I came across the folk dance and it has always been a big hit- few lesson activities elicit as much focus as this one- and I was reminded of that when I brought it back this year. I cannot find a source for this activity nor can I remember if I got it from somewhere or made it up! If anyone knows of another source for this please let me know.

The idea is for it to be a cumulative movement activity, adding one move at a time to go with different words or phrases in the song. There are many different versions of the lyrics but it would be easy to modify to fit whatever version you use! Here's a demonstration of what I do:

Besides introducing barred sixteenth notes, this song lends itself well to a review of pentatonic solfege. I use the song to get students experiencing sixteenth notes before they are ever formally introduced to the concept or notation, and then use it as a review of the solfege notes after they've heard it over and over again as well. If you want the full lesson plan, it's included in the 3rd grade curriculum!

Now that I remember how engaging this format of introducing a song is, I'd love to use the same technique with other songs! Let me know in the comments if you've ever done something similar with another song (or with this one).