Caitie is sharing tips for using the preschool song “When I Grow Up” in the classroom and at home for lots of fun learning with little ones. She has lots of great ideas! And she’ll lead us through the song using gestures – an excellent way to introduce a song to children. “When I Grow Up” is a fun song that explores different jobs titles and the helpful phrase “when I grow up” as well as the question “what do you want to be?”
Try these ideas in the classroom or at home!
- This song explores four different jobs, a firefighter, an astronaut, a baker and a dancer. Each of these jobs is very different and demands different skills. Talk to your students about the different jobs and the kind of training, education and skills each job requires. Ask your students which one they would like from these four options and why.
- Try singing this song without the music and give each student a turn to give any answer they like. Or use the phrases from the song and go around the circle asking each student “when you grow up, what do you want to be?” and have them give their answer starting with the phrase “when I grow up, I want to be…”
- After each verse there is an instrumental break for creative movement – encourage your students to use any kind of movements they like to represent the job, having fun acting it out. You can also give them some fun props to use!
- Have your students draw a picture of what they want to be when they grow up. If they are writing, you can have them write at the bottom of their drawing, “when I grow up I want to be …” and have them write in their dream job. Once they have finished their drawing, they can stand up and share what they want to be with the rest of the class. You can use this free printable we create specifically for this activity!
- You can expand on the different jobs explored in this song with other Super Simple Songs. For example, Pat-A-Cake can be used to explore bakers, and Here Comes The Firetruck for firefighters.
More resources for this song (1)
