Hello Friends! Today we’re having even more fun with the folk song Thread Follows Needle. Make sure you’ve downloaded the Song Card from the last post and learned the song, and then let’s get started!
I decided to make the lacing cards because the song lends itself so beautifully to some early stitching practice! Lacing is an important skill in early childhood, and can help refine important fine motor movement and hand control (SO important for building up hand strength for other things like pencil grip and handwriting!).
As you play, you could even change the words from “Mother fixes Johnny’s clothes” to “[Child’s Name] fixes Johnny’s clothes”, because now they’re the ones doing the mending. In my family, we also like to change it sometimes to “Mother fixes [Child’s Name] clothes”. Children LOVE hearing their names in songs.
First, download the lacing cards file. Please remember all free resources on my website are for home and/or classroom use only.
Print, cut, and punch out holes in each card. After laminating, recut and re-punch the cards. Then take a length of yarn that is long enough to go around the entire perimeter of a card and tie it to the corner of each card. Either lace it with a plastic yarn needle or tape the end to make a lace (That’s what I do!). Voila! You’re ready to play!
In the classroom, this would make such a fun centers activity in younger grades. Have the kids sing through the song as they work, and for older kids, see if they can sing the song to the beat of lacing up and down through the cards (surprisingly tricky! It might force them to slow the tempo way down).
For home use, just enjoy singing through the song as you lace the cards! I put my son’s cards in a small tray and put on his open shelf, so that he can select the activity as he wishes. He’s been having so much fun with this, and I got a quick video of him lacing the cards that I shared over on my instagram.
And whether for home or school, having an activity to play along with the song gives repetition a meaning and extends the fun of the song. These seemingly simple songs are each deep reservoirs we can pull from to practice all kinds of things, like matching pitch, identifying sol/mi, early dictation, and quarter/eighth note rhythm reading practice. So much to learn, so little time.
Let me know if you give this activity a try! I love hearing from you!
Happy Singing! -Lauren