At the recent "Back To School Day" I had the pleasure of attending a session run by the wonderful Kate Tyson (nee Thompson) and one of her activities was a gem from Judy Creen's book "30 Thematic Singing Games for Lower Primary" which I had previously overlooked.
The song is called Pirate's Gold, also known as Peg-Leg the Pirate and is a vocal recognition game.
A student is chosen to sit in the middle of the circle with their eyes closed. During the song, a clapping ostinato is set up (clap your own hands together, then reach out to the side and clap your neighbours' hands). To further complicate the ostinato, a small ball or other object is passed around the circle as part of that ostinato.
When you clap your neighbour's hand, they will pass you the ball into your left hand. Then when you clap your own hands, you will transfer it to your right hand, ready to pass on to your next neighbour on the following beat!
Whoever is holding the ball on "I have the gold!" will sing this section as a solo and the student in the middle of the circle must then identify who it was.
As Kate pointed out, this is a fantastic song for incorporating syncopa and la pentatonic and provides a wonderful opportunity for a solo singing assessment for your older students. Using thinking thumbs or another form of peer feedback, you can also increase the amount of student voice in your classroom by having the students assess and provide feedback to each other!
I can highly recommend this book as a wonderful source of games and you can pick it up online from Sound Thinking Australia
.