In our class we have been discussing animals that hibernate for the winter and when we discovered that snakes usually hibernate in the winter the children decided we needed to sing one of our favorite songs. When we began listening to Suzy the Snake in the fall we decided we needed a Suzy of our own. We researched snakes by looking at books and on the internet and we decided that our Suzy was probably a rattle snake, the children decided that Suzy could make a sssss sound at the beginning of her words and give a shake of her rattle when she was finished.

Our Suzy took several days to complete. We made her basic form out of an extended wire coat hanger and covered it with masking tape. We then covered her body with paper mache’ and Suzy became quite chubby. We finished by working as a group to paint her body. We decided a toy rattle donated by one of the families made the perfect rattle at the end of her tail.

Suzy has had a place of honor in our classroom for several months until we discovered she needed to hibernate. We discussed that since Suzy was not a real snake she would not like sleeping underground. We decided she would want to be cozy in our classroom but where could she sleep? We decided it would need to be long, warm and should start with a sssss sound….we brainstormed and wrote our answers on chart paper and each student came up with what they thought would be perfect.

A ssssock borrowed from one of our dads and decorated to look like a sleeping bag ended up being the final hibernation location. We placed her on top of the cubby shelf with a sign that says “Wake me up in the spring.” Suzy still sleeps soundly until the weather begins to change. Through this type of imaginative play the children were able to work on many skills including problem solving, creativity, and imagination that will help them be skilled learners in the future. It was also fun to see the children be creative and learn about animals and weather in a practical creative way. You can use this and other creative ideas to bring Growing Sound children’s music to life in your home or classroom. The song Suzy the Snake comes from a Growing Sound collection called Music in My Mouth that helps to develop children’s language skills. The CD comes with a manual to help parents and teachers work on speech and grammar skills with their children.

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