A moving picture is a simple piece of paper engineering that brings a story to life: slide a lever and something on the page moves. The Grand Old Duke of York is the perfect rhyme for one, because the whole song is about marching up a hill and down again. Make the model together, then sing the rhyme and march the soldiers over the hill in time. Ages 2 to 5.
What you need
- A paper plate.
- Green paint, to make the hill.
- A craft stick.
- A split pin, also called a paper fastener.
- A small picture of marching soldiers. Draw your own or print a simple one.
- Scissors, for grown-up hands.
Making the moving picture
Paint the paper plate green and leave it to dry. Painting the plate is a lovely job for a child to do while you sing the rhyme. Once it is dry, fold the plate roughly in half so it stands up as a hill, then cut a curved slit along the fold line for the lever to travel through.
Stick the soldiers onto the end of the craft stick to make the lever, fixing them on with a split pin or a dab of tape. Then thread the stick up through the slit from behind, so the soldiers sit just below the top of the hill, ready to march.
How it plays
Now sing. “The Grand Old Duke of York, he had ten thousand men. He marched them up to the top of the hill, and he marched them down again.” Push the lever up on the “up” and pull it down on the “down,” and the soldiers rise over the hill and vanish behind it, right on cue. Matching the movement to the words is wonderful for learning the rhyme, for listening, and for that satisfying moment when a song and an action click together.
It is also a first taste of how things move: a lever sliding in a slot, making a picture do something. Once a child has the idea, they will want to make moving pictures for other rhymes, an Incy Wincy spider climbing the spout, or a star twinkling across the sky.
For more nursery rhyme play, our Old MacDonald’s farm busy bag brings a song to life with animals, and our Miss Polly had a dolly story sack acts another rhyme out with props.