WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY?
A fun, creative lesson using music, dance, and art. Students explore rhythm, sound and animal communication, then invent their own dance sequences using stick figures. The activity combines movement, drawing, and imagination, perfect for early primary learners. Download the free lyrics, use it for speech marks practice and let students animate their own “fox” story through simple poses and actions.
Imagine if you could count using dance moves!
That’s exactly what a clever French scientist named Étienne-Jules Marey dreamed up back in the 1800s. Instead of writing numbers like 1, 2, or 3, he made a code using stick figure poses. Every number had its own move, arms up, leg out, bend here, twist there, a bit like a robot dance of maths!
HOW it works!
Each position stands for a number, like 1 to 9, 10 to 90, and even 1000 to 9000.
When you line up a few poses, you get a full number — just like spelling a word with body language!
WHY he did it!
Marey was fascinated by how people and animals move. He used his drawings to study motion, long before movies even existed!
His idea was to show that numbers could come alive through movement.
So really, this chart is an early mix of maths, science, and art, a secret code you can act out with your body.
Try it! Can you pose your way to your birth year?
What Does the Fox Say? Around 3 mins
The words are also fabulous to use for speech marks and descriptions.
Download the lyrics here or display them on the smart board.
Then select your favourite sections and create your own dance.
Check out the DANCE page for more great Ideas
SPEECH MARKS
Bird goes, “tweet,”
cow goes, “moo,”
dog goes, “woof,”
cat goes, “meow,”
and mouse goes, “squeak.”
As a group, draw your favourite sequence from the song. Practice it with your groups and then perform it for everyone.
Add speech bubbles and a title. Add arrows to show actions.
Once you have done this check out THE TWIST and invent your own Dances.
This lesson connects literacy, art, music, and movement.
Students interpret sound and motion visually, linking language and body expression.
It supports creative confidence and group collaboration, while reinforcing writing skills through speech marks and dialogue.
Keep Exploring…….
Watch the Video
Dream it Create it with Adobe FireFly. Watch the Video to see how to prompt your own Mr Fox using a Fantastic Prompt
CODE
Design an app, code in JavaScript with either blocks or text, then share your app in seconds.
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