Blue Danube Ball
Activity Instructions:
Pass out playground balls. Explore tapping the ball, bouncing the ball, rolling the ball, and bouncing on top of the ball. Then start song and follow directions in song.
Lyrics:|: I’m tapping my ball :| now I’ll pass it to a friend
|: I’m bouncing my ball :| now I’ll pass it to a friend
|: I’m rolling my ball :| now I’ll pass it to a friend
|: I bounce on my ball :| now it’s time for this song to end
The Blue Danube is the common English title of An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314 (German for “By the Beautiful Blue Danube”), a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866. Originally performed in February, 1867 at a concert of the Wiener Männergesangsverein (Vienna Men’s Choral Association), it has been one of the most consistently popular pieces of music in the classical repertoire.
The piece was prominently used in the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The waltz is heard as a space plane approaches and docks with a space station, and then again while another spacecraft travels from the station to the Moon. It is also heard over the film’s closing credits.