Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom

May Page

Dance Like a Chicken Day is May 14.

Did you know "The Chicken Dance" was first introduced in the US at the Tulsa Oktoberfest in 1981? Did you know the Chicken Dance was originally the Duck Dance? Learn more about The Chicken Dance and chickens on the Chicken Facts Page.

The Chicken Dance

  1. Everyone stand in a circle.
  2. When the music starts, hold your hands out in front of you and open and close them like a chicken beak four times.
  3. Put your thumbs in your armpits and flap your wings four times.
  4. Place your arms and hands like the tail feathers of a chicken and wiggle down to the floor four times.
  5. Clap four times.
  6. Repeat steps 1-5 four times.
  7. After the fourth time take the hands of the people on either side of you and everyone move in a circle.
  8. When you get dizzy, switch directions.
  9. Repeat until the end of the music or until you fall on the floor.

Oklahoma's Lesser Prairie Chicken

Parts of Oklahoma are home to the Lesser Prairie-Chicken. Historically, the Lesser Prairie Chicken was common throughout the western third of the state. They were dependent on large expanses of native prairie that had periodic disturbance from fire and grazing. Since the land run and settlement of the 1890s, most high-quality LPC habitat has been lost because of the conversion of prairies and shrubland to cropland, introduced pasture and development. Currently the birds can be found in Beaver, Cimarron, Ellis, Harper, Texas, Woods and Woodward counties.

Males advertise their territories by putting on a gobbling display. This behavior is exhibited mainly in spring, but occurs year-round. During the display, males erect their feathered pinnae, inflate their gular sacs, drop their wings, stamp their feet and make a unique, high-pitched gobble. Often two males will face off and gobble in a fast cadence. Also, short verticle flights, called flutterjumps, and cackling are performed between gobbling.

Prairie chicken dance: Male lesser prairie chicken, Woodward (SUNUP)

Oklahoma C3 Standards

  • Pre-Kindergarten - Physical Education: 1.2,3. Creative Skills: 1.1,5. Large Motor: 1.2,3
  • Kindergarten - Physical Education: 1.2,3. Music: 3.3. Large Motor: 1.2,3
  • Grade 1 - Physical Education: 1.2,3; Music: 3.3
  • Grade 2 - Physical Education: 1.1; 2.4. Music: 3.3
  • Grade 3 - Physical Education: 1.3. Music: 3.3
  • Grade 4 - Physical Education: 1.1. Music: 3.3

May Page

Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom

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Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom is a program of the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and the Oklahoma State Department of Education.