Star Light, Star Bright

Someday I'd like to write a song that is more specific to Christmas. This song can apply to more than just Christmas, but it's a fun one to sing. It allows kids to respond and learn to take turns doing so. We learn more than just musical concepts here! :) Here are the lyrics:

Star Light, Star Bright, first star I see tonight.
Wish I may, wish I might have the wish I wish tonight.

This is sung in a Mi-Sol-La style (examples of Mi-Sol-La songs: It's raining, It's Pouring; a-Tisket-a-Tasket; and the ever popular taunt of "Na-na-na-na-na!"). Here's the piano audio file for it:
I have a star-tipped magic wand I wave around during this song and I make it wander until it lands on the child I want to highlight next. I speak the words, "What do you want for Christmas?" after singing the song, and then let the child respond before singing the song again and moving on to the next child. If you would like to make this a musical experience instead of just doing it for fun, you can ask the questions "What do you want for Christmas" in a mi-sol-la style, and then help kids learn to express their answer in the same way. Example: "I want a Fire Truck" sung in Mi-Sol-Fa style. The kids love expressing their Christmas desires!

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

This is sheerly for the fun of it! If you haven't heard this song before, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RBZz730ibU and hear the original version. It is silly and the kids LOVE it! There are enough Christmas sing-a-long picture books that I love that I will sometimes do two books, one at the start of the lesson and one at the end. After this book I sing a song that allows the kids to vocalize what they want for Christmas. I'll post that song on Monday! 

The Nativity Song

This is one of the most beautiful Christmas songs I know! It is a song that is sung by the children at my church, and all the music (lyrics, sheet music and audio files) can be found here: http://www.lds.org/music/library/childrens-songbook/the-nativity-song?lang=eng

The song tells the story of the Nativity and starts out: "This is the season, beloved of the year. Sing a rhyme, Christmas time soon will be here. Tell the true story of Jesus' birth, when, as a baby, he came to the earth." The verses that follow tell about each part of the Nativity: the new star, the angel proclaiming the birth, the stable, the animals, the manger, the shepherds, the wise men, Mary, Joseph and finally the baby Jesus. I just now discovered that this is in book form. I'm not posting it in my Friday book review because I haven't looked through it yet, but Simon Dewey is an amazing artist. I imagine the pictures in this book are wonderful!

Here is what I suggest doing with this song: Before you sing the book to them, bring a nativity set for the kids to touch and play with. Give each child a part of the nativity and have them hold it up during their part of the song. With older kids, you can have them solo the part of the song that their nativity piece represents. When everyone is taking a turn singing it's a great opportunity to get kids comfortable with singing alone!

5 Little Christmas Trees

This is a poem that the kids act out. It is geared more towards smaller children. Poems work well for working on memorization with children without having to learn a melody on top of the words. They can also be helpful with learning rhythms and recognizing rhymes. Here are the words:

5 Little Christmas Trees standing all alone
Their hearts were sad 'cause they didn't have a home.
Then CHOP went the ax and DOWN went a tree
And off it went with a happy family.

I have a flannel board I use to teach this rhyme. I use five different-looking pine trees and I have an ax I made out of laminated cardstock. Not the sturdiest--someday soon I need to find a toy ax! I have 5 children come up and take turns "chopping down" the Christmas trees. If you're teaching children in the 4+ age range you can have them tap sticks to the rhythm of the poem. You can also point out the rhyming words and have them tap only on the words that rhyme. If you wanted to put this to a melody, this youtube video has a fairly good tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZxfGSqGQ.

The First Noel

Beautiful images and a beautiful song! What more can you ask? Also, if you get it with the CD you get to listen to a classic rendition by the king. (We are Elvis fans in this house!) I love books that show the nativity in picture form so my kids can better understand the birth of our Savior. And it's even sweeter that I get to sing to it!

Hear Those Jingle Bells

This simple Christmas song gives kids a chance to learn about musical dynamics. Music can be fast or slow, loud or soft, and they will explore these option in this song. For older kids, use the real words: andante, allegro, forte, piano. Give them each a jingle bell and let them move around while they sing. You'll need to call out the next dynamic before you start singing each verse, because the only words that change from verse to verse is the 2nd line. Here are the words:

Hear those jingle, jingle, jangle
Hear those jingle bells.
Ringing loudly, Ringing loudly, (change to ringing softly, quickly, slowly)
Hear those jingle bells!

Here's the piano audio file (let me know if you need a vocal audio file):

Pat-a-Pan

Kids love to hear their own names! This is a song that lends itself to name customization and allows you to teach kids the basics of rhythm while marching around the room. You can march like soldiers in a quicker quarter-note march, or like wooden nutcrackers (straight-legged) in a slower half-note march. I'll indicate the quarter note rhythm with an q and the half-note rhythm with a h. You can also have them sit and play the rhythm with drums or wooden sticks that they can tap together. It's best not to march and tap the rhythm at first because their feet and hands rarely want to be in sync at this stage in their lives. If you do this enough times, you can get them used to one and then add the other. I hope your kids have fun with this song!

 

Here's the piano audio file of this song:

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

I love the coziness of a fireplace at Christmas time. It is perfection to me to be cuddled up in front of the fireplace with my hubby or my kids watching the fire flicker and feeling so content. The melody of this song captures that feeling and this is a fabulous book to sing out loud as you experience the beauty of that moment!

Jingle Bells

This song comes alive by the addition of a simple musical instrument: a bell! Use the little bells you hang as ornaments, or any type of bell you can find and equip each child. The bells on the wristband are what we use at the library. After singing the first verse traditionally, you can start teaching musical concepts by having them shake quickly, slowly, loudly, softly, etc. If they are older, teach them the musical terms for each concept (quickly: allegretto; slowly: andante; loudly: forte; softly: piano). You can do this using the traditional verse, or teach them the additional verse I wrote. Here are the lyrics:

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way.
Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh.
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way.
Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh.

Jingle Bell, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way.
Oh what fun it is to play my jingle bells today!
Shake them fast, shake them slow, shake them loud and clear.
Oh what fun it is to play when Christmas time is near!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

I love Christmas! And I love all the fun songs we get to sing during this month. I thought I'd kick off the season with a song that is a favorite of all the kids I've taught. In normal life, I find this song fairly boring, but see how a tweak in lyrics can make a song come alive! This song incorporates movements as well as creating music by changing lyrics.

We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year

Let's all do a little clapping
Let's all do a little clapping
Let's all do a little clapping
And spread Christmas cheer!
(Do this verse MANY times and change clapping to dancing, twirling, marching, walking, or whatever the kids can come up with!)

End with this:
Let's all do a little boogie
Let's all do a little boogie
Let's all do a little boogie
And spread Christmas cheer!

Grandma's Feather Bed

This is a GREAT book! It is a silly song to sing and the illustrations are so fun! The book easily lends itself to discussions about families, how neat it is to get together, and the wonderful memories we can make. We may not have grandmas with huge feather beds, but we have traditions and moments that make our families unique. You could even make up a song about your child's memories of family times. This book is great all year-round, but especially fun to sing around Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Here We Come On Our Ponies

This is a fun one for getting up and getting the wiggles out, and connecting song with movement. Here are the lyrics:

Here we come on our ponies,
Our ponies, our ponies.
Here we come on our ponies.
Now, whoa, whoa, whoa!

And of course, you move around the room like you're riding a horse while singing the song. After singing it a few times and letting them get used to it, have them change the lyrics and consequently the actions of the song. Sing something like "Here we come in our cars, our cars, our cars. Here we come in our cars, now vroom, vroom, vroom!" and have them pretend like they are driving cars. Other ideas: here we come in an airplane, here we come on a train, here we come on a bus.  The possibilities are many, and the kids love to dance around the room while varying the actions. In light of Thanksgiving we talk about the many ways we can get to our family's homes or how they can get to ours. This can lead to talk about families or Thanksgiving and is a good lead-in to other Thanksgiving songs.

Here's the piano audio file of the song. Very easy to pick up!

Great Big House in New Orleans

This song is another that I use for Thanksgiving. I sing it as written and then have the kids come up with all sorts of different pies. If you are adventurous you could make this a sensory experience by letting them try a few different kinds of pie.

Great big house in New Orleans
Forty stories high.
Every room that I've been in
Filled with pumpkin pie (key lime pie, apple pie, etc.)

Here is a vocal audio file:

Grateful

Grateful is my all-time favorite Thanksgiving book. The song is by John Bucchino, illustrations by Anna-Liisa Hakkarainen. This book includes a CD of the song sung by Art Garfunkel. The illustrations are mostly evening-related, perfect for snuggling in and singing this to your loved one, and helping them realized just how much they have been blessed with. In larger groups we have discussions about what things the kids are grateful for, and we discuss that even though there are things that do go wrong, there is so much good in all of our lives, so much to be the thankful for that if we focus on what we're thankful for our lives will be happier.

Tommy Turkey!

This song is so fun to do! It is full of movement and is more fun to sing than your typical song! Here are the lyrics and movements:

Tommy Turkey loves to dance.
(put the back of your hand against your chin and wiggle your fingers under chin)
He shakes his tail feathers when he gets the chance.
(while still sitting, move elbows like a chicken and shake your hips)
Tommy Turkey wants to dance with you
(wiggle fingers under chin and then point to the kids, have them point to you)
So get up on your feet you can do it, too!
(Stand up)

Shake your tail feathers, shake 'em down
(Elbows in chicken position, but not moving; shake hips, bend knees to go 'down')
Flap your wings and turn around
(flap elbows and spin in place)
Gobble, Gobble, Gobble, Gobble, Strut your stuff
(strut around like a turkey)
Sit back down, Tommy says, "Enough!"
(Sit down and on the word "enough" I do the sign language for "enough"--left hand in fist, vertical, right hand palm hits left fist, and goes out away from the body). 

Here is the piano audio file for the song so you can hear what it sounds like!


Here is the vocal audio file:

Going Up to Grandma's

One of the important parts of teaching kids music is helping them invent their own. In Music and Movement we do a lot of songs that allow kids to alter the words so they can feel more involved in the song and begin to explore the fun of creating their own music. "Going Up to Grandma's" is an easy song to start with! We use it every year around Thanksgiving Time and encourage kids to think of all the food they normally have at Thanksgiving. Here are the lyrics:

Going up to Grandma's, Grandma's, Grandma's
Going up to Grandma's, Grandma's house.
Gonna eat some turkey, turkey, turkey,
Gonna eat some turkey at Grandma's house!

And of course, the kids can take turns substituting the word "Turkey" for whatever food they can think of: "Gonna eat potatoes", "Gonna eat some pie", "Gonna eat some beans", etc.  Here's the audio file so you can hear what the song sounds like:

What a Wonderful World

One of my favorite Books to Sing is "What a Wonderful World", Lyrics by George David Weiss and Bob Thiele, Illustrations by Ashley Bryan. Its colorful illustrations are fascinating to look at, and its simple melody leaves the kids singing long after you have sung to them. I love the message in this book. The lyrics promote unity amongst all colors and tongues, and the pictures show peace in many settings, set to a puppet show. It's one of my trusty stand-by's!