Heart Week: Do You Know My Valentine?

This is what is called a piggyback song (a song that takes a tune that is familiar to everyone, but with changed lyrics to fit in with whatever theme is being presented). I don't use piggybacks often -- I think they confuse the kids, but on holidays like this it's hard not to! This song is great for quizzing the kids on knowing each others' names. If you've got a particularly brave bunch of kids, you can have them stand up after their name is sung and have them follow whatever command (spin, wave, jump, clap, etc.) you put into the second verse of this song. This song is sung to the tune of Do You Know the Muffin Man?

Do You Know My Valentine?

Do you know my valentine,
My valentine, my valentine?
Do you know my valentine?
His/her name is (Child's name)

Spin my little valentine
My valentine, my valentine!
Spin my little valentine,
(Child's name), take a bow!

If I Were a Bird

Ann Moyle was the music and movement teacher at our local library before and after I did my 2 year stint there. She is AMAZING and created many of her own songs. This is one of her songs and I got permission from her to share it. I love the different take she has on this animal song. Instead of singing about the noises each animal makes, this song focuses on the movements they make. Here are the lyrics:

If I were a bird, if I were a bird,
I'd fly and fly and fly all day if I were a bird.

If I were a fish, if I were a fish,
I'd swim and swim and swim all day if I were a fish.

Here's the vocal audio file:


The kids love coming up with all sorts of animals and deciding what their movement should be. And of course, this is the kind of song we act out as we sing it! (Please respect her copyright on this. She would love for you to use it for your non-monetary experiences).

Animal Week!

We just celebrated two birthdays in our family. Both kids wanted a Wild Kratts party. We are so fortunate to live near a Wild Animal Rescue and Education center and they came and entertained our kids and their friends with fun animals like a Chinchilla, a fox, and Macaw, and many more. We had so much fun and I thought I'd continue the fun with songs about animals this week. One of the absolute favorites for ANY class I teach is Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

What in the world does Row Your Boat have to do with animals, you may ask! Well, I have taken ideas I've found on preschool websites, added a couple of verses of my own, and transformed this song into one of the funnest ever! Here are the verses (sung to the traditional tune):

Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.

Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream.
If you see a dinosaur, don't forget to scream! (Have them scream)

Row, row, row your boat gently to the shore,
If you see a lion (tiger), don't forget to roar!

Row, row, row your boat gently to the bay.
If you see a turtle, let's all shout hooray!

Rock, rock, rock your boat, gently to and fro.
Wibbly, wobbly, wibbly, wobbly, OVER the side you go!!


Before the first verse, have the kids grab a partner and sit on the ground facing their partner. Have them match their feet up (soles against soles), grab hands, and move front and back in a rowing motion as they sing this song. On the second verse (still rowing), have them think of animals that might make them frightened; on the third verse, animals that roar; on the forth verse, animals that they would be happy to see. On the fifth verse, change from rowing to rocking from side to side. When you say the word "OVER" have them tip all the way to one side and spill onto the floor, just as though they tipped out of their boat. This song is useful in many ways. It gets them feeling the rhythm of the song as they row, they get to create lyrics by suggesting animals to sing about, and they improve social ties as they work with a partner. Admittedly, this song takes awhile because so many of them want to suggest lyrics and the last verse almost always has to be done two or three times! I hope you all enjoy this favorite as much as I do!

I Have a Little Snowman

This is a song that the youngest kids love! It allows them to act out the building of a snowman and is silly at the end, so it creates a lot of giggles, which I love! You could do this with older kids and teach them Solfege (Do-Re-Mi) in the process. It starts on Do and ascends the scale slowly. At the end, it quickly goes back down the scale and it's fabulous practice for getting their Solfege hands signs straight. Here is a youtube video that shows the hands signs for the Solfege scale if you would like to learn them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_pq9s9USmI . Here are the lyrics to this song along with the solfege symbols that correlate:


I have a little snowman. He is so fat and round.
Do                                            Re
I made him from a snowball I rolled upon the ground.
  Mi                                               Fa
I gave him eyes, a nose, a mouth, a nice warm scarf of red.
  Sol                                                         La
I put some buttons on his coat and a hat upon his head.
  Ti                                                             Do
Slowly, slowly melts the snowman!
Do Ti  La Sol Fa    Mi Re   Do

Play this audio file to hear how the song goes:


For the younger kids, here are the actions for the song: Start kneeling on the ground and form into a little ball. For each step up the scale get a little taller until finally at the end you are standing up straight with your arms in the sky for greater height. On the last line, melt from your highest height back down into the tiny ball you started with. Do this several times and experiment with tempos (fast and slow). I hope you have fun with this song!

Return from an extended Holiday...

Hey everyone! I am finally back and ready to go again. We got uber sick over the holidays and I am just barely recovering from a bout with pneumonia. The second round of antibiotics finally did the trick. I am so happy to be feeling well again! I thought I'd do some Winter songs for a couple of weeks in January. One of my favorite Winter songs is What Shall We Do When We All Go Out. There's a book by the same title that is out of print, but you can probably find it at your local library, eBay or Amazon. It features all summer things, and I took it and had the kids help me change the words. Here are the lyrics:

What shall we do when we all go out, all go out, all go out?
What shall we do when we all go out, when we all go out to play?

We will build a snowman, a snowman, a snowman.
We will build a snowman when we all go out to play
(We will sled downhill, We will build an igloo, we will all throw snowballs, etc.)

I have the kids act out the words they are saying and it's a great song not only for creating their own music, but getting some movement going. Here's a vocal audio file for the song:

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:

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!

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!

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: