#54 Theme Music Ideas E-N - Updated 06/16
For "Multicultural, see these other files: #39 & 40 Program Ideas, #4 American Song, #2 African, African-American Music, #34 Native Americans, #32 Multicultural IdeasTopics -- (Just click on the category you want to view)
Earth/Ecology/Rainforest--Every Day is Earth Day - (SKIT)--Earth Day Songs, Sites, Etc., --Earth Day Musicals--Eighties--Election Day--Electricity--Elephants
Fairy Tales, Fables--Famous People----Farm & Farmers--Father's Day----February--Fifties--Fire Safety---Fish---Flight, Flying---Food--Forties---Friendship, Love
Frogs--Fruit--Giraffe---Gorilla---Grandparents---Green, The Color--Groundhogs--Growing
Hats---Hippopotamus---Hollywood---Horses---Ice Cream---Island Songs---Insects---Inventions---Intergenerational
Jokes---Jungle---Kangaroo---Martin Luther King---Kites---Lights
For LOVE, see #55 Theme Music Ideas: P-Z/Peace---Machines---Maple Sugar---Mardi Gras---Mathematics--Mermaids
Mice---Monkey---Moon---Monsters---Months of the Year Ninties
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EARTH/ECOLOGY
12/13 Habitat, Habitat by Bill Oliver. www.songsforteaching.com/jeffschroeder/habitat.htm. Includes ocean, forest, river. I ordered the CD because it includes instrumental tracks. I have used this song and the title song, Explore New Worlds in performances. ---- Sally Utley---------------------------------
CAMOUFLAGE to the tune of Ten Little Indians
Animals use camouflage Camouflage, camouflage. Animals use camouflage, It helps them to survive.
Camouflage helps predators, Predators, Predators. Camouflage helps predators, To find their prey.
My first grade students are learning about habitats and their teachers are wondering if I have any songs about habitats. The specific habitats they are learning are grasslands, freshwater, oceans, and woodlands. Mallory in MN
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12/13 THE HABITAT SONG to the tune of ARE YOU SLEEPING I don’t know where I got this, but I’ve used it for years!
In the desert, snakes and lizards, Make their homes, make their homes. Scorpions and elf owls, camels and coyotes. Habitat, habitat.
In the ocean, fish and lobsters, Make their homes, make their homes. Porpoises and starfish, mussels and the blue whale, Habitat, habitat.
In the temperate forest, frogs and chipmunks, Make their homes, make their homes. Porcupines and robins, beaver and mosquitoes, Habitat, habitat.
In the grasslands, lions and pronghorns, Make their homes, make their homes. Buffaloes and vultures, grasshoppers and zebras, Habitat, habitat.
In the mountains, yaks and falcons, Make their homes, make their homes. Bighorn sheep and pikas, grizzlies and chinchillas. Habitat, habitat.
In the polar regions, seals and penguins, Make their homes, make their homes. Caribou and musk ox, polar bears and lemmings, Habitat, habitat. ----- Caryn Mears, Kennewick, WA
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07/11 RAIN FOREST DAYDREAM, Music K-8 Vol. 7, No. 3 page 46
http://www.musick8.com/store/alphadetail.php?product_group=2509
SONG: THE BAOBAB, Music K-8 Vol. 9, No. 5 page 33
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SONG: THE MUSIC OF LIFE, Music K-8 Vol. 6, No. 4 page 22
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SONG: NATURE STARTS A SONG, Music K-8 Vol. 9, No. 4 page 36
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PROGRAM: I did a program last year for Earth Day. It really was wonderful. In addition to the MK8 songs, I added the "Kids for Saving Earth" theme song. (You can download the mp3 with & without vocals right off their site: http://www.kidsforsavingearth.org/song1.htm).
I also added the wonderful Cherokee Indan song, "The Earth is our Mother", which I found in Making Music gr. 4. If you'er not familiar with this wonderful song, here's what it sounds like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAD6wATezo&feature=related
All other songs were MK8.
My recorder club played "Whales" from Recorder Classroom vol 1/4. Wow! That had an impact. The ppt I used was fantastic ( I got it off the net). The opening ppt was fabulous- photos of earth from space attributed to Sunita WIlliams, astronaut. Here's one site that has these amazing photos :
http://www.slideshare.net/LawrenceCarson/astronaut-sunita-williams-pics-of-earth ---- Dianne Park
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PROGRAM: Within the first three issues of every volume of Music K-8 contains the contents of either a musical or musical revue. If you are looking specifically for just an Earth Day program, you could purchase: Every Day Is Earth Day: http://www.musick8.com/store/alphadetail.php?product_group=11 or Sing For Earth Day:http://www.musick8.com/store/alphadetail.php?product_group=1497
which are both available as a downloadable kit. Also, you can easily find the titles for all of the musicals/revues found in each volume of Music K-8 by using our Online Index:1. Go to: http://www.musick8.com
2. Click on the "Music K-8 Magazine" tab in the navigation bar (at the top of every page on MusicK8.com).
3. Click on the "Magazine Index" link.
4. Under "Subject," choose "Musicals/Revues - Complete in Music K-8,"then click "Go!"
5. Click on the "See Issue/Kit" link to be taken to that particular issue of Music K-8 magazine, and you can scroll down to the bottom of the page to hear a sample of the song.
OR
Download our Interactive Magazine Index:
1. Go to: http://www.musick8.com/html/downloaddisplay.php?dwnid=1078
2. Follow the directions on that page to download.
3. Once downloaded, go to the "Musicals/Revues - Complete in Music K-8," section under the "Subject Index" (back of the PDF). You can click on the song titles in that section to be taken directly to a sound clip for previewing.
You can also use the Online Index to find complete musicals/revues in the Network section (many of which are Earth Day related), by choosing the "Musicals/Revues-From Network/Other" option from the Subject pull- down menu. ---- Kristyn Johnson, [email protected]
BACK to Theme topics
***********************************************************************EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY
Grade 3 Musical- March 2010 by Dianne ParkStaging : risers on floor, screen down for ppts./computer set up; 3 ppts: satellite photos of earth, endangered species, whales
Opening: play conservation videos as students are seated.(conservational international)
SEQUENCE 1
SPEAKER 1: (to audience) All right everyone, please stand up and recite the KIDS FOR SAVING EARTH promise with us. Repeat after me….(audience and gr 3 echo pledge).
The earth is my home. (echo after each phrase)
I promise to keep it healthy and beautiful.
I will love the land, the air, the water, and all living creatures.
I will be a defender of my planet.
United with friends, I will save the earth.
Congratulations! You are now all officially members of the KIDS FOR SAVING EARTH club! Please be seated.
SONG 1: KSE PROMISE SONG- pictures of earth from space ppt. plays during this song
SEQUENCE 1
SPEAKER 2: We’re all together on planet Earth, spinning through space. The photos you just saw were taken by a satellite high above our earth and by Astronaut Sunita Williams aboard the International Space Station.
SPEAKER 3: On April 22, 2010, the world will celebrate the 41st anniversary of Earth Day. Earth Day is an opportunity to think about our planet.
SPEAKER 4: We can’t just THINK about it, we’ve got to ACT! We have to change our attitudes and habits.
SPEAKER 5: We hold the world in our hands. We are the future, let’s take a stand!
SPEAKER 6: Earth Day shouldn’t come just once a year- every day should be Earth Day!
SONG 2: EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY (MK8 vol.1/1)
SEQUENCE 3
SPEAKER 7: For generations, Native American’s have considered earth’s resources to be precious. A poem by Chief Dan George and the Cherokee Indian song, “The Earth Is Our Mother” express this sentiment.
SPEAKER 8: (spoken as music begin, with gestures)
AND MY HEART SOARS by Chief Dan George
The beauty of the trees, The softness of the air, The fragrance of the grass
ALL: speaks to me
SPEAKER 9: The summit of the mountain, The thunder of the sky,
The rhythm of the sea, ALL: speaks to me
SPEAKER 10: The faintness of the stars, The freshness of the morning,
The dew drop on the flower, ALL: speaks to me
SPEAKER 11: The strength of the fire, The taste of the salmon, The trail of the sun,
And life that never goes away, ALL: They speak to me. And my heart soars.
SONG 3: THE EARTH IS OUR MOTHER (Indian sign language) (Making Music gr. 4)
.EARTH. Point with right index to the ground, then reach down and rub thumb and tips of fingers together. MOTHER: With the right hand half closed, give two or three gentle taps on the left side of the chest. FRIEND (take care of)
SEQUENCE 4
RECYCLE RAP SKIT: 3 KSE members are standing at the front of the stage by two trash cans. One is labeled TRASH, the other RECYCLING. A Wasteful Student walks in front of them, drinking a soda from an aluminum can, and tosses the can into the trash.
KSE 1: (to wasteful student) Hey! Hold on there!
Wasteful Student: Who? Me?
KSE 2: Yeah, you! What do you think you’re doing?
Wasteful Student: What are you talking about?
KSE3: (goes over to trash and pulls out soda can) THIS is what we’re talking about! Wasteful Student: What about it?
KSE 1: This is an aluminum can. It can be recycled and reduce our waste.
KSE 2: That’s right! We Americans throw out 10 times our own weight in trash every year!
KSE 3: That’s enough aluminum to rebuild all of our commercial airplanes four times over! Besides, making products from recycled aluminum takes 95 percent less energy than starting from scratch.
Wasteful Student: I had NO IDEA! From now on, I recycle! (takes his soda can and puts it in the recycling container)
SONG 4: RECYCLE RAP (with recycle band and dancers) (MK8 vol 1)
SEQUENCE 5
SPEAKER 12: There are many other ways to help save the earth besides recycling.
SPEAKER 13: We should pick up our trash from the playground and keep our school clean. Don’t be a litter critter!
SPEAKER 14: Our cars are polluting the air daily. This adds to global warming. We should walk and ride our bikes more.
SPEAKER 15: Plant trees! Trees are important to our environment. They absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. Don’t be a global warmer!
SPEAKER 16: We’re very wasteful with our energy, too. Turn off the lights! Turn off the water! Don’t be a water waster!
SONG 5: WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A WATER WASTER?
SEQUENCE 6
(Endangered animals ppt. plays on screen as speakers 17-24 speak)
SPEAKER 17: It’s not just humans who are affected by pollution and climate change. Did you know that in the past 500 years, 870 different types of animals have gone extinct?
SPEAKER 18: SIXTEEN THOUSAND or more animals are threatened today!
SPEAKER 19: The biggest reason animals are endangered is because their habitat is lost to humans. Hunting and fishing endanger fish and mammals.
SPEAKER 20: Look at the long lists of animals on the walls that are in danger of becoming extinct. They include polar bears, Bengal tigers, and 6 species of dolphins and porpoises . Right whales, Blue whales, and the Bowhead whale are also on the endangered list.
SPEAKER 21: Unfortunately, Navy sonar sound waves harm whales and whales get entangled in fishing nets and drown. Pollution harms sea life, too.
SPEAKER 22: Did you know that Whales are warm-blooded mammals and the largest creatures on earth? The magnificent blue whale is the largest animal that has ever lived on this planet! It weighs more than 2,000 people!
SPEAKER 23: Whales can communicate with each other by creating a series of high pitched noises which sound like singing, and can be heard in open waters more than 200 miles away! Listen to this next song about whales from a piece of recorder music entitled, “Whales” from “These, the Endangered” and listen for the real whale songs.
SPEAKER 24: Fourth and fifth grade recorder club students will play their instruments on this powerful piece.
RECORDER SONG: WHALES from “These, The Endangered” -whale ppt plays during this song. ( Recorder Classroom vol 1 # 4)
SEQUENCE 7
SPEAKER 25: Well, I don’t know about everybody else, but I’ve learned a lot about saving the earth today.
SPEAKER 26: Me, too! I’ve learned that we should turn off running water and stop wasting electricity.
SPEAKER 27: I learned that recycling is easy and something we all need to do.
SPEAKER 28: I learned that we need to protect our valuable resources: the plants and animals on our planet.
SPEAKER 29: Just follow our simple suggestions and YOU can be part of a healthier, earth, too. It’s easy being green!
SONG 6: IT’S EASY BEIN’ GREEN
SEQUENCE 8
SPEAKER 30: Remember, Earth Day isn’t just one day a year. EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY!
REPRISE: EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY
Bow music : KSE Promise Song
BACK to Theme topics
***********************************************************************EARTH DAY SONGS, SITES, ETC.,
04/03 Earth Day is always April 22d------------------------------
05/21 BOOK: The Rainstick : A Fable by Sandra Chisholm Robinson, Peter Grosshauser (Illustrator) It's based on a Liberian folk tale
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BOOK: Earth Dance is such a beautiful book. Viv Murray wove magic with it at the Pittsburgh Chapter workshop. It may be too advanced for your group, but give it a look-see anyhow.
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BOOK: Marilyn Davidson's book, "Earth: Voices of a Planet - The Music of Paul Winter." This goes with Paul Winters CD "Voices of a Planet." She takes elements of the recorded music and use them as the basis of lessons involving movement, instruments, singing, etc. My fourth-graders love her lesson on the "Uirapura." This should be available through any of the catalogs that carry Orff Schulwerk texts.
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04/02 VIDEO: PBS SPECIAL: David Attenborough's wonderful new PBS special called Song of the Earth. Highly recommended for music teachers to watch! There is a great website you should go to explore this show.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/search-results/?q=SONG%20OF%20THE%20EARTH#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=SONG%20OF%20THE%20EARTH&gsc.page=1
Click on everything! Lots of great links, even lesson plans. Says for grades 9-12 but I think even my grade 5's would enjoy if shown in small bits. But beware of the part about music & sexuality...a little too suggestive for in school! I am going to share it with my college students. You can order it for $19.95 .
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GAME TEACHING SPACE NEEDED BETWEEN TREES: We also have played a game, where they all make rings for the years that they are on a white paper plate, then we place the plates on the ground and they put one foot on it. They are now trees. Then I scatter poker chips around each paper plate. Red chips are minerals, blues chips are water and yellow chips are sunshine. The children have to gather as many of these chips without taking their foot off of the plate and without scooting the plate and then when all the chips have been gathered, we chart how many chips each "tree" was able to gather. Of course, the result is that if trees are planted too closely together they have to "fight" for the nutrients they need to survive and the trees with very little water or sunshine or nutrients will have the hardest time in living. the trees that "die" will sit down and the trees that gathered enough of all three chips will be left standing. The lesson makes a profound impression on them. Kind of personalizes the whole lesson for them.
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SONG: Garden of the Earth - Russian folk song, words by Paul Winter and Paul Halley - printed in the conference book from the 1992 Orff National Conference in Minneapolis - recorded on one of Paul Winter's CDs in Russian and English - with his wonderful improvisations. Also has signing for the last verse. Another suggestion - Inch by Inch - old John Denver recording - now also in a new children's book - with the song printed in the back -Inch by Inch, The Garden Song by David Mallet ISBN 0-06-024303-1.
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RAINFOREST:
The rainforest has four layers - great for layering ostinato patterns, or composing pieces that are made up of layers.
For speech pieces, look at Papagayo, by Gerald McDermott. This story has enough in it to keep you going for a year!
There's a Pygmy song, "Ema Ma" in Share the Music, Grade 3, and also a song "All Living Things," that is about caring for all the earth.
There's also a recording of sounds of the rainforest there. Steven Hatfield has a piece "La Luvia" that is representative of the temperate rainforest of Vancouver. It is a choral piece, but Boosey made a demo recording that is stunn ing. It is full of patterns, and great for movement if the singing is too difficult for your kids.In Share the Music, Grade 1 (1998 edition) there is a musical, The Beetle's Coat, that is based on a Brazilian folk tale from the rainforest. Gerardo Dirie from Argentina wrote the music, and it is charming - could work with a little older kids as well.The movements of rainforest animals should be great for exploration with instruments and movement.
"Uirapuru do Amazonas" on Paul Winter's "Earth:Voices of a Planet" CD. The music and the teacher's guide by Marilyn Copland Davidson are both excellent.
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POETRY: Check out a book called "The Earth is Green" I can't remember the author but it was a poetry book in the children's section. Had lots of good poems that can be the impetus for creative reading, adding sound-carpets, etc.
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04/02 RECYCLED INSTRUMENTS: Could you focus on recycling and make recycled instruments? K-2 always love creating found sounds. You could do a found sound orchestra. There are lots of ideas in our archives on this and also plenty of web sites devoted to making instruments from recycled items. Paper plate and bottle shakers, bottle guiros, funnel and hose "tubaphones", etc...If you get K8 you can do the Recycle Rap and use your found sounds to accompany.
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04/02 RECYCLED INSTRUMENTS: We collect those little "Sunny D" plastic bottles and create shakers from them. We talk about different kinds of maracas, and shakers. Then I have a variety of materials to put in them, rice, popcorn, whatever. We talk about how the materials sound in a sample shaker. Then the kids put stuff in their bottle, then the art teacher usually takes over. She has small pieces of tissue paper cut and ready for them and they make a mosaic type covering for their shaker, by placing the paper on the bottle and brushing a diluted glue mixture over them. They need to stay with us so they can dry, but the kids can take them home at the end of their day. Be sure to figure out a way to put their name on them.
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04/02 PARODY: "Where Have all the Flowers Gone?" - Pete Seeger Where Have Our Rainforests Gone?
1. Where have our rainforests gone, Disappearing?
Where have our rainforests gone, What can we do?
Where can our rainforests be? We're losing the great canopy.
When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?
2. We need what the forest has, Disappearing.
We need what the forest has, What can we do?
Foods, seasonings, healing plants, Even insects, spiders, ants,
When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?
3. Where has all the clean air gone? Disappearing.
Where has all the clean air gone? What can we do?
The forests are burnt by men, Less trees means less oxygen?
When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?
4. To save our rainforests from Disappearing,
To save our environment for future kids,
Conserve our rainforests, please, Eat the fruits, but save the trees,
And hope that we can learn, And hope that we can learn.
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05/21 RHYTHMS: My 1st and 2d graders are studying the rain forest, so for our rhythm work today we found rain forest animal names that went with ta and titi,and combinations of the two. We had to clap the syllables to see what rhythm the names fit. I don't know that all of the 1st graders have really been taught syllables, but they sure know a "one clap" "two claps", or "three claps" word, thanks to music. Today I added the term "syllable" so they could start making the connection.
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06/09 PROGRAM: Day Is Earth Day (from*Music K-8*, Every Day Is Earth Day revue
http://www.musick8.com/
It was a huge success! Here is what we did for staging, costumes, advertising, etc.: We had special shirts done with iron transfers we ordered via the Internet. We had two classes process into the auditorium, handing out bookmarks with recycling and conservation tips to the audience. The students walked in singing "It Starts With Me" (from *Music K-8*, Vol. 11, No.3
Other *Music K-8* songs included in our production were:
"Mother Earth" (from *Music K-8*, Vol. 10, No.4
"Recycle Rap" (from *Music K-8*, Vol. 1, No.1
"When A Tree Falls" (from *Music K-8*, Every Day Is Earth Day revue
"Clean Up Our World" (from *Music K-8*, Vol. 12, No.4
"I Am A Citizen Of This World" (from *Music K-8*, Vol. 4, No.3
"Save The Earth" (from *Music K-8*, Vol. 1, No.1
"Nature Baby" (from *Music K-8*, Vol. 13, No.4
"Every Day Is Earth Day" (from *Music K-8*, Every Day Is Earth Day revue
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07/05 BOOK: There is a book called "The Rainstick" by Sandra Robinson, illustrated by Peter Grosshauser. It is a fable drawn from the rich traditions of West Africa. A boys quest for rain takes him from the dry savanna to the tropical rainforest, where he discovers the instrument which answers an ancient riddle. Then of course you can have the students use the rain sticks or even make their own. -- Caryn Mears
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06/10 SONG: RAFFI: has sheet music FREE online for many of his songs that you can download. I'm impressed by this!
http://www.raffinews.com/educators/music#.VeluYJdDAaw
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10/05 SONGS: I also love "The Wheel of the Water" (actually, *anything* Tom Chapin does!) and have used it many times for Earth Day classes. It is also on the "This Pretty Planet" video with five other great Earth day songs, including "This Pretty Planet," "Someone's Gonna Use It," "Good Garbage," "Sing a Whale Song," and "Happy Earth Day." - Connie Herbon
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06/04 SONGS (CD) Alex Bevan CD's. He has wonderful songs in different styles to appeal to 3 thru 8 grades on various environmental issues such as "All the Rivers Run" ballad about watersheds, " Biodiversity" a fun song, " The Rainbow Machine" comparing rainbows and life's dreams. Very musically done. These songs were written for the Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Education Center in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park Assn. located around Cleveland, Ohio. For more information check out his website www.AlexBevan.com or Amazon.com for Alex Bevan. He also writes and has CD's for adults. Neat show if you happen to catch his gig. -- Contributed by Johanna Beebe
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Share the Music, grade 3 or 4, has a Jamaican musical entitled the Cat and the Rat
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SONG: How Beautiful Is The Rain!! By Mary Lynn Lightfoot, for two equal voices, piano and optional rainstick, text by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Great piece
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09/03 SONG: PARODY ON BICYCLE BUILT FOR TWO: Premium, regular, diesel and no lead, too
I'm half-crazy over the price of you. It will be good transportation, And help to stop inflation.
But we'll save fuel, and still be cool On a bicycle built for two.
(Tune of "Are You Sleeping?")Are you saving, Are you saving,
Energy? Energy?
Oil is running out, Oil is runnin gout,
Plop, plop, plop. Plop, plop, plop.
(Tune of "Yankee Doodle")
Uncle Sam is running out of electricity, He will depend on other countries for our energy.
So, we have to save it up, Wisely you must see,
So, we have to save it up, That electricity.
(Tune of "Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?")
Oh where, oh where have all the lights gone? Oh where, oh where is the heat?
Cold and dark is what it will be If you don't save energy.
(Tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat")
Row, Row, Row your boat, Gently down the stream.
Now you don't have to use All the gasoline.
(Tune of "3 Blind Mice")
Turn out your lights. Turn out your lights.
See how it saves. See how it saves.
Don't leave your lights on all night long. Don't leave your lights on all night long.
Turn them off. Turn them off. -- Contributed by Theresa Goble
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04/03 SONG: How about Kibungo, from The Singing Sack? A kibungo is the Brazilian version of Big Foot. Cute story of Jabuti, the tortoise tricking him and a great song in Portuguese that is easy to add a xylophone ositiato to. We added a bit of drumming and rainsticks at the beginning and had great fun with it.
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05/21 SONG: One of the older issues of MK-8 6:4 (musick8.com) has a song entitled "The Music of Life" which has a rain stick part written in it, along with a lot of other nature sounds. My students have loved it every year. I have used it with 4th and 5th graders. We have used gift wrap tubes and paper towel tube, toothpicks, and rice and sealed the ends with masking tape, then paper mache' the outside and decorate.
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04/02 CHANT: Rainforest Layers: An emergent is a tall, tall tree That grows above the canopy.
The canopy of branches, is made It gives the forest lots of shade.
The understory down below Is where the shorter plants do grow.
The very bottom is the floor And of this rhyme there is no more!
Keep steady beat by patsch and clap to learn the poem. Then do appropriate movements (stand, arms up stretched for the emergent layer, lower arms to chest height for canopy, crouch for understory, sit for floor)
The add ta-ti-ti ostinato on a conga drum and "rap" it.
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SONG: Try "Rhythm of the Rain" by Jerry Estes. Choral octavo - probably available from Pepper. 3 partner songs + very easy Orff (or piano) with room for improvisation.
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POETRY: "For the Love of Our Earth" by P.K. Halinan
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POETRY: First we chose a poem, then we chanted and played the rhythms on sticks. Then they choose some important words that we highlighted with different percussion sounds and finally added an ostinato that was played on hand drums. When we presented it to the audience, we did it exactly the way we did in class, but in a compressed form:
1. poem chanted by all students
2. add the ostinato spoken by a few students
3. whisper all with body percussion (clapping, patting, stamping)
4. whisper and add instruments
5. think the words while playing all instruments.
In the end, it comes out sounding like an intricate percussion ensemble.
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SONG: We also love John Rutter's For the Beauty of the Earth. My 3rd grade is currently doing Michael and Jill Gallina's Project REscue: Save the Planet - the last piece is lovely, lyrical - with a great message. It's called " Guardians of the Earth". The other songs are catchy and cute - appealing, but I find the singing range terribly low for young voices.
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SONG: Hug a Bug is a terrific song. How about having the students make instruments out of recycled materials and have a rhythm band?
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SONG: When a Tree Falls by Teresa Jennings http://www.prpmk8.com/core.html The rain forests of the world are the lungs of the planet, yet we are losing them at an ever faster rate. This memorable, Latin-flavored song started as a part of the revue EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY, but we are now pleased to be releasing it as a Singles Reproducible Kit so that every school can be inspired by it as they study our forests and their conservation. I've used "When A Tree Falls" from Vol.1, I Think. It's about the rain forest and the students love it. I use beginning recorder players on it on a B-A G-A pattern about halfway during the verses. I also use bass xyl. and contra bass bars on the chorus. the recorders do a trill at the very end to replicate the birds flying away since all the trees have been cut down and they haven't a home.
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SONGS: Tom Chapin has some great songs on ecology ("Good Garbage", for instance -- the kids love this song AND it really teaches them about recycling) and nature ("This Pretty Planet". He has an entire cd (and yes, he has a songbook series too) dedicated to this. Cherry Lane Music Company P O Box 430 Port Chester, NY 10573-430
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SONGS (cd) Brentwood Kids Company has a cd/tape in split-trak called "THIS IS OUR FATHER'S WORLD - A Kid's ABC's of Ecology" with some cute songs: RECYCLE; GLURGH! GLURGH! WATER, WATER; GARBAGE IS NOT GOOD; PUT THAT LITTER IN A GARBAGE CAN; LEARN TO TURN THE LIGHT OFF; CLOSE AN OPEN DOOR and a few others...this is a religious/CHRISTIAN based tape so it may or may not work for you/your school. Really cute stuff though.
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SONG: "The Garden Song" ("Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow...") I've had 1st and 2nd graders sing it, and they love it. Also, several years back, Music K-8 did volume of Earth Day type songs. All the songs were of course wonderful, but "So We Can Live" was especially poignant and beautiful.
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SONGS AT http://www.musick8.com/
EARTH DAY/The Environment Issue Page 100's OF WAYS TO HELP CLEAN UP THE EARTH 3/4 44
DON'T FORGET THE LITTLE CHILDREN* 1/3 20;
EARTH SOUNDS* 6/4 40 Earth Study and Music: A Lesson Plan * 1/3 4;
EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY* 1/1 11; Every Day Is Earth Day [all-school revue] Vol. 1, Nos. 1 & 2 Every Day Is Still Earth Day 2/4 12;
GREEN BLUES, THE*=A7 4/4 36; Have you hugged your planet today? 3/4 46
LET'S NOT FORGET* 8/4 38;
LISTEN TO THE EARTH* 7/4 21; On saving the rain forests * 2/4 2
ONLY WORLD WE'VE GOT, THE* 5/2 14;
RECYCLE RAP* A7 1/1 18 - Renowned, recycled, reused * 2/4 4;
SAVE THE EARTH* A7 3/4 18; Sonnet For Our Mother Earth 3/4 47;
SO WE CAN LIVE* 1/3 22
STEP LIGHTLY ON THE EARTH* 5/4 40;
THIS IS OUR WORLD* 2/4 14;
WHEN A TREE FALLS*=A7 1/3 12
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SONGS: I have a wonderful set of songs "We've Only Got One Planet" - I'm going to try and include the lyrics to some of the songs in this reply. When I wrote them, I wanted to focus on the positive things that children can do to help the environment....kind of like the book "50 things Children can do to Save the Earth". The final song "Make a Difference" has been performed many times now as a massed choir selection (it's cheap because it's reproducible), it's been used in a health unit video, it's become our school song, and it's been sung at an environmentalists' memorial funeral service. www.musicplay.ca
One Planet, One Planet, made by God for all to share One Planet, One Planet, time to show we care; We're using our resources faster than they can renew Polluting air and water - What can children do?
Every person on the earth can help to keep it clean Young and old can do their part to keep it evergreen.
One Planet........... 2. Garbage 3. Compost
OSTINATO: Cooking, heating, Rotting, Soil it becomes
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SONG: Saltwater by Julian Lennon
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SONG: Whose Garden Was This?...written by Tom Paxton
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BOOK: There is also a book by P.K. Halinan called "Happy Earth Day" -- it is essentially a long poem, which lends itself to memorization and maybe some performance with instruments as well. I have also done "Mr. Sun" as part of a first grade Earth Day program. The children in my school made a huge world -- we took heavy white mounting board and let children trace their hands on blue and green construction paper. After making an outline of the continents on the board, children glued green hands on the land and blue hands on the water. This was a captivating and crowd pleasing backdroup for our Earth Day celebration! Children can also sign "You are my Sunshine" which is a nice closing number in an earth day program.
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SUITE OF SONGS: Suite of Four Songs (grades 3-6) 2 part: Whole Earth Songs, Alice Parker, Jenson Pub., 43509080 deals with ecology. Nice numbers - lots of opportunity for solos.
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SONG: Malvina Reynolds Just a little rain falling all around The grass lifts its head to the heavenly sound.
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SONG: There is a song called "Care for the Earth" that includes extremely simple Orff accompaniment and suggested activities. It is part of a book that I suggest you get containing songs for every holiday, season, and purpose; with Orff accompaniments and activity suggestions and history. The book is called ROUND THE SONGS/ORFF: SEASONS by Elizabeth Gilpatrick. It is published by Alfred, and I believe it is only about $16.95. Well worth the buy; it'll be worn out in 1/2 a year. (reproducible Orff accompaniment sheets are included.)
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SONG; To the tune of Frere Jacques: Please don't litter, please recycle, Glass and tin, aluminum, Paper, cardboard, plastic, Once again's fantastic! Re-cy-cle, Re-cy-cle.
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SONGS: "This Land is Your Land."There's also the Sesame Street Song "We Are All Earthlings,"
"The Earth is My Mother" by Carol Johnson (In Children's Songs for a Friendly Planet - put out by World Music Press) Pretty echo song...easy to teach. "Garbage" by Bill Steele. Recorded by, among others, Pete Seeger and Rosenshantz. Fun, witty lyrics and an easy chorus. Minor key, too.
"Let it Be" by Malvina Reynolds. Not to be confused with the Beatles song. Also in Children's Songs for a Friendly Planet.
"This Pretty Planet" by Tom Chapin. Round with an ecology-theme. On one of his albums...can't remember which.
"Little Blue Top" by Tony Hughes. In Children's Songs...
"My Rainbow Race" by Pete Seeger. Various recordings. Pretty, pensive song. "Pollution" by Tom Lehrer. Comedy-type song with a calypso beat. On "That was the Year that Was" and in "Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer" songbook.
"What Have They Done to the Rain" by Malvina Reynolds. Beautiful, haunting rendition by Joan Baez on her album of the same name...also recorded by various others.
I highly suggest, for sources of songs about ecology, peace, friendship, etc. not only "Children's Songs for a Friendly Planet" (I don't have the address for World Music press at home, but I can get it after the vacation) but also "Rise Up Singing", put out by "SINGOUT" publications. It has words and chords to over 1400 songs, all grouped by catagory and sources for recordings. Order from SINGOUT - call 215-865-5366. It costs $17 and I am on my 3rd copy - I used the others till they fell apart. SINGOUT also has many other publications and a quarterly magazine. Excellent source. (No, I don't work for them!)
Raffi's Evergreen/Everblue. You can buy the tape and the piano score. The whole album is about nature, conservation etc.
Plant a Tree for your Tomorrow...the John Denver Arbor Day song
The Linden Tree...by Schubert (a "high brow", but gorgeous piece I found in a very old music book)
Colors of the Wind...from Pocahontas (for environmental awareness, etc.)
Lullaby for the Trees.....gorgeous piece from the 3rd, 4th or 5th grade
Silver Burdett series...my personal favorite alnog with Linden Tree.
I Love the Mountains......with new words (I love the maple, I love the apple tree, etc. and "trees, trees, trees, how I love' em" in place of the boomdeahdah ostinato)
Each of Us is A Flower....from the Silver Burdett 3rd grade
Finlandia tune with a translation praising the land, etc....should be available in octavo form
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SONG: There is a song, "The Big Beautiful Planet" written and composed by Raffi. It is performed on his Rise and Shine CD and the words and music can be found in "The 2nd Raffi Songbook". WEB RESOURCE: http://www.cdconnection.com - You can search their library of 150,000 CDs by title, artist, style and SONG TITLE. Which means, if you type in "The Star Spangled Banner" it will then list every CD available with that song on it. You can order on line - prices are very reasonable and shipping is only $3.50 no matter how many you order. (Over 100 bucks, it's free) They arrive within a week and I have never been disappointed. It is how I get interesting renditions of songs sung by "the computer kids" of series book fame....it is also addictive, so watch it!!!
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WEB SITE: The Earth Day site is: http://www.earthday.net/
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MacMillan site - new stuff for a whole school Earth Day program - https://www.mheonline.com/
Love Your Mother Earth by Marylou Dunn, Compliments of Wingert-Jones Music, Heritage Music PressStop, Look, and Listen (An Ecology Song) by Stephen L. Lawrence Heritage Music Press Box 802 Dayton, Ohio 45401-0802
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SONG: Firefly: There is an Appalachian Folk song about a firefly. It is the melody of the the Oriental Folk song "Deta". The words tell a story of the life of a firefly. I use it with "The Lonely Firefly " book. It can be found in one of the books that Jill Trinka has published.
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***********************************************************************EARTH DAY MUSICALS
EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY by Teresa Jennings http://www.musick8.com/Thousands of schools all over the world have performed these songs in the past five years, and from what they tell us, they have made quite an impact on the kids who sang them and on their schools and communities. Some performances were fancy, some were very simple; there were some with costumes and even a video or two. Created by Teresa Jennings, this collection is designed to give you everything you will need to produce a successful show that teaches while it holds the interest of your students. Full of the unique power to teach and inspire, these songs will help you tie together all of the lessons your students are learning about the environment. While each of the five unison/2-part songs can be enjoyed separately, when they are combined into a musical revue they provide a memorable experience that will be remembered long after most lessons from this school year are forgotten. And it's designed to work well with one class or the whole school! The Teacher's Handbook includes all of the music with playable accompaniments as well as staging suggestions and a variety of reproducibles including lyric sheets, posters and program covers. It also includes a complete, ready-to-use script, but there are also suggestions for customizing the show to include anything you study with your classes. There are even plans for creating a "recycled rhythm band" to play with some songs and simple orchestrations usable with Orff or other classroom instruments. The songs include WHEN A TREE FALLS (about the rainforest), RECYCLE RAP (a student favorite nationwide), the poignant SO WE CAN LIVE, the upbeat title song, and DON'T FORGET THE LITTLE CHILDREN, for your youngest performers. The professionally produced Performance/Accompaniment Cassette features a full performance of the music (with children's voices) on one side and fully orchestrated instrumental backgrounds on the other side. While all products are available separately, we have combined the Teacher's Handbook, 10 Student Editions and the Performance/Accompaniment Cassette into a money saving Performance Kit for $44.95. Don't let your students miss this timely opportunity to learn about saving our planet and its resources.
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SAVE THE EARTH by Teresa Jennings http://www.musick8.com/ --
This unique blend of styles is one of our all-time favorites. Starting with a simple, almost classical verse, it builds through a cumulative rap section and becomes an infectious rock anthem that will keep the strong environmental message in the hearts of young singers for years. While all of our recorded tracks feature superb performances, the accompaniment to this tune is one of the best.
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MUSICAL: I have a musical for Earth Day, songs arranged for Orff instruments, called A GIft To The Earth. The songs can also be used separate from the musical play. Happy Earth Day! Alice Olsen also seen at www.aliceolsen.com
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PROGRAM: I did an earth day program last year for 1st grade and it was very successful. The highlight was using a big shadow screen and having one class at a time move behind it to part of the story "The Tiny Seed", by Eric Carle, read by 5 students. I divided the story into 5 parts (I had 5 classes) and used a different part of Bach's 1st Brandenburg Concerto for the children to move to. This concerto has 4 movements, so we used the 1st movement twice, which was great because the story starts and ends with Autumn.
1. Reading, then Class A moves behind screen to section of 1st movement (Autumn)
2. Reading, then Class B moves behind screen to section of 2nd movement (Winter)
3. Reading, then Class C moves behind screen to section of 3rd movement (Spring)
4. Reading, then Class D moves behind screen to section of 4th movement (Summer)
5. Reading, then Class E moves behind screen to section of 1st movement (Autumn)
The music of this concerto goes perfectly with the cycle of the flower! I heard children ask their parents to buy the CD...that felt good!! We also sang a song about a frog in Japanese, (in Music and You; Kaeru no Uta), "Recycle Rap" from Ziggy's Save this Earth with banging on upside down garbage cans, shaking homemade shakers, etc., "This Pretty Planet", from Tom Chapin, and "Music in the Night" from a tape called Nature Nuts.
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RAINFOREST/MUSICAL: (1st/2d's) One year we used the musical "It's a Jungle Out There" by Mary Donnelly and George L.O. Strid, Hal Leonard publisher. Another year we wrote a script taking the audience on a safari to the jungles and rain forests of the world. Our tour guides reminded us to "leave behind only footprints, shoot only pictures, and bring back only memories." We watched children in the village of Mead (our school name) playing a rock passing game "Kee Chee." The village story teller told us about ayear when the rains did not come using the book "Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain" by Verna Aardama. The children created movement and instrument sounds to accompany this great additive story. The students wrote a rainforest rap about the animals they had studied. We created a jungle rain storm with newspaper sounds. We ended with a song entitled "The World is Yours" reminding the audience to enjoy it and care for it and help preserve its beauty and resources for future generations. It was probably an octavo that I adapted for the little guys. Someone out there may be familiar with it. Another time we used "Save the Planet" and "Hakuna Matata." We've also done some fun things with solos, instruments and drama to "Deep in the Jungle" by Joe Scruggs. I haven't seen it in print, but it is on a tape with the same name. Possible musical regarding the rainforest and the environment. Please see:
http://www.centerstage-musicals.com/titles/saveplanet.html
This is an award winning musical that has been performed worldwide by students grades 3-12. Please call 1-800-553-4058 for more information and with any questions you might have. The story centers on the rainforest and related issues, although other general environmental issues are also introduced. Additional songs were added to the play when it was toured for the United Nations in 1994. These can be included, with special ordering instructions. I am the author/composer and original director. The package comes with scores and background tapes, plus scripts and many directorial aids. ---- Tobin James Mueller CenterStage Productions http://www.centerstage-musicals.com 1-800-553-4058
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***********************************************************************EIGHTIES
12/13 1. Bon Jovi / "Livin' on a Prayer" (1986)----2. Def Leppard / "Pour Some Sugar On Me" (1987)3. Duran Duran / "Hungry Like the Wolf" (1982)----4. Michael Jackson / "Billie Jean" (1982)
5. Prince / "When Doves Cry" (1984)----6. Hall & Oates / "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" (1981)
7. Guns N' Roses / Sweet Child O' Mine (1987)----8. Madonna / "Like a Virgin" (1984)
9. Run-D.M.C. / "Walk This Way" (1986)----10. AC/DC / "You Shook Me All Night Long" (1980)
11. Journey / Don't Stop Believing (1981)----12. Whitney Houston / "How Will I Know" (1985)
13. U2 / "With Or Without You" (1987)----14. The Bangles / "Walk Like an Egyptian" (1986)
15. Van Halen / "Jump" (1984)----16. INXS / "Need You Tonight" (1987)
17. Whitesnake / "Here I Go Again" (1982)----18. Dexy's Midnight Runners / "Come On Eileen" (1982)
19. Cyndi Lauper / "Time After Time" (1984)----20. Rick Springfield / "Jessie's Girl" (1981)
21. Michael Jackson / "Beat It" (1982)----22. The Cure / "Just Like Heaven" (1987)
23. Cyndi Lauper / "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (1984)----24. A-Ha / "Take On Me" (1985)
25. Go-Go's / "Our Lips Are Sealed" (1981)----26. Guns N' Roses / "Welcome to the Jungle" (1987)
27. Kajagoogoo / "Too Shy" (1984)----28. Wham! / "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" (1984)
29. Talking Heads / "Burning Down the House" (1983)----30. Pat Benatar / "Love is a Battlefield" (1983)
31. Queen and David Bowie / "Under Pressure" (1981)----32. Night Ranger / "Sister Christian" (1983)
33. Soft Cell / "Tainted Love" (1981)34. Poison / "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" (1988)
35. Phil Collins / "In the Air Tonight" (1981)----36. Tommy Tutone / "867-5309/Jenny" (1981)
37. Aerosmith / "Janie's Got a Gun" (1989)-----38. U2 / "Pride (In the Name of Love)" (1984)
39. Modern English / "I Melt With You" (1982)----40. The B-52's / "Love Shack" (1989)
41. Mötley Crüe / "Dr. Feelgood" (1989)----42. The Clash / "London Calling" (1982)
43. ABC / "Look of Love" (1982)----44. Bananarama / "Cruel Summer" (1984)
45. Janet Jackson / "Nasty" (1986)----46. The Police / "Every Breath You Take" (1983)
47. Twisted Sister / "We're Not Gonna Take It" (1984)----48. Bruce Springsteen / "Born in the U.S.A." (1984)
49. Beastie Boys / "Fight For Your Right" (1986)-----50. Eurythmics / "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" (1983)
51. Ratt / "Round and Round" (1984)----52. Dead or Alive / "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)" (1985)
53. Billy Idol / "White Wedding" (1988)---54. Salt-N-Pepa / "Push It" (1986)
55. A Flock of Seagulls / "I Ran (So Far Away)" (1982)----56. Bonnie Tyler / "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (1983)
57. Toni Basil / "Mickey" (1981)----58. Culture Club / "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" (1982)
59. John Mellencamp / "Jack & Diane" (1982) ---- 60. Young M.C. / "Bust a Move" (1989)
61. Styx / "Mr. Roboto" (1983)---- 62. Berlin / "Take My Breath Away" (1986)
63. Devo / "Whip It" (1980) ----64. Paula Abdul / "Straight Up" (1988)
65. Foreigner / "I Want to Know What Love Is" (1984)----66. Depeche Mode / "Just Can't Get Enough" (1981)
67. REO Speedwagon / "Keep On Loving You" (1980) ----68. Public Enemy / "Fight the Power" (1988)
69. R.E.M. / "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" (1980) ---- 70. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts / "I Love Rock N' Roll" (1981)
71. Rick James / "Super Freak" (1981) ---- 72. The Fixx / "One Thing Leads to Another" (1983)
73. Nena / "99 Luftballons" (1983) ---- 74. George Michael / "Faith" (1987)
75. Prince / "Little Red Corvette" (1983) ----- 76. Thomas Dolby / "She Blinded Me With Science" (1982)
77. New Edition / "Candy Girl" (1983) ---- 78. Blondie / "Call Me" (1980)
79. Human League / "Don't You Want Me?" (1981)---- 80. Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock / "It Takes Two" (1988)
81. Cameo / "Word Up!" (1986) ------ 82. Squeeze / "Tempted" (1981)
83. Prince / "Kiss" (1986) ---- 84. Lionel Richie / "All Night Long (All Night)" (1983)
85. Robert Palmer / "Addicted to Love" (1985) ---- 86. Bow Wow Wow / "I Want Candy" (1982)
87. Falco / "Rock Me Amadeus" (1986)-----88. Chaka Khan / "Ain't Nobody" (1989)
89. The Pretenders / "Brass in Pocket" (1980) ----90. Tone-Loc / "Wild Thing" (1989)
91. Katrina and The Waves / "Walking On Sunshine" (1983) ----92. New Kids on the Block / "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" (1988)
93. Gary Numan / "Cars" (1980) ----94. Rolling Stones / "Start Me Up" (1981)
95. Debbie Gibson / "Only in My Dreams" (1987)---- 96. Men at Work / "Down Under" (1982)
97. The Romantics / "What I Like About You" (1980) ----98. Bobby Brown / "My Perogative" (1988)
99. Wang Chung / "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" (1986) ----100. Loverboy / "Working for the Weekend" (1981)
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"That's What Friends are For" ('86) or "Wind Beneath My Wings" ('88) or "We Are the World" ('85)
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***********************************************************************ELECTION DAY
(Sing to "Yankee Doodle" tune)Verse 1 November 2nd is election day all across our nation.
Men and women all can vote, no matter what their station.
Chorus Sing out for election day! Sing it all together!
Everyone should go to vote, no matter what the weather!
Verse 2 We live in a democracy, where we may take a stand.
We are very fortunate to live in this great land.
(Chorus )Nancy Paxson ‘04
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***********************************************************************ELECTRICITY/ENERGY
Detroit Edison awards up to $1,000 for teaching projects dealing with Energy and the Environment(ecology, recycling, trees, alternative energy sources - solar, biomass, nuclear, global warming, acid ran, etc.) and TA DA...... received notice today that they've given me $750 for my proposal.....------------------------
"Energize the Environment with Music"
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SONGS:
The Weather Rap
Assignment Earth - What Kids Can Do to Save the Planet
Sounds a Little Fishy to Me
Project Rescue: Save The Planet
Save the Animals, Save the Earth
The Lat of the Litter Bugs
The Clean-Up Kids
The Four Seasons
The Weather Company
On the Right Track
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***********************************************************************FACULTY
PARODY? How about writing a parody of a musical show number? For Sunday School Teachers I once did "I like to teach at Trinity" to "America" from West Side Story. It's Almost Like Being in School (Love) from Brigadoon, etc. Alliteration and rhyme seem to make them the most fun. Dance routines (square, can-can or rockette- type line dancing) are fun with clutsy adults too!------------------------
I have seen faculty sing the song "Cruella de Vil" from 101 Dalmations. My faculty is planning to do it this spring for the talent show. It is great if someone dresses as Cruella and pulls a wagon of stuffed "doggies" across the stage. Also, I am trying to come up with some creative (easy) choreography for the faculty choir. I can't get my hands on the version that I use, but I know that I got it from Pepper with an P/A cassette.
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SONG FROM GREASE: How about "Leader of the Pack" from Grease. Have a motorcycle with your principal sitting on it and the rest of the teachers in black leather and slicked pack hair or 50"s dress all around the cycle. Also once our faculty used the song Short people and we were pillow people..we put pillowcases over our heads that were decorated like faces, some had glued yarn hair onto them..and we put shoes on our hands . We simply kicked our hands with choreography to the music. It was fun.
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***********************************************************************ELEPHANTS
12/08 SONG: Willoby Walloby WooUn Elefante (Spanish)
movement to The Baby Elephant Walk
One Elephant Went Out to Play on a Spider's Web One Day?
Hap Palmer elephant song. It changes tempo from fast to slow. I think it's just called The Elephant.
There is a collection called "Orff To The Circus" I LOVE IT! Has a very cute elephant song.....This is an excellent collection. I highly recommend it -- Jacquie Wood
There's a song in Holiday Joobalee (Jacobson) called An Elephant Never Forgets
"Elephants Have Wrinkles" from Movement Songs Children Love. My first grade (and K) LOVE this song.
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SONG: The biggest hit at my school has been "Elephants Have Wrinkles" in the collection ‘Movement Songs that Children Love’ (www.musicplay.ca) --- Caryn Mears
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***********************************************************************FAIRY TALES, FABLES
12/13 1 - GINGERBREAD MAN- have a storyteller tell the story or dramatize it and the kids sing, "Run, run as fast as you can...." and if they're able to accompany with a simple bordun, even better2. SLEEPING BEAUTY - the Pretty Princess song tells the story. In Musicplay (www.musicplay.ca)for Kindergarten, the story is given with the verses of the song to sing
3. THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF - the Nannygoats rap is HUGE hit with the kids. - I've seen it dramatized and it was really entertaining! This was in a program based on fairy tales.
If you had time, I'd get the kids to do their own raps of the Three Bears or the Three Little Pigs, but if you need something that's already "done" the ideas from Musicplay K will work really well. Denise Gagne [email protected], www.facebook.com/musicplaycurriclum, www.musicplay.ca
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12/13 SONG: MK8's "Gather Around and I'll Tell you a Story" is awesome! It's fun because the tune/chorus is simple to learn and the story part/narration (which one of the teachers could do) is fun because it mixes up all of the stories together like "The Gingerbread man flew away on a magic carpet" and a bunch of others that I can't recall at the moment. When I have time I assign parts to each child (some of them double parts) and I narrate it while they act it out. Then we all sing the chorus together. The kids love it! (musick8.com)
10/12 SONG: Gather Around And I'll Tell You a Story from Plank Road Pub. is a great one.
Get Carmino Ravosa's "Story Songs" which has fairy tale and fable songs in it. Delightful and go with many tales.----
musick8.com --- ---Kathleen Bragle
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SONG: There's an adorable song called "Anything Can Happen In A Fairy Tale" by Mark Burrows - I know it's in the musical called "The Box" and it may have been in an issue of Activate!, but I don't know which one.----Janet Palmer
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07/05 SONGS: "Bibbity, Bobbity, Boo" from "Cinderella.?
"Thorn(a) Rosa" - a folk song that tells a story much like "Sleeping Beauty"
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10/12 STORY: Thorn Rosa - story of Sleeping Beauty, makes a nice circle dramatic activity. --- Sarah Miller
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10/12 MUSICAL: This Old Gingerbread House? I've done this program and all of the kids were allowed to dress up as fairy tale characters. ---- Sarah Davies
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07/05 My favorite for K is "Pretty Princess" - the story of Sleeping Beauty in a song. I have it in "Musicplay for Kindergarten". In this curriculum I've written a simple version of the story that could be read, and then the children sing each verse. We also have this illustrated as a reproducible take home book, so kids can sing it to Mom or Dad at home. Also in this curriculum, is the Nanny Goats - a rap of the story of the 3 Billy Goats Gruff. VERY cute, and suitable for K-4 or even 5. They love the part where the troll yells "Who's that trip trappin over my bridge - I say Who's that trip trappin over my bridge, Don't trip trap over my bridge I say, 'cause I'll eat you for dinner if I have my way!" The other fairy tale song in the curriculum is "Gingerbread Man" - to go with the story. We've done this with a really simple Orff accompaniment - just a bordun on the beat - that the kids might be able to play. Again, we've included a simple version of the story in the curriculum to read, and have the kids sing the song in the appropriate places. Denise Gagne www.musicplay.ca
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08/04 FABLES Aesop's wonderful fables retold in rhyme and music
"Sparky(R) & the Firehouse 5(4 C's & A Q)(R)"-Cd of fire-safety songs written under the auspices of the NFPA. (National Fire Protection Assoc). These can be ordered through Gloria Nissenson, 150 East 77th St.
NYC NY 10021, 212-249-2798, Fax 212-628-5819, [email protected] www.golliwoggalaxy.com
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***********************************************************************FAMOUS/INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE
01/16 Nikola Tesla - The Tesla song by They Might Be Giants best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.I have used the song "What Can One Little Person Do?" from Spotlight on Music (grade 4 I think). It's seriously good and I have done it with 2nd and 3rd graders in a program setting and teach it again for 5th when they talk about the Civil War and the Underground Railroad. It's a very catchy song! I think it's by Sally Rogers. It talks about Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King in the Spotlight version. I think there is another verse Sojourner Truth. If you had more time your older students/classes could write more verses about other influential people like the Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, Amelia Earhart, Sally Ride, or Ladybird Johnson ----- Martha Stanley
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01/16 SONGS: Ode To Composers https://www.musick8.com/store/alphadetail.php?product_group=1798
Sing About Martin
Lewis and Clark - song in MK8
Ode To Jazzers https://www.musick8.com/store/alphadetail.php?product_group=3388
Presidents, Martin Luther King
"Great Statesman" is a piggyback song about George Washington sung to the tune of "America." "Follow the Drinking Gourd" was sung after a reading about Harriet Tubman & other conductors on the Underground Railroad. Then "Blue-Tail Fly" - hmmm... maybe it was Lincoln's favorite song? There must have been a reason I included it... The finale was "We Can Make a Difference," which was a choral piece that I simplified to be sung in unison.
Musical play called "First" by Sally Albreit and Jay Althouse. Celebrating all the people who have been the first persons to do something important. Each person has their own song: Clara Barton, person who invented the dictionary, Julia Childs, etc.
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***********************************************************************FARM
01/16 FARMERS: Old McDonald, BINGO, Farmer Brown Had 5 Green Apples, When I First Came to This Land, I had a little rooster.,Lynn Kleiner's, "That's the Life of a Farmer" and "Farmer Brown's Cow" from Farm Songs and the Sound of Moo-sic are awesome!
01/07 "OATS, PEAS, BEANS AND BARLEY" is an easy song to move w/: 4 -movement simple dance for the refrain, act out the verses. - Becky Dougan
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01/07 PARODY: FARMER IN THE DELL but the words are changed to "The Farmer sows the seeds".
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SONG: "Down On Grandpa's Farm". I just did this with kdg and we eventually changed it to "In the music room we have a tambourine" and a ton of other instruments, then "The tambourine makes a sound like this:" and the chorus was eventually "Oh, we're on our way, we're on our way, on our way to music fun." The kindergarteners loved it, and everybody got to play an instrument!
For Old MacDonald, I have about seven different picture books (including had a Workshop and had a Cow) and after we read them, we compare them. To tie to literacy (which we have to do a lot in my school) the kindergarteners made a book, each with their own page, and decided which animal they would like to have on the farm. They had to write the animal's name and "EIEIO". I did this last spring, however, not in the fall. Might be good for 1st or 2nd right now, though. Then they can keep the book in their classroom after we read it in music class.
You could do something with the "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks" or "Turkey in the Straw" or "Hoe Down" or anything else from "Rodeo" as well.
Baa Baa Black Sheep & Lots of other nursery rhymes are about farm animals
Five Little Ducks
Six Little Ducks
Little White Duck
Mary Had A Little Lamb
Little Bo Peep
BINGO
Farmer in the Dell
Apples & Bananas
Duck, Duck, Goose (game, like Duck Duck Grey Duck) (If you're brave, lol)
The Garden Song (Inch by Inch, Row by Row)
Sandra Boynton has some funny books/cds that are great, and have some farm-type songs on them. One CD/Book is "Philadelphia Chickens" and the other that I have is "Rhinoceros Tap" -- Dana McCabe, Minnesota
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07/05 SONGS: "I Had A Rooster" There's a great book/CD by Laura Vaccaro Seeger. --Judy in WI
The Cow Says Meow". It's a MusicK8. http://www.musick8.com/-- Dan Fee
My favorite farm song for K's is the traditional "Down on Grandpa's Farm." I use the Raffi recording ONE LIGHT ONE SUN (sheet music free on Raffi's site) for our model, but it's probably available in a number of other places. -- Connie Herbon
There is a jazzy arrangement of "Farmer in the Dell" by Josh Green berg in the Silver Burdett "Making Music" book. It's on CD 7-35 and can be found under the Listening section on page 233 of the Teacher Manual. My kids love it!!!!!!! - Denise Dupree
Barnyard Boogie, I think it's on one of the C.J. albums and has the giant color the pictures yourself lyric chart to go with it.-- Priscilla
"Did You Milk My Cow" by Ella Jenkins - Johanna Beebe
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SONGS: The Garden Song, All Good Gifts , "When I First Came To This Land" --in the 3rd Grade MacMillan Share the Music; There is also a song in the Jill Trinka materials called "I Want to Be a Farmer". A friend is doing it at her spring concert. "The Sow Took the Measles" --several different octavo and song collection versions
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***********************************************************************FATHER'S DAY
There is a simple hymn by John Hopps, "Father Lead Me Day By Day". I have a wonderful version of it by Hal Hopson, but I think its out of print now. It comes from Agape Publishing, which is now Hope Publishing I believe, and is dated 1978.BACK to Theme topics
***********************************************************************FEBRUARY
Abraham Lincoln, kind and good, Was honored and loved my many To help us remember this president, We put his face on a penny! .....A good text to chant, and create body percussion accompaniment...With the penny idea in mind then it can naturally lead into "The magic penny" song by Malvina Reynolds.(Love is something if you give it away)------------------------
George Washington ..Yankee doodle....especially the verse about There was Captain Washington upon a slapping stallion, giving orders to his men,I guess there was a million. (Yankee Doodle is a great one to sing and dance to in first grade.)
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Thomas Edison's birthday; groundhog day
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***********************************************************************FIFTIES
10/12 SOCK HOP SONGS: Happy Days, Rockin' Robin, The Stroll, Yakkity Yak, Woolly Bully (is that 50's or 60's? or does it matter?), Hound Dog, Let's Go to the Hop, We Go Together (from the movie "Grease"), Earth Angel -- gotta love the movie "Back to the Future"----------------
06/07 ROCK AND ROLL: (GREAT BOOK) "Top 40 Fun Facts Rock and Roll". They are the 'ready to use" reproducible activities. There are word searches, word scrambles, time lines, all kinds of facts and there are two pages called "Rock N Roll Research. Some of the questions asked are:
“My favorite rock band/performer is”:, “They were formed in", “Members of the band include", “Their place in rock history is", and then a full page for them to write something in paragraph form.
ISBN 0 634-06552-1 -- West Music: http://www.westmusic.com/ - Penny Thomas
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06/06 WEBSITE: Go to http://www.fiftiesweb.com/fashion/fashion.htm for everything you ever wanted to know about the50s--and more. It's a cool site! Louise Eddington
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04/03 SONG: Yakety Yak would be a fun one. I don't know where you could get the words... Witch Doctor by the Chipmunks is from the 50's would be fun.
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04/02 WEBSITE: Fifties www.rockhall.com for the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. They have a listing by year.
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SONG: I've done Rock Around the Clock before. We did a different 50' type movement for each verse with the refrain always having the same movement.
Verse 1 hand jive (pat pat, clap clap, scissor scissor, pound fists, pound fists, hitchhike, hitchhike)
The other verses, I can quite remember but I think we did a modified Charleston step, twist, and others.
Refrain
jump back, clap, jump back, clap (We're gonna rock around the clock tonight)circle -feet kind of go in a Suzy Q style (We're gonna rock, rock, rock till the broad daylight) snap off beats up left, up right, down left, down right (We're gonna rock, gonna rock around the clock tonight.)
PROPS: If you're using an instrumental acc. tape, I bought inflatable guitars and saxophones and the some kids pretending to play them at the instrumental breaks.
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ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK: We have a few kids up in front of the others who pretend to be "Elvis". They can take turns, each doing one verse. The kids behind them do a freeze-pose movement: when the Elvises say the words they don't move, but when the guitar hits the chord between the phrases of the verse the kids jerk to a new pose. Usually the pose has arms and hands out from the body. It looks cool when they all move together. On the refrains we all did the regular rock and roll dance steps.
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Rock Around the Clock: Point different directions in the opening ( like clock hands) then bring the group together with both hands on their knees at "Rock around the clock tonight". Begin twisting left - right, forward - back on verse and then clapping at the earls left and right on on second verse.....I had it attached to medley style songs, so we quite there. Rockin' Robin is a great song for the hand jive Jailhouse Rock is fun with the front row using JAIL BARS - Oriental Trading- they are neat!!!
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Beach boys songs go over big wearing all the beach gear and beach choreography, too.
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Do you know the 'STROLL" - it looks good on stage, too. I also ordered their RECORDS to hang on the curtains and then from the ceiling in my room.
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MEDLEY: I've done 50-60's and "Top 40" medley type musicals for K-6 and they go over better than anything - they leave the families singing!!!!! Parents even wore their old stuff to the show...........I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
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COSTUMES: For the 50's, all my kids wore sunglasses, tee shirts, some of the girls wore poodle skirts, but many of them just purchased a piece of felt and cut out a dog shape and velcroed it to a skirt. For those famous "poodle" shirts of the 50's. If you use good old cheap, last for the next billion years, double knit it's a snap. Buy as wide as you can get (generally 60"), find a round table, lay it out, put books on top to keep in place and cut. Now, to make the waist, measure the kids, fold skirt in half and use a piece of chalk attached to a string (makes it a long compass)to get correct circumference(spelling looks wrong)and cut a hole out of the middle. Cut about a 6 inch slit down the skirt starting at the waist so it will go over head easily.
Then, find a safety pin and "voila - et fini" --- well, almost. Now you can make a poodle out of paper or cut one out of the a white or black sweatshirts wrong side out and pin or tack on. Of course, if you have a helpful mom, she can put waist bands on without a lot of trouble. To complete the outfit, wear a white blouse (or pastel), a chiffon scarf around your neck or pony tail and you're set. Girls can also wear bobby socks and tennis shoes. Also, instead of skirt they can wear jeans rolled to just below the knee, borrow dads largest white dress shirt, roll up sleeves, add chiffon scarf once again and you'll really be cool. Boys can wear white t-shirts, jeans rolled up so you can see their white socks, black leather jacket and vaseline in their hair. (It makes my skin crawl just to think of it.)
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***********************************************************************FIRE SAFETY
06/16 Could they make up a new kind of "siren" for an emergency vehicle? And perform and/or notate it? Or make up a jingle for the local phone number for emergency services? Like this catchy number https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab8GtuPdrUQ - J.M.in MA--------------
12/13 PARODY: To "Are You Sleeping":
1. If my clothes should catch on fire; Stop, drop, roll; stop, drop, roll.
I'll put out the fire. I'll put out the fire. I won't burn. I won't burn.
2. If my house should catch on fire, I'll get low and go. Get low and go.
I'll be safe from fire. I'll be safe from fire; I won't burn. I won't burn..
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"Sparky(R) & the Firehouse 5(4 C's & A Q)(R)"-Cd of fire-safety songs written under the auspices of the NFPA. (National Fire Protection Assoc).
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***********************************************************************FISH
See also the file #40 PROGRAM IDEAS N-Z/Ocean----------------
01/16 The PreK class did a puppet show with the song, "Slippery Fish." If you don't have fish puppets, you can easily make poster board cutout fish for them to move during the song. We also learned the song in Spanish. English and Spanish versions are on youtube. PreK's also loved a simplified version of Baby Shark. They love the movements!
Another great movement/singing activity that I used was Artie's version of "1,2,3,4,5, Once I Caught a Fish Alive." I'm lucky to have A LOT of ocean animal beanies/stuffed animals. I used a parachute instead of a scarf. After singing, I asked the students to "go fishing" and they would go under and get an animal. After they sang their response, they'd put the animal in the center of the parachute, and we'd sing again. When all of the animals were on the parachute, they bounced them off to "Surfin' USA." (The reward for using their best singing voices.) Great fun! See Artie's original version here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGUbMb6wGG8 ----- Lee in GA
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01/07 “Sea Tunes for Kids” Brent Holmes www.amazon.com
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02/03 PROGRAM: We developed it around the idea of (Your School's name) School of Fish
1.We started with our school song of which we said in "chant fashion first(each section/day) had a line of the chant. Then we sang the song w/ instruments.(Our school song was written by a friend of mine so I would have to get her permission...)You could use your school song.
2.We did another chant Fresh Ideas Sung Here at (quarter) quart 2 eights quart 2 eights (we used hand drums on the rhythm and a rachet on the rests.)(School name) create a 4 beat pattern-ours is NCE so it is 3 beats and then a rest. Have a good at-ti- tude 2 eights quart 2 eights quart. That's the key! rest 2 eights quart rest
3. Next we sang a song from the "Fishy" musical called "School's In"(I bought the musical at TMEA convention so I'm sure you can find it in any music catalog...)
4.We used some narration from "Fishy" about a blue marlin who pouts and we make hime smile with a smile poem(an Orff activity) and then
5.We sang "Find Your Smile" from MK8(archives)
6. Next we practiced our scales:
A:EGBDF, what are the lines of the treble clef?
We played(ad lib)the jepordy theme while kids raised hands and a "teacher figure" called on a (pre-chosen)student to answer
Every Good Boy Does Fish
B. FACE, what are the spaces, please tell me!
"Jeopardy tune an d teacher calls on another (pre-chosen) student
Fish Are Caught Everywhere
When you put the lines and spaces together, what do you get?
All: "Fish Scales" 7.Then we sang "The Scale Song" that was at the front of Vol. 13, No. 1/MK8
8 To end it the school bell rang and we sang "School's In" only we changed the words to "School's Out"
Contributed by Jan Tortorella:
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08/02 BULLETIN BOARD: There's a really cool font called aquarium that features fish swimming in the letters and a cat curled up around each one. That would be really cool to print out a heading for a bulletin board , poster or banner. http://www.acidfonts.com/a5.htm is where I downloaded it from. To make sure that everyone understands that your board is part of the school theme you could print a little sign to staple at the bottom of your fishy board that says "Music Class: "F'resh "I"deas "S"ung "H"ere
FISH IN TIME (say it like Fishin' Time)
This bulletin board contains sets of fish in various colors with quarter notes or eighth notes on them. In each group there is a large fish that displays a time signature. The little fish that follow the big fish are wearing either quarter notes of eighth notes (for 6-8 time). There are 4 fish with quarter notes following the 4-4 time fish and they are all the same color. Three with quarter notes for 3-4 and so on. The picture for this one will help immensely! It will be up soon!!!
This bulletin board is great for introducing time signatures or strong beat/weak beat. The "beats" are smaller fish and the strong beats are placed a little higher than the weaker beats. I usually put four groups up, 4-4 time, 3-4 time, 2-4 time and 6-8 time (with eighth notes on the fish). picture at http://members.aol.com/jasontracy/rhythm.htm
GET HOOKED ON A MUSICAL BOOK
Use blue paper as a background. Create a boy or girl in a boat with a fishing pole and a gigantically large hook on it. Print our big fish or cut them out of contruction paper or groovy wrapping paper (think metallics). On the fish print the name and author of a musical book. "The Remarkable Farkle McBride" is one….I think there was a LARGE list posted before. Check the archives at: musick8.com (Mailing list/archives) If you had the time you could go to amazon.com and find a picture of the book cover and print it and attach to the fish. Instead of a boat you could just draw a few waves at the top of the bulletin board and have the string and hook come down without being attached to a pole. For that matter you could use several lines and hooks. Twist some aluminum foil to create a hook. I like 3-D bulletin boards.
F.I.S.H.
Create a large staff on the bulletin board and hot glue fishing bobbers (or are they called corks).anyway you know, those floaty things that bob up and down when the fish is biting) as note heads on the staff.
CLASSY MUSICIANS
First put up black paper for a background and cut out several orange fish. On the fish write the name of a class "Mrs. Smith's First Grade" or "Band" or whatever. Behind the fish had a school of smaller orange fish each with the name of a student in that class on it. I teach in a small school so I could do this with a little work. Got a lot of kids? Take a sharpie black marker and write the name on a goldfish cracker and hot glue them to the board. (Use the thin sharpies and don't press too hard. Cover with a thin coat of clear paint or hairspray will help preserve them)
MUSIC is FINtastic
Print or cut out fish and put whatever you want on them…fishy songs, sea chanteys, activities that you'll do in music for the year. Etc… Using a blue blackground and fish to hold the info you could do Beethoven is FINtastic or The Brass Family is FINtastic or Take Care of That FINtastic Voice
BASS Something about bass vs. bass (no, no, you said it wrong BASE vs. BASS…there ya go!)…….just a fuzzy idea.
SOUNDS A LITTLE FISHY
Create an underwater scene with rhythms or short melodies written on the fish. Use this as a review for your classes.
BORDERS, BACKGROUNDS and PROPS
Blue and or green plastic wrap over blue bulletin board paper creates a watery background. Put some of your fish behind it for added "depth" Bubble wrap as a border. Cut bubble wrap into circles to use for bubblescoming out of a fish's mouth. This would be cool (but expensive) to use as a background. Probably best to use on a board the kids can't touch. I know that I have to resist wanting to pop bubble wrap when I see it and I'm 30! Fish Aquarium nets would be easy additions to the bulletin board. You could almost staple them up.
Green crepe paper scrunched up and glued in bunches would be a neat 3-D effect. Use it all around the edge for a border.
You ever see one of those singing bass doll things. It may be the year to buy yourself one. (Send me one too. I want one and just can't bring myself to buy it! *giggling*)
Check with your local Captain D's, Long John Silvers or Red Lobster for fishy looking togo boxes or other items they could donate.
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01/02 SONGS: How about "Baby Beluga" or "Three Little Fishies"? You know the one with "Boop Boop Diddum daddum watum choo" in the refrain. I know it's in STM Kindergarten.
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SONGS: *Swimmy (David & Jenny Heitler-Klevans/ Two of a Kind) - based on Lionni's book about a little fish who organizes a school of little fish to stand up to the big fish *Underneath the Deep Blue Sea (Two of a Kind, on "Friends") - setting of poem by Carolyn E. Kinel
All the Fish (a toddler-preschool song, easy & fun in "Music: A Way Of Life
For the Young Child" by Bayless/Ramsey; MacMillan Pub.4th edition)
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***********************************************************************FLIGHT, FLYING
07/05 SONGS: Air Force song, "Off we go into the wild blue yonder?"Shoo Fly !!
I Believe I Can Fly (Space Jam)
Kites, Geoffrey Bell, 3 part treble, Walton Music Corp., WW1193, Beautiful melody
Air Force song, "Off we go into the wild blue yonder?"
"Let's go fly a kite" from Mary Poppins
"The Wheel of the Water" about the water cycle that might fit...It's a great round.
"Up in the air, junior birdmen"
Up Up and Away
I'll Fly Away
Mission Control
John Rutter has a song - not sure of the title, maybe - Heavenly Aeroplane?
Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines”
John Denver song called “High Flight” is beautful. "Lady of the Air" is a great song.(about Amelia Earhart) possibly in the 5th grade (World of Music)
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***********************************************************************FOOD
01/16 Randy Delelles and Jeff Kriske did a workshop at our LIAOSA a number of years ago and the workshop was called "Food for Thought." Every song presented had something to do with food. I just looked up the date and was shocked to see the workshop was 11 years ago. The material was terrific. Of course, I can't offer you anything because it's copyrighted, but perhaps you could write or call and purchase some of the music. They did a rhythm stick routine to "Hot Lunch Jam" from "Fame," which you could do on your own. Very successful with the kids and the phrasing falls nicely into 8 beat phrases. The address for their company is: KID SOUNDS P.O. BOX 13888 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA 89112-1888------------------------
01/16 "Wee Sing Around the World" there is a fun song about food from around the world. It mentions food from many countries in a fast, tongue twister type arrangement.
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Food, Glorious Food from Oliver
The City Blues US Folk Blues song by Jerry Silverman copyright 1983 by Saw Music Corporation
The Storm by David Asplund and Donna Otto from Let's Do It Again Volume 3 by Jenson Publications
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06/14 SONGS: "Goin' On a Picnic"; On Top of Spaghetti"; "Cut the Cake"; "No More Pie", "One Green Jelly Bea" by Lee and Sandy Paley, Denise Gagne's Music Play Kdg Curriculum - "Chew Chew" - sounds like a train song but really talks about chewing your food!
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06/14 SONG: When he was little, my son loved the song "Sandwiches are Beautiful". There's always "I like to eat apples and bananas", or "Shortnin' Bread", or this song:
Refrain: Peanut, peanut butter (jelly) Peanut, peanut butter (jelly)
First you take the peanuts and you dig 'em, you dig 'em, you dig 'em, dig 'em, dig 'em
Then you crush 'em, you crush 'em, you crush 'em, crush 'em, crush 'em
Then you spread 'em, you spread 'em, you spread 'em, spread 'em spread 'em.
Refrain Next you take the berries and you pick 'em.... Refrain Then you take the sandwich and you bite it... Refrain --- Nikki Febinger
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06/14 PROGRAM entitled "On the Menu." (w/1sts) We are doing "Apples & Bananas, " "Snack Time," "Healthy Food," "Jelly Bean Blues," "Guacamole," and they are dancing to "Pizza Love." (They are just mimicking my actions.)
We are also performing a book- "Dragons Love Tacos." I changed the words of "Veggies are Yummy" to "Dragons love tacos." I changed the food words in the middle of the song to "hamburger, seasoning, chicken, yum! Lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, yum! Beef, yum! Tortillas, yum! Nooooooo salsa!" And I added various words/actions throughout the story. This book might be doable with kindergarten. --- Ellen Barker
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01/07 SONG: "The Cheese Roll Call" from Pinky and the Brain (Animaniacs). Our local library has a copy, so it's probably easily available. I was out for six weeks last spring, and it's the *only* thing she did that the children wanted to do again. It's goofy, and goes through lots of different kinds of cheeses and the parts of the world they come from. Good cheesy fun! -- Debbie in Ohio 06/06 COSTUMES: You can easily make bibs out of sheeting or use white t shirts and have the kids use real bell peppers, oranges, pea pods etc., cut and allowed to dry then use as stamps with acrylic paint. For the Food pyramid the announcers had Tutankhamen/ Negfertiti type hats made out od construection paper with lotsa of hieroglyphics on them they also made constuction paper collars and armbands. The kids all shook either the Remo fruit and vegetable shakers or ones that I had made from plastic fruit, filled with carpenter s nails then sealed with some hot glue.-- Sue Michiels
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06/06 (The songs in the following lesson are from Plank Road Publishing: http://www.musick8.com/ 1-800-437-0832) LESSONS (w/2ds) 1. Introduce 3 parts of a good meal - appetizer, entree and dessert.
2. Give clues to help them guess that the appetizer is guacamole, the entree is pizza and the dessert is jelly beans. (Get where I'm going with this?)
3. Sing through Guacamole, Pizza Love and Jelly Bean Blues (all MK8.) Talk about the different styles of the songs and quickly teach a simple move representative of each style.
Lesson Two: 1. Review 3 parts of a meal and what our meal consists of.
2. Sing through Guacamole.
3. Divide into teams. My kids sit on 4 risers so I have 4 easy teams. Each team's job is to create a movement that in some way matches the song Guacamole. Sing it acapella, pointing out the number of different elements in the song that deserve their own movements.
4. Set them loose. Start with a minute or two of talking and planning, then play the song several times while they try out their moves. When you notice the need, stop and guide. End with a minute or two of sitting and talking, along with a reminder that performers don't tell each other what to do while on stage. I don't allow any copying, or tattling that someone is copying. I am the ruling queen of the room and I am the only person who can determine whether one group is copying from another.
5. Perform. I've been having all of the groups perform at the same time, simply because I prefer to spend more time on the process than the product, but you could certainly have them perform one at a time.
6. If one group was outstanding, I have them perform alone for the class and we talk about what made it so great. The best group so far had the boys on all fours with their heads tucked under so we couldn't see them. The girls knelt behind them dancing mightily from the knees up. Every time the song says Guacamole! the boys popped their heads up and sang along. It was too cute.
Lesson 3: Repeat with Pizza Love Lesson 4 Repeat with Jelly Beans When you've completed your meal, you've got three quick and easy grades you can average into one that actually means something, and if anyone asks you to throw together a fast program, you've already got it. Enjoy! Andrea
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SONGS: Choral piece called “Pizza”
“Pop Bottle Hoedown, "Bate, Bate”, “Buy me Chocolate” -- Deatta Szulis
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06/06 SONGS: "Food, Glorious Food" from Oliver
"My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music lists some foods and you could substitute the rest of the lyrics.
Lollipop (Rock & Roll from 60’s)
"Sweet Potatoes", a Creole song from Louisiana
"Shoefly Pie and Apple Pandowdy." There's an easy SA arrangement of it that could easily be done in Unison, if needed. My kids have LOVED this jazzy selection. It challenged them in places, but it was one of those pieces that they were willing to work on because they felt so good when they nailed it. There are some places for scat solos (I used small groups as well as solos) - they have them written out which really helped me. -- Becky from NH MK8 songs (http://www.musick8.com/ 1-800-437-0832) Chocolate Sundae vol 9/4, Navel Orange vol 12/2, Everlasting Fruitcake vol 10/2, Cranberries Forever vol 15/2, You Gave Me Your Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie vol 10/5, Guacamole vol 12/4, Spicy Hot vol 12/5, Pizza Love vol 8/5, The Food Pyramid vol 15/3
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07/05 SONGS: Popcorn (Kirby Shaw, I think), Guacamole (MK8), Pizza Love (MK8), Plain Cheeseburger (Pepper I think), Chocolate (Pepper), and Food, Glorious Food (from Oliver). The kids are really enjoying the songs. We're adding a little dance to Guacamole and some movements here and there.
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SCRIPT: A MUSICAL MENU
SONG LIST: Food Glorious Food ,Drinks ,One Bottle Of Pop ,Java Jive ,Appetizers ,Guacomole ,Salsa Pie ,Main Courses/Side Dishes ,Carrot Stew ,,Mashed Potatoes ,Grandma's Chicken Soup ,Pizza Love ,Dessert ,The Bakery Shop ,Three Little Muffins ,If All The Raindrops Were Lemon Drops, Lollipop Medley, Chocolate Sundae, Food Glorious Food
ALL GRADES: FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD
Narrator 1: Welcome to Club (your school) friends where music and food never ends Look at your menu and see all the choices And listen to us as we raise all our voices.
Narrator 2: We'll start off with things that you like to drink Which do you like, or do you need to think?
GRADE 2: ONE BOTTLE OF POP, JAVA JIVE
Narrator 3: Now would you like a little snack to eat? Our Guacamole is very hard to beat!
GRADE 2: GUACAMOLE, SALSA PIE Narrator 4: And now as you plan out your meal Here are some choices with lots of appeal.
GRADE 2: CARROT STEW, MASHED POTATOES, GRANDMA'S CHICKEN SOUP, PIZZA LOVE
Narrator 5: We tried to save all the sweet foods for last; You better hurry up, they are going fast!
GRADE 1: THE BAKERY SHOP, THREE LITTLE MUFFINS, IF ALL THE RAINDROPS WERE LEMON DROPS, LOLLIPOP MEDLEY, CHOCOLATE SUNDAE
Narrator 6: We hope that our food was good to your ears. We thank you for coming to share with us here. With one final song to end all the fun, We all say bye for now, thanks to everyone! ALL GRADES: FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD
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08/04 The "REAL" JOHNNY APPLESEED visits our Kindergarten and 1st grade students in late September, so I prepare them by using that MK8 song about 2 weeks before the event. I emphasize form with freeze (feet, that is) while they pretend to play one of the instruments on the verses, then move on the refrain, sowing seeds. I demonstrate the washboard and the spoons, I show them the acoustic guitar and picture of the banjo, and we discuss American folk music. You could use this in a program by having each class or small groups sing the verses, then all could sing the refrain, with a select group moving on the stage. This year I added the new "I Love Apples" song, and brought all the examples I could from the grocery store so they could see the different kinds and vote on their favorite. For a program you could have individual students hold up a big picture of each apple as it is named. "How to Make Popcorn" is from The Alligator Purse. In class I use hula hoops to divide the class into groups, and they learn form as freeze (feet) on voices, move around the hoop on the instrumental sections. I bring an old fashioned popcorn popper and we talk about how the oil sizzles, the popcorn slowly starts to pop, gets faster, then starts to slow and finally stop (vocab-tempo). They add this to the movement, and by the end of the song each group goes "slow and low" and are practically on the floor. They love it when I just observe and leave them on their own. For a program, you could add white and yellow scarves or ribbons for the popcorn as an added visual. Food---one of my favorite subjects! I like to compare food and music----how it turns out depends on what elements you put in it. -- Contributed by Margaret McKee Swarts in GA, http://webtech.cherokee.k12.ga.us/sixes-es/mswarts/
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MK8 SONGS (http://www.musick8.com/)The Apple Song (Vol. 14, No. 1) The Ballad Of Johnny Appleseed (Vol. 9, No. 1) Carmen Banana's Song (Vol. 12, No. 2) Chocolate Sundae (Vol. 9, No. 4) Grandma's Chicken Soup (Vol. 6, No. 3) Guacamole! (Vol. 12, No. 4) Hard-Boiled Egg (Vol. 9, No. 4) Jelly Bean Blues (Vol. 12, No. 4) Mashed Potatoes (Vol. 9, No. 2) Navel Orange (Vol. 13, No. 2) Ode To A Marshmallow (Vol. 14, No. 5) Pizza Love (Vol. 8, No. 5) Pumpkin Jack (Vol. 8, No. 1) Spicy Hot! (Vol. 13, No. 4) You Gave Me Your Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie (Vol. 10, No. 5)
Some of the songs have lyrics about food, while others simply have a title related to food. You can find out more details about each song at: http://www.musick8.com
1. Just type in the title of the song in the "Search" box at the top of the page and click "Go!"
2. Click on the magazine issue.
3. Click on the "Issue Contents" button, and then
4. Click on the appropriate song. Contributed by Kristyn Johnson
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SONGS: Denise Gagne's "One Green Jelly Bean." The younger kids love this song and get very dramatic about the stomachache part. There's also "The Yucky Song" by the Song Sisters on their CD Room in this World. "Popcorn Song" by Greg and Steve on We All Live Together, Vol. 2 CD. On the CD Kids Direct Simply Silly Songs there's a song called, "Food, Food, Wonderful Food" by Christopher Pennington. Also, "I Like Potatoes" by Greg and Steve on CD We All Live Together, Vol. 5. -- Contributed by Carole
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04/02 A MUSICAL MENU (PROGRAM SONG LIST) - Food Glorious Food
DRINKS: One Bottle Of Pop - Java Jive - Appetizers - Guacamole - Salsa Pie
MAIN COURSES/SIDE DISHES: Carrot Stew - Mashed Potatoes - Grandma’s Chicken Soup - Pizza Love
DESSERTS: The Bakery Shop - Three Little Muffins - If All The Raindrops Were Lemon Drops
Lollipop Medley - Chocolate Sundae - Food Glorious Food, The Donut Shop -- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie , Sarasponda with "chocolate cookie as a substitute"
BREAD/BISCUITS: The Muffin Man -- "Roll" Over Beethoven -- "Roll" On Columbia -- Barney's annoying Bread Song
We're in the Money -- Honey Bun-- Shortnin' Bread --Yeast Side, West Side
Hot Cross Buns
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SEUSS SONG: There is a cute song in the Dr. Suess songbook called: "Hungry, Hungry, I am Hungry!" It has the most Dr. Suessish hilarious words! I sing this with some of my classes in the Spring around the time of Dr. Suess's birthday...I think it is in March??
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In "Sounds We Found" there's a very cute song called Kitchenette Minuet. It includes parts for pots and pans and is lots of fun. I got the book from Shawnee Press years ago but I think it's available from most places now Several years ago I did a song with middle schoolers called Pop Bottle Hoedown.
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FINGERPLAYS FROM SHARON LOIS, BRAM: 5 Brown Buns
ROUNDS IN RHYTHM by Barlow: Pizza; Popcorn; Tacos;
KITCHEN SONGS:
All Around the Kitchen; Conga IN the Kitchen (John Jacobson)
Polly Put the Kettle On; Clear the Kitchen (SBurdett, World of Music, 2)
Aiken Drum; All Around the Kitchen; Animal Crackers in My Soup
Anselm's Bread - Great Rounds Songbook; Apples & Bananas
Artichokes - Malvina Reynolds; Ate a Peanut;
OTHER:
Anselm's Bread; Apples and Bananas; Artichokes and Broccoli; Avocado Round; The Baby Lima Bean Song,
Banana Boat Song; Bate, Bate - Share the Music; Big Rock Candy Mountain; Bubble Trouble;
Candy Man - Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory; Carrot Stew - SB book3; Cherries So Ripe;
Chicken Dance; Chiquita Banana, Chocolate; Chopsticks; Clear the Kitchen - SB book2;
C-O-F-F-E-E; Coffee Anyone? from Voices in Harmony (h.Leonard
Coffee Anyone? Voices in Harmony (H. Leonard); Concerto For Knife & Fork (octavo);
Cookie Jar Game, Corner Grocery Store - Raffi; Dessert Alert - Kirby Shaw octavo; Eating Is Fun; Food,
5 Plump Peas; Glorious Food - from Oliver!, Goin' on a Picnic; Food Rap - Round We Go by Gilpatrick; Found a Peanut,
Hot Cross Buns; I Want a Chocolate Malted I'm a Little Teapot
Ice Cream - from Anne of Green Gables; If I Knew You Were Coming I'd've Baked A Cake
It's a Pizza (+ Deli by Gemini), It's Supper Time From You're a Good man Charlie Brown.
Kitchenette Minuet - Lemon Tree - Peter, Paul, & Mary Lasagna; The Lollipop Tree MK8: Pizza Love;
Lunch (Gemini tape); Mashed Potatoes, On the Good Ship Lollipop, On Top of Spaghetti 1 Potato, 2 Potato;
Pease Porridge Hot; Peanut Butter and Jelly, Peanut Sat on a RR Track, Pizza
Pizza - Kirby Shaw octavo; Pizza Hut; Pizza Love - MK8; Purple People Eater; Salsa Pie- MK8,
Sandwiches..from tape by Peter and Mary Alice Amidon, Artichokes Salty Dog (Sharon, Lois & Bram);
Shakey's Pizza round; Spoonful of Sugar; Toots Sweet (from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) ,Veggie Tale songs My kids love them! Veggie Round ,------------------------
COSTUMES: All of my kids dressed up in aprons and a few wore chef's hats! It was great fun! If I were to do it again, I would have them perform a rhythm band piece with pots and pans and wooden spoons, etc....
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(6TH AND UP) Concerto for Choir and Cafeteria (08564015) arr. Carl Nygard Jr. Hal Leonard Pub. 5 short parodies about cafeteria food using popular opera arias: Features aria melodies by Gounod, Bizet, Mozart and Haydn And in case you haven't figured it out.... they're FUNNY! **********************************************************************
FORTIES
I just invested $15 in a great book for just the same kind of program. It's called "The Forties" and it's part of a set published by Warner Brothers. It includes many of the "fun" songs of that era, including "Mairzy Doats", "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" "I'm Looking Over a Four-LeafClover", Baby Face, Chattanooga Choo Choo--all kinds of fun things. Last year my kids sang Rock Around the Clock. During an interlude between one of the verses we had some band students improvise to the blues progression. It was a hoot! Pardon the pun. They also love Splish Splash. It lends itself to great choregraphy and staging. We also sang The Locomotion and pulled people from the audience to participate with us. Sing and Celebrate the 20th Century. It's great and includes medleys from each decade of the century. My kids loved it.BACK to Theme topics
***********************************************************************FRIENDSHIP, LOVE
06/14 I used a book called "How to Lose All Your Friends." It took a backwards somewhat humorous approach to friendship. On the section of the book that says, "Do not share," I used the song "You Gave Me Your Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie."Someone reading the book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAvbaFTRA2Y
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06/14 "Best Friends" - Gemini is an easy and fun piece
SONG: "You've Got Me a Friend" from the movie 'Toy Story.'
This would be a wonderful time to have your students do the writing about friendship. ---- Becky Melhus
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POETRY: (GOOGLE these) First lines: "That you were once unkind befriends me now".... Shakespeare
" And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship." - Kahil Gibran
" I will not play at tug o'war I'd rather play at hug o'war" - Shel Silverstein "Friendships come and friendships go" - Jodie Danielle Townsend
-------------------,br> 06/06 Malvina Reynolds's song "Magic Penny" (http://www.motherbird.com/index2.html) and "Love Grows" (1981) by Carol Johnson (http://www.ericode.com/id104.htm) Carol Johnson has an album called "Might as Well Make It Love" that includes "Love Grows" http://www.caroljohnsonmusic.com/products.shtml Although I've never heard this album, I have really enjoyed this song. -- Nancy Reycraft
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-Time Of Love (simple Orff piece)
-Love And Joy (simple Orff piece)
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"You Are My Friend" by Christi Carry (sp?) Miller. "Remember You" was and is a favorite of my kids.
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Simi Yadech or Give me your hand. The English translation is: Give me your hand give me the other I'm your friend and you are mine. repeat Hey hey my good friend take my hand and dance with me. repeat
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It is in the McMillan series and my students love the dance. It works well for audience participation. The kids go and get people from the audience. You have to teach the audience the song but I did it at a concert once and it was a neat way to close the concert with the audience singing. You've Got A Friend In Me..from Toy Story
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Friends To The End ,Friendship..If you're ever in a jam, here I am! etc., That's What Friends Are For, Friend Like Me from Aladdin, Buddy...McMillan Book 2 (I believe), Best Friends..Silver Burdett
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I Got Rhythm..I got music..I got my friends, who could ask for anything more? "Friends Are Like Diamonds." (MK8 vol.8, no.3) A beautiful piece in 3/4 time. Plank roads MK8 song last year- "A Friend Is..."
BACK to Theme topics
***********************************************************************FROGS
06/07 SONG: "If You Goad a Toad" is a great minor song from one of Elizabeth Gilpatrick's collections. It was a favorite with my 2nd graders. - Connie Herbon--------------------------
04/03 ACTIVITY: : I have another activity I do with 2nd grade and frogs. We read the book "Jump Frog Jump" and do a corresponding Orff activity. Every time the page says "Jump frog jump", we sing it ta ta ta rest, middle D, middle A, high D, and we move our hands like so: left hand on left leg right hand on right leg left hand jumps over right hand to our neighbor's left leg (teaching crossing over) After they are proficient with this, we begin playing the melody on the Orff instruments. Those not on an instrument still sing and move their hands on their legs. The "big book" is great, everyone can see it, and they love the story. Kind of like This is the house that Jack Built. --Contributed by Jennifer Biles
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9/01 FROG JOKE:
A frog goes into a bank and approaches the teller. He can see from her name plate that the teller's name is Patricia Whack. So, he says, "Mrs. Whack, I'd like to get a loan to buy a boat and go on a long vacation." Patti looks at the frog in disbelief and asks how much he wants to borrow. The frog says "$30,000." The teller asks his name and the frog says that his name is Kermit Jagger, his dad is Mick Jagger, and that it is OK, he knows the bank manager. Patti explains that $30,000 is a substantial amount of money and that he will need to secure some collateral against the loan. She asks if he has anything for collateral. The frog says, "Sure. I have this," and produces a tiny pink porcelain elephant, about half an inch tall. Bright pink and perfectly formed. Very confused, Patti explains that she'll have to consult with the manager and disappears into a back office. She finds the manager and says: "There is a frog called Kermit Jagger out there who claims to know you and wants to borrow $30,000. And he wants to use this as collateral." She holds up the tiny pink elephant. "I mean, what the heck is this?" The bank manager looks back at her and says: "It's a knick knack, PattiWhack. Give the frog a loan. His old man's a rolling stone!"
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8/01 FROG CLAPPING CIRCLE GAME..It is amazing how many kids already know this one from summer camps It goes like this....
Down by the Banks of the Hanky Panky, A bullfrog sat by the banky banky
With an Eep -Ipe- Ope-Oops, Jump off the lily pad and kerplunk!
1-2-3- you're out!
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8/01 FROG CLAPPING SONG . It is in the key of c minor
Put a little swing to it as you sing it and make the eighth notes more like dotted eighth notes and it will sound better.
l l_l l l_l l l l_l-----l l l l l_l l l l_l
c c c eb eb eb f f g g-----g c c eb eb eb f f g g
Down by the banks of the hanky panky-----the bullfrog sat by the banky banky
L_ _ l l l l-----l l_l l_l l l l_l l l l l l --Ll l_l l_l
g g c' g eb c-----g g f gf eb d eb c c d eb f g gfebd --(repeat song)
with an eep ipe ope oop-----jump off the lily pad and kerplunk 1 2 3 you're out!
The clapping game is like this: Everyone stands in a circle. You're right hand is placed on top of your neighbor's left hand. So you're left hand is placed under your neighbor's right hand. Rule is you never move your left hand, it stays put! As you sing the song, you pass the beat to the person next to you always going to the left. (I would take my right hand and touch the right hand sitting on top of my left hand and on and on around the circle.)When you say 1 2 3 you're out... If you touch someone's hand on the word out ..they are out.....but if they are quick enough to pull their right hand back and you touch your own left hand you are out! Game continues until 2 are left
My kids BEG for this game!! Sometimes I let those who are out to be in a rotating 5 piece rhythm band to accompany the song.
Look in Share the Music, Grade 2 - In the celebrations section for spring there is the cutest Japanese song about frogs, it has the Japanese writing ,for the words. It is part of the new Japanese tradition that began around
3. I use Froggy Learns to Swim, Froggy Goes to School and Froggy Gets Dressed, (all by Jonathan London) to explore speaking, singing, whisper and shouting voices with my Kindergarten and First Grade kids. Your second graders would probably enjoy them since they're studying frogs.
4. I know a delightful game song that I love to use with my students called "The Snake Baked a Ho-cake". It tells the story about how the snake asks the frog to watch his ho-cake. The frog falls asleep while tending to the snake's cake. A lizard sneaks and steals the cake from the frog and the snake. The snake and frog sing "Bring back my ho-cake, you long tailed nanny-o". They chase the lizzard until he is caught. The game continues with three new students playing the part of "snake", "frog", and "lizzard". Jill Trinka recorded the song in Volume 3 of Folksongs, Singing Games and Play Parties.
5. (leap - leap - leap - DOWN)
The "leap, leap, down" (spoken) is to cue the four students hunkering at the front of the class that one at a time place their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them in order to vault over the others' backs. Once they've cleared the third person they put their own head down towards the floor out of harms way. The person at the back of the line (the first that was just jumped over) now becomes the next jumper. A fifth person can be added to tickle the active frog with a stick each time. This activity is otherwise known as LEAP FROG.
6. There is a round - I can't remember the source, but the words are There once was a frog, who jumped in a bog, and played the bass fiddle in the middle of a puddle what a muddle. Better go round, better go round. His music was short for soon he was caught, and now in the middle of a griddle he is frying and is crying, "Rather be drowned, rather be drowned." s /d dd r r m mm f f/ ss s ffff mmmm rrrr dd /ss s d SS S d
7. Froggy went a courtin' - lots of versions, always popular
8. Cute song-by Joe Fitzpatrick (colleague of mine):
Tadpole, tadpole, swimmin' every where/ s m s m s s l l s m
tadpole tadpole, like you just don't care/ f r f r f f s s f r
soon you will be growing little feet and little hands/ d r m f s l t d r d t l s
How it is you live two lives I'll never understand/ s s s m s s s m s f m r d
9. I have a lesson for an improvised composition using devised notation, based on the growth of a tadpole, if this is something you would like.
Hear the lively voice of the frog in yonder pond" ...the round:
On a log, Mister frog"...movement game
Of course the books by Lobel "Frog and Toad are Friends" ISBN 0-06-444020-6
There is also a wonderful book called "Frog Math" by Jaine Kopp (appropriate K-3) from Great Explortions in Math and Science (GEMS) Lawrence Science Hall, University of California at Berkley. ISBN 0-912511-79-6
10. Three other cute songs are "Five Little Frogs," " Song of the Frogs," and "Frogs Festival." "Five Frogs" is # 44 of Apusskidu, a book published by A&C Black, London. The other two are pgs. 21 and 22 in Flying a Round , also published by Black.
11. Song of the Frogs" has a great tonic dominant feel for instuments, (and frogs too!!!).
12. I found a terrific book.....called.....The Frog Who Wanted to be a Singer by Linda Goss
The illustrations are beautifully done by Cynthia Jabar. This is a lovely book about a frog who desperately wants to be a singer. (of course you have already guessed that part.) Everyone except frogs parents think that this is a crazy idea and that frogs can't sing.....until he develops his style of boogie woogie music that really gets everyone bopping....It is a great lead in to some blues styles. the ISBN# is0-531-06895-1 (LORENA) Great book: FROGGY GETS DRESSED
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8/01 SONG: THE WIDE MOUTHED FROG. It is a pop out book and I used it to encourage children to open their mouths to sing. They LOVED it and begged me to read it to them over and over if they spied it in the room.
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8/01 WEBSITE: AllAboutFrogs.org. It has a section for teachers as well as many activities for all grade levels. Enjoy!
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8/01 SONG: "EL COQUI", a Puerto Rican folk song (I believe it is "bullfrog" in a dialect of Spanish) (It's in collections at library, also Silver Burdett)
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8/01 SONG: I'M IN LOVE WITH A BIG BLUE FROG by Peter, Paul and Mary about an educated blue frog moving in next door and all the property values going down .. It's a nonsensical, funny song.
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8/01 STORY/SONG - FOOLISH FROG: I can't say enough wonderful things about this song. I recommend it highly, even if you're not doing a unit on frogs. The folk story is a wonderful tall tale. The song is in a folk/country style. There are wonderful opportunities for children to respond, particularly singing the melodic rhythm of the song in many tone colors and voices(farmer, children, cows, chickens, bubbling brook, etc.) It is out of print, but you should be able to fine it at a library. Great for any primary level.
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8/01 You PROBABLY don't know about "Toad Suck Daze" - a festival which takes place here in far-flung.... Anyways, frogs are a big deal here , that is, TOADS. Here is a site you might want to check out for the history and all 2,000 verses (just kidding) of Froggy Went a Courtin'.
http://home.swbell.net/highying/froggy/froggy.html
Also, I just came across a site on frog songs and frog poetry.
http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Theme/frogs/frogsongs.html
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8/01 SONGS: IT'S NOT EASY BEING GREEN, JOY TO THE WORLD, LITTLE WHITE DUCK, MR. FROG WENT A'COURTIN, SPRING, SPRING SPRING (Last year's K-8 with words changed to "Little Frogs hop in the air, hop like froggies everywhere", etc.) 5 Green and speckled Frogs, a couple choral readings of frog poems, lots of dumb/silly frog jokes and a readers theatre/Orff thing of the "Froggy Gets Dressed" book. I had also thought about using, but didn't, the Kermit the Frog calypso song Carribean Amphibian??); Mouse and a Moose and a Little Green Frog (K-8 v 10); Down by the banks of the hanky panky; And a Frog ballet with flippers and tutu's to Dance of the Hours.
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8/01 SONG: A Mouse and a Moose and a Little Green Frog/Orff/simple, musick8.com
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BOOK: My students love the book, "Jump, Frog, Jump". The text is very easy for second graders, so they will do well with it. Have students decide on sounds (non-pitched percussion works well) to represent each animal, etc. They can add a few props and act it out while other students provide the sounds. While the text is simple, their "creation" needn't be, and the message (moral) is terrific for second graders.
I have used the book "Jump, Frog, Jump" with my students developing improvisation in a group setting. They play on the words "jump frog jump" each time you read them. They also need to watch the words for dynamic ideas, it ends with a surprise! Another book is "The Wide-Mouthed Frog", I use the puppets and tell the story. I have created short 2 measure rhythmic and/or melodic patterns for each animal in the story.
I have used the book "Jump, Frog, Jump" with my students developing improvisation in a group setting. They play on the words "jump frog jump" each time you read them. That is a great book for teaching the crossover bordun.
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SONG: EL COQU, el coqu a mi me encanta [...el coh kyah me encanta estan lindo el cantar del coqui [estan lean dwell cantar...]por los noches al ir a costarme me adore mece cantando ass [myahdore mess say...]
Coqu, coqu Coqu, coqu, qu, qu, qu Coqu, coqu Coqu, coqu, qu, qu, qu
El coqu sings a lullaby softly I can hear el coqu all night long
Though I fall fast asleep when it's bedtime In my dreams comes his sweet little song Coqu.....
SONG: "THERE'S A HOLE IN THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA"(Spanish adaption) Hay un hoyo en ol fondo de la mar hay un hoyo en ol fondo de la mar hay un hoyo, hay un hoyo hay un hoyo en ol fondo de la mar hay on palo en el hoyo en el fondo de la mar...hay un SAPO en el palo en el hoyo en el fondo de la mar... hay dos ojos en el sapo en el palo en el hoyo en el fondo de la mar... etc. It makes a nice hand play song. I hope someone will correct my spelling as I don't knew that much Spanish.
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ORIGAMI: http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-frog.html
Another hand play song that's good is There's a Little White Duck, the second verse of which has the frog jumping off the Lilly Pad.
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SONG/BOOK: How About Frog Went A-Courtin'? There are great picture books readily available.
BOOK: A Frog He Would A-Wooing, Go (heigh-ho says Rolly)
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SONG: Look in Share the Music, Grade 2 - In the celebrations section for spring there is the cutest Japanese song about frogs, it has the Japanese writing for the words. It is part of the new Japanese tradition that began around 1949 when they threw out all the traditional children's songs in the schools and had their own composers compose children's songs in the Western tradition - almost all Japanese children's songs today come from this tradition, but it will be very easy for your kids to sing.
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SONG: "Five green and speckled frogs. I have an old brown strip of cloth that we hold up for the spotted log. The kids have a ball and I love watching each of them (while doing my assessments).
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FROGGIE WENT A-COURTIN' WEDDING: The last time I did frogs...The children created a "group big book". We used our old friend "Frog went a courtin'". Each child wrote a new verse and illustrated it for the big book! (Perhaps your art and class room teachers would help if you don't have the time or feel comfortable with this aspect). Then we planned the wedding (music, seating, etiquette, etc.), made and delivered invitations (parents, other classrooms), planned the reception (including food). With our newly created big books and puppets (some of which they had to create, others we owned) for each character we enacted the wedding as we sang the big book. We also added other appropriate songs and improvisational music. Prior to the wedding I asked open ended questions.."What type of music would a mouse like for her wedding?" What sounds, would you hear at a wedding in the forest?" The children created a delightful sequence of songs and sound carpet that any young mouse lady would be proud to have at her wedding! We asked similar things concerning the reception. Part of the menu included.."ants on a log" (tried and true peanut butter on celery with raisins), Green bug juice, apples, berries, nuts, etc. We had a formal wedding rehearsal..with our old man puppet minister presiding.
As each guest arrived we sang that verse as the children with puppets took their seats in the "forest chapel". Sample of child created verses.."You're all invited to the hollow tree, for that is where the wedding will be", "A tiny mouse brought some flowers in bloom, in honor of the bride and groom." "The first to come was Mr. Racoon. he came to sing the wedding tune.""Then slithered in old grandma snake, she brought with her the wedding cake." "A butterfly came in with a flutter, and brought with it some bread and butter." "Then hopped in old Grandfather frog, dripping wet from the lily bog." "A big bull frog came from the dock, he played a piece by J.S. Bach."
There were many more, all delightful. The art work was terrific too! When I began this unit, I thought it would be very short and simple. The interest was so high it turned into one of the major events of the season! Parents and other teachers got very excited. We had a large crowd on wedding day! In addition, the children learned a lot of science, frogs, mice, woodlands, forest animals, art, rhyming, creating writing, rhythmic phrasing, etc. etc. I have kept the big book and we occasionally use it with new classes to show them how they can create other similar books.
We have created similar books around Tinglayo, The House that Jack Built, Old Lady that Swallowed a fly, etc. Other song suggestions.... "Hear the lively voice of the frog in yonder pond"...the round "On a log, Mister frog"...movement game Of course the books by Lobel "Frog and Toad are Friends" ISBN 0-06-444020-6 etc. There is also a wonderful book called "Frog Math" by Jaine Kopp (appropriate K-3) from Great Explortions in Math and Science (GEMS) Lawrence Science Hall, University of California at Berkley. ISBN 0-912511-79-6
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FROG JOKES
Q: Why are frogs so happy? A: They eat whatever bugs them!
Q: What's green green green green green? A: A frog rolling down a hill
Q: Why did the frog go to the hospital? A: He needed a "hopperation" !
Q: How deep can a frog go? A: Knee-deep Knee-deep!
Q: What do stylish frogs wear? A: Jumpsuits!
Q: Why did the frog say meow? A: He was learning a foreign language.
Q: What happens when two frogs collide? A: They get tongue tied!
Q: Why did the frog read Sherlock Holmes? A: He liked a good croak and dagger.
Q: What happened to the frog's car when his parking meter expired? A: It got toad!!
Q: What did the frog order at McDonald's? A: French flies and a diet Croak
Q: What does a bankrupt frog say? A: "Baroke, baroke, baroke."
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BOOK: "Tubby the Tuba"meets a frog in his wandering through the forest.
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SONGS; Three other cute songs are "Five Little Frogs," " Song of the Frogs," and "Frogs Festival.
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"Song of the Frogs" has a great tonic dominant feel for instruments, (and frogs too!!!).
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POEM: http://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=19760
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GAME SONG: I know a delightful game song that I love to use with my students called "The Snake Baked a Ho-cake". It tells the story about how the snake asks the frog to watch his ho-cake. The frog falls asleep while tending to the snake's cake. A lizard sneaks and steals the cake from the frog and the snake. The snake and frog sing "Bring back my ho-cake, you long tailed nanny-o". They chase the lizard until he is caught. The game continues with three new students playing the part of "snake", "frog", and "lizard". Jill Trinka recorded the song in Volume 3 of Folksongs, Singing Games and Play Parties. West Music Company carries her books and CD's.
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B B B A G B B B G B B B B A G B B B G
Frog in the mea-dow Can't get him out Take a lit-tle stick & Stir him a-bout
leap - leap - leap - DOWN)
SONG/GAME: The "leap, leap, down" (spoken) is to cue the four students hunkering at the front of the class that one at a time place their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them in order to vault over the others' backs. Once they've cleared the third person they put their own head down towards the floor out of harms way. The person at the back of the line (the first that was just jumped over) now becomes the next jumper. A fifth person can be added to tickle the active frog with a stick each time. This activity is otherwise known as LEAP FROG.
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2. ROUND: There once was a frog, who jumped in a bog, and played the bass fiddle in the middle of a puddle what a muddle. Better go round, better go round. His music was short for soon he was caught, and now in the middle of a griddle he is frying and is crying, "Rather be drowned, rather be drowned." I'm not good at this e-mail notation, but here goes. s /d dd r r m mm f f/ ss s ffff mmmm rrrr dd /ss s d SS S d
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Cute song-by Joe Fitzpatrick (colleague of mine)
Tadpole, tadpole, swimmin' every where/---- s m s m s s l l s m
tadpole tadpole, like you just don't care---- f r f r f f s s f r
soon you will be growing little feet and little hands---- d r m f s l t d r d t l s
How it is you live two lives I'll never understand---- s s s m s s s m s f m r d
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If you would send me a US mail address, I would be happy to send you a tune that I wrote for a frog poem.... then you can use your own best judgement from there Nancy Reycraft Bellerose Avenue Elementary School East Northport, NY 11731
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BOOKS: I use Froggy Learns to Swim, Froggy Goes to School and Froggy Gets Dressed (great book - add instrument interpretation), (all by Jonathan London) to explore speaking, singing, whisper and shouting voices with my Kindergarten and First Grade kids. Your second graders would probably enjoy them since they're studying frogs.
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BOOK: Terrific book called The Frog Who Wanted to be a Singer by Linda Goss The illustrations are beautifully done by Cynthia Jabar. This is a lovely book about a frog who desperately wants to be a singer. (of course you have already guessed that part.) Everyone except frogs parents think that this is a crazy idea and that frogs can't sing.....until he develops his style of boogie woogie music that really gets everyone bopping....It is a great lead in to some blues styles.
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ACTIVITY: Here's a fun activity to do with groups: Frog Chorus (Frog Round) W: Unknown camp activity 1. Spring peepers: (high voice) "Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes . . ."
2. Chorus frogs: (medium voice) "Fried rice, fried rice, fried rice . . ."
3. Bullfrogs: (Low voice) "Mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes . . ."
ALTERNATE VERSION: Frog Round (4 parts)
1. Bananas (low voice)
2. Knee deep (medium
4. Hear the lively song of the frogs in yonder pond": Crik, crik, crikkety crik, Brrrr....uh
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FROG GAME: Kids sit in a circle, if possible but it would work in rows. Keep a 2 beat rhythm pattern with your hands: one on knees and one clap..NOT TOO FAST The kids say the following phrases (One word per beat; one phrase to each 2 beat pattern, one phrase per student):
Student 1: One Frog (pat clap) Student 2: Two Eyes (pat clap)
Student 3: Four Legs (pat clap) Student 4: Ker-Plunk (pat clap)
Student 5: In-the pond* (pat clap) *("In the"=spoken dotted 8th followed by a 16th) Student 6: Two Frogs (pat clap)
Student 7: Four Eyes (pat clap) Student 8: Eight Legs (pat clap)
Student 9: Ker-plunk (pat clap) Student 10: Ker-plunk (pat clap)
Student 11: In-the pond (pat clap) Student 12: In-the pond (pat clap)
Phrases continue with 3 Frogs, 6 eyes, 12 legs,
Ker-plunk,Ker-plunk,Ker-plunk,In-the pond,In-the pond,In-the pond, etc.
The younger (4,5,6 grades) students rarely get up to 4 Frogs but you would continue in the same way always adding enough "Ker-plunks" and "In-the ponds." (one phrase per student)
EACH TIME a mistake is made the game stops and that person is out. The next person (after the one who made the mistake) begins again with "One Frog." A MISTAKE would be (1)saying the wrong phrase (especially the wrong number) (2) not saying the phrase on the beats (3) pausing before saying the phrase (4) hands not keeping the correct pattern. *remember, NO FREE BEATS BETWEEN PHRASES, WORDS MUST CONTINUE WITHOUT ANY SPACES OR PAUSES With the older kids, the one who makes a mistake would be out. With the elementary kids, since I want them to practice and get better, I put a bingo chip in front of them when they make a mistake. After 3 chips they're out. They like seeing this visual and knowing they have several chances. It gives the weaker students a chance to keep practicing.
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VIDEO: Pete Seeger videos, THE FOOLISH FROG? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NksJ32bjFd4
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SONG/GAME: | |_| | | | |_| | Zm m m r d m m m d Frog in the meadow, can't get him out.
|_| |_| | | | |_| | Z m m m m r d m m m d Take a little stick, & stir him about.
| Z | Z | Z | Z X X X X Leap, leap, leap, down!
The game consists of Leap Frog with one kid jumping over three other kids backs and then dipping down while the next in line does the same thing. Just in case you didn't notice, it's another "BAG" tune for your one-handed recorder collection.
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GAME: DRAW ME A BUCKET OF WATER, Frog in the Bucket:
4/4 Cut/Time
ta ti ti ti ti ti ti ta ti ti ta d d d d d d d d d d d
Frog in the bucket and you can't get him out
ta ti ti ti ti ti ti ta ti ti ta m m m m m m m m m m m
Frog in the bucket and you can't get him out
ta ti ti ti ti ti ti ta ti ti ta s s s s s s s s s s s
ta ti ti ti ti ti ti ta ti ti ta l s s m r d r m r r d
Frog in the bucket and you can't get him out
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***********************************************************************FRUIT
From Music K-8 Magazine (http://www.musick8.com/):My kids love the song "Guacamole", which is in Volume 12, #4. It could easily be adapted to "Watermelon" by changing the words to make it a fruity song! - Caryn Mears
Shake the Papaya Down
NAVEL ORANGE, Vol. 13, No. 2, page 52
ORANGE BLOSSOMS (Japan), Vol. 6, No. 4, page 45
Raffi: "Apples and Bananas"?
This song "Fruity Samba" is by Susie Davies-Splitter, and is a new collection of movement songs (awesome collection!) called Shake it Up! It not only talks about great fruit to eat, it's got a cute little dance with with it, and a full Orff orchestration. (As well as an orchestrated accompaniment on the CD). -- Denise Gagne
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"Willie the Whistling Giraffe" Readers Digest Children's song bookBACK to Theme topics
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*My Friend Jake" (Monty Harper, on "Making Tracks to the Library") Monty: "about a reading gorillaBACK to Theme topics
***********************************************************************GRANDPARENTS
SONG: YOUNG AND OLD (musick8.com) (this song received 6 recommendations!!) would be excellent. I took some 2nd graders to a Nursing Home to sing, and this was one of the highlights. In the middle of the song there is an interlude, and we used it to go out into the audience . The kids shook hands with the residents and told them their names, etc. The words are perfect for your occasion!added Signed English to the chorus ("Young and old, side by side...") It was a hit, very sweet. We made egg shakers for the interlude section, so we could tuck them in our pockets while we were signing. I guess part of the charm was the number of shakers that got stuck in pockets or fell to the floor and cracked open when we tried to get them out.
The first time the kids sang it, then I passed out lyric sheets and the grandparents joined in. We also did some old favorites like You Are My Sunshine and I've Been Working on the Railroad---asked the Grandparents to sing with us and they loved it.
"Young and Old" would be excellent. I took some 2nd graders to a Nursing Home to sing, and this was one of the highlights. In the middle of the song there is an interlude, and we used it to go out into the audience . The kids shook hands with the residents and told them their names, etc. The words are perfect for your occasion! -- musick8.com
Option:1) Start all of the children on the ground and add one by one rather than all in a straight line to start
2) Do small groups of 5 in different areas of the room so by the end you will have 4-6 groups of machines. Then have each group show their work to the class.
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12/13 SONG: "I LOVE THE MOUNTAINS" in Music K8 and change the words to, "I love my Grandma. I love my Grandpa, too! I love their house and I love the things they do. I love to visit them when I out of school. Grandparents oh grandparents, grandparents are very cool, etc."
The grandparents and the kids love the 50's beat of this song and it has been a huge hit at our grandparent's luncheon!
Another song that I have used is "WE LOVE YOU" or maybe it is "WE THANK YOU". It is in the same issue as "WE APPRECIATE YOU". I change the words to fit the occasion. When it is for an appreciation assembly we sing "We Thank You", but I think the real words are "We Love You". It is a fabulous song! ---- Caryn Mears
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07/11 FREE SONG: Here is the official Grandparents' Day song:
http://nationalgrandparentsday.com/
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12/07 SONGS IN MAGAZINE: (NOTE: Music K8 is a magazine published by Plank Road Pub. http://www.musick8.com with several good original songs for use by teachers. Issues can be purchased separately & accomp. cd’s are available.)
"Happy Grandparents Day!" Music K8 Vol. 15, No. 1 is great! I've used it several times with children as young as Kindergarten, so third graders can learn it easily. Highly recommended! -- Barbara Lee
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12/07 BOOK/CD/SONG: "Grandma's Feather Bed. It has a CD that comes with it. The Grandparents loved it because they knew the song and many of them sang along. -- Patricia Albritton
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06/07 GRANDPARENTS/PARENTS: My sister (kindergarten classroom teacher) had so many children in her class without grandparents nearby, that she changed the name to "Great Parents" Day and they could bring in a grandparent or any special person in their life. She always used the song "Grandma and Grandpa We Love You" from Musicplay for Kindergarten. -- Denise Gagne www.musicplay.ca Musicplay - the Sequential Text Series [email protected] 888-562-4647
The official name was "Grandparents and Special Friends Day." (Special Friends were anybody they wanted to invite...including parents, family friends, siblings, etc.) -- Shirley Nichols
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06/07 FOR FUN: As a sing-along when we sing for senior citizen groups, or us older folks, we've used, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" the oldie, you sing it all the way through one time, the next time you leave out the pronouns and just sing the rest of the words, silence on all pronouns. They love it and the kids have fun finding the pronouns, and catching our guests in singing when they shouldn't be.
Let ______ call _______ sweetheart, ______in love with ________.
Let _______ hear _________whisper that _______love ________tooo.
Keep the love light burning in ______eyes so blue.
Let ______call ________ sweetheart, ________ in love with ________________.
Let me call you sweetheart, I'm in love with you. Let me hear you whisper that you love me too.
Keep the love light burning in your eyes so blue. Let me call you sweetheart, I'm in love with you. -- Jayne, in N.J.
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01/04 GOLDEN OSCAR AWARD: One of the best suggestions that I got was to collect Mrs. Butterworth bottles and spray paint them gold. Then you have the actual award. I had several of them and it worked great. What a great show and I did it with no stage either. It was a challenge but it ended up being simply magical! - Contributed by Kathleen Bragle,NBCT
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08/02 SONG: "What Was it Like to Grow up In the 60's?" by Phillip Kern, put out by Shawnee Press. E-297. Iti refers to Mommy and Daddy, which, of course, you would change to Grandma/Grandpa. I did this several years ago with my chorus.. and of course, this applied to their parents.. and well, we had a ball doing it and the parents loved it!!!!
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08/02 SONGS: I've used "We Appreciate You" and "T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U", both musick8.com, for Grandparents' Day. Those two songs are versatile and can also be used for other show-our-appreciation occasions.
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08/02 GRANDPARENT COLLAGES
Using old catalogs and magazines have the children cut out pictures of food or other special activities that they share with their grandparents. Glue pictures to construction paper.
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08/02 I'm Going To Visit Grandma/Grandpa
With children in a circle have each child say what they will take when they go to visit grandma/grandpa. The object can be silly or serious. Have each child try to remember the items already mentioned and include them when it is their turn. "I'm going to visit grandma and I'm taking..."
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08/02 FINGERPLAY: "Here Are Grandma's Spectacles" see file #14 FINGERPLAYS
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08/02 PROGRAM: FIRST GRADE (about families and Grandparents): Welcome (MK8); Mail Myself to You (World of Music); That's A Family (MK8); We Appreciate You (MK8)
Third Grade (things we like to do with GP): Kid Feet (MK8); Grandma's Chicken Soup (MK8); The Ants Go Marching In(MK8); Take Me Out to The Ball Game (MK8); Thank You (MK8)
First Grades stood on risers, recited poems I wrote between songs, and did simple choreography on each song. Third grades did the same, except on Chicken soup I dressed up two students to be grandma and a chicken that stood out front and acted out some of the lyrics (chicken dressed in white, made a red comb and big eyes on white ball hat, cut a white feather boa in half and pinned to sleeves of white turtleneck for shirt, wear white sweat pants); one section of students played kazoos on Ballgame song; PTO artistic parent made giant posters for each ant verse that marched across the stage for each verse of Ant song; Elvis character marched across the stage of the end of the Thank You song and said "Thank you very much" in the Elvis voice at the end of the program.
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05/21 SONGS FOR NURSING HOME: Tennessee Waltz, Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree, and Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy with my kids and a nursing home along with God Bless America, and several other patriotic songs. The residents LOVED it and sang along with us...
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04/02 SONG: Ravoso's "Great Oaks From Little Acorns Grow." I often use it as a closing song for a Grandparent's Day program. We ask the kids to bring in slides of themselves with their grandparent or 'special grown-up' and do a slide show while they are singing. Of course, photos could be scanned into a power point presentation, too! Not a dry eye in the house....guaranteed...
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SONGS: Grandma's Feather Bed; "Grandpa's Farm." (Raffi?) the book GRANDFATHER'S JOURNEY is one I like to use in class when doing "family" stuff.
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FRIENDS HELPING US GROW LIKE FLOWERS and did "springtime" songs. "Watch Us Grow" by Mary Rice Hopkins and "Weave Me the Sunshine" from Music andYou Gr. 1. We dramatized "Weave Me" and the chorus waved paper plate moons, stars etc. on a stick.
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MEMORIES OF SPECIAL FRIENDS. We took pictures of the students in "grown-up" clothes: a suit jacket and tie for the boys and put them on a piece of paper with the text "You'll always be my special friend, even when I'm all grown up". The older students drew what they thought they would look like when they were a grandparent. The songs were things you would remember about special friends so we did "Grandma's Feather Bed" a song about a fishing trip and created our own "baking rap" based on Patty Cake, Patty Cake.
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PARODY: To tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It"
Grandparents you are special, yes you are. 2X
We love you, yes we do, and we know you love us too.
BOOK: There is a wonderful book entitled Grandpa's Song which tells the story of a grandfather who forgets the words to a special song he taught his grandchildren. It is in the same vein as Love You Forever a poignant story that had everyone with a tear in their eye. I had the kids sing all the songs mentioned in the story and wrote a little melody for the special song. I did it with 1st and 2nd grade several years back. Check it out on Amazon.
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SUGGESTIONS/IDEAS: musick8.com (Mailing list/list achives) "grandparents day" into the thread index. There's also "Grandpa's Farm." (Raffi?) e .... the book GRANDFATHER'S JOURNEY
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PROGRAM: Everybody is somebody's grandson or granddaughter... show your appreciation this year by celebrating National Grandparents Day. Since 1978 Grandparents Day has been observed on the first Sunday after Labor Day. Here are a few ways to make the day special:
1. *Visit the official site of National Grandparents Day with history, activities for groups and families, contests and more.
2. *Send a Grandparents Day card to someone special.
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PROGRAM THEME: We've used the theme of writing/receiving letters from our special friends and each student wrote a letter to his/her special friend. They did an Orff arrangement of the rhyme "Early in the Morning" and "A Tisket, A Tasket" with a jazz accomp.
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MEMORIES OF SPECIAL FRIENDS: We took pictures of the students in "grown-up" clothes: a suit jacket and tie for the boys and put them on a piece of paper with the text "You'll always be my special friend, even when I'm all grown up". The older students drew what they thought they would look like when they were a grandparent. The songs were things you would remember about special friends so we did "Grandma's Feather Bed" a song about a fishing trip and created our own "baking rap" based on Patty Cake, Patty Cake.
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BOOK: Grandpa's Song which tells the story of a grandfather who forgets the words to a special song he taught his grandchildren. It is in the same vein as Love You Forever a poignant story that had everyone with a tear in their eye. I had the kids sing all the songs mentioned in the story and wrote a little melody for the special song. I did it with 1st and 2nd grade several years back. Check it out on Amazon.
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PROGRAM: SECOND GRADE GRANDPARENTS DAY (every year) . Our teachers do something really cool with it. The program is set up this way: First portion has grandparents in the gym. The second graders perform poems and songs. At the end of the program, the children make a circle surrounding the grandparents (the grandparents have been seated and now stand with children completely surrounding the gym). They ALL perform the "Chicken Dance" (I don't want to be a chicken, etc.). Then, the children find their grandparents and they go to the classroom. Here's a neat thing...if a child does not have a grandparent or the grandparent cannot attend...there are surrogate grandparents! The jr. high principal, the asst. supt. of the district, the district supt., and volunteers from the community fill in for the grandparents..isn't that wonderful? Each child now has an "older" adult to be with during the next activities.
In the classroom, the classrooms have been rearranged and decorated for a "tea". Each grandparent has received a letter asking them to bring something interesting from their childhood...last year, I visited all the classrooms and watched/listened. One grandpa brought his wooden top and demonstrated how to use it. Another grandpa "challenged" him to a competition...it was fun! Some brought books they read while in 2nd grade, others brough photographs, doll house furniture, toys, clothes, etc. What a wonderful way to bring family history alive! The afternoon is capped by refreshments and conversation.
The second graders sang three songs; one to the tune of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (Here's to Grandmas and Grandpas)...I got a letter from a grandparent THANKING ME for the wonderful songs and said they had never been teary before for Take Me Out...the second was to the tune of "Hello Dolly" (Well hello Grandpa, Well hello Grandma), and the third was "Everybody's Welcome" with the word "Hallelujah" changed to "We Love Grandpa" and "We Love Grandma".
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THE COLOR "GREEN"
Here's my top 10 list of green songs, some are real , some are results of my weirdness....
1) Bein' Green (ala kermit the Frog)
2) The Green, Green Grass of home
3) Evergreen (Barbra's my favorite version)
4) Somebody "Booger" Than You and I
5) The Green Grass Grows all Around
6) Sing a Rainbow (in the text)
7) Green Tambourine The Lemon Pipers 1968
8) Green-Eyed Lady Sugarloaf 1970
9) Green Grass Gary Lewis & the Playboys 1966
10)Green, Green The New Christy Minstrels 1963
11)Green Light The American Breed 1968
12)Green Onions Booker T. and the MG's 1962M
13)Green River Creedence Clearwater Revival 1969
14)Greenback Dollar The Kingston Trio 1963
15)Greenfields The Brothers Four 1960
Got the last few ideas at: http://www.allbutforgottenoldies.net
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A Little Green" from MK8 v. 8, I think... "Green Aligators and Long Necked Geese" by the Irish Rovers (a favorite song of mine)
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GROUNDHOGS
See also file #20 HOLIDAYS
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06/06 CRAFT: It's a styrofoam cup with a hole in the bottom just big enough for a popsicle stick to poke through. I have a picture of a groundhog taped to the stick and a black shadow of the figure on one side of the cup (upside down). There are cotton balls around the top of the cup to look like snow. Then, we stick the stick down in the cup through the hole and let the groundhog pop up. We say, "Mr. Groundhog down below pops up through the fluffy snow. Sees his shadow watch him go. Winter's here to stay, Oh No!" In Michigan, we talk about the pros and cons of more winter. It's amazing how kids either love it or hate it by then. If he doesn't see his shadow, we say, "Mr. Groundhog down below pops up through the fluffy snow. Sees no shadow watch him play. Spring is on its way, Hurray!" This craft takes very little preparation except printing out the groundhog pictures and shadows.
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Groundhog songs and carols:
06/06 Songs and Games for Ground Hog Day. http://www.groundhog.org/teachers/ -- Sue Michiels
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SONG: http://www.songs4teachers.com/groundhogsong.pdf
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GROWING
02/03 I did How Does Your Garden Grow with 1st and 2nd graders. They had a blast and the parents loved it! John Jacobson had some great choreography written in.
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01/02 SONG/WEBSITE: How about "Everything Grows" by Raffi? Or "I Wonder if I'm Growing" ? Or "Seeds" by Gemini? Nice with sign language.
FREE RAFFI SHEET MUSIC: http://www.raffinews.com/educators/music#.Vew2iZdDAaw
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Growing: Tom Chapin's "Grow In Your Own Sweet Way"
"The Growing Up Song" Silver Burdett grade 2
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SONG/ACTIVITY: I love "Inch by Inch" You even have time (depending on exactly when your children are sharing) to plant a few herbs or marigolds in a styrofoam cup/plant pot and watch the growth--plus have something nice in your classroom, or to give to the children for their classrooms! But Watch out!!! Last year one of my darling little boys sang, OUT LOUD, "Inch by inch, row by row, gonna watch my #%&@$ grow. But it kind of ruined the song for the year
Others: "Everything Grows" by Raffi? Or "I Wonder if I'm Growing" " " ? Or "Seeds" by Gemini? Nice with sign language.
Jill Gallina has a musical revue called "Growin' Up Great" There are 12 songs all about occupations. I think the title song from that (same name) would work well.
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SONGS: There is also another song called "Seeds" I think it's by Gemini. That would work well.
"The Tree Song" by Ken Medema?
"Each of Us is a Flower," from the Music Connection, 3rd grade. It's a fun one that kids enjoy.
"Everything Grows" by Raffi? There is a songbook and a recording with this as the title song.
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HATS
SONG IDEAS:
Mail Truck PARODY (She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain) by Suzy Gazlay
http://www.kellyskindergarten.com/songs/songs.htm
Fire Fighter song; Ship Captain song; Cowboy hat song
Mexican Sombrero song; "Hats" by Hank Bebee;
How about some Dixieland music using those white Dixieland hats with red, white, and blue ribbons around the middle? (I think Oriental Trading Post has them.)
Nurse's Hat; My Hat is has 3 Corners;
Baseball hat: Take Me Out to Ball Game or cheer song of favorite team
Football helmet: Mr. Touchdown
Army, Air Force, Marine, etc. etc.: service song
Pirate: Something from Peter Pan, Gilbert & Sullivan
Sailor Hat: Drunken Sailor
Farmer hat: When I First Came To This Land
RR hat: I've Been Working on RR
They sang My Hat is Has Three Corners on the video Magical Musical Mansion.
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Great video!
Hats off, the flag is going by (it may only be a poem, but you could set it)
Witches hat! (well, maybe)
Logger - hard hat - the Logger's Alphabet is a great song
Any armed forces song
Sun hat - You are my sunshine
Baseball hat - Take me out to the ballgame
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HIPPOPOTAMUS
BOOK: "The Hippopotamus Song" and is by Michael Flanders and Donald Swann.
It is marked as a Reading Rainbow book, and the music to the song is in the back.
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HOLLYWOOD
SONG IDEAS:
Pure Imagination; If I only Had a Brain; The Ugly Duckling
Whistle While You Work; HeighHo; Rainbow Connection; Talk To The Animals
High Hope; The Candy Man; Singin' In The Rain;
Raindrops Keep Falllin' On My Head; Count Your Blessings Instead Of Sheep
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HORSES
11/03 1) SONG: PONY BOY - Words and melody line are in John Feierabend's BOOK OF BOUNCES.
(The collection contains other little horsey songs and rhymes, but the one I noted is my personal favorite from childhood.
2) "Jet Black Pony" - a favorite with my K's. We just patsch the trotting beat on alternating legs or lightly tap the trotting rhythm on rhythm sticks.
3) "I Have a Horse" This is from a wonderful CD called GET READY, GET SET, SING! Songs for Early Childhood and ESL by Sarah Barchas, High Haven Music. The song goes through walk, trot, gallop, and STOP (Whoa!) for a black, a brown, and a grey horse. I find the material very useful for preschool and kindergarten. - Contributed by Connie Herbon
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See The Pony Galloping ~ STM Kndg. p.T118
Chip Chip My Little Horse ~ Exploring Music 1 p. 22
Shoe The Little Horse (Rhythmic Speech) ~ Feierabend
This is the Way the Ladies Ride (Rhythmic Speech) ~ Feierabend
Movement: Bach Suite # 3 in D, BWV 1068: Gigue ~ Feierabend Keeping the Beat CD Track 7 (The cherubs do this in pairs w/scarves. One child is the horse, the other child is the "cart." They trade places with the form changes. This is a "Let's do it again!" activity every year.) I'm sure you could adapt it for "Stick Horse" easily! - Contributed by Leslie Bakkum
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ICE CREAM
07/05 The song "Guacamole" is my favorite song for this (MK8 12:4, http://www.musick8.com/ !!!! You can insert the words, "Ice Cream Sundaes! Ice cream sundaes! I really, really like Ice Cream Sundaes, I do! Take a spoon, dip it, dip it, dip it. Take a spoon, dip it!" -- Caryn Mears
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BOOKS: The Scoop on Ice Cream, Vicki Cobb (1985)
Ice Cream Soup, Gail Herman (1990)
Ice Cream, William Jaspersohn (1988) - shows how ice cream is made at Ben & Jerry's in Vermont.
Where Does This Come From?: Ice Cream, H.I. Peeples (1988)
Curious George Goes to an Ice Cream Shop, Margaret Rey and Allen J. Shalleck
Make Mine Ice Cream by Melvin Berger
Let's Find Out About Ice Cream by Mary Ebeltoft Reid
The Hokey Pokey Man by Steven Kroll
Ice Cream Bear by Jez Alborough
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SONG: Kirby Shaw has a piece called "Ice Cream". It's several years old, as I recall. Hal Leonard Publishing.
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SOL-FA ACTIVITY: I came up with a fun activity for checking individual voices this week and wanted to share. I used it this week with 2nd and 3rd. The kids pretend they are ordering their favorite ice cream sundae at the local dairy bar. I chose 2 kids to sing the roles of the car hop and the customer. I made small menu pads that the carhop used to ask questions about their order.
All sing: Welcome to the Ice Cream Land (mi sol sol la mi sol sol)
All our sundaes taste so grand (mi sol sol la mi re re)
In a cone or in a dish (mi sol sol la mi sol sol)
Let me make your special wish. (la la sol fa mi re do)
Car hop sings: What ice cream? (sol mi mi)
Customer answers: Chocolate (sol sol mi) or vanilla, strawberry, mint, etc.
Car hop sings: One dip or two? (sol sol sol mi)
Customer answers: Two Please (sol mi)
Carhop sings: What syrup? (Sol mi mi)
Customer answers: Chocolate fudge (sol sol mi) (or whatever)
Carhop sings: What toppings? (sol mi mi) Customer answers: (ex: nuts and cherry) (sol sol mi mi)
All sing: Thank you for your order. (la la sol mi re- do)
As the customer placed their order, the carhop circled the answers on the menu pad, then rang a bell. All kids sang and salivated! 'Twas a fun day.
"Chocolate Sundae" from MK8 v.9, no. 4 (Plank Rd. Publishing)
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ISLAND SONGS
12/13 Come Back Liza, Mathilda - I like the Harryn Belafonte version.
Song: Aloha ‘Oe - http://www.ukulelesongs.com/uke/ukulele_chords/music/tabs/Queen_Liliuokalani/Aloha_Oe.php
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INSECTS
01/16 BUGS! in 3 D: Teacher Guide to video: https://www.imax.com/community/education/
06/15 SONG: "Anansi the Spider"
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06/14 INSECTS: You should check out the Mother Goose Rocks version of Itsy Bitsy Spider.
It sounds like Celo Green and includes Itsy, little Miss Muffet and Shoo
Fly! ---- Robin in Va
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12/13 FREE SHEET MUSIC: I love Nancy Stewart's "Insect Song" - it's a free download from her
website, www.nancymusic.com.---- Carol Parnell
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10/12 1. FUZZY WUZZY CATERPILLAR humps along-humps along-humps along
(eighth notes / quarter notes I dotted quarters: I. )
/ / / / / / / / I /I. I /I. I /I. s l s l s l s l s s d__ s s r__ s s m__
Fuzzy wuzzy caterpillar humps along-out to see the world.
/ / / / / / / / I /I. I. / I I I____ s l s l s l s l s s d__ s’f’m’r’d__
2. Fuzzy wuzzy caterpillar goes to sleep-goes to sleep-goes to sleep
Fuzzy wuzzy caterpillar goes to sleep-in a warm cocoon.
3. Someday he will be a pretty butterfly-butterfly-butterfly
Someday he will be a pretty butterfly-out to see the world.
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06/07 SONGS: There's a group called the Banana Slug band (think that's correct) and they have songs about various insects that are cute.
Mary Miche also has a CD called Earthy Songs that I think has bugs in some of the songs.
PROGRAM: Instead of narration, I am collecting short poems by people like Jack Prelutsky. One that I used was about the Early Worm, in which I had a child dressed up like this particular worm, and another child dressed like a bird.
Firefly (Deta Deta), the Japanese piece, is beautiful, especially with Orff.
I think that Hop Til You Drop has a Caterpillar Song.
There's the old Girl Scout song about chiggers "oh there was a little chigger and he wasn't any bigger..." to the tune of Polly Wolly Doodle.-- Julie Jones
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01/07 LISTENING: One thing I've come across is a piece by Albert Roussel called "Le Festin de l'Araignée" - the Spider's Banquet. It's a great listening piece- it has praying mantises, butterflies, ants, beetles- the works. I have the kids dress up and they act out the insect characters. -- Ruth in Oregon
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01/07 SONG: There is a take-off on Over in the Meadow, only it's titled "Over in the Garden," and it has all verses of insects in the garden. Great illustrations too. -- Barbara Williams
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01/07 SONG PACKET: http://www.aeideas.com/?s=SCIENCE+THROUGH+SONG -- "Science Through Song" packet put out by Sue Snyder has songs about life sciences, physical sciences and earth sciences, with a CD of accompaniments. The lesson plans are very complete and well-written. Good stuff! -- Barbara Williams
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01/07 Shoo Fly
Weavily Wheat, Dirt Made My Lunch, and Roots, Stems, Leaves, Flowers Fruits and Seeds
------ both from the Banana Slug String Band. (google them) - Greta Pederson Music Educator and Performer
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01/07 INSECT POETRY: "Poems for Two Voices” by Paul Fleischman (see www.amazon.com)
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SPIDER MOVEMENT: Draw a spider web on a transparency and tilt the projector to project it onto the floor. The kids can be the spiders dancing on the web! They love it! - Martha Evans Osborne
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01/07 POETRY BOOK: INSECTLOPEDIA by Douglas Florian It is a work of art. Also, the RANDOM HOUSE BOOK OF POETRY has several insects poems. Think about processing through some poetry with your classes. -- Martha Evans Osborne
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01/07 BOOK by Rob Amchin's "Autumn Songs - Music From Around the World for Orff Ensemble" has a nice arrangement of the Japanese song, "Mushi no Koe" arranged for recorders and orff instruments. The translation is "Voices of the bugs/insects. " A full translation of text is included. -- Brent Holl
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01/07 BOOK: [Here’s a] very cool book "Bugs for Lunch/Insectos para el Almeurzo?" It's rhymed text, in English and Spanish on the same page, with gorgeous illustrations. Author is Margery Facklam, with illustrations by Sylvia Long. ISBN # 1057091-506- 7 -- Barbara Williams
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01/07 FOLKSONG: http://www.contemplator.com/england/garden.html --- Here is a lovely rendition of insects in an English country garden (2nd verse).
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06/06 SOUNDS!!! http://www.ent.iastate.edu/list/directory/152/vid/4
http://www.ent.iastate.edu/list/directory/152/vid/4
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07/05 The Ants Go Marching, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, I'm Catchin' Me a Baby Bumblebee, Ladybugs' Picnic, Butterfly, Flutter By, Shoo Fly, Skip to my Lou" (Fly's in the buttermilk, shoo, fly, shoo...)
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04/03 BOOK: Dr. Julia Ray's book of songs about plants etc. plus CD plus props which include a mini rake, a miniwatering can and a mini hoe. You can make mini books for the kids to take home. It is well planned out just like the Insect and Spider book + CD I mentioned the other day.It is available through her at Language Through Music Publishing, Inc. 466 Foothill Boulevard #125, La Canada, CA phone (626) 793-0136 or via email at [email protected] Songs include Three Little Seeds, With a little bit of sun, Old MacDonald had a garden, lettuce , tomatoes and carrots grow etc. 13 songs in all with flannelboard patterns, puppet and arts/crafts ideas. I think it costs about $25. not including tax. and shipping.
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05/21 SONG: I teach grade 1/2/3 the song "Poor Little Bug on the Wall" complete with actions, fly swatters and they love it. It is a great quick review of loud/soft, fast/slow.
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A great musical called, "Goin' Buggy". 2d grade.
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BIG BOOK: There is also a "Big Book" that comes with a recording called "We Like Bugs" (or maybe "I Like Bugs") that my K teachers do with their kids in the classroom that they absolutely ADORE. It is very singable, although there are quite a few verses. Be warned, it will stick in your head for hours....
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INSECTCLOPEDIA: information, ecosystems, images, lessons: http://www.insectclopedia.com
Worm World: information, jokes, art, poetry, composting: http://www.yucky.com/worm/
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BUGSCOPE: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu Scanning microscope for k-12 classrooms
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BUGS
MUSICAL (2d grade): "Going Buggy" and others said it was fantastic.
BOOK/CD "The Great Big Bug Book" CTP Press (Creative Teaching Press) Bee-yootiful pictures!!
http://www.monarchwatch.org
Theme: Songs About Insects, Bugs & Squiggly Things by Jane Murphy (the cover has a picture of a butterfly on it, so there must be song about that "critter" also!) for children ages 4 - 9
SONG: Hug a Bug is a terrific song. How about having the students make instruments out of recycled materials and have a rhythm band?
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We did BUGZ last spring, and it was great! I wanted to add a couple more songs to it. There they talked about going to the dark park, I changed the lines a bit, and added Stranger Danger. And where the bugs were being mean to the stink bug, I had a kind bug remind them of the golden rule. They then sang Golden Rule. Both Stranger Danger and Golden Rule are Music K-8 songs from Vol 10 No. 4. We did actions with Stranger Danger and did signing with Golden Rule. The kids still request doing both of those songs.
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SONGS: :
They're Just Bugs (K-8); Blue Tail Fly; The Boll Weevil; Weevily Wheat
Beetles (This is from the Prairie Home Companion Songbook- tune:Ode to Joy)
The Death of Mr. Fly; The Spider and the Fly; Cricket and the Spider (Bartok)
The Grasshopper Song (Tune: Battle Hymn); La Cucaracha;
"The Death of Mr. Fly"; The Fly and the Bumblebee"; "Flea, Fly, Mosquito"
"They're Just Bugs" (MK8); "The Ants Go Marching"; "Johnny Caught a Flea"
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INVENTIONS
01/07 "Mother Necessity" is on the "America Rock" CD of the "School House Rock" series- it's about historical inventors/invention s (sewing machine, telegraph, cotton gin,...) - Becky Dougan
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INTERGENERATIONAL
I'm planning a program this spring for my intergenerational choir, which includes 5th graders and also senior citizens. I'd like to have a theme, something like "Down Memory Lane" (and I welcome any other creative ideas you throw at me!!!) I'd like to include songs that would be nice for the youngsters to know (and that the seniors would enjoy singing) - I'm thinking along the lines of classics and fun songs such as:
"Somewhere Over The Rainbow" "Climb Every Mountain" "Do A Deer" (gosh, this is starting to seem more like a movie-themed program.....) "Singing In The Rain" Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better) (a two part - kids vs. seniors song)
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I just invested $15 in a great book for just the same kind of program. It's called "The Forties" and it's part of a set published by Warner Brothers. It includes many of the "fun" songs of that era, including "Mairzy Doats", "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover", Baby Face, Chattanooga Choo Choo--all kinds of fun things.(See also "Forties" & "Fifties" in this file.)
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KANGAROO
Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport: The song originated when Rolfe Harris was painting. He had completed a painting (oils) and tried to speed up the drying process by heating the painting in front of a fire. The heating was having the wrong effect and in an effort to save the painting by cooling it again he held the composite board it was painted on (trade name masonite) and shook it. A 'woop woop' noise was produced which he thought was rather catchy. - Later he used these boards quite a lot and referred to them as 'wobble boards'. The sound gave him an idea for a song which he wrote and later sang for his friends at a private party. The song was 'Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport'. The first public presentation of the song was on a Western Australian children's television show produced by Beverly Gledhill.
(To Tune of I'm a Little Teapot: )I'm a little kangaroo, short and brown, Now that's its Christmas I never frown. When I get excited, I'm not shy, Watch me leap and jump so high!
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JOKES
10/12 Why could Mozart not find his music teacher? Because he was Haydn.
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10/12 Why did Mozart stop raising chickens? They kept saying, "Bach, Bach, Bach"
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What kind of music do mummies like? Wrap Music
What kind of music do martians like? Nep-tunes
What do brass players use to brush their teeth?A tuba toothpaste.
What do you do when you can't find a rubber band?=A0 Look for a plastic orchestra.
How can you tell when you have a musician at your door? (S)he doesn't have a key, and doesn't know when to come in!
How could you tell the Trombone player's kid at the playground? He couldn't swing and didn't know how to use the slide!
What's a musician's favorite Breakfast Cereal? Barley-Oats (Berlioz)
Why did the blonde musician go to the store before rehearsal? The conductor said to bring Chopin, Liszt.
Bert: What classical musician goes on your feet? Ernie: "Shoe, Bert!"
Which composer didn't like people to hang around? Schumann!
Why didn't the composer of "Carmen" come to the party? He was Bizet!
Why couldn't Mozart find his teacher?=A0 Because he was Haydn.
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10/05 http://www.ahajokes.com/music_jokes.html
http://www.mit.edu/~jcb/jokes/
http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/content/jokes/category?c=34
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A young Scottish guy goes south to attend university in a city in England. He moves into the dorm with all the other students. A few weeks later his mother calls to check up on him and see how he's doing. She asks, "How are you doing living among all those English?" He says, "Fine mum, but these English are very strange. The guy living on one side of me screams night and day. The guy living on the other side bangs his head against the wall over and over." His mum says, "My goodness, how on earth do you cope with it?" He says, "I just mind my own business and keep playing my bagpipes." -- Meredith Inserra
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JUNGLE
12/08 SHEET MUSIC Connie Saliba's Safari. See amazon.com You'll be glad you did. -- Nancy Jolley, Cak
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SONG: "But I Can't Spell Hippopotamus" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZRCi975uFY
Second grade likes that one, too. - Contributed by Patty O in AR
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A Jungle Party Tonight by Jacobson and Billingsley - Contributed by Marcia Hall
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I've decorated my room in a jungle theme and I am using a jungle theme in all of my music activities for the first 4 weeks. As the students come into my room for the first time, I have the stereo playing "You'll Be In My Heart" in the background. For the first lesson, after the usual get acquainted and assigning seats time, I had the students copy me with steady beat movements to the song "Son Of Man". Then I let them listen to "Trashing The Camp" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfwzlE3WEkw ) and asked them to try and decide what instruments and non-instruments were used to make the rhythm sounds on the recording. Other weeks we're going to learn to sing "You'll Be In My Heart" and "Trashing The Camp" and they will get to add their own rhythm patterns using classroom instruments. I've found lots of other activities with the jungle theme also. One of my favorites is a children's book called "Rumble In The Jungle" which can be read like a rap while the students make background "music" using their voices to make monkey sounds in quarter notes, tiger roars in half notes and snake hisses in whole notes. The three groups continue their chanting while I read the book in a rhythmic manner.
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"The Lion Sleeps Tonight?"; "Talk to the Animals"
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Last year our Pre-K used the book "There's Rumble in the Jungle" as a loose shell for a program. It was really cute. We did "Goin'On a Bear Hunt" "Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!" "We're Going on a Jungle Safari" from Barney---I know, throw the rotten tomatoes now, but , hey, the program had four-years olds on it, and it fitted what we needed. (I kinda liked Barney when my children were younger. My three year old has informed me that "Barney is for babies." She, unfortunately, three weeks later, is still into that retro 70's "Shake Your Booty" thing.
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Ladysmith Black Mambazo has a great story that goes with this on their "Gift of the Tortise" CD. They are an all male group and they sing accapella.Kids love to hear their voices.
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KING, MARTIN LUTHER
See also the file#2 AFRICAN, AFRICAN-AMERICAN IDEA
BOOK: There is a very nice piece in the book "Holidays" from Memphis Music (believe it the book was a compilation from Memphis Music Orff Teachers several years ago.). Nice beginnning is almost a vocal ostinato. "Dream, Dream, gotta have a dream". The lyrics then proceed to tell the life of MLK. Nice Orff accompaniment. There was a recording available of the entire book. I think the book is still available from West Music. Since you are indicating early grades, I will tell you I have used (almost yearly) just the beginning ostinato with little ones and then I read or sing the more wordy verses to them. They add the ostinato between verses. Then we take the beginning ostinato "Dream, dream, gotta have a dream..." and each child has the opportunity to sing about their dream. EX: "I dream I'll be a teacher" I dream I'll be a scientist" "I dream of peace on earth".
My teachers and I also use this opportunity to allow children to learn that it's a good thing to have dreams and goals for the future. Sometimes with young ones we branch off into discussions of dreams while we sleep, nightmares etc. This can also lead to children's literature...EX: "Nightmare in my closet" "Nightmare under my bed" "Where are the Wild Things" etc etc. You might also consider creating a setting or carpet of sound to some poems. There are two nice ones from Langston Hughes (black American poet) "Dreams" (I believe you can find "Dreams" in one of the American editions of Music for Children). It's late at night and I do not have easy access to my library. If you cannot find this email and I'll look it up for you. You might also try using "Dreams Deferred" The later is quoted on a web site: http://members.aol.com/olatou/hughes.htm
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KITES
04/02 The kite song I mentioned the other day, "Kites are Fun," is by a group
called Free Design. If you go to Amazon.com and enter "Kites are Fun"
under "Popular Music," the album will come up and you can listen to a
sample. The lyrics can be found at http://www.songlyrics.com/the-free-design/kites-are-fun-lyrics/
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KITES: LET'S GO FLY A KITE from MARY POPPINS Or maybe have your students do their own kite rap(s)... maybe a different rap for each kite. Use body or classroom percussion as accompaniment, or perhaps one of our RAP BUILDER kits which have many structured background rap tracks and suggestions for creativity. LYRICS: http://www.disneyclips.com/lyrics/lyricsmary9.html
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"Kites" D. G. Bell, Walton Music, WW1193 - nice number, opt. 2 part
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LIGHTS
See also the file #39 PROGRAM IDEAS A-M/Holiday Lights for a script
10/04 SONG LIST:
This Little Light of Mine
Light my fire
I'm Beginning to See the Light
You Light Up My Life
Light the Torch Isabella
When Lights are Low
Travelin'Light
"A Sparkling Christmas Tree" Gallina
"Stars That Twinkle and Shine" Eilers
"Holiday Lights" Albrecht
Candle on the Water from Pete's Dragon available as an octavo
SING ABOUT SUNSHINE by Julie Knowles,HAL LEONARD HOTARU KOI , trad. Japanese round, found in “The Fire Within”Libana
MAY THE LIGHT by David Roth, found in “Rise Up Singing”
SING ME A SONG by Leonard Enns, Thompson Music VG1026
LET YOUR LITTLE LIGHT SHINE from the Georgia Sea Islands (as taught at Libana workshop)
The following are all MK8 . All have the complete score and cd accomp. are available at
08601843 KEEP THE CANDLES GOING by Teresa Jennings, Music K-8 Vol 13, No. 2, Plank Road Publishing.
(Plank Road Publishing)
Dancing in the Moonlight Elem. 10-4
"Light the Candles"
"Kindled by the Flame"
"This Little Light of Mine" MK8
One Candle
Candle for Remembering Elem. 11-2
Lights of Freedom, The Elem. 13-3
Northern Lights (score only) Elem. 9-2
Just One Candle 10-2
"Just One Candle"
"The Lights of Freedom"
"A Candle For Peace"
"One Little Candle - Donnely & Strid 2-part (JWPepper #3297075) CD Available
One Candle, One Flame by Linda Sobo (published by World Music Press, Vocal Traditions Series #42) -- Judith Cook Tucker, Publisher
World Music Press
(ASCAP), www.worldmusicpress.com
"Light One Candle" which is on an album by Peter, Paul, and Mary for Chanukah? Actually, either Paul or Peter composed it, I think. My kids loved that song and so did I.
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MACHINES
LISTENING/MOVEMENT: Holt MUSIC (1988) has a recording of the steel foundry movement of the "Symphony of Machines" in the third grade book. The suggested activity is to group the class in partners (or threes can work)to create motions to accompany the strong rhythmic pulse of the factory. Once the students have tried this, they can also put their partner groups together to build the "assembly line". This works well with third grade,and I have also tried it with K-2. The kids love it. They ask to do it again.
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BODY COLLAGE: Perhaps you could have kids devise some rhythms (repeated) that could be combined on rhythm instruments and create a body collage with moving parts with other students (stand in close proximity and move limbs, heads, mouths, etc., to depict a machine. (You might want to find a video of working machinery to use as a spring board for ideas.)
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This may sound a bit silly, but when I worked as a Director of a Dance Touring Ensemble which toured the local K-12 schools, one of the biggest hits with the younger children was the "machine."
1) Have all of the children (or half of the class) form one line (see below for other options)
2) Begin at the end and number the children across the line (1, 2, 3, 4,5, etc.)
3) Have number 1 create a movement motif (explain what motif is), that would resemble a piece of machinery and have them add a sound that would work. (The movement can be simple, I suggest using counts and giving them 4 each) An example would be: torso twist on count 1, bend torso over count 2, lift torso back to normal count 3, untwist count 4.
4) Next is child number 2's turn. This child has to study child number 1's movement and fit right into it...like a machine. An example would be: lift arm on count 1, drop arm over child number 1's torso on count 2 (as child number one bends over), lift arm back up to normal on count 3, drop arm on count 4.
5) Move down the line adding movement and sound so by the end of the line you have one large machine moving all together as a team making wonderful machine music!
3) Give them a machine to create. Tell them they are to "make buttons", or to "tie a bow on a gift", etc. Whatever movement they come up with down the line ultimately needs to accomplish the end goal.Rebecca Slavin Research Associate to the Dean School of the Arts, UC Irvine (949) 824-8162
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IDEAS: * musical instruments as machines - how do they work?
* pieces which incorporate electronic sounds, such as Stockhausen's Kontakte (1960) or Barbara Kolb's 1985/87 "Millefoglie" (for computer-generated tape and chamber orchestra)
* pieces with steady, rhythmic (i.e., "machine-like") ostinatos, such as the third movement to Barber's Piano Concerto (1962)
* the song "Industry," depicted in the film "Beaches," incorporates machine sounds and includes choreography which could give you some ideas for movement-to-music ideas - C. Paul Heins
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I took an acting class in college and I remember one class activity which involved improvisation using movement and sound...and space of course.
One person would be first to stand and create a repeating sound to go with the movement he created.
A second person would stand and connect himself to the first using new movement and sound.
This would continue until the entire class formed a "human machine"
Interesting to video tape the process.
This part is what I would add: dynamic levels, tempo, crescendo/diminuendo, rests, staccato/legato, changing directions...
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MAPLE SUGAR
BOOKS: SUGARBUSH SPRING by Marsha Wilson Chall, 1998
A PLACE FOR PETER by Elizabeth Yates,
SUGARING OFF PARTY by Jonathan London; SUGARING TIME by Kathryn Lasky
SUGARING by Jessie Haas, 1996
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MARDI GRAS
06/10 Je suis le roi (la reine) de Mardi Gras.
(I am the king (the queen) of Mardi Gras)
Voici ma couronne. (Here is my crown.)
Je suis le roi (la reine) de tout le monde.
(I am the king (the queen) of everyone.)
Voici les doublons.( Here are some doubloons.)
I've set it to a simple so-la-mi tune for the little ones. We'll play a simple singing game. I'm going to have my very young'uns take turns being king or queen and wear a crown. I'm going to try to find some plastic coins, too. --- Monica Gelinas in TN
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06/09 The "official" song of Mardi Gras in southwest Louisiana (Lafayette....second to New Orleans) is "If Ever I Cease to Love." It's quite spirited and rather jaunty. Don't have any clue where you could find it, though.... From a misplaced Cajun who goes into depression during the carnival season every year, and wears purple, green and gold attire with a black armband...... Cynthia Sibitzky - North Pole, Alaska
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06/09 You could do Zebra Zydeco from MK8 and talk about the instruments of Louisiana and Zydeco music! There's a really cool video on youtube I think of an 8 year old zydeco accordion player! --- RaeAnna Goss
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06/09 I had my kids do a limbo to Mardi Gras Mambo (from the Putumayo Kids CD) nad they loved it. --- Stephanie Menefee
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06/09 For Mardi Gras (in Shreveport, LA), I use Kidd Jordan Second Line p.92-3 CD2:37 in the red (Gr. 2) Share the Music text. It is a piece by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band which is popular in New Orleans. We learn to do a jazz walk (step-touch) to it. For those who don't know, the second line is an informal parade of people who join in either dancing alongside the first line (the floats, bands, etc.) or following the parade. They often have parasols in Mardi Gras colors (purple, green and gold) decorated with feathers, beads, or whatever "throws" people want to hang on them. A "throw" is anything thrown from a float, usually cheap plastic beads and aluminum coins (called "doubloons") that are often dated and have the name of the krewe (social group) putting on the parade and perhaps embossed with a picture of the year's parade theme. If not umbrellas, the second liners often have a hanky which they spin around above their head.
This piece has several jazz solos and the children have fun identifying what instrument is "talking". In a past program of Louisiana music, I had the children design and bring their own floats and at the end of our "concert", they paraded around the gymnatorium with them tossing beads to their audience to Kidd Jordan's Second Line. The parents loved it. The "floats" were everything from decorated shoeboxes pulled on skateboards to decorated grocery baskets. They were very creative. I don't know a song to sing specific to Mardi Gras other than Mardi Gras Mambo. But you could always sing "You Are My Sunshine" which is attributed to one of our colorful Louisiana governors, Jimmie Davis. It was actually written in honor of his horse, Sunshine! There is also a bridge named after the beloved horse near our capitol Baton Rouge. According to legend, Governor Davis once took Sunshine up the elevators to his office suite. When asked why, he simply said it was because Sunshine had never seen his office before. --- Diane Woodward
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12/08 MARDI GRAS: Here is a great resource for Mardi Gras and music of LA. Johnette Downing is a musician from Baton Rouge who has wonderful cds. Check them out at www.Johnettedowning.com
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When the Saints Go Marchin' In ; Jambalaya (crawfish pie, filet gumbo....)
There is a song called "Come to the Mardi Gras" but I don't have the music to it
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MATHEMATICS
Definitely see the file #1 ACADEMIC INTEGRATION OF MUSIC AND OTHER DISCIPLINES
12/08 Go to www.mathmosis.com and listen to their audio cd. It has songs for counting by 1's 2's 3's etc.
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A great book for combining music with math etc: "Do It My Way" by Grace Nash. I don't know the publisher but it is available through West and other catalog sources.
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MERMAID
12/09 Disney movie song, There is a mermaid song on the soundtrack to "ASPECTS OF LOVE" by Andrew Webber.
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MICE
Pandamonium at the Library (Monty Harper) Monty: "in which a mouse who
learns to read invites all his animal friends to the library for a party. Each animal reads a relevant book. The song is basically a laundry list of book characters and titles."
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MIRACLES
SONG: "When You Believe" from Prince of Egypt. There can be miracles, when you believe.
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MONKEY
Songs: MONKEY AROUND - Music K-8, Vol. 14, No. 5 page 46
MONKEY SITS BY THE COCONUT TREE - Music K-8, Vol. 4, No. 5 page 27
(http://www.musick8.com/ 1-800-437-0832)
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A few years ago our District did "Sing and Celebrate the 20th Century". Each song is a medley for the decade. It is well worth the investment because it can be used for so many different things. -- Caryn Mears
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MOON
12/13 Aiken drum; Talkin' about the moon, Plank Rd.Pub., MK8 V23-4; There was a Japanese song about the moon (in "The Music Connection?").? I believe the name was "Deta, Deta" - Hearing 2nd graders sing Van Morrison's "Moondance" would be pretty funny!;
Tom Chapin has a song, "Moonboat" that you might want to check out. It is
from a collection of the same name; I see the moon, and the moon sees me.
The moon sees the world I want to see. God bless the moon and God bless me.
And God bless the ones I love; "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon"; Moon Moon Moon by the Laurie Berkner Band is great; Silver Moon Boat is a Chinese lullaby; Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Or, just for fun, MK8 vol 10/4 Dancing in the Moonlight (www.musick8.com)
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MONSTERS
06/15 "Frank was a Monster who wanted to Dance." is an adorable book that you
could use for some inspiration. It's written by Keith Graves. There are
some youtube video adaptations too. Super cute! ---- Elizabeth Trudelle
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Can you do monster aliens? Just saw a cut post using pom pom?s moveable eyes. You glue the eyes on the pom pom?s 1 for ta, 2 for ta di or ti ti, 4 for takadimi.
Vocal exploration FREE Alien Adventure: A Vocal Exploration Activity
Monster BAG recorder stations Monster BAG Recorder Stations and Worksheets
Musical Monsters Mystery: 3 Munching Melody Monsters
Monster Rhythm Run - Bundled Set
Musical Symbol Play Clay & Tracing Sheets: Valentine Monsters!
Monsters Ultimate Classroom Decor Set
Annoying Aliens: Bundled Ti-Tika and Tika-Ti Set for the Music Classroom
All-Star Year! Music Advocacy Posters This one has M U S I C each letter on a different planet, makes a nice bulletin board. ---- Pam Hall
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Wild Things (David Heitler-Klevans, on Two of a Kind's: "Love Makes a Family") - inspired by Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are"
(see: Where the Wild Things Are)
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MONTHS OF THE YEAR
01/07 Rhyme (long) about the months of the year:
http://www.landofnurseryrhymes.co.uk/htm_pages/January%20Brings%20The%20Snow.htm
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NINETIES
"Can You Feel the Love Tonight" (Elton John-from the movie "The Lion King")
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