Children's Literature: "Punk Farm"

A while back I introduced "Punk Farm on Tour", and now I'm happy to share that my copy of  "Punk Farm" has arrived and is ready for use in my music classes!  And if my own children are any indication, my students are really going to enjoy this one!

While "Punk Farm on Tour" was a remake of "The Wheels on the Bus", this book is an updated version of "Old MacDonald", written by Jarrett J. Krosoczka.  In the story, we meet the band as a innoculous group of farm animals, but when Farmer Joe goes back to the farmhouse for the evening...look out!  These animals are ready to rock a packed house in the barn!

Here are some of my ideas for incorporating the book in music classes for young children:

Just as in "Punk Farm on Tour", getting the kids on board with this book is going to depend on the delivery of the reader...so don't be afraid to be silly, adopt different "rocker" voices for the animals, and really rock out for the singing parts. Also, whichever book you introduce first is going to get the children excited for the next one, because they will know what to expect.

And again, a challenge is going to be for the students to have fun with the song, but not to be out of control with silliness so that the song stops being musical and just descends into chaos. To help balance their exuberance, I warn them about this in a fun way before beginning the book. 

The song's new lyrics imitate the sounds of the instruments that each of the animals play.  It's a good idea to introduce the sounds of the instruments (drum set, electric guitar, electric bass, and keyboards) to your students before you begin so that together you can decide how to imitate the instrument sounds using your voices.  If you have a Music Bingo game, you can use the CD to play the sounds for the students (just in case you don't have your rock instruments/amps on hand!) 

This is also a good time to decide on any movement you may want to incorporate as well.  Deciding and reviewing voice and movements as a class will cut down on a lot of chaos and silliness because the students will know just what to do. 

For your youngest students, you may want to match up pictures of who plays what on the board before you begin so they can follow along with the verses.

1. Cow/drum set
2. Pig/electric guitar
3. Chicken/keyboards
4. Goat/bass

• The book is also a good opportunity to discuss timbre of the musical instruments and discuss which instrument family each belongs in.

• As incentive for good behavior during the reading of the book, I choose 5 students to be the "band", and perform "air guitar, air drums, and air keyboards" while we review singing the song.