Children's Literature for Music Ed: "We're Going on a Lion Hunt"

Here is another variation on "We're Going on a Bear Hunt"; this time we are hunting lions! "We're Going on a Lion Hunt" by David Axtell is a great book for students to invent their own creative movements to reflect the story.

"In this charming rendition of a well-known children's chant, two sisters are looking not for a bear but for a lion- a lion that lives on the African savanna, where the girls go through swishy swashy long grass, a splishy slpashy lake, and a Big Dark Cave. When they finally meet their lion, they have to run, run, run through it all again to get back home."

Happy Birthday, Dr. King!

photo credit: time.com

Did you know that singer Stevie Wonder was instrumental in making Martin Luther King's birthday a national holiday?  Stevie's "Happy Birthday" song is really referring to MLK!



This is worth sharing with your students, and for the younger crew, here are simple songs to learn some facts about Martin Luther King, Jr.

Marvelous Music Makers: "Jim Gill Sings The Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes"

A CD that has been enjoyed by my students is "Jim Gill Sings The Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes".  I love that many of the songs focus on following directions (a vital skill!) and are still very fun.  Many musical skills and objectives for young students and special needs students are addressed in this CD as well. 

Here are some of our favorite songs from this collection:

Vocal Timbre Practice with the Three Bears

My kindergarten language support students love a good snuggle with a stuffed animal, as witnessed in a recent music class.  We had three visitors: Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear, right out of the story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".  Using stuffed animals in the lesson helped some of my shy students gain more courage to try out their low, medium, and high voices.

A special purchase of three stuffed bears was not necessary.  As most moms will attest, stuffed animals seem to mysteriously MULTIPLY in a home with children. The kids seem to receive them as gifts, win them at church picnics, and before you know it, you have a house overrun with stuffed critters!  For the bears used for this lesson, I just searched through the collection and found three of different sizes, and off to school they went.  If you don't have children of your own, try asking a mom you know...she'll probably be glad to donate some bears for you to use!

Children's Literature for Music Ed: "Christmas Mice!"

Just as "Halloween Mice!" was a great book for a creative movement activity, so is the equally fun "Christmas Mice!" also by Bethany Roberts and illustrated by Doug Cushman.

"The holiday mice are back! It’s Christmas time and the four cheerful mice merrily hang stockings, string popcorn, wrap presents, and sing carols. The little mice are so caught up in their joyful preparations that they almost forget to look out for their old enemy, the cat. Happily, their Christmas spirit is so infectious that even the cat is not immune. Simple, lively verse and colorful, action-filled illustrations convey the all anticipation and goodwill that come with the Yuletide season in this delightful read-aloud." -from amazon.com

Here are my ideas for using this book in music class:

Songs You Already Know: "In the Stable"




calvarywilliamsport.com/christian_coloring_pages.html

  My son (currently age 8), when he was in preschool, learned this cute song for a Christmas program.  It was such a favorite that he taught it to me, and we still enjoy singing it around the house during the Christmas season.  I have not been able to find the resource where this cute song can be found. 

Here are coloring pages to go with each verse; it would be a great idea to print the words of each verse along with the coloring page picture.  For your students who love to color (My five year old daughter is one of those!) they will be delighted to have a picture to color while learning the song.  For those students who do not enjoy coloring (such as my son!), they will still have a good visual representation of each verse to help them learn the words.

All around the sky that night,

The angel light was beaming.
Every shepherd said to himself
"Hey, I must be dreaming!"


The Angel said,

"Do not be afraid, you are not in any danger
Jesus Christ the Savior's been born;
Go see him in the manger."
Every shepherd hurried to town

As fast as they were able
They found God's Son asleep on the hay
Where? In the stable!

Song You Already Know: "Pop Goes the Weasel"
 

More Differentiated Instruction for "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie"

Check out this Old Lady!

A colleague allowed me to borrow her "Old Lady" story apron, and was it ever a big hit!

Children's Literature for Music Ed: "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie" with Differentiated Instruction Ideas

Of all of the "Old Lady" book adaptations, this one is my personal favorite...probably because she is finally eating some delicious and edible goodies (except for when she devours the pot used for cooking!), and she reminds me of our own gluttony on the holiday of Thanksgiving! (Although, now that I am the one preparing the food for the feast, I find that I eat a less at dinner...wonder why? Must be sampling too much as I'm cooking!)

Here are some differentiated ideas on including "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie" in your music instruction:

"Noodles"



"Five small noodles, on my noodle plate..."

 "Noodles" is an interactive new activity I started with my language support and kindergarten life skills students.  This finger play is from the Dr. Jean site, which I have sucessfully utilized for quite a while, ever since my first "Tooty Ta" as a kindergarten classroom teacher back in 2003-2005!

To prepare, I cut five holes in foam plates for the entire class. Be sure to measure the placement with one of your student's actual hands, because if you go by your own adult-sized hand, they may not fit the children's small hands!

Marvelous Music Makers for Music Ed: "Disney Halloween Songs & Sounds"

Happy Halloween!! This album has been with me for many Halloweens...and my very youngest students really enjoy the music! Some of the musical concepts that are reinforced by this resource are steady beat, group choreography, creative movement, identifying verse and refrain, vocal timbres, and vocal exploration

Some of my favorites include:

• The Werewolf Song
• Shake Your Bones
• Which Witch is Which?
• They Don't Scare Me

Here are the activities we use for these songs:

Holiday "Flip" books

Incorporating visual aids is very important for our young students success, and sometimes students need a hands-on visual aid. For this reason, I developed the "Flip Book".  These simple creations help more students follow the sequence of a song, assist in developing reading skills, and lead to more excitement and interest in the activity.

Children's Literature for Music Ed: "Halloween Mice!"

Oh, those Preschoolers, Kindergartners and First Graders, always on the move! They are naturally always in-motion and on the go, and we need to include plenty of movement activities in our music classes.  We also always need to be mindful that their attention span just about equals their age in minutes...so the four-year-old can pay attention for four minutes, the five-year-old for five minutes, and so on. (Personal aside: Why does this only pertain to school, and not so much to video games??)

So, for the music teacher, this means that you need to be changing up your activities in the lessons you plan quite often! It is challenging to plan all of the necessary activities, but well worth having your young students engaged, learning, and happy in their musical activities! To that end, "Halloween Mice!" by Bethany Roberts is a great book to use as a creative movement activity as a part of your class during this month of October.

Children's Literature for Music Ed: "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything"

Our first grade curriculum focuses on "voice choice" and discriminating between singing, speaking, whispering, and shouting voices. A terrific reinforcement for this concept is found in "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything" by Linda Williams, and it is seasonally appropriate for October!

"The Little Old Lady. . . is a clever reworking of the classic story of a ghostly body that appears bit by bit (see ``What's the Matter'' in Maria Leach's Whistle in the Graveyard Viking, 1974 ). The humor of the little old lady's fearless attitude and her clever solution as to what to do with the lively shoes, pants, shirt, pumpkin head, etc., that are chasing her, will enchant young audiences. The catchy refrain never falters, and the rhythmic repeated sounds made by each of the woman's pursuers are sure to appeal to children. Lloyd's brilliantly-colored, detailed folk art-style illustrations are a perfect complement to the text." -Alice Cronin, Belleville Public Library, N.J. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Here are my ideas for including this book in early-elementary music class:

Differentiated Instruction for "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat"

When I originally presented ideas for utilizing "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat", there was pretty much one activity for the class: learn to follow the sequence of the song by using some visual aids to help them.  For use in a regular education class, that plan has been very sufficient. 

Now, I'd like to share some more ideas for the very same lesson, this time to address differing needs in a special needs classroom.  Differentiating the instruction can help more students of different abilities to achieve the objective of the lesson: learning to follow the sequence of a cumulative song so that they can more easily sing along!

Songs You Already Know: "The Haunted House"

(Almost) everyone loves to get into the Halloween spirit when you work in an elementary school! By using new words with songs that we already know, we have an activity that reinforces reading skills and singing skills.

Tune: (the song you already know): "The Wheels on the Bus"

Holiday Song: "The Haunted House"

Children's Literature for Music Ed: "We're Going on a Leaf Hunt"

Happy first day of fall!  While I'm personally not looking forward to raking all of the leaves that will soon be falling at my house, I don't mind an autumn-themed music lesson centered around a fun book for my early childhood students.  Patterned after "We're Going on a Bear Hunt", this book by Steve Metzger is a great introduction to the fall season for your youngest students. "We're Going on a Leaf Hunt" lends itself well to many musical extensions.

Do you have access to an Ellison die-cutter? If so, you can use it to cut out the various colored leaves you will need for this lesson.  If not, you can develop your own leaf pattern; I recommend using google image.

Children's Literature for Christian Music Ed: "One More River"

Joan Paley has adapted and beautifully illustrated the spiritual "One More River" in this book suitable for use in a Christian early childhood setting or Sunday school.

With our young students, this lengthy song going to be too challenging to sing all the way through.  Approach it as a call-and-response song, with the teacher as leader singing the verses (call) and the students always singing "There's one more river to cross." (response)

It will be useful to play a recording of "One More River" as the children are coming to class, or perhaps during their playtime.  As a teacher in a Christian school, or Sunday school, collect CDs of Bible songs, hymns, and children's Christian music for use in your classroom.  Hearing the music often will help them get the tune in their ear even before you introduce the song. And since there are so many great hymns out there, the children will be exposed to the music even if you don't get a chance to teach it directly.

Children's Literature for Music Ed: "One Little, Two Little, Three Little Apples"

Here is a well-known counting tune ("Ten Little Indians" or "Michael Finnigan") re-written by Matt Ringler for a fall apple harvest theme. "One Little, Two Little, Three Little Apples" is nice and calming for the last five minutes of your class when you want your students to be winding down.

This book is appropriate for your students in Preschool, Kindergarten, and First grade, and fits in nicely with a fall/apple/harvest theme.  The counting repetitions are also going to be helpful for use with your special needs students.

The two children in the story-song are apple picking with their parents and grandfather, and while Mom and Dad are preparing an apple pie, Grandpa and the kids go back outside for some fall fun: jumping in leaves and playing ball. When the pie is finished, the entire family enjoys eating freshly baked apple pie.

Here are some of my ideas for incorporating this book in your music class: