Farm

Yee-haw! Let’s head down to the farm for some music and movement!

BOOKS:

We read Early One Morning by Mem Fox, illustrated by Christine Davenier and Clip-Clop! by Nicola Smee.

For Early One Morning, we practiced animal noises and moving around, climbing hay stacks and tractor tires. For Clip-Clop! we made animal sounds and then galloped around the room.

WARM-UPS:

“Shoe A Little Horse” from Intellidance

Sit on the floor with your legs spread out wide. For this warm-up, we’re going to work on crossing the midline of the body by reaching across our body to grab our opposite foot.

Shoe a little horsey Bend over and reach to tap your foot with your opposite hand
Shoe a little mare Keep tapping!
With a tap tap here
And a tap tap there Reach your hand back up and tap your foot on the ground

Switch sides and make your horse BIG and stretch as far as you can and SMALL and make small movements.

“Prance, Waddle, and Scamper” from Johnson County Library

Sung to the tune of “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”

This is the way the horses prance Lift your knees high to make prancing steps
The horses prance, the horses prance
This is the way the horses prance
Out of the barn!

2. This is the way the ducks waddle - Make wings with your arms, point your toes out and waddle like a duck

3. This the way the baby chicks scamper - Run around on tiptoe

4. This it he way the big pig sleeps - Lay on your back and roll from side to side

Then we listened to “Walkin’ Ol’ Joe” from Old Town School of Folk Music.

PROP AND INSTRUMENT SONGS:

I was lucky enough to get some funds from our local Music Boosters and I was able to use it to buy us a big stretchy band. I am ENAMORED with my stretchy band.

We sang “Trot to Grandma’s” from Makin’ Music, Rockin’ Rhythms and moved our stretchy band like reigns and up and down and side to side.

Then we passed out shakers and sang “Tingalayo”. This didn’t work as well as I would have liked, but that’s okay. It may have been that my audience wasn’t as familiar with the tune.

We hung on to our shakers and listened and sang along to “I Know a Chicken” by The Laurie Berkner Band.

CLOSING SONGS:

For our freeze dance, we listened to “The Tractor Song” by Rachel Farrow.

To cool down and stretch, we did some farmyard yoga - cat/cow, donkey kicks, chicken (Malasana), and pig (Happy Baby).

Our goodbye song was Skinnamarink with actions.

Quiet and Loud

We tested the self control of lots of small children by doing a quiet and loud storytime theme. They were very into it.

BOOKS:

We read Don’t Wake Up The Tiger! by Britta Teckentrup and Moo, Baa, La La La! by Sandra Boynton

Moo, Baa, La La La! isn’t necessarily about being quiet and loud, but I have a LOT of toddlers right now and we got to make animal noises and it is just the right length.

WARM-UPS:

I switched it up at the last minute and decided to do “Walking, Walking” from Jbrary but started by tiptoeing instead of walking.

Tip-toe, tip-toe, tip-toe, tip-toe
Hop, hop, hop; hop, hop, hop
Walking, walking, walking
Walking, walking, walking
Now we stop.

I repeated this with different orders so we could practice changing from tiptoeing to running to walking to running and stopping.

Then we transitioned into the action rhyme “Popcorn.” I am not sure where I heard this one from, but I’ve used it in different ways for quite a while.

Popcorn, popcorn (bend down and wrap your arms around your knees)
Sizzling in the pan (start to shake a little bit)
Shake it up, shake it up! (wiggle your whole body)
Bam! Bam! Bam! (Jump up and spread out your arms and legs)

Repeat the same actions for the second verse

Popcorn, popcorn
Now it’s getting hot
Shake it up, shake it up
Pop! Pop! Pop!

Then we jammed out to “Shout” by Otis Day and the Knights.

PROP AND INSTRUMENT SONGS:

We used our rhythm sticks today and practiced tapping slow and loud and quiet and soft while we sang “Grandfather Clock” which I learned from Jbrary.

Grandfather clock goes tick tock, tick tock, tick tock
The little kitchen clock goes tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock
And Mommy’s little watch goes tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick stop!

The chant “Bread and Butter” is perfect for this theme and for using rhythm sticks. I first came across “Bread and Butter” from Yogibrarian.

Bread and butter, marmalade and jam
Tap your sticks as fast as you can
[Repeat with different ways to tap your sticks - slowly, loudly, quietly, etc)

We then listened to “Loud and Quiet” by Caspar Babypants and Frances England and drummed along. For a visual reminder of when we were supposed to drum loudly, I had my wolf puppet out and when we were supposed to drum quietly, I pulled out my hummingbird puppet.

CLOSING SONGS:

For our freeze dance, we listened to “Go Stop Go” by Matt Heaton.

To stretch it out, I adapted Bari Koral’s Silly to Calm (made it a little shorter and only went through once).

Goodbye song: “Skinnamarink” accompanied by the ukulele.

Vegetables (and fruits, I guess)

This week we’re celebrating harvest with some vegetable (and fruit) themed songs and activities

BOOKS:

We’re reading Roll Roll, Little Pea by Cécile Bergame and Magali Attiogbé, translated by Angust Yuen-Killick and Up Down and Around by Katherine Ayres, illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott.

WARM-UPS:

To warm up, we sang our opening song “Clap Everybody and Say Hello” adapted from Kathy Reid-Naiman.

Then, we sang “Plant Plant the Veggie Seeds” from Preschool Express, sung to the tune of “Row Row Row Your Boat”

Plant, plant the carrot seeds
Plant them in the sun
Water them, water them
Water them, water them
Gardening’s so much fun

You can adapt this rhyme by planting any kind of seed. For actions, we squatted and put our seeds in the dirt, made a big circle over our heads for the sun, and then bent over like the teapot in “I’m a Little Teapot” to water our crops.

We also sang “Spicy Salsa” from Intellidance. I cannot recommend this one enough. It is an adaptation of “Peanut Butter and Jelly.” I shortened it up a little bit for my audience, but there’s no reason you couldn’t do the whole song.

CHORUS:
Salsa, spicy salsa.  SALSA!
Salsa, spicy salsa.  SALSA!
Salsa, spicy salsa.  SALSA!

Verses:

1. First you take tomatoes and you crush ‘em
   You crush ‘em, you crush ‘em, crush ‘em, crush ‘em
   First you take tomatoes and you crush ‘em
   You crush ‘em, you crush ‘em, crush ‘em, crush ‘em

2. Then you take an onion and you chop it
   You chop it, you chop it, chop it, chop it
   [REPEAT]

3. Then you take a pepper and you slice it
   You slice it, you slice it, slice it, slice it
   [REPEAT]

4. Then you take a chip and you dip it
   You dip it, you dip it, dip it, dip it
   [REPEAT]

5. Then you take your chip and you eat it
   You eat it, you eat it, eat it, eat it
   [REPEAT]

Then we listened to “Fruit Salad Salsa” by The Laurie Berkner Band and did some actions that are mentioned in the song.

PROP AND INSTRUMENT SONGS:

This week we used three props! A scarf, a set of wrist jingle bells, and a drum.

Scarf song: “Green Zucchini” to the tune of “Alouette” from Jbrary

Green zucchini, I like green zucchini
Green zucchini, that’s what I like best.
Do you like it on your head?
Yes I like it on my head.
On your head? On my head.
Oooooohhhhhh!

Verses: on my shirt, on my socks

Bell song: “Vegetables” to the tune of “Jingle Bells” from Preschool Express

Vegetables, vegetables,
Carrots, peas, tomatoes.
Oh, what fun it is to eat,
Zucchini, corn, potatoes!

Drum song: We listened to the song “The Best Fruit” by The Pop-Ups and used our fingertips, our hands, and our fingernails to make different sounds on the drum.

CLOSING SONGS:

Freeze Dance: For our freeze dance, we listened to “Beans are Best” by The Beanies. I got super into my dance this week and forgot to pause the music to freeze everyone, but my assistant came to the rescue and helped out.

Stretch: We did some vegetable inspired yoga poses. We were an asparagus spear in extended mountain pose. We did a side stretch to become a banana, then opened our arms up to cactus arms to be a broccoli. Finally we waterfalled down to forward fold as we watered our crops and then became a tiny seed in child’s pose.

Goodbye song: “Skinnamarink” on ukulele