We believe that music expands the mind and bolsters learning. We aim to provide curriculum, visual aids and activities that bring joy and knowledge to young children.
Friday, March 20, 2020
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Music, Animals & Their Sounds
This is a wonderful song to practice animal sounds. It's simple, repetitive and has a nice beat. If you don't already know the song, search "When Animals Get up in the Morning Song" on YouTube for the melody.
We sang this recently in my Music and Movement class. I let each kid choose a plastic animal from the animal bin to sing about. A few dinosaurs, a bee, a shark, an alligator and a dewback from Star Wars made it into the mix.
Monday, March 16, 2020
Saturday, March 14, 2020
Teaching Colors with Music: Frogs!
In my Music and Movement Class today we sang, Five Little Speckled Frogs - but with a color element. I have colored toy frogs and we altered the lyrics of the song by singing, "...the red one jumped in the pool...". I had a student choose the correct frog and toss it into the "pool" (the other side of the classroom - but you could use a bowl or box). If you don't have toy frogs you can draw a frog on colored paper and use as many different colors as you would like.
Happy Singing!
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Teaching Colors With Music: Farm Animals!
Today I want to highlight just one song that can be used in your Early Childhood classroom to teach colors. And it teaches farm animals, too!
This song could be sung during Circle Time or during a small group activity. Give each student an animal card or a colored piece of paper. As you sing the song, the students with the named animal and matching color stand or sit by each other. Extension activity: After the song is completed, place the animal pictures and color cards on the floor. Assign each student a color and instruct him/her to find an object in the classroom that matches that color and place it by the animal and card.
Down on Grandpa's Farm
Oh, we're on our way, we're on our way, on our way to Grandpa's farm.
We're on our way, we're on our way, on our way to Grandpa's farm.
Down on Grandpa's farm there is a big brown cow.
Down on Grandpa's farm there is a big brown cow.
The cow, she makes a sound like this: Moo! Moo!
The cow, she makes a sound like this: Moo! Moo!
Click here for the full lyrics and colored animal cards.
This activity is included in our Down on the Farm music and activity compilation.
Happy Singing!
Monday, January 27, 2020
Teaching Preposition with Snowflakes
Here's a fun, interactive Winter movement activity that teaches prepositions with snowflakes! Attach paper snowflakes to skewers (let your kiddos make the snowflakes if they can!) and give one to each of your students. Tell them that it's snowing beautiful snowflakes! Let them dance their snowflakes around the room. You can play Little Snowflake from Super Simple Songs on YouTube or The Four Seasons: Winter by Vivaldi while they dance. After the song, tell them the wind is beginning to blow really hard! (Maybe even play wind sound effects from YouTube!) Start talking about all the places the wind is blowing the snowflakes: ON their hair, IN the garbage can, UNDER the table, OVER their heads, etc. And let them tell you where their flakes are blowing!
Remember: Children better remember what is taught them when they use multiple senses to learn.
Other Winter Activities:
Saturday, November 2, 2019
Saturday, October 26, 2019
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Halloween Songs that Teach Little Ones Their Body Parts
Attention Speech Therapists, Special Educators and Early Interventionists! This post is for you!
Are you trying to teach your little pumpkins to identify their body parts? Use these fun Halloween songs to engage them in learning!
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Why Tracing Lines is Important
Being able to form letters for writing is a very complex skill for a young child and there are many other smaller skills that need to be mastered before a child can be successful at writing. Skills such as the ability to grip a pencil, form a line, start and stop at the correct spots, and to write on a line can be practiced and strengthened, getting a child ready for forming letters.
This brings us to the importance of being able to trace lines. Holding a pencil then moving it along a line strengthens the fine motor skills needed to precisely form letters.
Our tracing pages are fun, colorful and engaging and available in several themes. We think the best way to use them is to print and laminate each page and let your child or student trace the lines with a dry erase marker. When finished, wipe clean and trace again! A pile of laminated tracing pages available to students during free play or writing centers would provide great opportunities for practice!
Our popular Mermaid Tracing Page is free!
We also have other pages that can be purchased individually or in a bundle.
Hansel and Gretel Tracing
Reindeer Tracing
Owl Tracing
Valentine Tracing
Reindeer Sleigh Tracing Page
Dinosaur Tracing
Pre-writing Tracing Pages Bundle
Happy Tracing!
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Music and Numbers
Music and Numbers
In a previous post, we discussed the relationship between music and reading and how that relationship is processed in the brain.
Today we want to talk about ways music can strengthen a child's sense of numbers. We've included quite a few songs that introduce numbers and counting to young children.
Let's start with an easy one:
Ten Little Indians
Use the tune of Ten Little Indians to count...anything!. If your students love dragons, sing about ten little dragons! If it's Fall, sing about ten little pumpkins, counting pumpkin candy corn for a visual. And if it's Halloween, sing about ten little spiders! Using 10 pictures of a spider or 10 plastic spiders will give your students a great visual of objects increasing or decreasing as you count down or up.
Over in the Meadow
This sweet little song talks about and counts all the animals found in the meadow.
The Ants Go Marching
Jack and Jill
Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch FOUR pails of water.
1…2…3…4!
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.
And the pails came tumbling after.
1…2…3…4…!
Splash!
This Little Piggy
The FIRST little piggy went to market.
The SECOND little piggy stayed home.
The THIRD little piggy had roast beef.
The FOURTH little piggy had none.
The FIFTH little piggy went 'wee...wee...wee!' all the way home!
Fingerplays
These can be so fun! Here are some original fingerplays, with finger puppets, that we have written.
Happy counting and happy singing!
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