Tag Archives: Songs

Ukulele in Storytime: “You’ll Sing a Song”

27 Jan

It’s time for another edition of Ukulele in Storytime! This Ella Jenkins’ classic has become my new closing song and I’m loving it. It contains the G, Am, F and G7 chords. It’s pretty simple, though – you can learn it! I think it’s a nice quiet song to share with families and you can do any kind of action you want. In Ella’s version she has the kids pick the actions, which would be a nice option!

Shoutout to Storytime Ukulele for including the chords (two options!) so I could learn to play this!

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The Alphabet For Us: New Alphabet Song for Storytime!

23 Apr

Hey guys, I wrote a thing! This melody magically formed itself in my head one morning, and soon alphabet lyrics started joining it. I had the good sense to record it on a voice recorder, and later I fleshed out the lyrics. I tried to use words that don’t appear in lots of alphabet songs but might be somewhat familiar (except for the Xantus, of course. I had to google that one).

Here’s the tune and ukulele chords! The lyrics are written below. As I say in the video, the fun part is that you can substitute any words you want for each of the letters – except maybe for the last two verses, as those are the ones that rhyme. Put in silly words, vocabulary words, new words, whatever! (Thanks Julie for the suggestion!)

Alphabet For Us from Mary K on Vimeo.

A is for Airplane, and B is for Bug,

C is for Cupcake, and D is for Dog,

E is for Eggplant, and F is for Fun,

And that’s the way the alphabet’s done.

G is for Gumdrop, and H is for House,

I is for Ice Cube, and J is for Jump,

K is for Kitchen, and L is for Land,

And that’s what makes the alphabet grand.

M is for Mushroom, and N is for Nose,

O is for Octopus, and P is for Pants,

Q is for Quiet, and R is for Run,

And that’s the way the alphabet’s done.

S is for Sandbox, and T is for Toes,

U is for Underwear, and V is for Vine,

W is for Walrus, and X is for Xantus (a kind of hummingbird),

And Y and Z end the alphabet for us.

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“We Wave Our Scarves Together” versión en español

11 Jan

My preschoolers and I, we LOVE scarf songs. Waving our scarves in the air is so much fun (gross motor skills!), along with trying to squish them up as small as possible and hide them in our hands (fine motor skills!). Scarf songs are a great way to get the wiggles out, build vocabulary and rhyming skills, and also develop those all-important fine and gross motor skills. Scarf songs FTW!

For my Spanish-speaking kids, I had been using the English version of “We Wave Our Scarves Together” (great jbrary video here to learn the tune) and just explaining the movement in Spanish before we sang. Today, though, I decided it wouldn’t be that hard to come up with a translation. So here it is: my quick-and-dirty translation that almost fits, syllabically (is that a word?).

“We Wave Our Scarves Together” versión en español

Agitamos los pañuelos, [we wave our scarves]

Agitamos los pañuelos.

Agitamos los pañuelos,

Porque es divertido. [because it’s fun]

Agitámoslos arriba, [we wave them above]

Agitámoslos abajo. [we wave them below]

Agitámoslos en medio, [we wave them in the middle]

Porque es divertido. [because it’s fun]

Tiramos los pañuelos, [we throw our scarves]

Tiramos los pañuelos.

Tiramos los pañuelos,

Porque es divertido. [because it’s fun]

 

Hope this is helpful to some of you!

 

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Ukulele in Storytime: 5 Green and Speckled Frogs

9 Aug

Like most people, I think I sound weird when listening to or watching myself. But maybe it won’t sound weird to you. The latest, seriously overdue, edition of ukulele in storytime features “5 Green and Speckled Frogs” which is, in my world, a storytime staple. So get out your ukes, friends, and learn the D chord with me if you don’t already know it!

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¡El Pollo!; aka, the most fun movement activity en español EVER.

10 Sep

Some of the best storytime activities are the simplest. This is one of them. It basically names the parts of the chicken, rhythmically. I tried it out with my new class of Spanish-only kiddos and they LOVED it. LOVED.

I learned it from my colleague Alberto, and here’s a video of him performing it:

This is the text:

El pollo! (clap hands together)

El pollo con una pata (step one foot forward)

El pollo con la otra pata (step other foot forward)

El pollo con su piquito (hand in front of mouth like beak)

El pollo con sus alitas (move arms like wings)

El pollo con su colita (turn around and shake tail)

The rhyme doesn’t work as well in English, but it can be done. Here’s Alberto again:

And the words:

The chicken! (clap hands together)

The chicken with one leg (step one foot forward)

The chicken with the other leg (step other foot forward)

The chicken with his beak (hand in front of mouth like beak)

The chicken with his wings (move arms like wings)

The chicken shakes his tail (turn around and shake tail)

You can do it again faster, slower, and without words. It’s a good time! ¡Que disfruten!

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Flannel Friday: B-U-N-N-Y

7 Feb

Like most of the country, it’s been really freakin’ cold here in Colorado this week. What that means for me, the preschool outreach librarian, is that the kids I see in storytime have not been able to play outside. THIS IS A BAD THING. Kids need recess. They need to run around. Young children, especially, get super squirrelly when they have to be inside too long.

So, when I was planning my rabbit-themed storytime (centered primarily around Bob Shea’s Don’t Play With Your Food, because he sent me a copy!), I knew I had to include some movement. Now, I know, I’m a big fan of the Sleeping Bunnies song that involves some wild and crazy hopping. But we did that last month. So.

This is a very long way of saying I stole Mollie Kay’s B-U-N-N-Y song and added hopping.

bunny

We talk about each letter and its sound, and then we sound out the word. BUNNY!

(Sung to the tune of B-I-N-G-O)

There was a rabbit I once knew

And Bunny was his name-o

B-U-N-N-Y

B-U-N-N-Y

B-U-N-N-Y

And bunny was his name-o

Next, we turn over the first letter. What’s on the back? A bunny! And the word HOP.

bunny4

So, we sing again, this time substituting a hop for the letter B.

Continue turning each letter and singing, until you’re left with nothing but hops. HOP! HOP! HOPHOPHOP!

bunny3This was a great movement activity that incorporated letter knowledge, letter sounds, phonological awareness, and just plain FUN.  It’s also very similar to the version of B-I-N-G-O that I use!

Thanks, Mollie, for the idea!

The Roundup today will be hosted by Christine. Go check out all the awesomeness later! To see all past flannels, click the “flannel friday” icon to the right.

Happy flanneling!

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Flannel Friday: Going on a Picnic

22 Nov

I have to credit Melissa for this one as she was super generous in sharing her library system’s storytime training plans with me when my library was revising ours recently. This flannel is a part of that plan. So I’ve only used it as a training tool, but can certainly work in storytime! You’d probably need a few more pieces of food, though…

This is intended to be used with Raffi’s song “Going on a Picnic”, although he mentions different food. But it’s a great call-and-response song that can be easily learned by the whole group.

Put the picnic basket up on the board. Hand out flannel food pieces to the audience (only do this if you have enough for EVERY CHILD). Tell the group, we’re going on a picnic so we need to fill our picnic basket with yummy food!

Going on a picnic, leaving right away.

If it doesn’t rain we’ll stay all day.

Call: Did you bring the …. [strawberries]

Response: Yes, I brought the … [strawberries] (child brings strawberry up and puts it on the picnic basket)

etc….

picnic2

Continue until all the felt foods are in the picnic basket.  Next is your opportunity to really grow those early literacy skills. Talk about how two of the foods have words on them – Juice and Jam – and run your finger under the words. Notice how “juice” and “jam” both start with the letter J, that makes a “juh” sound. Ask the kids what color the strawberry is.  What else on the board is red? What color is the cheese? Why does the cheese have holes? It’s SWISS cheese. Ask the kids about their favorite picnic foods.

picnic

We used this in our storytime training to demonstrate how we extend early literacy skills learning – talking about letter knowledge, background knowledge (colors, cheese words, picnic words), etc. I’m hoping to find the time to make more foods and really use this in my food storytime! What fun! I love picnics!

The roundup today will be hosted by Bridget. To see all past flannels organized for your easy access on pinterest, click the icon on the right side of the screen.

Happy Flanneling!

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Go! Bananas! Go! Go! Bananas!

7 Nov

On Monday I read Miss Amy’s wonderful post about rhymes to use when your storytime group gets the wiggles. I especially liked how she divided them by wiggle-level – low, medium, and high – and the great rhymes she shared. It was especially timely as that afternoon I was co-teaching a
Bananastorytime training, and part of our curriculum was on dealing with disruptions – like the wiggles. I printed copies of the post and shared them with all attendees. Thanks, Amy!

One of the songs she mentions is the one that begins “form a banana…” and it reminded me of one I heard from a friend at Denver Public Library. I went looking online for that one, and instead found this gem. I’ve since used it with several classes and it’s been a hit with both kids and teachers. Love that it includes the word “shuck” – yay for new vocabulary! Plus, it’s just darn fun (and this woman gets an A+ for enthusiasm!) – the mashed potato part is my fave!:

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Flannel Friday: My Hat It Has Three Corners

28 Jun

This week I read John Rocco’s Super Hair-o and the Barber of Doom and was inspired to create a hair-themed storytime. But when I wasn’t able to find as many stories as I liked, I expanded the theme to include hats. Ah. NOW we’ve got a good storytime!

I poked around (with a very long stick) the Flannel Friday pinterest page and saw Mollie’s version of “My Hat it Has Three Corners” and was immediately inspired.  See, when I was very little, my family lived in Germany while my father was on an exchange scientist program through the USAF. And this song was one of the ones I learned to sing in German (and one of the few that I remember): Mein Hut, der hat drei Ecken, Drei Ecken hat mein hut. Und hätt er nicht drei Ecken, so wär es nicht mein Hut. So I HAD to make a flannelboard!

hat

(the word corners going around the corner was unintentional. I ran out of space. But I like it!)

My hat, it has three corners

Three corners has my hat.

If my hat had not three corners,

It would not be my hat!

(Tune)

Now here’s the extra fun part: When you sing it, you do actions when you say these words: Hat (tap head), Three (hold up 3 fingers), Corners (tap elbow). Sing it once, doing all the motions and saying all the words. Then turn over the hat picture and sing again, but DO NOT say hat. Just tap your head. Sing a third time with hat and three turned over, and do not say those words but keep doing the actions. For the final time, turn over hat, three, and corners, and sing without saying those words. FUN!

Today’s roundup is hosted by Bridget.  To see all the flannels, check out our pinterest page by clicking the icon to the right!

Happy flanneling!

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Ukulele in Storytime: Sleeping Bunnies

10 Mar

Hi! Welcome to another installment of watch Mary make a fool of herself ukulele in storytime! Today we’re learning “Sleeping Bunnies,” a song I first heard on Kathy Reid-Naiman’s cd “Tickles and Tunes.”  It’s super easy to play on uke, and SUPER fun for the kids! When they start hopping, the storytime rug becomes a preschool mosh pit!

Happy playing!

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