Transcript
Welcome to Choosing to include music in your curriculum is a wise decision. Music mirrors the natural rhythms and repetitions present in children’s language, play, and movement. Children are naturally drawn to verse and song and learning is more fun when lessons are set to music. As teachers, we are always looking for better ways to present material to children while involving them in the learning process. What better way to meet both goals than with the expressive art of music? Your Sing Along & Learn book and audio CD set contains this book and five CD collections of upbeat educational tunes that emphasize skills and learning related to important early childhood concepts. In the book, you’ll find a reproducible song sheet for each song in the collection, song-related activities to enrich your curriculum, and reproducible activity pages to help reinforce and extend children’s learning. Here’s what you’ll find on each audio CD:
Sing Along & Learn: The Alphabet
Sing Along & Learn: Early Concepts
The opening song on this CD rollicks through the entire alphabet. Each additional song focuses on a specific letter, giving children opportunities to explore the letter and the sound it makes in words. These fun tunes can be used to teach letter recognition, letter-to-sound associations, alliteration, and much more!
Each of these tunes centers on a particular skill or concept, such as ABCs, numbers, opposites, colors, and time. When children move or sing along with these fun-filled lyrics, they automatically become active participants in their own learning.
Sing Along & Learn: Around the Year Songs in this collection are connected to seasonal and holiday themes for each month of the year. As children sing along, they learn concepts related to every area of your classroom curriculum, including science, social studies, math, and language arts.
Sing Along & Learn Scholastic Teaching Resources
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Sing Along & Learn: Following Directions
How to Use This Book
These interactive songs invite children to engage in movement, pantomiming, and roleplaying in fun and engaging ways. As children build their abilities to concentrate, pay attention, and follow directions, they learn that listening is an active process—and a far from boring one!
You can use the songs and activities in this book to enrich your curriculum and add a measure of fun to every aspect of children’s learning. The book is divided into five sections, one for each CD in the set. Each section is conveniently arranged to help you make the most of each irresistible song on that particular Sing Along & Learn CD. Here’s what you’ll find on these pages:
Sing Along & Learn: Marvelous Math
Teaching With the Songs: This section provides
Each of the lively songs in this collection targets a specific math area, such as counting, subtraction, estimation, shapes, measurement, time, money, and more. Important math skills and concepts come to life as children move and sing along with these educational songs.
Getting the Most From Each Song: These
As you introduce and use the songs in your Sing Along & Learn collection, you’ll discover that music has an extraordinary way of reaching children of all learning styles— making it an indispensable addition to your classroom!
general teaching tips and activities that can be used with any song in the collection.
activities, provided in the section for each CD, include easy and entertaining follow-up ideas that reinforce the concepts presented in each song. The suggested activities are song-specific and connect to a particular area of the curriculum. But don’t limit children’s learning to these suggestions: let their enthusiasm guide you in further explorations of a song’s many curriculum connections. Also, keep in mind that some of the activities are easily adaptable and can be used with other songs in the collection. Reproducible Activities: Instant, fun, hands-on
pages are provided for students to complete on their own, with partners, or in small groups. These reproducibles reinforce concepts related to the songs and provide children with additional exposure and practice. They can also be used as home–school connections to help communicate with families and extend children’s learning beyond the classroom.
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Sing Along & Learn Scholastic Teaching Resources
Song Sheets: These reproducible lyric sheets make it easy for you and your students to sing along. They’re also a natural way to build literacy. Laminate several copies of the song sheets and keep them on hand to use during group sing-alongs or to place in your listening center along with the audio CDs. You can use a wipe-off marker to underline or highlight target words and phrases on the laminated song sheets.
Teaching With the Songs Read on to discover flexible teaching tips and easy activities for enriching your classroom curriculum with the songs from Sing Along & Learn. You’ll find that many of these activities may be used with any song in the book.
Set Up a Listening Center Place a CD player and the Sing Along & Learn CDs in a listening center. Put the song sheets for each CD in a separate folder and write the name of the CD on the front of each folder. Add the song folders and headphones to the center, as well as a supply of paper, crayons, and markers. Invite children to visit the center to listen to specific songs or the songs of their choice. While enjoying the music, they might be inspired to express their moods, thoughts, or inspirations on paper.
Track the Print Make a copy of the song being learned for each child. You might also write the song on chart paper (or make an enlarged copy of the song sheet). Then, while playing the song, invite children to track the print on their pages as you track it on the chart paper.
Sing Along & Learn Scholastic Teaching Resources
Create Song Charts Write each song on chart paper. Highlight the words or phrases that support the featured concept of the song. You might write them in a different color marker, underline them, or use a highlighter pen to make them stand out. Invite children to illustrate the charts by drawing pictures of the song’s topic around the border of the pages. Place the charts around the room for children to read during center or independent work time.
Play Musical Chairs To give children repeated exposure and pleasure from the music, invite them to play musical chairs. Gather a chair for each child and then take one chair away. Place the chairs in a circle. Then play a song as children walk around the circle. When you stop the song, the child who doesn’t find a chair will sit out the next round. (He or she might stop the song on the next round of play.) Continue play until only one chair— and one child—is left in the game.
Use Instruments During Repeated Singings Distribute instruments such as triangles, tambourines, or small drums. Instruct children to strike their instruments at designated times during a song, such as when a word beginning with a specific letter is named, or when a sound effect is used. Small groups of children may want to form bands to perform their own musical renditions of each song, using the instruments.
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Act It Out
Circle-Time Treat
Many of the songs encourage active participation. As you sing a song with children, ask them to listen for action words or for opportunities to pantomime or role-play different characters. Then sing the song again, this time inviting children to act out the song or add movements to it.
After introducing each song, copy the lyrics of the song onto a flip chart. At circle time, invite a child to choose a song from the chart for the class to sing. Be sure to select a different child each time, so that everyone has an opportunity to participate. (You can write children’s names on slips of paper, put the slips in a box, and draw one at random each time.)
Shake, Rattle, and Tap Students love to listen to and play instruments as they sing. Here are some ideas for creating quick-and-easy instruments to use with your songs: • Make a great percussion instrument with a pair of wooden spoons. • Place dried beans, pebbles, or corn kernels in a clean, dry milk carton. Tape it closed. It’s a shaker! • Decorate a paper bag. Then fill it with sand and close it tightly with a twist-tie. It’s a soft-sounding shaker! • Make jingle-bell bracelets by stringing jingle bells onto yarn and tying the ends together.
Daily Ditties Liven up every day of the year with your Sing Along & Learn songs. In addition to using the songs to support your curriculum, gain extra enjoyment by building in times for repeated singings—just for fun! For example, you might start the day with a song. Or you can invite children to sing one of the songs while they pack up at the end of the day or line up to go to other classes. If you like, turn a song into a game: Can students accomplish a given task before they finish singing the song?
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Name That Tune Reinforce a song’s playful melodies with this game. Ask a small group of students to decide on a song to hum together, without telling the rest of the class which song it is. As they hum, ask: Who can guess the song? If you know it, raise your hand and hum along!
It’s Our Song, Too Look for opportunities to personalize a song for children by replacing words in the song with their own names, words, or experiences. For example, in “Back in School Again,” on page 70, students may enjoy substituting their own classroom rules for the third verse in the song (“You’ve got to pay attention, follow the directions...”). Write the new version of the song on chart paper so that students may easily follow the words as they sing along.
Sing Along & Learn Scholastic Teaching Resources
Sing and Learn
Create an Illustrated Songbook
Use your song sheets to enrich reading lessons. You can choose a specific letter for children to focus on. Or you can have them look (and listen) for a particular word, rhyming words, or alliterative phrases. You’ll find that many of the songs provide repetitive phrases that can be used to help children predict what words come next in a song.
Make copies of the reproducible song sheets for each CD. Give each child a song sheet and a piece of drawing paper. Then ask children to illustrate their songs, paying particular attention to the concept, theme, or topic of the song. Place the songs and illustrations in a three-ring binder to create a class songbook. Display the book in your class library for children to enjoy during free reading times.
This Way and That Stir up interest and sharpen listening skills with these playful variations. • Divide the class into groups of four or five students. On repeated singings, invite groups to take turns singing every couple of lines. Have students watch for a signal from you to know when it’s their group’s turn to sing. (Signaling groups at random helps to keep singers attentive and on their toes!)
Share Send-Home Songs Children enjoy sharing songs with their families, so make copies of the song sheet for each song you sing. Then send the song sheets home with children so that they can sing and teach family members the tune. (You might suggest that parents keep the songs in a binder, making it easy to return to their favorite songs again and again.)
• Identify the instruments in a song. You’ll hear percussion instruments, piano, string, bass, and more. • Invite students to play “air instruments” while they sing. • Don’t just sing the song—whisper it, sing it loud, clap it, or move to it! • Invite students to perform an interpretive dance to a song.
Sing Along & Learn Scholastic Teaching Resources
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Around the Year: October
Te n R e d A pp l e s Ten red apples, hanging in a tree, best-looking apples I ever did see. Gonna make an apple pie for my friends and me... Nine red apples, hanging in a tree. Nine red apples, hanging in a tree, best-looking apples I ever did see. Gonna make apple cider for my friends and me... Eight red apples, hanging in a tree.
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Eight red apples, hanging in a tree, best-looking apples I ever did see. Gonna make applesauce for my friends and me... Seven red apples, hanging in a tree.
Four red apples, hanging in a tree, best-looking apples I ever did see. Gonna make apple juice for my friends and me... Three red apples, hanging in a tree.
Seven red apples, hanging in a tree, best-looking apples I ever did see. Gonna make apple jelly for my friends and me... Six red apples, hanging in a tree.
Three red apples, hanging in a tree, best-looking apples I ever did see. Gonna make a baked apple for my friends and me... Two red apples, hanging in a tree.
Six red apples, hanging in a tree, best-looking apples I ever did see. Gonna make apple muffins for my friends and me... Five red apples, hanging in a tree.
Two red apples, hanging in a tree, best-looking apples I ever did see. Gonna make apple fritters for my friends and me... One red apple, hanging in a tree.
Five red apples, hanging in a tree, best-looking apples I ever did see. Gonna make apple strudel for my friends and me... Four red apples, hanging in a tree.
One red apple, hanging in a tree, best-looking apple I ever did see. Only one apple left, oh my, oh me... No more apples, hanging in a tree.
Sing Along & Learn Scholastic Teaching Resources
Early Concepts: The Alphabet
The A l phabet Vacation
CHORUS: It is the alphabet vacation. The letters all took a rest. From Z to A, they all went away to do what they liked best. A went to the aquarium. B went to the beach. C took a cruise to the Caribbean. D went diving in the deep.
M went to the mountains. N took a nap each day. O always goes to the opera. P went to the park and played. Q rode quarterhorses. R rode the railroad instead. Meanwhile back at the office, a sign on the doorway said... CHORUS
E rode an elephant in Egypt. F flew to the fair. Meanwhile back at the office, a sign on the doorway said...
S went sailing by the sea. T toured the Taj Mahal. U saw his Uncle Ulysses. V played volleyball.
CHORUS G goes golfing with the gang. H likes to hike the hills. I went to the islands. J took a jungle trip. K flew a kite with the kids next door. L likes to lie in bed. Meanwhile back at the office, a sign on the doorway said...
W went on a whale-watch. X played the xylophone. Y went to Yosemite and then on to Yellowstone. Z saw the zebras in the zoo then zipped off to New Zealand. Meanwhile back at the office, a sign on the doorway said... CHORUS
CHORUS
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Sing Along & Learn Scholastic Teaching Resources
Following Directions: Listening
Hop and Stop!
Each verse of this song gets a little faster. Try to hop and stop when I tell you to. 1st verse
Hop, hop, stop, hop, stop. Hop, hop, hop, stop...hop.
2nd verse
Hop, hop, hop, Stop...hop. Hop, hop, stop, hop, hop, stop.
Hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, stop. Hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, stop. 3rd verse
Hop, hop, stop. Hop, hop, hop. Stop...hop, hop, hop, stop.
Hop, hop, stop, Hop, hop, hop. Stop...hop, hop, hop, stop.
Hop, hop, hop, Stop...hop. Stop...hop. Hop, stop...
Hop, hop, hop, stop...hop. Stop...hop, hop, hop, hop.
Hop, stop... hop, hop, hop. Stop...hop. Hop, hop, stop.
Hop, stop... hop, hop, hop. Stop...hop. Hop, hop, stop.
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