Row Your Boat and a Noodle

Everyone knows the song Row Your Boat, especially preschoolers.  
You will need a noodle to help your kids enjoy this song.  You can fit 3 children behind a noodle.  They hold the noodle and will row out and in to the beat of the song.  At the end of the song, sing these words in an arpeggio going up..."The waves rolled high".  Then in an arpeggio going down sing, "The waves rolled low",  One more time, "The waves rolled high" "THEN the waves rolled us overboard"  "Splash!"  It's simple, yet the kids love it.

Rockin' Robin

Rockin' Robin

He rocks in the tree tops all day long   (Hold your arms above your head in a circle and rock back and forth)

Hoppin' and boppin' and singing his song (Hop, moving your arms around as if holding a jump rope)
All the little birdies on jaybird street (Make your elbows bend, as if making bird wings. Then flap your elbows to the beat while picking up your legs, one at a time for a bird walk.)
love to hear the robins go tweet, tweet, tweet  (Cross your arms over your heart on "love", then slap your legs 3x for "tweet, tweet, tweet")

Winter Songs: Roll It, A Chubby Little Snowman

Roll It!..  

"You have to roll it and roll it and roll it round and round..." Not sure I can post the words because of copyright.  I suppose you could make up your own song to a familar tune just for this fun activity.)   Make 3 fabric snowballs stuffed with either polyfill, plastic shopping bags or crunched up  newspaper ~Great for tactile learners.  Of course, you will need to make one large, one medium, one small; as you are going to sing a song about making a snowman. 

Ok, I found the book in the files I never look at.  The song is called "Roll Up the Snow". Northern Music Co., 1963.  Wow.  My aunt passed along this book to me when I started student teaching.
I researched this book online and found nothing.  I research the writer, Helen Horn aka Pretty Penny who is from New Britain, CT...and found nothing.  Apparently she was well known and an influence on young children and music.

Valentine Songs

Song:  Here is My Heart

Use a flannel board to display Hearts.  Each heart has something on it that shows a gift of love.  You may have 6 hearts...one with love written on it, one with a picture of lips for kisses, one with a pic of hugs, one with chocolates, one with flowers, one with kindness, etc.  Hope you like it.

Song:  Valentine

This song is used as a dance.  Have the children form a circle.  Circle to the right on the first part of the song.  Then when it's time to sing the "la, la's"...stop and have the children copy the leader's movement.  Maybe jumping, hopping, bending, shaking, twisting, etc. 

Gung Hey Fat Choy

Chinese New Year
Year of the Dragon made this music class a lot of fun.  I simply took a green and red fabric and sewed them together.  I believe the dragon is at least 7 feet long.  The children hold onto the the yellow strips of fabric along the side.  One child puts the head on like a hat and off flies the dragon around the room. 


Here is a picture of the head.  The fabric is glued over a shoebox and that supports the head as a hat.

My camera did not take a very good pic of the tail, but it is about 7 - 8 feet long.

Try singing this song for the dragon parade.

http://www.nancymusic.com/Gunghayplay.htm

Winter Theme Songs: Tracks in the Snow, Cabin in the Woods, Bear Over the Mountain

Tracks in the Snow

Make copies of several animals' footprints on sheets of paper.  Make a book out of all the footprints you collect.  Sing the song and let the children match the footprints with the animal.  Give them clues before you sing. (lyrics and music by Patty, copyright 1998)   (A very simple tune.  The kids love this one because they guess the footprints of the animal.  Show them an outline of a footprint, sing the song, at the end of the song they guess who the tracks belong to. Print out these tracks online:  bear, deer, rabbit, racoon, skunk, dinosaur, bird, cayote, and human)


Eb        Eb  D   C
Tracks in   the snow  
Eb  Eb   D  C
leaving  a    trail         
 G    G      F  Eb                                
who could it  be                                           
high C  G      high C   G
look -   ing,  look   - ing                                        
Eb  D     ___
I     spy (name of animal)                     

The Bear Went Over the Mountain (traditional)
(Some children hold the sheet in a circle and other children pretend to be bears.   The bears walk around the circle where the sheet is spread out)


C      A       A    A-G   A    Bb     A      
The bear went o-ver the mountain    
A   G       G     G-F   G    A      G
the bear went o-ver the mountain
C    A     A      A-G   A    Bb    D
the bear went o-ver the mountain
D  C   C      Bb G      F
to see what he could see 


2nd verse:    (The bears crawl  under the sheet and pretend to sleep.)
He saw a dark cave
he saw a dark cave
he saw a dark cave
and went fast asleep


Act out:
snore, snore, snore
Wake Up!   
(The children holding the sheet call "wake up" and lift the sheet, and the bears under the sheet jump bear and growl.)
Grrrrr!          

Cabin in the Woods
love this song.  It is traditional and doesn't belong to anyone.  Although I know one website that is asking money for it?? 
The original words "before the hunter shoots me dead" I took out. We use hand motions for each line.  A game to play would be to not sing the first line, only use hand motions, the second time, take out two lines, and so on...by the end of song, you are only using the hand motions. 
In a little cabin in the woods
A little old man by the window stood
Along came a rabbit hopping by
knocking at his door
"Help me, help me, help me," he said.
Before the snow covers my head
come little rabbit, come with me
happy we will be.