Art Songs

Here are a few songs to celebrate the little artist in your life. When talking about art in a classroom or at home, it is a great opportunity to do some hands on learning about colors and color mixing. Enjoy!

Full body painting with toddlers.

Building a Statue
(Tune: Tiny Tim)

I’m building a statue,
For everyone to see.
I’m working on it now,
Not sure what it will be!

Won’t use a hammer or a chisel,
Marble or clay,
I’ll only use my body,
Make it FREEZE… and it will stay!
What a beautiful statue! 

*For this song, I pick a few children to be my "statues." They dance during the song and when we shout "freeze" they turn their bodies into statues. Then all the other children in the circle say, "What a beautiful statue!"

I'm not sure if the smock helped at all!

Primary Colors
(Tune: Three Blind Mice)

Red, Yellow, Blue. 
Red, Yellow, Blue.
I see you. Red, Yellow, Blue.
You are the primary colors.
You make all the other colors.
Red, Yellow, Blue.
Red, Yellow, Blue.

Painting
(Tune: My Bonnie)

I dip my paintbrush in red.
I dip my paintbrush in blue.
I’m making the color purple,
To paint a picture for you!

Painting, painting. Painting a picture for you (for you)!
Painting, painting. I’m painting a picture for you!

I dip my paintbrush in yellow.
I dip my paint brush in blue.
I’m making the color green,
To paint a picture for you.

Painting, painting. Painting a picture for you (for you)!
Painting, painting. I’m painting a picture for you!

I dip my paintbrush in yellow.
I dip my paint brush in red,
Now, I’m painting with orange,
To make a self-portrait instead!

Painting, painting. Painting a picture for you (for you)!
Painting, painting. I’m painting a picture for you!

Another fun music/art activity is painting to music. Before you try this activity, I would have a conversation with your children about how music makes you feel and how some paintings make you feel. Then pick a few very different songs. Give the children the opportunity to make a different painting for each song. See how different they look. (They trick to this one is getting the children to only touch their paintbrush once they hear the music.)

Happy Singing!

Earth Day 2015

The Blue Marble.

190 countries celebrate Earth Day every year. (That's 190 out of 196!)
I believe it is our responsibility to not only take care of our planet, but to teach our children the importance of caring for our shared home. There are many worrying man-made problems that face our planet. It's scary and complicated for adults, and would be overwhelming for children.
It is important to give children achievable tasks to help take care our planet. We want to bring awareness to how much garbage we send to landfills, how much water we waste and how many trees are cut down to make paper towels. We also want to assure our children that they can make a difference.
I am a strong believer in talking positively to children. It isn't fair for us to scare children with a plethora of problems and not give them ways to help. Let's teach about recycling and conservation. We can talk about composting and wearing hand-me-downs. we can talk about how taking small step to save water can make a big difference and how if many children all helped a little bit, we could make a big change.

To help aid your conversation, I have a few Earth Day songs. (I wrote one new song, but have a few songs that I posted last year.)

The Blue Bin
Tune: Twinkle, Twinkle

Put your cans in the blue bin.
When you recycle we all win.
Treat the planet Earth with care.
It's the home that we all share.
Put your cans in the blue bin.
When you recycle we all win!

*You can change the word cans to any recyclable item. 
**In Chicago, our city recycling bins are blue. Change the color as needed to suit the recycling system in your town/neighborhood.

Check out my Earth Day songs from last year.

Looking for good Earth Day Books for your kiddos? Check out this list published on pbs.org.

Happy Earth Day. Do your part to make our planet a better place!

Happy Singing!

Week of the Young Child

Happy Week of the Young Child!

Every year, The National Association for the Education of Young Children picks a week to celebrate the wonderful young children in our lives. This year they created a plan to celebrate with a new theme each day. Monday's theme is Music!

All of my classes are a celebration of music and children. This week, I will be choosing a few of our favorite songs to celebrate and we will be using some of our favorite props and instruments. (This week will involve a lot of parachute and kazoos!)

We will also be singing a simple song to remind my musical kiddos how special and unique they are. Try singing it at home!

I Am Special
(Tune: Clementine)

I am special. I am different.
I am me and I am great!
We are special, but we're different.
It is something to celebrate.

Here are two of our favorite gross motor songs. They are fun songs to get kids moving, and they also get adults moving! Enjoy!

"The Butterfly Song" David Landau

"Run Baby, Run" Caspar Babypants

This week, I will also be helping For Your Child celebrate Week of the Young Child. I look forward to meeting all their kids and teachers, and teaching everyone some new songs!

Happy Singing!

Music for St. Patrick's Day

When you think of St. Partrick's day, I doubt you think of Preschool music. In fact, when I heard many of the teacher I work with were planning a St. Patrick's Day lesson plan, my first thought was, should I write a song about green beer? (Obviously, i didn't do that.... well I didn't sing it in to any children.)

I live and teach in Chicago. Irish roots run deep here. Every year, the city dyes the Chicago River green and there is a huge parade. Most of the festivities are for adults, but I was determined to find (or write) a few kids-friendly St. Patty's Day songs.

Here are the fruits of my labor:

St. Patties Day
(I'm a Little Teapot) 

 I'm a little leprechaun Dressed in green, 
The tiniest man That you ever seen. 
If you ever catch me, so it's told,
I'll give you my pot of gold.

 I’m a lucky shamrock, Can’t you see.
I’ve got four leaves, all the others have three.
Find me in a field, On St. Patrick’s Day.
And all you’ll have good luck every single day.

 Dye the River Green
(Tune: Row your Boat)

 Dye, dye the river green.
Dye river green.
Celebrate the St. Patrick’s Day
Everyone’s Irish today!

THERE’S A COLOR WE ALL KNOW
Tune:  “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”

There’s a color we all know,
G-R-E-E-N.
It’s the color that means “Go!”
G-R-E-E-N.
Oh, she’s wearing green and he’s wearing green.
You’re in green. I’m in Green. Everyone is wearing green,
There’s a color we all know: G-R-E-E-N

During my research about Saint Patrick's Day, I found this neat infografic on History.com.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day and Happy Singing!