3 Books to Sing

Hello and welcome to February!

In my district we are getting into that time in the school year when the high-stakes testing starts. I am a parent of a 3rd grader this year and I have definitely noticed a change in his homework load. My job as a parent is to make sure my son continues to love reading, writing, math, and learning new things. Part of my job as the music teacher is to emphasize the fun and fulfillment that music gives us as individuals and as a society. I want my students to be musically literate but that won't happen unless they value music in their lives. So sometimes we sing for the sake of singing or enjoy listening for the sake of listening. Every musician was a music lover first.

So when the testing revs up in the year, I rev up the dancing, moving, and book sharing.
Children need a little extra nurturing during test season, some become quite stressed. 

The books I'm sharing today are books to sing to and with your students. When I sing and share a book I'm always amazed at how quiet and focused the children become. I pulled out three books last week that students always love.


Mama Don't Allow by Thacher Hurd

This is the tale of Miles Possum who gets a saxophone for his birthday, (from his Uncle Waylon, love that!) Miles forms a swamp band with other aspiring musicians and they soon  get their first gig; playing for the alligator ball! But when the music is done for the night and it's time for dinner, Miles and his friends discover what's on the menu- Swamp Band soup! The band finds a crafty way on saving themselves through music.

I share this book with my first graders. They love the word balloon retorts of the Swampville residents who would rather not hear the band practice. Read this book with lots of expression and different voices for each character. There is not a CD recording with this book so it's up to you to bring it to  life! Sing Mama Don't Allow with gusto and tapping feet and watch the kids swing and sway! When the band plays the Lullaby of Swampland, get creative and improvise a simply sung lullaby. I'm having as much fun as the kids when we read this in class. (My job today includes imitating different jazz instruments, singing and stomping this tune, and improvising a lullaby? SCORE!)

After we've read the book it's fun to pull out a recording of the song Mama Don't Allow. I play the version by The Rooftop Singers. It's a perfect "beat leader" song!

The Ants go Marching by Dan Crisp

Child's Play sure put out a lot of wonderful song books! 

This is one of my favorites. When the 1st and 2nd grades celebrate the 100th Day of School I pull out this book. Of course this is the old tune When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again with different lyrics. With each verse, ants are added in rows and columns, eventually adding up to 100. I'm always telling my students that music and math are BFFs. While this book does not show exactly what I mean, it's fun for them to see the math and ant visuals laid out in these pages. 
I sing this one to the students but I've never had a class who wasn't singing along by the 4th verse! (Don't forget those "boom, boom, boom!"s)

The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night 

illustrated by Peter Spier

Here's an old ballad about a fox and his adventures as he hunts for food for his family. Peter Spier's artwork is beautiful. 

I initially sing this as we read it and then we listen to Pete Seeger or Jill Trinka version of the song. There are several renditions of this song, just look through iTunes. (I can amuse myself for hours poking around the internet listening to countless recordings of one song!)  My friend,(and fellow Kodály crusader in our district,) Steve Soich introduced me to Nickel Creek's recording of The Fox which is a huge hit with my students. Their version is a very rollicking bluegrass song that the first graders can't help but bounce to. 

That's (some) of what's going on in my music room. Have a musical week reading, singing, and moving!

Pete Seeger: An American Icon

When I got up Tuesday morning and turned on my iPhone to check the weather the first thing I read was "Pete Seeger has died at 94." 

Banjo inscription:“This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.”  

The news that we have lost one of our national treasures has gnawed at me all week.
He was a musician, a story teller, an activist, and a culture bearer. 

I consider Pete Seeger the american embodiment of the Kodály philosophy. 
He understood the power of music and the importance of people embracing their musical  heritage. He spoke out against injustice and righted wrongs while unifying people through music. 

I was a child of the 70s but I grew up on the popular folk music from the 1960s. Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul, and Mary, The Kingston Trio, Gordon Lightfoot, and Bob Dylan were on heavy rotation during my childhood. In my elementary music class we sang Where Have All the Flowers Gone and If I Had a Hammer every year in sing a longs. These were songs everybody just knew, it seemed. When I began my Kodály studies, I realized how many folk songs I had learned initially through Pete Seeger. A little later in my life, Pete Seeger records were on heavy rotation in my house after I had my son. As a new mother I made many playlists for the baby. I wanted my child to be exposed to great music and lots of it! 

Here are a few of my favorite Pete Seeger recordings and books and how I've used them in the music classroom.

Jim Along Josie

Karla Cherwinski wrote about movement with Jim Along Josie recently at Kodály Corner. (You should definitely check that out!)
I love to use Pete Seeger's version of the song. It's just Pete and his banjo and very fun to move to! First I ask students to share ways we can move. Then I sing the song and play guitar adding movements that the students have mentioned. I have the children freeze when they hear "Hey Jim along, Jim along, Josie." Freezing on the "Hey Jim along" shows that they're listening. (It's also a good way to slow them down if their movements are getting a bit out of control!)

We move to the Pete Seeger version the next time I see the class. I love to see what they do when Pete sings "roll Jim along...!"

You can find Pete's Jim Along Josie many places but I suggest the album Birds, Beasts, Bugs, & Fishes  Little & Big Animal Folk Songs. This is a wonderful album and fun listening for children  everyone. My kids particularly like the songs Ground Hog and the very short (and shocking!) The Elephant.

 

Get America Singing and Get America Singing... Again! Songbooks 

The Get America Singing books were a project of MENC and Pete Seeger was the Honorary National Chair for the Get America Singing...Again! campaign. There's a lovely Foreword by Pete in which he emphasizes the value of people singing together. 

Do you have a stack of these in your music room? What a wonderful collection of songs!

Pass them out, grab your guitar or piano and let the students just sing. Sing for the sake of singing together. It might not fit the melodic or rhythmic concept the class is working on and that's fine.

Pete writes:

"To take a lung full of air and push it out with some kind of song is an act of survival, whether you're singing in a shower, a car, a bar, in a chorus, at a birthday party, at a church, or wherever. Try it- you'll live longer."

Amen to that!

Abiyoyo

This book was such a stable when I started teaching music it became cliché to even promote it. ("Abiyoyo? Of course I read Abiyoyo to my students ever year!!")

I'm not sure if it's as well known today.

This is a charming story about an ostracized magician father, his banjo playing son, and how they banish the carnivorous giant Abiyoyo from their town. You could read and sing this yourself OR you could turn pages and let Pete narrate and sing. (The book comes with a CD.)

I almost hate to mention it, (because you really should have this book,) but there is a great video of Pete telling the story on the Reading Rainbow program. 

This Land is Your Land 2009 Inauguration Performance
I've been showing this sing a long performance of This Land is Your Land at the 2009 inauguration of President Obama to my 4th, 5th, and 6th graders this week. Just seeing 89 year old Pete leading the mass of people in song is stirring. I love that he was true to Woody Guthrie's full intentions and made sure to include those often "forgotten" verses.

Pete performs here with his grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger and Bruce Springsteen.

The Pete Seeger documentary Pete Seeger: Power of Song is not for the kids but provides a fascinating narrative of his life in music and politics. It's a "must see" for anyone serious about understanding the importance of folk song in the united states. I highly recommend this inspiration film.

Zoltán Kodály said "...only the best is good enough for a child." 
Pete Seeger was one of our best. May he rest in peace.

Chairs to Mend - A Surprising Favorite

Have you ever had a song that turns out to be a surprising favorite of a class or grade level? 
Do you have a song that kids love right away that you thought you would have to really  "sell?"
Of course, for much of the repertoire we use there are games or activities that are very appealing to children and they latch onto the song because of the game. But there are songs we use that don't have a super fun game already attached. 

Chairs to Mend is a favorite of my 5th graders this school year. This is a street cry song with vendors peddling their wares and services. We talk as a class about the need for street cries to advertise goods at the market prior to the 20th century. "Yes, kids, there was a time before radio, TV, or the internet." (Oh my!) 

They initially learned it last September as a dotted quarter eighth note (tam ti in their world) song. The students love the simple harmonies. 

There are several ways my students have enjoyed singing Chairs to Mend. 

• Sing in a 3 part canon
• Sing in unison, then each student sings their favorite section and repeats until the conductor signals to hold the last note
• Sing with 3 groups of students; the fish mongers, the carpenters, and the quilters. Each group repeats their two measures and watches the conductor for changes in tempo, dynamics, and cut-offs. (This is especially fun to dramatize; students wander the room singing their street cry while others are wandering nearby singing a different street cry. What a fun challenge!)

Just before winter break, I placed a big order at West Music and took a chance on this book that I had not noticed before:

The book Chairs to Mend was published in 2008 and was penned by an elementary music teacher, Sue McCallum Melton. (I don't now why I had not been aware of it before now!) She tells the (fictional) story of a young girl, Rachel, living in Boston in 1885 and her day as she hears the street cries of the chair mender, the fish monger, and the ragman. There is a CD included with the song and the story narrated (complete with the sounds of Rachel's day! This is a nice option and would be great to leave for substitutes!)

My 5th graders re-visited the song as I read them the book this week.

The illustrations are very appealing to students and they enjoyed the story. Next year, I'll introduce Chairs to Mend through this book. 

It's a wonderful addition for a surprising favorite song.

What about you, do you have any surprising favorite songs in your classes? What have your students loved that you didn't expect?