The Green Grass Grows All Around

A bug on the wing and the wing on the bird and the bird in the egg and the egg in the nest and the nest on the branch and the branch on the tree and the tree in the ground and the green grass grows all around all around, the green grass grows all around.  Remember that song from your childhood? It's a silly song that can be used to teach several different musical skills to preschoolers.

The first part of The Green Grass Grows All Around is a call and response song and then everyone sings together when you get to the refrain.  Call and Response, or Echo Songs, are wonderful to use with preschoolers (3, 4 and 5 year old).  These type of songs teach children to listen and to sing independently.  Younger children will simply sing along with you, but you can still sing the response part with them as they will benefit from the experiential aspect of being introduced to this type of song.

This song begs for simple gestures to accompany it.   You need a gesture for tree, branch, nest, egg, bird, wing, and bug.  The gestures help the children learn the order of the song, thus helping to reinforce memory skills.  When I sing this song with 3's, 4's and 5's, I take some time to slowly review the objects mentioned, starting with the bug and working my way back to the tree.  For example, I will sing, "The ______(do the bug motion) on the ______ (do the wing motion)" and the children will all say "Bug!, Wing!".  After we go through each item slowly, we then sing it together a tempo.  The first time I did this, I was afraid that the children would not remember the order of the song.  Was I ever wrong!  The preschoolers will surprise you with how well they remember each element of this song!

The best part of using this song in the preschool classroom or at home, is that it is simple enough to sing
a capella.  Don't worry about the quality of your voice when you sing (most of us sing better than we give ourselves credit for anyway!).  Just pretend that you are sitting around the bonfire at summer camp and sing our heart out.  Your preschoolers will love to hear you sing - and I bet that you will have fun just letting yourself be a little bit silly!!

The Little Beethovens Top Ten List of Songs for Preschoolers

1.   Going to Kentucky by Sue Schnitzer
2.   Dinosaur Stomp by Jack Hartmann
3.   Humpty Dumpty by Wiggleworms Loves You
4.   There Was an Old Witch by The C.R.S. Players
5.   Tingalayo by Raffi
6.   Brown Girl in the Ring by Raffi
7.   Hop Little Bunnies by The C.R.S. Players
8.   Can You Swing Your Arms by Aardvark Kids
9.   I'm Putting My Toys Away Now by Corey Leland
10.  If You're Happy and You Know It by Asheba

Finding Quality Preschool Music

Do a web search of "preschool music" and you will find a large number of websites and blogs that cater to the preschool child.  Most of these websites are written by preschool teachers who want to incorporate music into their curriculum, a move which I applaud.  Upon careful inspection of these sites, you will find that most of the songs recommended on these sites are new lyrics set to familiar children's tunes.  For example, The Wheels on the Bus becomes The Sticks on the Drums, The Farmer in the Dell becomes We're Flying to the Moon, or Three Blind Mice becomes Three Black Cats.  Now, there is nothing wrong, per se, with using this type of song in the classroom or at home.  However, when preschoolers are only singing and learning the tunes to a dozen or so songs, then it's time to revamp our approach to music education for the young child.

There is a wealth of wonderful music that we can introduce our preschoolers to.  Go to Amazon and type in "Children's Music" in to the search box and 1000s of songs are available to you.  You can refine your search by typing in "Children's Music (or Children's Songs):  Halloween/Springtime/Dinosaurs/Bugs, etc".  You can also search by performers names:  Raffi, Asheba, The Hit Crew, The C.R.S. Players, Jack Hartmann (whom I love, but you can only buy his music at his website), Nooshi the Balloon Dude, Corey Leland, etc.  But don't limit your search for good children's music to those who specialize in children's music; look for the music of Beethoven, Bach, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Mozart.  Or how about the music of  Muddy Waters, John Denver, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Burl Ives, Michael Buble', Michael Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald, the Sherman Brothers, Eartha Kitt, Allison Krauss, and Dolly Parton?  In almost every genre of music, we can find songs that are simple enough to teach to our preschoolers.

There are a few performers that I would stay away from:  The Wiggles, Barney, any teen "star" featured on The Disney Channel or Nickelodeon, rap and hip hop artists, and frankly, most performers that are popular with the under 25 crowd . Preschoolers are very impressionable, and we only want to introduce them to music that uses clean language, that doesn't have the vocals engineered and is of a high quality.  Our preschoolers deserve to hear and learn the highest quality music possible and there is so much good music available, there is no reason not to give them the best!

The Preschooler's Imagination

It's not unusual to hear a t.v. commercial that extols the imagination of a child.  Or to hear creative people talking about tapping into the unharnessed imagination of a child.  When did we start to believe that children have the greatest abilities to imagine and create among people?  My experience has been that children, especially young children, do not have the ability to think abstractly, which is the key ingredient in creative thinking.  Don't get me wrong here, preschoolers do have their moments of creativity, but often they pretend to be something that already exists.  For example, a 4 year old's mom is expecting another child, so the 4 year old (boy or girl), walks around with a doll stuffed in her shirt.  Or a group of preschoolers pretend to be a family or a class at school.  Give a preschooler a cardboard box, and it becomes a car or an airplane.  And these are great places to start building upon to help our children develop a great imagination.  Yes, I said it, creativity must be developed! 

I do not believe that the most creative minds in our society belong to children.  I do believe that the great creative minds in our society are often inspired by children and that most children are born with the ability to develop abstract thinking skills and thus create.  But it would be insulting to the truly great artists (Martha Graham, Steven Spielberg, Bob Fosse, Bill T. Jones, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Yo Yo Ma, Alicia de Larrocha, Leonard Bernstien, Aaron Copland, etc) to compare thier creative powers to that of a 5 year old!  But we can help our children develop creativity. It is important to remember that for some people, creativity comes easily, while others are born as more concrete, factual thinkers.  And that's ok, we need all types of personalities in society.

So, what can we do to help our preschoolers develop confidence in creating?  Let's take a look at a few suggestions.

1.  Model creativity for your students!  Let them see you being silly.  Read a book and use different voices for each character.  Sing and dance to music.  Wear a costume to class.  Creativity requires us to be unconcerned about other's perceptions of us and frees us up to be true performers.  I am always saddened when a 4 year old  (or an 8, 20 or 40 year old) is too  self-concious to be silly.  During a voice lesson back in my college days, my professor stopped my singing and told me flat out that I was self-centered.  I balked at that; I was kind and generous, and didn't seek out unduly attention.  Then he explained, that I was so concerned about how others would perceive my singing, that I was unable to let the music itself be the star of the show.  My self-centeredness was preventing freedom in my music.  A lightbulb went off in my head; I needed to release all fears, doubts and inhibitions in order to allow the beauty and the message of the music reach my audience.  Since that day, I have been a different singer, one who allows the music to speak, who is not afraid of judgements or failure.  Putting off my self-conciousness freed up my creative spirit.  And putting off self-conciousness will help your students become free to express their creative spirit.

2.  Make available toys that encourage creativity:  paper and crayons or fingerpaints, Play Doh, costumes, rhythm instruments, and blocks.  Then, allow the sutdents to "have at it".  Don't tell them to paint a dog or build a car or dress up like a doctor, just let the children find their own way of playing with the toys. Of course, you can set up rules for the toys:  No painting on the table or walls, be gentle with the costumes and don't hit your friend over the head with a block...But for the most part, just let the child be.  Don't hover over them, don't give them instructions, just let them be.  You might be amazed at what they will come up with when they think no one is listening or watching!

3.  Let preschoolers listen to different versions of the same song.  Passive listening to great music is fine, but it doesn't engage the listener. However, you can help preschoolers understand that one song can be understood differently by different people.  So, find one song (The Flight of the Bumblebee is a great choice because many different musicians have recorded it using different instruments) and play both versions of the song, then guide your students in a discussion about how the songs were the same or different.  This activity helps a child to understand that we don't all see or hear things the same way, that we can all have a different approach to a project and neither approach is necessarily better than the other, they are just different.

Above all, don't be critical of a child's creative endeavors. Let the child's creative spirit soar on eagle's wings!

St. Patrick's Day for Preschoolers

My oldest daughter is a championship level Irish Dancer.  No, we are not Irish, but when my daughter was but a wee thing, we had a video of Riverdance, which she watched over and over and over again until I finally signed her up for some lessons!!  I now know more about Irish dance, Irish music, Irish history, Irish food, Irish stories and Irish beer, than I ever thought I would know!  It's a good thing to understand and appreciate another culture; it makes us more compassionate people.  And, it's a good thing to share our appreciation of other cultures with our preschoolers.

Very often when early childhood educators plan for St. Patrick's Day, the easiest things are taught to the children:  leprechauns and wearing green.  Why do we do that?  Why do we dumb down our lesson plans on this holiday?  Especially when there is such a wealth of topics that we could discuss with our preschoolers!  Perhaps we teachers don't know enough about Irish history and feel inadequate to delve into any topics of substance.  If you feel that way, never fear, I have almost 10 years of "Irish Education", thanks to Irish Dance and the McClanahan School of Irish Dance in Louisville, KY.  I am happy to share with you a thing or two that you can in turn share with your preschoolers!

Irish Dance

There are 5 main types of Irish Dance:  jig, reel, slip jig, hornpipe and treble jig.  The dancers use two different types of shoes:  soft shoes, called ghillies and hard shoes, called well, hard shoes, heavy shoes (heavies) or jig shoes.  Boys wear the hard shoe and a reel shoe for soft shoe dances, which kind of look like jazz shoes.  The jig, reel and slip jig are performed in soft shoes and the hornpipe and treble jig are performed in hard shoes. 

GHILLIES

HARD SHOES

BOYS REEL SHOE

One question I am often asked about Irish Dance is why the dancers keep their hands to their sides.  There are several  stories that explain this.  One of the more popular explanations is this:  When the British ruled Ireland, they banned all cultural expressions, including art, song and dance.  So, to thump their noses at the British soldiers, the Irish would dance a jig or reel with arms to their sides so that when the soldiers peeked inside the Irish homes, or pubs or schools, it wouldn't look like they were dancing.  Along the same line is that when Elizabeth I demanded Irish dancers in her court (she was rumored to have loved Irish jigs), the dancers performed for the queen with their hands to their sides, as if to say, "You can make me dance, but you can't make me enjoy myself and I will never pay tribute to the English court!".



IRISH MUSIC

For each of the dances, there is a specific type of music to go with the dance.  In other words, there is jig music, reel music, hornpipe and slip jig music.  The music for jig and treble jig is essentially the same, it's just that one is performed in the soft shoe and one is performed in the hard shoe.  If you want to listen to great traditional Irish Dance music, let me recommend the music of Tony Nother and Mark Arrington.  Both are brilliant musicians and are experts at understanding the nuances of Irish dance music.  Of course, there is plenty of Irish music that has nothing to do with dancing.  If you want some music with a contemporary feel, listen to Gaelic Storm or The Chieftains.  If you want some Irish music that you can sing with your preschoolers, here is a short list of some songs you can use:

McNamara's Band, sung by The Hit Crew

I'll Tell Me Ma, sung by The Kilkenney Brothers

Kid on the Mountain performed by Cheryl Reid O'Hagan

Kid on the Mountain, performed by Bill Thurman

Kid on the Mountain is an instrumental song.  You can use the Bill Thurman rendition to march to and the Cheryl O'Hagan version, which is gentler, can be used with scarves or for quiet time music.

Soldier's Song (the Irish Nat'l Anthem) sung by The Clancey Brothers

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling sung by The Irish

WHY DO WE WEAR GREEN?

Ireland is often called The Emerald Isle in honor of it's lush beauty.  Therefore, green is the chosen color of St. Patrick's Day.

ST. PATRICK WASN'T IRISH?  REALLY?

It's true!  St. Patrick was born in England.  As a priest, he wanted to bring Christianity to the Irish people, so he went to Ireland as a missionary.  He was so beloved of the people that St. Patrick became the patron saint of Ireland. 

A FEW GOOD BOOK TO USE IN YOUR PRESCHOOL CLASSROOM

St. Patrick's Day by Gail Gibbons

St. Patrick's Day in the Morning by Eve Bunting

St. Patrick's Day Alphabet by Beverly Barras

Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie dePaola

Enjoy your St. Patrick's Day celebration with your preschoolers and may the luck of the Irish be with you!