Elephant Playlist for Preschool Classes

Create your own playlist of songs that enhances the study of elephants, the circus or the zoo!  Here is a list of songs that I would recommend:

The Baby Elephant Walk by Henry Mancini
We're Going to the Zoo
One Elephant Went Out to Play
Nellie the Elephant
I Went to the Animal Fair
Animal Action


Links to downloading each of these songs:

Baby Elephant Walk: http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Elephant-Walk/dp/B00137QR9M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1311961969&sr=1-1

One Elephant Went Out to Play: http://www.amazon.com/One-Elephant-Went-Out-Play/dp/B002RIJFKY/ref=sr_1_2?

Nellie the Elephant: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0027VMMME/ref=dm_dp_trk18?ie=UTF8&qid=1311962344&sr=1-7

Going to the Zoo: http://www.amazon.com/Going-To-The-Zoo/dp/B0027VMN2S/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1311962472&sr=1-7

I Went to the Animal Fair: http://www.amazon.com/I-Went-Animal-Fair/dp/B0037N3AL8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1311962523&sr=1-1

Animal Action: http://www.amazon.com/Animal-Action/dp/B002INQBNC/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1311962580&sr=1-5

Going To The Zoo

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo
So can you, you, you
You can come too, too, too
We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo


I must confess that this is one of those children's songs that gets inside my brain and won't go away.  After singing this song with my students last week, it took me all week to be able to go to sleep without having it roll around in my head!  Your preschoolers will love it too!  The chorus is very simple and the verses lend themselves to creative movement - music and dance are a wonderful combination for a music lesson!

The flow of the song is predictable.  It begins by saying that Daddy's taking us to the zoo tomorrow and then follows with four verses that describe some of the animals that were seen at the zoo:  elephants, monkeys, black bear and seals. During each of the verses, let the children pretend to be that animal.  Then the fifth verse slows down and sings about getting into the car and falling asleep on the way home; Don't be surprised if some of your students lay down on the floor as if they are sleeping!  After the sleeping verse, the tempo picks back up and the lyrics say Mamma's taking us to the zoo tomorrow.


When I sing this song with my preschoolers, I not only encourage the creative movement, but I also try to incorporate two other skills:

1. Clapping to a Beat.  Have the children clap on the repeated words of the chorus - zoo, you, too, and zoo.  Doing this helps to emphasize the aural skill of hearing predictability in speech and rhythm.

2. Listening and Memory Skills:   Have the children tell you what animals were seen at the zoo, what happened when they got in the car and who took them to the zoo at the beginning and the ending of the song. Reviewing lyrics in this manner helps to reinforce listening skills.

This is the perfect song to incorporate in a zoo or animal curriculum and I bet that it will become one of those songs your children ask for time and time again.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0027VMN2S/ref=dm_dp_trk2?ie=UTF8&qid=1311091477&sr=301-3

CD Review: The Animals Went In Two By Two (Childrens Animal And Counting Songs)

• The CD 'The Animals Went in Two By Two (Children's Animal and Counting Songs)' is representational of many CDs that are marketed to the preschool child.  With 30 songs on the CD, there are many preschool favorites, including Incey Wincey Spider, Three Blind Mice and Baa Baa Black Sheep, a few songs you may not have ever heard before, such as Pookie Doodle Poodle and My Little Kitten and even one story, Four Colly Birds.  I was surprised to discover that the times table in song is presented on this CD; preschoolers are just learning to count and do simple addition, learning to multiple seems a bit premature for this age, but, maybe the rational was to introduce multiplication at an early age to increase the child's familiarity with the concept.

The songs on this CD are well suited for the preschooler listener:  they are written in musical keys that suit the young voice, have rather simple accompaniments and most are 1:30 min - 2:00 min in length, which is perfect for the preschool attention span.  The songs Going to the Zoo and Nellie the Elephant  are the two stand-out songs in this compilation.  Going to the Zoo is a fine arrangement of a familiar children's song which lends itself to cross-curricular activities in creative and dramatic play. Nelly the Elephant tells the story of an elephant who left the circus to go and live in the freedom of the jungle, only to find that she loved the circus more than she realized.  Again, this song lends itself to creative/dramatic play and also provides a backdrop for group discussion about the circus, parades and friendship.

With a downloadable price tag of only $5.99, you cannot go wrong with purchasing this CD.  Even if you only teach a few of these songs to your preschoolers, it is well worth the cost.  The Animals Went in Two By Two (Children's Animal and Counting Songs) is available at amazon.com:

• http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0027VMMLA/ref=sr_1_album_7_rd?ie=UTF8&child=B0027VMN2S&qid=1310996800&sr=1-7
• 
  
• 
  
• Original Release Date: April 27, 2009
• Label: Vanilla OMP
• Copyright: (c) 2008 One Media Publishing
• Total Length: 46:55

Teaching Preschooler Space Notes on the Treble Clef

After you have reviewed the line notes on the treble clef, it's time to move on to the space notes.  You will need your large treble clef, laminated circles with either F, A, C, or E written on them, and magic notes.

You can use the following song, set to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star:


The treble clef it has four spaces
F-A-C-E
F-A-C-E
F-A-C-E
The treble clef it has four spaces
F-A-C-E

(c. 2011 Rohde)

As you sing the song, place a magic note on each of the spaces on the staff, beginning with the bottom space. Teach the space notes the same way you taught the line notes, using your laminated circles with the note names written on them.

Teaching Preschoolers Line Notes of the Treble Clef

Once preschoolers have learned the difference between line notes and space notes, it is time to move on to teaching them the name of the line notes in the treble clef.

For this activity you will need:

• 5 sets of  2" laminated circles with either an "E, G, B, D, or F" printed on them
• your large treble clef that you made for the lines and spaces activities

What to do:

Starting from the bottom line of the staff, place an "E" on the bottom line, "G" on the 2nd line, "B" on the 3rd line, "D" on the 4th line and an "F" on the 5th line.  As you do this, sing the following song, set to the tune of 'Bingo'
     The treble clef it has five lines and here are their names
     E, G, B, D, F
    E, G, B, D, F    
   E, G, B, D, F
   And those are their names
   (c. 2010 Rohde)

After singing the song through once or twice, give each child a circle with a note name written on it; Do not remove the notes you have placed on the staff!  Call the students up by groups, saying, "If you have an E, come place it on the staff".  Do the same thing for each of the five line notes. When this activity has been mastered, remove the "cheater notes" from the staff and have the children place their note on the correct line of the staff.

This is not a "one time and it's done" activity.  I do this activity every 6-8 weeks with my students, and sometimes more often.  The preschoolers will catch on quickly to this activity, but it must be done with some regularity in order to have it a part of their long-term memory.  And remember, for now you are only learning the names of the line notes.  After you have done this activity several times, you can move on the the names of the space notes in the treble clef - but for now, enjoy teaching your preschoolers how to read the name of the line notes in the treble clef!

Preschoolers Learn Line Notes and Space Notes

Preschoolers can learn to read music, even if they do not take private lessons. I will not presume to tell you that the children will learn to read music fluently without the addition of learning to play an instrument, but an introduction to note reading is possible and it will help prepare the preschoolers for elementary school music classes and will lay a foundation for any future music lessons the children may embark on.

The first thing you need to do is have a large music staff available.  I always begin with the treble clef.  You can either make one yourself by painting a staff on a carpet remnant or print one off and have it enlarged and laminated at your local copy shop.  You want to ensure that it is large enough for the children to place notes on - at least 2'x3'.

For the notes, you can either cut out 2" circles and laminate them or go to the craft store and buy a bag of flat decorative stones. (I use the flat stones and call them Magic Notes).  The first step in teaching preschoolers to read music is to show them the difference between line notes and space notes.  The treble clef has 5 lines, so we can have 5 line notes and it has 4 spaces so we have 4 space notes.  Place a stone on each of the 5 lines of the staff and tell the students that these are line notes.  Then give each child a Magic Note and let them make a line note on the staff.  Do the same thing for the space notes; demonstrate what a space note looks like and then let the children place their note in a space. After line notes and space notes have been introduced, clear off the staff, hand a Magic Note to one student and say, "James, can you come make a line note?" and then let the next student make a space note, until every child has had a chance to make a line note or a space note.

When every student has had a chance to make a line note or a space note, comment on how beautiful your staff is and take the opportunity to review.  You want to ensure that the children understand what a staff is (it's what we use to write music on) and that a staff has 5 lines and 4 spaces.  Then take the notes off one by one and as you remove a note, say "line note, space note, line note, space note", etc.  You will want to make sure that you do this in random order so that the children don't just say "line note, space note, line note, space note" simply because it's become a pattern.

Depending on the number of children in your class, this whole process will take 10-15 minutes.  Do not rush this step in the note reading process, it helps prepare for the next step in the process - putting a name to each line and space.