The Thanksgiving Story

This is a re-posting of an antiphonal story (call and response) I wrote for my preschool music students.  Antiphonal stories shared with your children or students teach them listening skills, cooperation, focus, and they are fun!

The horses were in the barn and Farmer Joe was busy putting each horse into their own stall for the night.  He was just putting the last horse away in her stall when he heard a sound.  What was it?  The noise sounded like this: (The teacher sings quietly on the word Oooh--use any musical pitches you would care to use. Ask your children/students, "Can you make that sound?")

As Farmer Joe led the last horse to her stall, the horses in the barn became very quiet so they could listen, too.  The sound, which had started to sound like singing, became a little louder and sounded like this: (The teacher sings the Oooh pitches a little louder. Ask your children/students, "Can you sing just a little louder?")

Well, even though Farmer Joe was hungry for his dinner and wanted to go into his house to eat, he could hardly wait to walk outside the barn to see where that singing was coming from!

As Farmer Joe walked from the barn door to the corn field toward his house, he saw a great flock of birds had landed to eat the leftover corn left from the harvest.  They were the ones singing!

 The huge flock of blackbirds was happily eating the leftover corn and they were singing, “We are grateful”.  (The teacher sings the same musical pitches for the words, "We are grateful") (Ask your children/students, "Can you sing those words?")

Farmer Joe could hardly believe what he was seeing and hearing!  Could blackbirds really sing?

Farmer Joe walked closer to the flock of birds eating corn in the field.  They stopped singing and there was a hush. (Can you say "hush"?)

One of the blackbirds looked up at Farmer Joe and said, “Caw, caw!” (Can you say “Caw, caw!”?)
Farmer Joe said, “Hello there, I walked over here because I thought I heard you singing.”
The blackbird fluttered his wings a little bit. (Can you flutter your wings a little bit?  Children/students gently flutter their arms)  Then the blackbird went back to eating the corn.

Since the singing had stopped and Farmer Joe was hungry for his dinner, he walked toward his house.
Suddenly, he heard the music again.  (Use the same musical pitches to sing “We Are Grateful”) (Ask your children/students, "Can you quietly sing "We Are Grateful?")

Could blackbirds really sing?  Farmer Joe will never know.