A Trip To The Mountains--Creative Play With A Musical Soundtrack Of Your Choice

Let’s take a hike up the mountain!  Put on your good walking shoes.  Put your lunch in your backpack and put your backpack on. Here we go! 

We must climb, climb, climb. (Teacher and students climb while standing in place) Look at the view!  See the pretty flowers over there?  Let’s pick a few to put in our backpacks.  Our parents will like them.  Now we must climb higher.  Watch out for the slippery rocks.  Climb, climb, climb, climb. 

  

We’re getting close to the clouds.  Let’s have our lunch right here.  Find a place to sit.  Take your backpack off and open your lunch.  Eat your favorite sandwich and have a few sips of your juice.  Eat your energy bar and now it is time to clean up.  Throw your garbage away and put your backpack on your back again. 

Just a little further to climb and we will have reached the top of the mountain!  Can you count to 10 and then we will be at the top!  (Everyone counts to 10) Look at the beautiful view of the high clouds (look up) and the low valley (look down).  We are now so tired that we must lie down and have a rest. (Teacher and students lie down for a minute) Wake up and give yourself a good stretch. 

It is now time to hike down to the bottom of the mountain.  As we start climbing down, we see a very good walking stick by the side of our trail.  We pick the walking stick up and start using it so we may stay balanced and can lean on it if the way is steep. 

 As we walk, we pass some other hikers so we say, “hello!”.  Can you say hello? 

Now we have a bit of excitement because we pass by an eagle’s nest.  She is waiting to hatch her chicks.  Let’s be very quiet and tiptoe past her. Tiptoe, tiptoe.... 

We are walking again.  As we near the bottom of the mountain, we are looking forward to seeing our parents and telling them about our hike.  Reach back into your backpack to get the flowers you picked to give to them.  We see our parents and hand them the flowers.  They love them and say, “thank you”.  You walk to your family car with your walking stick helping you along. 

The End 

One Of Our Favorite Stories

Note to Teacher or Parent:  You will want to have a maraca and wood block handy for special sound effects!

Lefty and Buckaroo lived in the state of Montana.  Can you say Montana? Lefty was a girl pony and Buckaroo was a boy pony.  One day there was a rain storm and Lefty and Buckaroo ran into a cave to stay dry.  Ready to help me with a rainstorm? (Children get to clap and stomp their feet for a moment until you say "stop!")  As Lefty and Buckaroo walked into the cave, they heard a noise.  The noise sounded like a baby rattle with the rattle being shaken slowly but getting faster. (Teacher shakes maraca slowly and then faster) What was it?  Both ponies then saw a very colorful snake slithering toward them.  (Can you help me make a snake noise?) But, after the snake made a hissing noise, it began to talk.  The snake said, "Do not be afraid, my friends.  I am just a lonely snake who would like some company.  I'm so glad you're here!"  The three animals became friends and the ponies said they would come back and visit again.  Since the rain had stopped, Lefty and Buckaroo said goodbye to their new friend and galloped home. (Teacher plays wood block with mallet)

Holiday Music

Live music is best!

With the holidays coming up, remember to check your Sunday paper arts section for upcoming and age appropriate concerts for your children.  Of course, simply searching for free family concerts online is also a great way to find live music.  There are many reasonably priced and free concerts listed every week. Concerts are artistically stimulating as well as being a family bonding time.

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.

Happy Halloween 2019!

Here's a great Halloween song using the tune to The Wheels On The Bus.

The witches and their cats say hee, hee, hee!

Hee, hee, hee!

Hee, hee, hee!

The witches and their cats say hee, hee, hee!

We love Halloween!

                                                                                     

The ghosts and the goblins say boo, boo, boo!

Boo, boo, boo!

Boo, boo, boo!

The ghosts and the goblins say boo, boo, boo!

We love Halloween!

We knock on the door and say trick or treat!           

Trick or treat!

Trick or treat!

We knock on the door and say trick or treat!

We love Halloween!

Part III of Summer Story

The Third And Final Part To Summer Story Starts Here!

The Rainbirds began to sing their rain song.  It sounded like this:

(Loosely Based on the melody "Ring Around The Rosie")

Mother Earth, Mother Earth

Help Us Now, Help Us Now

We Call The Rain!

And suddenly, the pitter pat of raindrops came gently and then more forcefully from the sky.  The wind became very strong and the trolls were pushed into a safe area that the Rainbirds had magically created.  The rain stopped and a rainbow appeared.

The Queen Rainbird called to the trolls and asked them why they had come to planet Earth to eat their precious fairies.  One troll explained.  “Your majesty,” said the troll, “We are starving on our planet.  Our Queen and King Trolls did not take good care of our planet and all our food dried up.  We heard that you had fairies on your planet and that they were just the right size for us to eat!”

The Queen Rainbird became very angry after hearing the troll’s explanation and took two deep breaths to calm down. (Teacher to students: "Should we take two deep breaths?"  Take two deep breaths together)

Then the Queen Rainbird spoke.  She said, “I understand now.  If I was hungry, I would go wherever I could to find food.  But, I must tell you, you may not hurt our fairies!” (Teacher to students: Let’s all say, “You may not hurt our fairies!” Repeat with students: "You may not hurt our fairies!")  She went on to say, “The fairies and Rainbirds are magic.  We will bring you as much delicious food as you can possibly want AND you may bring it back to your planet so you may feed everyone that is hungry.”

The trolls clapped their hands (everyone clap hands) and said “hooray!” (everyone says hooray!) and were so happy.

The End

Part II of Summer Story

Part II of our summer story begins here!

Long ago, the Rainbirds had flown over the earth with their large wings. (Teacher to students or children:  "Should we see what it feels like to stretch our wings?") They were protectors of everything.  They were called Rainbirds because when the earth became too dry, they could make it rain and then a huge rainbow would appear.

One day while flying, the Rainbirds heard a big noise striking the planet earth.  They quickly flew toward the noise to see what it was.  The noise sounded like one big boom! ("Can you help me make one big boom?") As the Rainbirds approached the spot, they could see giant men falling from the sky.  The giant men were called trolls and when their giant bodies hit the earth, there was one big boom. ("Ready for one more big boom?")

The Rainbirds could hardly believe their eyes!  Why were these huge men falling from the sky?  They soon found out.  The large men, called trolls, came to their planet because they had heard the fairies were delicious to eat!  Well, I know what you are thinking.  You are thinking, “Oh no!” (Shall we all say that together? “Oh no!”)  As soon as the Rainbirds figured this out, they went into action.