Head, Shoulders, Knees, and all that

The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow

Jeff from Out With the Kids gives us the lowdown on the The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow.

Enjoy their extremely catchy tune, Mountain Trip to Japan, 1959.

Elephants

One thing I love about teaching young children is watching their fascination with animals. When learning animal names, we make different gestures and sounds for each animal...big arms mimicking the alligator's snout; hands framing the face like a mane to mimic a lion; and of course the long arm hanging down like an elephant's trunk. The kids really can really get into character and they quickly associate the animal names with the "signs" that we come up with.

Fran's song of the day the other day was the wonderful The Elephant Song by Eric Herman. I wrote a little while back about why I think that's such a great song (one, two, three, four, six) and Fran's post reminded me to go back and update that post with video now that I know how...yay! Also check out Stefan's review of Eric's latest CD over at zooglobble.

Mama Lisa also has the goods on a cute little Elephant song popular with the pre-school set in Japan.

Knock Knock News

I haven't been able to post as much I'd like the past month or so because we've had a lot of projects going on at our school, Knock Knock English. Hence the heavy doses of youtube, the lazy bloggers' new best friend. Hope you are enjoying the clips.

Our second CD, Super Simple Songs 2 is available at iTunes now (direct link). Please check it out if you have toddlers in your life. It's ideal for following up on and reinforcing some of the basic skills they are learning in pre-school and kindergarten...counting, weather, shapes, body awareness, etc. And the songs are at a level where even emerging speakers will take pride in being able to sing them.

If you already have the CD, please take a moment to write a short review for us at iTunes or CDBaby. We'd really appreciate it.

In other Super Simple Song news, we've got a website up. We're still building and adding and probably always will be, but if you are interested in some activity ideas to accompany our Super Simple Songs, you'll find them at www.supersimplesongs.com.

A big thanks to everyone who has downloaded our podcast,　こどもと英語で話そう！. We've had over 1,000 subscribers in the first few weeks and it's been a lot of fun making them. Again, it's primarily for Japanese speakers interested in learning some simple English expressions to use with their children, but English speakers can pick up some simple Japanese as well. You can subscribe through iTunes here. Our fifth episode will be out in a couple days and it focuses on simple expressions you can use when your child needs to use the bathroom. If you ever wondered how to say pee-pee and poo-poo in Japanese (come on, you know you did), your lucky day is almost here.

Our school manager, Ayako (that's her on the podcasts), has a new blog out for those of you who read Japanese. 日本語を読める方、あやこのブログをぜひcheckしてください。

And finally, a big thanks to all of our students and their parents. We've had a great first term. Thanks for all your efforts and making classes such a blast!

Have a great weekend!

Kindie Rock

Stefan links to a nice article on the state of children's music over at Salon, touching on the big hitters (Dan Zanes, Laurie Berkner, Milkshake, Justin Roberts, TMBG, etc.).   Check it out!

Here's a little Justin Roberts from youtube.  Enjoy.

(Artists and managers, if I ever post something from youtube or another source that you'd like taken off the site, please let me know and I'll take it down immediately.)

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

This week and next, I'm reading the Bill Martin/Eric Carle classic Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do Dou See? in some of my classes.  It's amazing how quickly even some very young non-native English speakers respond to and "learn" this book.  Eric Carle's art is simple yet vivid, and the repetition in the words is so comforting and confidence-building.  The simplicity of the book makes it one of those classics that children can read by themselves before they can actually read words. 

We like to listen to Greg and Steve's song version of the book off of their CD Playing Favorites, which also has a nice version of Woody Guthrie's Put Your Finger in the Air (with an Obla-di, Obla-da riff) along with other classics.  Click here to hear a short sample of Greg and Steve's Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

Or listen these kids give it a shot.

Being a staple of kindergartens and primary schools around the world, there are a ton of great lesson plans, activities, and crafts available on the web to support the book.  Start with DLTK and check out Eric Carle's site.  The Virtual Vine is another good resource.

 

Songs for Dad

Stefan has a few suggestions over at Zooglobble.

I'm Gonna Catch You

I wrote last month about how I feel good kids songs, especially good songs for the under 6 crowd, often have the part where.  The part where we walk like elephants, or the part where the music gets faster and faster, or the part where we sing really quietly and then really loud! 

I mentioned I felt Laurie Berkner excelled at that.  Here is a clip that demonstrates what I was trying to talk about.  Simple, repetitive lyrics with variations thrown in and fun little actions to do for each day of the week.  And the tempo change at the end tops it all off.  Some songs really fit well in the classroom, some better in the car or at home.  This one works everywhere.

Here are the lyrics if you'd like to sing this song with your kids/students.

Thank You Daddy

The first official observance of Father's Day in the U.S. was in 1910 in Spokane, Washington.  Sonora Louise Smart Dodd came up with the idea while listening to a Mother's Day sermon at church in 1909.  She rounded up community support and the following year on June 19, the birthday of her revered father who raised six children on his own after his wife died during childbirth, Father's Day was observed. (Thanks to Kids Domain for the info.) 

With Father's Day a few days away, check out Nancy Stewart's very sweet song of the month, Thank You Daddy, a definite ear-worm with a chorus that even emerging speakers will enjoy singing.  You can also find some more ideas for Father's Day  Songs at Preschool Education.com.

Nancy also links to a site I use a lot when choosing gestures to use with songs we sing in class, the ASL Browser.

For more on children and signing, have a quick listen to NPR's story from a couple of weeks ago, Toddlers Find Their Voice in Sign Language.  And for some Father's Day activity ideas, start here.

More Stevie...

...this time on the Johnny Cash show, November 11, 1970. It's interesting to me that unlike the Sesame Street clips, this one isn't from a kid's show, but it's arguably a better children's song than the two he played for Big Bird and the gang, at least a better teaching song. This is a tune I could take right into the classroom and have a rip-roaring time with.

Songs like this, with the same basic refrain but a small change each verse, are a blast for young kids (a la Wheels on the Bus, Old McDonald, Five Little Monkeys, etc.) and great for language development, as the repetitive verse allows them to get comfortable with the rhythm of the words and the small changes each verse keep them interested and excited for the next verse, as well as introducing new vocabulary.

Troy has a post up about Sue Schnitzer over at SongStreet. I would LOVE to hear her version of this song.

Hummingbird Hum

Monty Harper is back with another of his excellent podcasts on the creative process behind making great children's music. This time he's joined by 2 special guests, his wife and adorable daughter, as they introduce 2 great new kids songs ("Hummingbird Hum" and "Villa Villekulla Hula") from his new CD Paws Claws Scales & Tales.

Also, sign up for his e-mail list and get 3 free song downloads. As always, can't beat free!