Here’s a song to sing as the weather gets cooler and the ghouls start haunting the landscape. My “Monster Bonster” song was adapted from the song “I’m Playing with a Monster,” by Fran Avni and Nancy Schimmel. In the song, children are invited to name the monster’s body parts, which…
This post recaps earlier posts from this blog about the “Two Little Robins” song and offers some stick-puppet materials! I never tire of singing my version of “Two Little Blackbirds,” which I’ve changed to “Two Little Robins.” You can find a video of my presentation of this song here. My…
Have fun creating and decorating shakers using a variety of things you can find around your house, especially the recycling bin. I like this video about making a maraca out of a small plastic water bottle and an empty toilet paper roll. Experiment with different fillings, from beans to rice…
The days are ticking down to the beginning of school. I hope all teachers of young children are excited to get everyone learning right away with … SONGS! If anyone needs a reminder about the value of music in early learning, here’s why music is an ideal tool, especially for…
What better way to celebrate spring than with singing? Well, frolicking in the great outdoors, of course, but singing is great fun, too! I wrote my “Song of Spring” with four-year-old children at a Boston area school. We talked about things we like to do in the spring and used…
Happy October! I’m dedicating some blog space to offering my favorite October songs this month. It’s fun to sing about fall, but really, Halloween songs just can’t be beat for all-around spooky fun. I recommend my Halloween Rhymes song for rhyming-word learning and howling all month long. You can download…
As September draws closer, early education teachers everywhere are gathering their strategies to meet academic goals for our youngest kids. To prepare children for reading, traditional nursery rhymes remain a terrific tool. Sure, there are some you wouldn’t want to recite in today’s world, but many nursery songs and chants…
I just made a new video of one of my favorite literacy songs, “Dr. Knickerbocker.” Find it now on my youtube channel, LizBuchananMusic, by clicking here. “Dr. Knickerbocker” is somewhat ubiquitous in kids’ music circles, having been featured on at least two children’s TV shows and in numerous books. It’s…
I love making music with kids aged 3-6, especially pairing music with early literacy learning, which is a natural fit. I once taught at a preschool where the director told me: “Just have fun singing with the kids,” implying that they’d pick up the literacy learning elsewhere in their day….
This school year, I have the pleasure of teaching music to 120 kindergarten students at the newly-opened KIPP elementary school in Lynn, MA. Our school will add a grade each year, so for now, we are all K! It’s great fun. One of the first literacy skills kindergarteners need to…
