Sing a Song of Spring

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 our rhyming skills to create the verses. Watch the video and sing along! Here are the lyrics.

A Song of Spring by Liz Buchanan

There are new leaves on the trees, and flowers and bees, in the spring, in the spring.

I like to play in the sun, in the park we’ll have fun, in the spring, in the spring.

Chorus: I like to sing (children repeat each phrase) a song of spring …

(Repeat call and response 3x)

When I look up in the sky, I see birds and butterflies, in the spring …

And though there might be rain, there’s a rainbow on the way, in the spring …  Chorus

On my face there’s a smile, and I think it’s been a while, in the spring …

When all life is new, I feel happy through and through, in the spring …. Chorus

You can use this song to discuss rhyming pairs of words: Sing, spring; trees, bees; fun, sun; sky, butterfly; smile, while; new, through. You can also invite children to help write new verses, finding pairs of spring-related words. The call-and-response parts of the song make it easy for children to join in singing the song right away.

Art projects related to the song could include flowers made from paper-plates or coffee-filters. The four-year-olds who helped originate the song made rainbow streamers with crepe paper.

Here are some of my other favorite songs in the spring repertoire:

Just a Little Seed, my song, on my album Amazing

If I Were a Butterfly, my song, on my album Singing All the Way Home.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, my song written with students and inspired by the Eric Carle book.

Once I Was a Seed – a scale-ascending song about a flower or tree growing, by Nancy Hershatter.

Rainbow Around Me, by Ruth Pelham

Rain nursery rhymes – “Rain, Rain, Go Away,” and “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring” – are fun to sing with rain sticks, especially if you have enough sticks so children get a turn to play them. For a longer, more poetic rain song, try “Rain,” my original song, on my album Singing All the Way Home.

“Rockin’ in the Rabbit Hole” – I usually include this song by “Guitar Bob” Messano in my play mix around Easter, though many children enjoy it year-round. It’s a movement activity in which children dance and hop like rabbits until the “farmer” comes, then they have to get down on the floor and be quiet.

Finally, enjoy a simple finger-play that everyone can do, “Plant the Seed Down in the Ground.” I don’t know the author. Sing it to the tune of “Pop Goes the Weasel.”

You plant the seed down in the ground, (Make a motion like planting a seed on your hand.)

The rain makes a shower (Wiggle your fingers over your hand like a rain shower.)

And then the sun shines bright all around (Round arms over your head like a sun.)

Up! Pops the flower. (Pop one hand up from behind the other, fingers spread like a blooming flower.