Musical Kids (for ages 6-16 months) 2/2/18

Ladies and gentleman, I cannot resist. Both my daughter and my neighbor's daughter visited me for Musical Kids last week and I've got to blog about it! I know I've written about the 6-16 month-olds repeatedly and no other Musical Kids groups for a very long time, but they're such a sweet and fun group, with such sweet and good-natured parents, I just can't resist sharing. Especially when my own sweet Sadie makes an appearance for the day!

Anyway, here's my playlist (red = ipod, blue = sing):

1. A New Way to Say Hello by Big Jeff
2. We're Going To The Market by Kathy Reid-Naiman (shakers)
3. Let's All Shake 'Cause Sadie Is Here (shakers)*
4. Gimme Some Lovin' by the Spencer Davis Group from the Sing soundtrack (tambourines)
5. Popcorn Kernels (scarves) **
6. Elevator Song by MaryLee(scarves) ***
7. Moon Moon Moon by Laurie Berkner(scarves) ***
8. B-I-N-G-O by Lynn Kleiner (circle dance) ****
9. Aiken Drum from the Five Little Monkeys CD (drums)
10. Heartbeat Drumbeat by Joanie Bartles (drums) #
11. Colors Over You (parachute) ##
12. Let's Go Riding in an Elevator (parachute) ###
13. I'm a Little Groundhog (parachute + balls + groundhog puppets) ####
14. Slow and Fast by Hap Palmer (parachute + balls + groundhog puppets)
15. Blow a Kiss by Laurie Berkner (parachute + balls + letters + bubbles)

* Let's All Shake 'Cause Sadie Is Here is the made-up-name I gave to the Jbrary song seen below (originally titled Let's All Clap). I just swapped "clap" for "shake" to make it a shakers song and it's been working really well for introductions (done the first week of each session) since January. Until 2018, I have always used Mary Had a Little Lamb for introductions, subbing out Mary for each kid in the class, but after a 4-year-old told me "hates that song," I traded it for Let's All Shake 'Cause Sadie Is Here and I haven't looked back! (To be honest, I got a little tired of it too.) It's much faster and more efficient than Mary Had a Little Lamb, so it's here to stay!

** Popcorn Kernels: About two years ago I was in a scarf-rut and, to combat it, heavily researched new scarf songs for a few days. Then, of course, I wound up introducing a whole batch of new songs all at once. As time passed, the two that stuck around most prominently for the long haul were called The Scarf is On My Head and Popcorn Kernels. The handout for both of these songs can be downloaded here. The Scarf is On My Head goes to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell and is possibly the reigning favorite scarf song, but Popcorn Kernels, to the tune of Frère Jacques, is a close second favorite! It goes like this:

Popcorn kernels, popcorn kernels (wave the scarf around above your head)

In the pot, in the pot (crumple the scarf into balls in your hands)

Shake them, shake them, shake them (shake your tightly wrapped scarf around in your hands)

Shake them, shake them, shake them

'Til they pop, 'til they pop (toss the scarf up in the air and watch it fall slowly to the floor)

*** Elevator Song by MaryLee (from the CD Baby-O) and Moon Moon Moon by Laurie Berkner: These are two of my favorite sitting down/lap songs for this age group and, as it turns out, they also make wonderful scarf songs! I like to do some basic lap and hand motions for each-- gentle bouncing and lifting in Elevator Song and most of the stuff Laurie Berkner herself does in the Moon Moon Moon video. I usually hold the scarf for both, waving it around bit, and let the parents and babies sort of interpret all of it in a way that works best for them. Different levels of scarffing/bouncing/watching me do hand motions work differently for each kid, so this works in different ways for everyone. It's nice. Here are two videos for reference:

**** B-I-N-G-O makes an awesome and easy circle dance for the parents and babies to do together. I'm going to try REALLY hard to explain it:

For this song, heard on YouTube here, the parents hold their babies and walk around in a circle. For the verse of the song, everyone just kind of dances their kids as they face out. Then, the song slowly goes through the letters, B, I, N, G, and O. For B, I, N, and G everyone takes a step in--one step per letter. So by the end of G, everyone's in a tight circle with all the babies looking at each other up close. Then, for the letter O, we all scoot quickly back out of the circle to our original spots.

# Heartbeat Drumbeat: I got the idea to do Heartbeat Drumbeat from a library program I took Sadie to at my local library. The (real) song, however, is a little long for kids, and if I am remembering right, the library programmer who used it wound up just cutting the song off when it got too long. I just can't do that. I am too particular. Enter... YOUTUBE 💜💛💚. I've encountered this dilemma a few times over the years (mostly when I do holiday programs, actually) and, when I do, I turn to YouTube. I found the PERFECT version of Heartbeat Drumbeat here. A little finagling and it's made its way into my playlist. It even has audience applause at the end, which is a fun bonus!

## Colors Over You is to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and goes like this:

Red and green and yellow and blue

These are the colors over you

Red like an apple

Green like a tree

Yellow like the sun

And blue like the sea

Red and green and yellow and blue

These are the colors over you

### Let's Go Riding in an Elevator can be found in the video below and works just as well (if not better!) with the parachute and the kiddos underneath it:

#### A groundhog's day special song! I'm A Little Groundhog goes to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot and was easy enough for me to memorize! We bounced mini groundhog puppets around in the parachute as we sang:

I'm a little groundhog short and stout

February second I will come out.

If I see my shadow hear me shout: 

"Six weeks more winter without doubt!"

What worked least: I'm a Little Groundhog wasn't the highlight of the program, as the song was quick, nobody knew it, and the babies totally don't care about groundhogs day, but when Musical Kids falls on an actual holiday (even groundhog's day), I feel like I have to acknowledge it in some way. Plus, we had such cute little finger puppets from Folkmanis (no longer available but similar to this beaver) that we never get to use and bouncing them around on the parachute a bit was fun!

What worked best: Everything worked with this group. I love my baby classes! But, as usual, I'd call the highlight of the program the parachute in general. It's just so much fun and so much great stimulation for the babies!