Be Healthy!

The Winter Olympics are in full swing and I enjoy tuning in each night to see all of the events. I have to say that my favorite is figure skating, but I enjoy watching all of the events.

Many teachers are incorporating the Olympics theme within their classrooms. Several classrooms I know of are studying topics such as Eating Healthy, the Human Body, the 5 Senses, and Exercise within their Olympic theme.

Here's a song that combines a few of the above mentioned topics all in one. In order to be healthy, you need to eat right, sleep right, and exercise. I wrote this song with a repeating tag line ("Eat right, sleep right, and exercise"), that can easily be recorded on a BigMac switch or on another voice output device. This way, students who are nonverbal or have delays in speech, can participate in singing the song too.

Hope you're having a great week so far. Stay tuned for a song about the 5 Senses!
~Amanda

© 2010 Amanda Ellis

A Heart Stands for Love

The end of the week was very busy for me, so I didn't get around to posting on Thursday like I had intended to do. Valentine's Day is only 5 days away, so without further delay, I wanted to share another song I use for the Valentine's theme.

While brainstorming songs for this holiday focusing on hearts, love, and friendship, I thought about some of my youngest groups of children I work with each week. Some of these children are working on identifying basic shapes, so I decided to write this song and concentrate on the heart shape and explain what it stands for.

I love visuals (if you hadn't figured that out yet ;), so I made a little adapted book to go along with this song. I wish I had pictures of the book to share, but I'll put it on my list and post pictures of the book in the near future.

Basically, I printed out the words (each sentence is one page), and then represented key words with Boardmaker pictures (Heart, Love, Family, Friends, I love you).
For some of the more advanced students (pre-readers and up), we also work on matching pictures to words with the Boardmaker pictures).



(Chorus)
Here is a shape and it stands for Love
This shape is called a Heart. (Repeat)

We give hearts to the people in our family.

We give hearts to our teachers and friends.

Valentine's Day is a special day when we say,
"I love you" to all of them.

(Chorus)

© 2010 Amanda Ellis

What are your favorite songs to use for teaching about Valentine's Day?

Love is a Circle

Hello there!

There are only 11 days until Valentine's Day, so I thought I'd better post some songs about Valentine's and Love before I miss my chance!

Today's post is a song about love. I found the words for this song on a preschool teaching site and instantly knew I wanted to use it for a movement song with scarves! So I added my own tune (anyone recognize the tune? :)), and voila - I can't wait to do this song tomorrow with the kiddos!

I plan on using Valentine's colors of scarves (red, pink, white, purple) and concentrate on moving the scarves in the directions mentioned in the song. (around, up and down, hide scarf inside hands and then let out, and around again).
Another way you could use this song is for students to have something with a heart on it (popsicle stick with heart taped/glued to the top of it) and model the directions for students to follow with their hearts. You could also do this with students holding paper hearts also (I recommend laminating them so you can reuse them with each group/class, etc. and for the next year also).

Here's the song:

© 2010 Amanda Ellis

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post: "A Heart Stands for Love"

Tell me, Show me

It's a cold and rainy day here in NC. Schools are back in session after a snowy and icy weekend.

I recently received an email from a very nice lady named Shelly, who wrote to me from her home in the UK. She asked for a song that would help motivate her students to make choices (of rhythm instruments, favorite songs, games) in the classroom.

This song could be used for many settings (school, home, therapy). Initially, I started writing it to focus on what rhythm instrument a child might want to play. But then I thought about it, and decided to make it more about a child choosing something he/she wants to play. It could be a rhythm instrument, a toy, a book, a ball, a sensory toy, etc.



Here are the lyrics. I hope you are having a great week!

Tell me, Show me
What would you like to play today?
Tell me, Show me
What would you like to play?

Can you tell me with your words?
Tell me what you'd like to play today.

Can you tell me with your pictures?
Show me which one you want to play today.

Can you tell me with your eyes?
Look at the one you'd like to play today.

Tell me, Show me.
What would you like to play today?
Tell me or show me.
What would you like to play?

© 2010 Amanda Ellis

Up, Up to the Attic

Here's a song that was very challenging for me to write!

It is a song about Anne Frank. While I realize I didn't capture ALL that history tells us about Anne Frank, (I left out any traumatic themes), I picked certain parts of the story and summarized them within this song.

I thought I would also share a "movie" that I created to go along with the song. I made the movie with Windows Movie Maker and use it (and the pictures within it), solely for educational purposes.

So, here it is, "Up, Up, to the Attic"
I hope you enjoy it!

~Amanda
morewithmusic@gmail.com

Living and Non-Living Things

Well, it's the first day of February, and I have a song to share.
It's not a very long song, but it is a catchy one! :)

I wrote this song to help teach students the difference between living and non-living things. Basically, all living things breath air, move, grow, and need food (of some kind), and water. Non-living things do not need air, food, or water and cannot move by themselves.

I use visual aids with this song. I have different pictures of items (i.e. a chair, a kitten, a cd, a puppy, etc.). After singing the song, I ask, "Does the chair need food and water?", or "Does the kitten grow?". This facilitates yes/no questions within a group very well.

Stay tuned for another post soon! I'll be sharing a song that was very challenging for me to write!

If you have any questions or comments, or would like to share a thought or two, please feel free to email me at: morewithmusic@gmail.com

Have a great week!