Drums for a Pirate Band and The Silly Pirate Song

Pirate Drums 

I was inspired by Miss Marilee's Music post on Drumming, especially the gorgeous drums she made out of recycled buckets.  I found some wonderful buckets with rope handles at the dollar store that had a good sound quality.

One important thing about these bucket drums was that they had smooth bottoms, so they had a good surface for hand drumming. Inspect them all though -- some had a sharp point that needed filing down.

After warming up with "My Favorite Drum", we used our "Red" and "Purple" rhythms.
I started the kids by chanting:
Red, Red, Red, Red 
and we kept that steady beat. While they kept playing, I played a simple tune on the piano that had a heavy 4/4 quarter note rhythm.

Then I switched them to
Purple, Purple, Purple, Purple
And kept a steady 4/4 eighth note accompaniment using strong repeated open fifths in the left hand, a simple melody in the right hand.

One little boy got so excited he jumped up when it was over and begged to do it all again. "It was so beautiful, when we were playing the drums and you were playing the piano; I almost cried!"

For our Pirate Program I played (on the piano) 16 measures of "The Legend of the Croc" from Peter Pan for the quarter note rhythm, and "What do you do with a Drunken Sailor" (I called it a Silly Sailor) for the eighth note rhythm.

I'm hoping to use drums for every new theme Teacher Teri comes up with!

The Silly Pirate Song by Jack Hartmann

Much like the popular camp song "Once an Austrian Went Yodeling", the pirate is interrupted by a surfer, then a shark, then a helicopter, and on it goes.

This song was very exciting for the kids, and they wanted to learn ALL the verses for this sequencing song! That was a bit much for our program, so we just did a few.

Here is a fun youtube version of the song. Plenty of good motion ideas.

You can also find youtube performances by preschool and kindergarten classes if you need more teaching ideas.

And also VERY helpful, here is a link to powerpoint illustrations from Kellyskindergarten.com to use for teaching the song.

If You're a Pirate and You Know It

So easy, just make up verses and sing to the tune "If You're Happy and You Know It".

Shout "Ahoy!"
Say "Arhhhh!"
Dance a jig
Wave your hook -- swish swish
Raise the sail -- Heave Ho!
Row your boat -- or whatever else you imagine for your pirates

Need more Pirate ideas? See my "Over the Sea" post!

Native American Music, and What to do when the kids make oatmeal container drums

Last week Teacher Terri asked me to find some way to use the oatmeal box drums the kids were making in class as part of their Native American Indian unit.

Gladly!

Here's what we did today.

We warmed up with a fun dance game idea (Uhe Basho Sho) I found in Wee Sing  Around the World, but used the
 Holding Hands Song from
"Dancing Spirit: Native American Songs & Dances"
also available on Itunes.

It's a perfect recording for this game, and sounds a lot like the song on the Wee Sing CD, only it's several minutes longer.
Basically, have the kids line up & hold hands. Place some "trees" around the room. I used five chairs. 

As the music plays, step rhythmically & slowly, leading the line around the obstacles in a crazy path. After a few turns, release the hand of the child next in line and tell them they are the leader. Go join the child at the end of the line. Encourage them to take unexpected turns & keep it fun. They will get the hang of it, but it really helps to have a couple adult helpers to coach them. In my class, each child lead for about 20-30 seconds.

Drum Time

First, anytime I give the kids instruments, I warm them up with a simple piggyback song. I can't remember where I found this, but it's wonderful.

tune: "The More We Get Together"

It's time to play our instruments, instruments, instruments, 
It's time to play our instruments in music class.

Play them HIGH (pause & play them up in the air)
Play them LOW (pause, play low)
Play them FAST (etc)
Play them SLOW

It's time to play our instruments in music class, and STOP!!!

At the STOP everyone MUST put their instrument on the floor and put their hands on their lap. It is a fun game which we practice the first time they get instruments, and keeps instrument time manageable.

Because the drums were too big to lift up high, I substituted the "high & low" with "like this" and swished my palm over the top, and then "with your fingers" and we made rain sounds.

Then we had a blast using this song:

 My Favourite Drum from Kids Music Company

Link goes to their website where you can preview this song. You can also purchase this on Itunes from their "Swing With Me" CD.

At first the kids play however they like, then it directs them to play softly or loudly, and at the end of each verse they:

drum and drum and STOP!! (Pause)
drum and drum and STOP!! (Pause)
drum and drum and drum and then I STOP!! (Pause)

This was great fun, like the Freeze Game for drums.

Finally we used:

Social Dance James Peshlakai From the Album Songs of the Navajo

This is an amazing album. (MP3 downloads from Amazon or Itunes)

For this song, I had the kids scoot back from the circle to leave room for dancers, and told them I would be taking each one by turn for a little dance around the room. They could drum to the music while others were dancing.

I watched some youtubes of social dances, and chose to use a simple variation of this idea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIHOZDk3M-0

While the kids drummed the basic beat, I took one child at at time around the circle, both hands joined (criss cross if possible) facing forward. I used a kind of bounce step to the rhythm, but did not expect the kids to do exactly as I did. When we returned to their spot in the circle, I turned us in a 360, still with our hands locked together, and then released them to sit & drum, and extended my hands to the next child. They understood this very easily.

When everyone had a turn, I asked them to put their drums up on the table and choose a dance partner. We all danced as a group a couple more times around the circle to the music. If they could not figure out the two hands idea, it was fine for them to simply hold hands as usual.

6 Picture Books for Preschool Music Class, Storytime Part Two

Here are the books I have used so far this year.

Going to Sleep on the Farm

I made up a simple lullaby melody, and sing the sweet rhyming text. The kids like to volunteer what they know about how animals sleep. I ask them if they would like to sleep like the animals in the story: in the hay, standing up, in a nest, or in a pig pile! 

The Boy With a Drum

"There Once Was a Boy with a Little Toy Drum, rat a tat, tat a tat, rum a tum tum"...

This enchanting story just begs for a drum to help with the telling. I use my Bodhran as a hand drum; my adult helper holds the book & turns the pages.
I ask the children to repeat some of the phrases in tempo, or just make animal sounds: "cluck cluck cluck" in rhythm -- but the drum never stops! At the end of the story, I kept the drum going, and we marched around the circle, making the various animal sounds from the story.
You might have to search for this wonderful book, but it is well worth it!

I am Porkchop  
by Ray Nelson, Kyle Holveck (Illustrator), Aaron Peeples (Illustrator), Julie Mohr-Hansen

Yet another book I picked up at a garage sale, and now realize it is out of print. If you can find a copy, this one is hilarious. Porkchop and his piggy friends have a band, and the farm animals sing along. The text is minimal, the illustrations are over-the-top crazy! The ducks are dressed up like jazz back up singers, the cows look like crooners in tuxedos, the dog is an Elvis impersonator, and the cat -- is Brunhilde -- complete with horned helmet and, um, costume.

I encourage participation by having the kids help me make the sounds of the instruments, or "sing" like the animals in the pictures.

The Owl who Became the Moon

I discovered the key to telling this story is to practically whisper the beautiful text, dramatically -- almost like a ghost story. I read the title first, and asked the children if an Owl Could Become the Moon, and when they said "No!", I told them we would find out in the story. This seemed to get them curious.
The pictures are dazzling, and the kids get very excited to point out the animals. The high train trestle fascinates them as well. They help me with all the sounds throughout the book: the train whistles: choooo choooo, the owl calls: whoooo, whoooo.

I Know a Wee Piggy

 Based on the song "I Know an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly", the piggy is too little to win a ribbon in the pig show, so he runs through the fair, wallowing in things to turn himself into a work of art -- to win a ribbon in the art competition! The story concept was hard for the kids to grasp, but they enjoyed identifying the colors and where they came from: pink was cotton candy, green was freshly cut grass, white was milk, etc... I sang the text, but we spent a lot of time discussing each wonderfully illustrated page.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

This one helps the kids start listening to the world around them. On every page, I had the kids ask the animals what they hear, (with the repetitious chant in the text) and on every page, they made the animal sounds suggested.  At the very end, there are magical illustrations of children in animal costumes. This makes it one of my favorites to use just before Halloween.