"Too Much Noise" and other dramatic participation stories

"The bed creaked. 

The floor squeaked."

And that is just the beginning of Peter's troubles.
I quickly go over the sounds to make: creak, squeak, swish, & hiss before launching into the story. (Hand motions are fun too)

The children won't have any trouble helping you with the animal sounds (encourage this).

And there is a lovely, quiet resolution.

"Ah. Oh,"..."How quiet my house is."

Caps For Sale


"Caps! Caps for sale! Fifty cents a cap!"

This classic story begs to be interpreted dramatically.

The children can call out the peddler's market banter.

Then when the peddler interacts with the monkeys, you can be the peddler, and the class can be the monkeys. This is so much fun.

BOTH of these stories feature an individual with a problem. As soon as it is obvious what the problem is, you can ask the kids how they would solve it.


More dramatic participation stories

I tell three from this one nearly every year.

To tell these stories, you'll want to memorize the basic idea, and then ad lib the actual telling.

Make it fun! When the prince goes riding to fight the wizard, make everyone bounce up & down as you call out silly obstacles  "He rode through the pizza forest!"

Over the years, my artsy daughters have created puppets to aid my storytelling, and the children love them, especially the beautiful Snow Queen.

I give the children a chance to pet my dragon puppet before I tell the story about the lazy dragon. See, not so scary.

The story about the Emperor invites exploration into all kinds of sounds: chimes, gongs, clocks, and all manner of bird songs. You could spend a whole class on this story.

And don't forget your favorite from summer camp: "Goin' on a Lion Hunt". Always works.

Skip to My Lou as a Welcome Song and Story Time

I learned  this from another music teacher, and it's always been a favorite. If you want to add a manners lesson to this song, teach them how to shake hands.

If a child does not know how to skip, I encourage them that it's OK to just run and hop. They will figure something out.

I also found a cute picture book that tells a story using the melody & chorus. Very engaging!

Extend your hand to a child, singing to the verse tune:

"Good Morning Taylor, how are you?" 
Grasp their hand in greeting and help them rise to standing.
Go to the next child and repeat the actions
"Good Morning Jesse, how are you?"
And a third child...
"Good Morning Casey, how are you?" 
"Skip to my Lou my Darlin' "
Now the three children you have helped stand up follow you skipping outside the circle as you sing the chorus:
"Lou, Lou, skip to my Lou,
"Lou, Lou, skip to my Lou,
"Lou, Lou, skip to my Lou,
Skip to my Lou my Darlin' "

Those three sit back down. Repeat for the next three children. If there are two kids at the last turn that works just fine, but if there is only going to be one I end with a group of four.

When everyone has had a turn, I sing:
"Good Morning Sunshine, how are you?
Everybody stand up with me too,
Let's ALL skip around the room!
Skip to my Lou my Darlin' "

We all skip to the chorus, and I finish by singing
"Everybody can sit back down"

And for storytime ~

Skip to My Lou by Nadine Bernard Westcott, a Scholastic book, available through book sellers online.

The kids love the crazy pictures as the animals come in the house and make a big mess! Hurry quick! Mom and Dad are coming home! Skip to my Lou my Darlin'. You can sing the whole book, as it follows the song structure.

Music Storytime with Numbers, Seasons & Reasons

Here are a few more books I have used for storytime so far this year:

The Question Song  

Kaethe Zemach (Author)

We loved this! The book poses a number of problems a child might experience in an ordinary day (spilling juice, can't reach a toy, etc...) and there is a little chorus "What are we going to do?" which we sang. The kids offered suggestions to solve the problem. Then we sang "That's what we will do". 

One Wolf Howls

Scotti Cohn (Author), Susan Detwiler (Illustrator)

This gorgeously illustrated book starts with a single wolf in January and travels through the seasons month-by-month, adding to the wolf pack as the snow melts, flowers bloom & fade, leaves turn and then finally twelve wolves play in deep snow in December. These are pretty abstract ideas for the very young children, so I discovered a couple tricks to keep their attention. First, they love to count the wolves on each set of pages. Very big deal. Second, we howl each time I turn a page, just for fun. 

Ten in the Bed: Of course there are many charming illustrated versions of this out there, and mine is out of print. Oh well! It's a great way to teach or just enjoy this winning song.

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Mary Hoberman (Author)

Every year the kids LOVE this imaginative variation of this song they know so well. It never fails to capture their interest, and they seem to empathize with the lamb. Genius. 

The Wheels On the Bus

Maryann Kovalski (Author)

Here's another one that the kids love singing along with, and there's a cute additional storyline with a comical twist, although I have to tell them what a taxi is. Out here we see plenty of tractors -- taxis not so much!

Pony Boy & Great Big Candy Roundup

This month we are all about cowboys!


Riders in the Sky have done some wonderful albums for kids,
and one of my favorite songs is  

"There's a Great Big Candy Roundup" 

 

Pony Boy

Bruce Springsteen: Human Touch

 Another great song for our theme is the folksong: "Pony Boy". There are a zillion versions of this song. No one was more surprised than I, to discover a beautiful & tender rendition of this piece by Bruce Springsteen!

We are singing this song without accompaniment, and are only using two verses, but if you want to hear this great arrangement, I'd encourage you to purchase this through Amazon or Itunes.

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.

Music Story Time

After a few good action songs, it's good to settle down for Story Time.

We'll use a quick Transition song:

(Here's the one I use at the beginning of the year)

Put Your fingers in the air, in the air,
Put Your fingers in the air, in the air,
Put Your fingers in the air, now put them in your hair!
Put Your fingers in the air, in the air,

Put your fingers in your lap,
Now give a little clap,
Put your fingers in your lap & leave them there.

We will often have a quick educational activity after this. For now, we are singing  the Alphabet Song, and then I am taking a song idea from Barbara Milne (maybe later we will sing along with her nice recording -- her pace is perfect)

Only for now we have a different set of words to go with our farming theme, with a big emphasis on healthy fruits & vegetables. We've been covering two letters a week; so far we are up to the letter F.
"Farmer, Farmer, ffff --ffff---ffff"

Letter Sounds (apple apple aaa)

Barbara Milne | Format: MP3 MusicFrom the Album Sounds Like Fun by Barbara Milne 

Then, we have a musical story.
Here's my favorite one to start the year. It demands participation, and is just silly enough. We love this book.

If You're Happy and You Know It! [Hardcover]

Jan Ormerod (Author), Lindsey Gardiner (Author)