Teacher's Resource Guide

Little Language Songs for Little Ones

"Preschool and kindergarten teachers will find many ways to incorporate the songs into their lesson plans."

School Library Journal, March 2002

Thanks for looking and spending time to find out new ways to use Little Language Songs in the Classroom! I have seen the need to offer teachers lots of ways to use our Little Language Songs with your children. Our songs are thematic and easy to use, feel free to print out any parts of the Little Language Teacher’s Guide to help you in your classroom. If you have purchased or are thinking about purchasing our CD to use with your children, you will find our companion Little Language book to be helpful. It contains the full lyrics to the songs in the back of the book and explains what speech and language goal each song has. It is also full of helpful information for you and for your parents to understand speech and language development and great ways to incorporate music into your sessions. We will list each song and some suggestions for you to use it in your class. Most of the songs on this Album contain many rhyming words, so rhyming search activities can be used with the majority of these songs. Hopefully our resource guide will grow. If you have found a good way to use our songs and would like to add that, then feel free to email us and tell us your idea. We will cite your name as the source.
Also if there are any songs that you wish you had visuals to accompany but they aren't listed here, please email us and we will be happy to provide some for you.
Little Language Songs for Little Ones
copyright 2000 Laura Dyer

(1) Do You Hear the Way Sounds Ring?

This is a phonetic alphabet song, in that it focuses on how the alphabet letter actually sounds, not just learning the letter. It will help your children with pre-reading skills as it gives them an opportunity to practice each sound that would go with the alphabet letter. It provides a vocabulary word to match each letter sound, providing a meaningful association.

Do You Hear the Way Sounds Ring?
Do you know your ABC’s?
Can you sing along with me?
Once you know these letter sounds
You can learn by leaps and bounds
Apple, apple, a a a
Baseball, baseball, b b b
Cowboy, cowboy, c c c
Doggie, doggie, d d d, . . .

To Download Free ABC Picture Set with a letter on each page and the picture of the corresponding picture from the song, Just Click on the ABC icon below.(You will download three files zipped together). After clicking on the icon, you will start downloading from the website. Wait for the pictures to load and then save or print immediately.


Ideas for your classroom:

If you haven’t introduced sign language in your classroom, this is a good place to start with the alphabet. Researchers have proven that when children have a visual memory aid such as a hand sign, they are better able to remember the letters and letter sounds because they are engaging a physical movement into the learning as well. Marilyn Daniels has also suggested in her book, Dancing with words, that knowing the sign alphabet can help children with pre-literacy skills because finger-spelling is easier than writing the letters. This song is a nice slow pace and is great for practicing the signed alphabet.

Games: Since the tune of this song is so simple, it can be played as a game in several ways in your classroom.

1) Name the objects, and/or first letter sounds:
You can take a small group of children to a station and look at a basket of objects or pictures and sing the repetitive tune. For example, puppy, puppy, p, p, p. For younger children, try leaving the second word blank for the child to fill in as you sing together. For older children (4 yr and up), leave the letter sounds out and see if they can sing the beginning letter. A variation of this might be for the child to show you a picture or object and you would sing the phrase and name the object and sing the initial sound. This is a fun individual naming game and doesn’t put any pressure on the child.

2) A modified Leap Frog:
Let each of the children be a letter in the alphabet. (You can hand them a die cut of the letter they are supposed to listen for, or give them one of the laminated visuals) When their letter is sung, they jump 3 steps ahead of the other children during the b-b-b part of the song.

3) Give each child a musical instrument.
Have them play the instrument three times on the sound part. For example, if one child had a triangle, she could play three rings on the t-t-t part.

Crafts:

1) Make an Alphabet Book, let the whole class contribute by each child being assigned his/her own letter. Let them look for letters in magazines or pictures of other objects that begin with the same letter. Glue the pictures to the paper or draw a picture of the object in the song. For example, draw an apple for A. Punch holes in the book and put it together with metal rings.

2)Put a Large Letter on a paper, give it to your child, let them glue little beads, beans, rice, macaroni, buttons, etc. on the letter and turn it into an imaginative project.

3)Make a recipe of “Gak”. Have the kids shape it into one of the letters they heard in the song. Since it oozes, they will have fun seeing what other shapes they can make.

Books to read along:

1) Dr. Seuss ABC, Dr. Seuss, Random House
2) Hooper Humperdink, Not Him, Theo LeSieg, Grolier
3) Z is for Zebra, Beth Tubbs, Storytime Publishing
4) Alphabears, by Kathleen Hague, Henry Holt
5) Alphabet Soup, by Kate Banks, Knopf
6) The Wacky Wedding; A Book of Alphabet Antics, Pamela Edwards, Hyperion
7) A is For America, Devin Scillian, Sleeping Bear Press
8) ABC Bandits, Marcia Leonard, Troll Assoc.

(2) Limericks

A fun song with story lines that facilitate specific sounds. It provides extra perception of the following sounds: “t”, “l”, “h”, “w”. “H” and “w” are early sounds (by age 3) and “t” and “l” being later (sometimes age 6). Also uses regular past tense of verb form “-ed” (learned at 26-48 months) as seen in the following words: named, tickled, tasted, wrinkled, leaped, limped, loved, happened hopped.

Limericks

There once was a boy named Tommy
Who tickled a tiger’s tummy,
The tiger tasted Tommy’s toes
and wrinkled up his whiskers and nose.

There once was a lion named Larry...

There once was a horse named Horace...

There once was a whale named Wally...


I like to use pictures of these animals to tell the story on a felt apron. You can download the pictures and glue velcro on the back to stick to the apron. Just click on the clover.


I believe that limericks made popular in the 19th Century by Edward Lear can be used today in preschool and early elementary grades to teach fun rhymes and alphabet related concepts. This can be done as a large or a small group. Even three and four year olds can participate on the most basic level by just contributing a rhyming words. Because Limericks thrive on nonsense, even the silliest story will be fine. With structure, your child can provide the last word in a line. Most limericks follow a pattern of 8,8,5,5,8 as far as the number of syllables in the five-lined verses. However, this rule is not ever completely followed either. Limericks are fun, humorous and children love to personalize them to their own names.

Games:


1) Let each child make up his/her own limerick story. Help them get started by thinking of an animal that begins with the same letter as his/her name. "There once was a porcupine named Paul", etc. Then, provide as much structure as needed and allow them to think of a rhyming word to end the sentences. Then allow them to illustrate the books and retell the story to you.

2) Create progressive limericks for your classroom based on a favorite and familiar character. For example if you have a puppet character that talks to the children regularly, make up a limerick a week to describe the puppets adventures.

3) Act out each of the stories in this song, let the children take turns being Tigers, Horses, Lions,& Whales

Crafts:

1)Create a Limerick Calendar, Use the months of the year. January can be cold and snowy, etc., etc.

2)Let each child illustrate the stories of this song by drawing a picture of one of the verses.

3)Talk about the four letters emphasized in this song, T, H, L, and W. Draw each letter or have the children copy the letter and think of some other objects or animals that begin with the same letters.

4)Put Crisco in a cooler encased in a gallon ziploc bag. Punch your fist down and make a center well and have the children make a fist and put their hands down in the middle of the well. See how insulated it is against the cold and talk about Whale blubber and how it serves a purpose.

Books to Read Along:

1) A Book of Nonsense (exerpts from the Nonsense Alphabets), Edward Lear, Everyman's Library .
2) A Was Once An Apple Pie, Edward Lear,Bt. Bound
3) The Pobble who has no Toes and Other Nonsense, Edward Lear,Salem House Publishers
4) Baby Beluga, Raffi,Homeland Publishing
5) Amos and Boris,William Steig, Doubleday
6) If You See a Tiger, Ana Larranager, Golden Books Publishing

(3) An Undersea Adventure

The older child (age 3 and up) will love acting out the story of this song! It is interactive song with more difficult commands and crossover techniques should be used as much as possible. Contains lots of advanced vocabulary and fun imaginary play with sound effects.
An Undersea Adventure
We’re going on an adventure, an undersea adventure.
Underneath the deep blue sea, fun for you and me.

Let’s put on our flippers, left foot, right.
(reach across right hand to left foot and left hand to right foot)

Jump out of the boat, let’s dive down deep.
(hands over head as if diving down)

Now hold your breath, swim with the fish (arms swimming)

Reach to your left, get your flashlight.
(right hand to left waist)

Reach to your right, get your camera.
(left hand to right waist)...

Games:

1) Bring a pair of Deep Sea Diving Flippers to your class and let the children try them on. See who can walk the most steps without falling over.
2) Set up an actual fish bowl with gravel, water and plastic sea toys. Let the children play in the water.
3) Bring a large Conch Shell and let the children listen to the "ocean."
4) Play an alphabet or colors review game. Put letters at the front of the room, take turns letting the children "swim" through the ocean to grab the letter named." You can also change this by calling out a color and letting the children try to "swim" across the room without getting touched by the seaweed (other children waving their arms on the floor).
5) Fill a "treasure chest" (cooler) with the items from the song - flashlight, flippers, camera, etc. Let the children stand in a row and use the items to sing the song.


Crafts:

1) Let the children make their own aquarium. Use two paper plates, cut the middle out of one. Line the inside of cut out plate with blue saran wrap. Let the children cut out and glue paper pictures of sea creatures onto other plate.
2) Let the children make a picture of the sea using sandpaper, blue fingerpaint and painted shell pasta.
3) Let each child make a fish puppet and have a play where the fish go to "school."
4) Xerox a picture of a simple boat, let the children cut things they would need for a boat or fishing trip out of magazines and paste in boat.


Books to Read Along:

1) The Undersea Adventure of Digby Dolphin, Landoll Publishers
2) Undersea Animals, Paul Mann, Reader's Digest
3) What Do You See Under the Sea?, Bobbie Kalman, Christopher Hartley, Crabtree Pub.
4) Amos and Boris, William Steig, Doubleday
5) One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Dr. Seuss, Random House

(4) What a Colorful World

Contains color concepts (primary colors should be known by age 3). Lots of nature vocabulary is included. Consonant cluster sounds: sk, tr, str, gl, gr, br, bl, dr are heard (correct productions occur in ages 32 - 48 months). Also uses the verb “to be” in main sentence (a concept called the copula - usually learned at age 27-39 months).

Click on the box of crayons to download the visuals that match this song.

What a Colorful World!

Yellow is the sun that’s bright to your eyes
And blue is the color of the sky
Green is the color of grass and leaves
While red is the apple in the trees...




Games:

1) Make Jello of different colors and let the children eat and play in it.

2)Listen to the song and tell the children to pay attention to what they are wearing. They sit down until they hear a color that is on their clothes, then they get to stand up when they hear it in the song.
3)Use streamers or scarves of different colors and have the children sort themselves into small groups according to their color streamer. Then have them listen for their color in the song and "twirl" when they hear it."

Crafts:

1) Have the children get into small groups and draw the scenes from the song, see if they can put them in order as they hear the song.

2)Pick a different aspect of nature talked about in the song. Gather leaves, sticks, grass, other simple outside collectables. Let the children glue them on the paper and then use colored tissue paper to add the colors talked about in the song.
3)Use a sponge to stamp a brown deer, let the kids glue little cotton pieces on for spots and glue sticks on for antlers for a buck. Talk about where deer live.


Books to Read Along:

1) Colors are Nice, Adelaide Holl, Western Publishing Co.
2) Character Colors, Sally Mastellar, Modern Publishing Co.
3) Snappy Little Colors, A Pop-up book, Kate Lee, Caroline Repchuk, The Templar Co.
4) The Color Kittens, Margaret Wise Brown, Golden Books
5) Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Bill Martin Jr., Henry Holt
6) The Crayon Box that Talked, Shane Derolf, Random House

(5) Do You Know What it Means to Be a Shape?

Provides basic definitions of shapes such as circle, square, triangle, and star. Uses spatial relationship vocabulary such as under, far, everywhere. Uses a contractible form of the verb “to be”, which is a concept acquired generally around age 29-49 months.
Do You Know What it Means to be a Shape?

Do you know what it means to be a shape?
A circle or a star, that’s so far?
Triangles and squares are right under our chairs
if we look we will find them everywhere.

Do you know what it means to be square?...



Free Download: Click on the juggler to download one file from FTP that contains visuals to match these lyrics. They include both the shapes and the objects that the song says the shapes aren't, which helps with the abstract nature of the song.


Games:
1) Use a piece of flexible foam and as a group, change the foam to make different shapes.
2) While playing the song, have the children listen for the different shapes and make them any way they can. They can use their hands, or any body parts to make the individual shapes.
3) Divide into four small groups, have each group make shapes together on the floor with their bodies.


Crafts:
1)Cut lots of different sizes of different shapes out of tissue paper or construction paper. (Or let the children cut or tear them themselves). Let them glue them into their own shapes picture.
2)Cut sponges into shapes and let the children stamp the shapes to make pictures.
3)Give each child some pipe cleaners and let them form the different shapes themselves.


Books to Read Along:
1) Shapes, Shapes, Shapes, Tana Hoban, Scott Foresman Publishing
2) Touch and Feel: Shapes, DK Pub. Merchandise
3) Shapes (Slide 'N Seek), Chuck Murphy, Little Simon
4) Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes, Roseanne Thong, Chronicle Books
5) Spotted Yellow Frogs: Fold-out Fun with Patterns, colors, 3-D shapes and Animals, Matthew Van Fleet, Dial Books for Young Readers

(6) Imagination

This song contains most of the vowels and diphthongs of the English Language. It also stimulates creativity of an exciting trip. Provides vocabulary about space: shooting stars, moon, rocket ship, space, whizzing, spin, land, floating, glide. Uses the following minimal pairs: air/hair, ship/trip, crown/down, hill/chill.
Imagination

One of my favorite things
Is to go to the park and swing
I imagine myself up in the sky
like a bird in the air and the wind through my hair

Then I’m suddenly a king with a crown
high in a tower looking down
In the distance I see a big pirate ship
hoisting up sails, oh look, one just ripped...



Games:
1) Let the children wear their crowns(below), stand up on a platform and look out with a cardboard telescope and tell what they see. You could let some of the children dress like pirates and stand across the room, let the king tell how many pirates he sees.
2) Have a pretend space flight with the box (below). Let the children go inside and pretend to be an astronaut.
3) Have everyone sit in a circle on their magic carpets (below). Have them put the soles of their feet together and bring their knees up and down as if they were flying with wings. Go around the room and let each child think of something they see on the imaginary journey. If they saw a magic genie, what would they wish for?


Crafts:
1) Let the children make their own crowns and be kings/queens for the day. Use fake jewels and glitter glue to decorate.
Let them stand up on a platform and look out with a cardboard telescope and tell what they see.
2) Let the children make pirate hats and eye-patches and play dress up games above. 3) Let the children work together in small groups to make their own rocket ship out of an old box. It's great if it's big enough for them to climb into it. Let them decorate it with aluminum foil and glittery objects.
4) Older children could make mobiles of the planets keeping with a space theme. 5) Use large coffee filter, open it up and let the children decorate their own magic carpets. They can paint or color them.


Books to Read Along:
1) Ted Bear's Magic Swing, Dianne Baker, Unity
2) Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak, Harper Collins Juvenile books
3) Goodnight Opus, Berkeley Breathed, Little Brown & Co.
4) I wish that I had Duck Feet, Theo Le Sieg, et. al., Random House
5) Swing!: Little Kippers, Mick Inkpen, Red Wagon.

(7) Garden Dance (The "r" song)

The “r” sound tends to be such a difficult one for so many children with some children not mastering it until age 8. This song provides many “r” sounds in the initial, medial and final positions. This song contains a special word order that may help facilitate /r/ in the initial position when a child has already mastered it in the final position. When using words like “Farmer Ray”, “Riper radishes” and “Later rain” in this exact order, a child can facilitate an “r” in the initial position easier. When you use this song, you should talk as much about Farmer Ray as you can. Talk about his friends, Farmer Roy and Farmer Randall. These are all facilitators for initial “r” sounds.

Garden Dance

Farmer Ray liked growing stuff; In his garden was just enough
Red, ripe raspberries on the vine; Plump and Juicy looking fine
Riper radishes down below, to dig them up, you use a hoe
Rusty Rabbit took a bite of the farmer’s fresh delight.

Chorus
Run rabbit run, you’re having so much fun
Twirling round and round, the carrots you have found
You pluck a cabbage from the row, and to the peas and beans you go
Be careful not to hang around, or else your mischief will be found...


Click on the bunny to download the visuals that go with this song.

Games:

1) The song itself can be an action game. Have the children stand up and sing. When they hear the words "Run Rabbit Run", they are allowed to run around the room. Then when the verse starts again, yell freeze and have them stand in place and sing until it says to run again.
2) Older children can act out the songs. Let them be different animals and use masks to pretend.
3) Make a pretend mural garden on the floor. Let each child bring something they have drawn and "plant" it in the garden. Let each child walk or skip through the rows and count the plants or point to the one they planted.
4) Let the children be Farmer Ray, Farmer Roy, and Farmer Randall, let them act out feeding horses, milking cows and other chores around a farm.


Crafts:

1) Let each child grow their own "garden" with a little grass seed in a cup. Let them trim the grass with scissors as it grows.
2) Make a nest out of a paper bag rolled down to the bottom. Let the children fill it with clay eggs and talk about Robins and other birds.
3) Make a raccoon mask out of paper.
4) Show the children as a class how to grow sprouts (in a jar in a dark place) and talk about what they are.


Books to Read Along:

1)Alligator's Garden, by Michaela Muntean, Dial Press.
2)Everything Grows, Raffi Songs to Read, Crown.
3)The Carrot Seed, by Ruth Krauss, Harper & Row.
4)The Pea Patch Jig, by Thatcher Hurd, Harper Trophy.
5)The Thing that Bothered Farmer Brown, by Teri Sloat, Orchard Books.
6)The Vegetables Go to Bed, by Christopher King, Crown.

(8) Can You Count to Ten?

Naming Concepts - your child should be able to count to 5 by age four and count to 13 by age five. This song contains lots of repetition for easy learning and fun animal comparisons and vocabulary.

Can You Count to Ten?
Can you count to ten?
Start off slow and then
Soon you’ll be at the end
Numbers will become your friends
It’s easy to count to ten...


Games:
1)You could act out the animals in the songs. Let some children be cats, lions, kangaroos and puppies. Let them make the animal noises at the appropriate times.
2)Simon Says Let's String Beads - Play Simon Says with colored beads and string. "Simon says string four green beads" Then count together as a group or let older children do it by themselves and hold them up to see if the patterns match everyone else's.
3)Feed the Baby Kangaroo - Have a picture of a mother kangaroo with a baby in her pouch with it's mouth open and room behind for jelly beans to land in the pouch. Take turns letting the children feed the baby however many the mommy kangaroo says she can have. You can either tell them for verbal counting or hold up the number for older kids to recognize the number and then count them out.


Crafts:
1)Draw pictures of a cat and a big lion, talk about how they are alike and different as a class. Make some comparisons and contrasts.
2)Draw a Dog or a cat and then add a certain number of puppies or kittens to her family.
3)Let them draw a picture of themselves. Ask them how many body parts they have (noses, eyes, ears, etc.) Help them count them after they have drawn them on paper.


Books to Read Along:
1) One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Dr. Seuss, Random House (Merchandising)
2) Counting Kisses, Karen Kate, Little Simon
3) Ten Little Ladybugs, Melanie Gerth, Piggy Toes Press
4) Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Eileen Christelow, Houghton Mifflin
5) Miss Spider's Tea Party: The Counting Book, David Kirk, Scholastic Trade

(9) Busy Days

Provides vocabulary for the seven days of the week. Time concepts usually develop at age 5-6. Provides a substantial number of minimal pairs: mice/ice, frog/log, fish/wish, sheep/steep, otter/water, doves/gloves. Minimal pairs are used by therapists to teach the difference between two sounds that differ by only one phonemic character. You can sing this song with your child and then talk about fish/wish. See if they can hear the difference. Use a picture of a frog and a log. Talk about the difference. Ask which one is the frog? Use minimal pair songs to help train comprehension, by not only listening to, but talking about the songs after they play.
Busy Days

Did you know, did you know
in this world below,
things are very busy
everywhere you go.

Monday is for mice
to go skating on the ice,

Tuesday is for fish
to play and make a wish...



Free Download: Click on the mouse to download one file from FTP that contains the rhyming pictures to match these lyrics.


Games:
1) Think of all the animals you can that can hop. Divide into small groups and let the kids have short races pretending to be those animals.
2) Use the downloadable visuals and make a matching game with the rhyming words.
3) Play a "duck duck goose" game with the days of the week. Have one child walk around and say the days of the week in order: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc. When she wants to pick someone to chase her, have her say "Fun Day".

4) Play Leap frog or use the miniature party favor frogs to have races.

Crafts:
1) Draw scenes from the songs (mice ice-skating, otters playing in water). Try to sequence them according to the order in the song.
2) Draw a pond and cut out animals that would live in the pond and enjoy playing in the water.
3) Use cotton balls to make a herd of sheep on a steep hill/mountainside, talk about how the words rhyme.


Books to Read Along:
1) Fridays are Fun!: Days of the Week, Patricia Hall, Little Simon
2) Mickey's Week, Ellen Milnes, Random House Disney
3) Can We Play?, Mara Van Der Meer, Abrams Books for Young Readers
4) Cookie's Week, Cindy Ward, Putnam Publishing Group
5) Jump, Frog, Jump, by Robert Kalan, William Morrow & Co.

(10) Changing Seasons

Time Concepts - at age 4-5, your child should develop time concepts of today and tomorrow and may begin to understand the seasonal concepts as well. This song provides more advanced vocabulary, such as several words with multiple syllables: fireplace, countryside, bleary-eyed, and watermelon. It also touches on the concept of the cycle of life
Changing Seasons

The year begins in winter cold,
With fireplaces and stories of old.
Children make snowmen with their friends.
And drink hot chocolate when the day ends.


Click on the two icons to download the two ftp files that go with this song. One set is portrait, the other landscape, you need them both.

Games:
1) Use castanets or other rhythm instruments to keep the beat of the music in this song.(There are actually four rhythms to pick out - the steady beat, doubletime, an in-between rhythm and the actual rhythm of the notes.)
2) Tell stories around a pretend campfire.
3) Have the kids tell what their favorite baby animal is and why? Or their favorite time of year and why?


Crafts:
1) Draw a picture of their favorite or one season of the year.
2) Use a die cut of a tree - let each child have four and glue them to a paper plate. Then embellish each tree according to the season.(Pick a fruit tree and put leaves on it in spring, or snow in the winter)
3) Make a snowman or a snowpet out of scraps of paper and two or three paper plates stapled into place.

Books to Read Along:
1) Stella, Queen of the Snow, Marie-Louise Gay, Groundwood Group Books
2) Chicken Soup with Rice, Maurice Sendak, Harper Collin's Children's Books
3) The Season's of Arnold's Apple Tree, Gail Gibbons, Voyager Books
4) Snowflakes for All Seasons, Cindy Higham, All Season Snowflakes
5) As Big as You, Elaine Greenstein, Knopf

(11) The Spider Shines Her Shoes

A common mild speech problem for many children is a central lisp. A child tries to say words that contain the sounds “s”, “sh” or “ch”, but instead, they sound like a “th”. This song may be able to help in the first step of treatment for a central lisp, which is discrimination. Some children don’t master the “s” sound until age 7-9 and the “sh” and “ch” sound at age 6-7. Some children begin to get these correct at age 3 1/2 or 4. Teachers can play this song and then talk about the story. Make up new silly stories about the spider. You might pretend that “s” is a snake sound (hiss). Tell your child to try to keep the snake (tongues) in the cage (behind their teeth). Another type of lisp allows too much air around the sides of the tongue and sounds very slushy. You can talk about the sound being “sharp”, not “slushy”.

The Spider Shines Her Shoes
In a shack, by the seashore;
Shelby the spider lived on a shelf.
There was a sink in the kitchen,
it shimmered and sparkled in the sun...


Games:
1) Play a variation of Red Rover with Spiders and their webs. You could have the children be the insects that get caught in the web and another act out being the spider who tries to catch them before they get to the other side and escape the web. Whoever she touches becomes the new spider.
2) This song can be acted out as a game.
3) Since this game talks about shoes, you could play a matching game with the children's shoes. Mix them all up and have them sort them according to color or type. Then try to match them again.


Crafts:
1) Use egg cartons and pipe cleaners to make your own spiders.
2) Make a sugar bowl and put a "web" made out of wisps of cotton or halloween webbing inside. Put the spiders to sleep - have them listen to a spider story before naptime.
3) Draw a picture of the spider in her shiny shoes - use glitter glue or other sparkly items to decorate your own spider's shoes any way you want.


Books to Read Along:
1) The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Iza Trapani, Whispering Coyote
2) The Very Busy Spider, Eric Carle,Philomel Books
3) Miss Spider's Tea Party, David Kirk, Scholastic Trade
4) The Spider and The Fly, Mary Botham Howitt, Simon & Shuster Juv.
5) Miss Spider's ABC, David Kirk, Scholastic Trade
6) Little Miss Spider, David Kirk, Scholastic Trade
7) Be Nice to Spiders, Margaret Bloy Graham, Harper Collins Children's Books
8) Miss Spider's Wedding, David Kirk, Scholastic Trade
9) The Lady and The Spider, Faith McNutty, Harper Trophy

(12) All Aboard

It is typical for all children to go through a process called “velar fronting”. It is a phase where they substitute the sounds - “t” and “d” for “k” and “g” for example (“doe” for “go”). This process should start going away somewhere aroung ages 3 years and 6 months. This song was created with this in mind. It contains several minimal pairs to help children hear the difference in the two sounds: date/gate, coat/goat, time/dime, gap/cap, girls/curls. Talk about what these words mean and compare/contrast the difference in their meanings.

All Aboard

I made some fun plans to go on a train ride
From one end of the country to the other side
I picked up my ticket, I looked at the date
I packed up my suitcase and went to the gate.

Chorus: Puff puff chug chug, see the little train run
Rolling down the train tracks, looks like lots of fun...

Click on the train to download the minimal pairs/rhyming visuals for this song.

Games:
1) Let the children hold on to each other and make a long train around the room when this song plays.
2) Use the rhyming pairs from the download and let the children take turns matching the rhyming words.
3) Act out the song, let some one be the man with the ticket and suitcase, let one be the conductor, and three girls be the mother and her two daughters.

Crafts:
1) Use paper scraps to make trains filled with goodies.
2) Make an alphabet train for the classroom. Give each child a car and a letter. Have them fill their train car with items cut out from a magazine that start with that letter. When you are done, hang it up in the classroom for everyone to see.
3) Use Q-tips or short popsicle/craft sticks to make a train track. Let the children create their own 3 D train out of paper.

Books to Read Along:
1) Choo Choo, by Virginia Lee Burton, Houghton Mifflin
2) Little Toot, by Hardie Gramatky, Putnam
3) Trains, by Gail Gibbons, Holiday House
4) Train Leaves the Station, by Eve Merriam, Henry Holt
5) Chugga Chugga Choo Choo, Kevin Lewis, Hyperion Press
6) The Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg, Houghton Mifflin Co.

(13) Celebrate the Holidays

Lists all of the months of the year, a concept for school readiness - generally learned around 5-6. Provides holiday vocabulary as well: New year, hearts, Leprechauns, Easter Bunny, Mother’s day, Father’s day, country’s birth, Labor day, pumpkins, giving thanks, cheer and peace.
Celebrate the Holidays
January starts a brand new year
February brings our hearts so near
In March, green Leprechauns dance around
April, the Easter Bunny comes to town.

May brings flowers to our Mothers
June brings summer to our Fathers
July celebrates our country’s birth
August is hot and dry on the earth...


Click on the firecracker to download the visuals that go with this song.

Games:

Of course there are millions of games out there for each individual holiday, but we tried to concentrate on grouping them and learning about celebrating as a whole.
1) Match holiday icons such as a picture of a Santa, Heart, Bunny, Turkey to 4 seasons chart.
2) Teacher says words or phrases describing a holiday and the kids try to guess which one it is. "It's hot, you eat watermelon, you watch fireworks, etc."
3) Go around circle and let kids tell their favorite holiday or give an icon and let them tell some traditions their family does on that day.


Crafts:
1) Draw a picture of favorite holiday.
2) Cut pictures out of magazines of celebrations. Talk about the different reasons we have for celebrating life.
3) Make pictures of fireworks out of glitter glue or other shiny crafts.


Books to Read Along:
1) Around the Year, Tasha Tudor, Simon & Shuster Juv.
2) Rabbit Moon: A Book of Holidays & Celebrations, Patricia Hubbell, Marshall Cavendish Corp.
3) When the Moon is Full: A Lunar Year, Penny Pollock, Little Brown & Co.
4) A Year for Kiko, Joung Kim, Houghton Mifflin Co. Juv.
5) Here Comes the Year, Eileen Spinelli, Henry Holt & Co.

(14) Good Manners Are the Key

Provides respectful vocabulary: please, thank-you, your welcome, yes sir, no sir, excuse me, respect, tattletale, polite, taking turns. Teaches the golden rule: Treat others like you would want to be treated.
Good Manners Are the Key
When you ask your mom for a cookie
Do you remember to say please
Mothers like us to be polite
It makes their day so bright...



Games:
1)Use puppets to tell a story about someone with good manners and someone who forgets their manners.
2)Make round faces and glue on popsicle sticks. Make them different colors - greedy green, yelling yellow, Rudy Red, pleased pink who remembers her manners.
3)Mother May I


Crafts:
1)Make own puppets for the day out of various materials.
2)Craft time should focus on asking for items needed in a polite way.
3)Find pictures in magazines of people being nice and doing good deeds for others.


Books to Read Along:
1) Grover's Guide to Good Manners, Constance Allen, Random House (Merchandising)
2) Hello! Goodbe, Aliki, Greenwillow
3) Hello, Kelly Doudna, Sandcastle
4) Excuse Me, Kelly Doudna, Sandcastle
5) Please, Kelly Doudna, Sandcastle
6) Richard Scarry's Please & Thank you Book, Richard Scarry, Random House(Merchandising)

(15) What Do We Eat?

Provides meal vocabulary: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, healthy. It also contains food vocabulary: chocolate cake, eggs, toast, jam, ice cream, root beer, sandwich, soup du jour, cotton candy, rice, grilled trout.
What Do We Eat?

What shall you have for your breakfast dear?
How ‘bout chocolate cake right here?
That’s not breakfast food, no ma’am
Have some eggs with toast and jam.




Games:
1)Guess what I ate? Let one child sit in the middle of the circle. Let the children take turns raising their hands and guessing what the child had for a recent meal. Whoever guesses gets to sit in the middle.
2)Have a pretend restaurant - maybe a pizza parlor. Let the kids order from pretend menus and role play.
3)Match the meal. Show pictures of common foods that could be easily separated into Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner meals. Let the children sort them by meal category.


Crafts:
1)Have the children look through magazines and cut out pictures of food. Have them sort them into Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner categories.
2)Let the children draw a picture of their favorite foods.
3)Have the children sort pictures of nutritious foods versus junk foods.


Books to Read Along:
1) Food for Healthy Teeth, Helen Frost, Pebble Books
2) Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss, Random House
3) I Will Not Ever Eat a Tomato, Lauren Child, Candlewick Press
4) Sheep Out to Eat, Nancy Shaw, Houghton Mifflin Co.
5) Froggy Eats Out, Jonathan London, Viking Children's Books

(16) A Trip to the Fair

Uses homonyms: fare/fair and bear/bare. Uses many irregular past tense verbs, which usually emerge in-between ages 25-46 months: paid, took, saw, stood, got. This song also uses several regular past tense -ed verb forms, which emerge at ages 26-48 months: caused, started, landed. Describes an adventure scene at the fair.
A Trip to the Fair

Since it is fall and time for the fair,
We asked Mom and Dad to take us there.

We waited for the bus and paid the fare,
We hopped on and rode without a care.

Vroom, vroom bumpety bop bop fair,
We hopped on and rode without a care...



Games:
1)Let the children bring a small teddy bear to school for the day - let them show and tell name in circle time.
2)Play Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear turn around, touch ground, etc.
3)Sort bears by size or color, or put them in order from smallest to biggest as a group.


Crafts:
1)Talk about the county fair, make tickets, decorate cupcakes and have a cupcake walk but everyone gets their cupcake.
2)Write Fair and Fare at bottom of sheet. Let kids draw pictures of something from the fair and do coin rubbings for the fare side. Introduce concept of words sounding the same but having different meanings.
3)Make their own little teddy bears out of pom-poms and stick on eyes.


Books to Read Along:
1) The Wedding of Brown Bear and White Bear, by Martine Beck, Little Brown & Co.
2) Teddy Bears Take the Train, by Susanna Gretz, Fourwinds Press.
3) Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstom, Macmillan.
4) Berlioz the Bear, by Jan Brett, Putnam.
5) A Kiss for Little Bear, by Else Minarik Holmelund, Harper & Row.

(17) Everybody on Your Feet

An interactive motion song. Purposefully slow with the intent of teaching a child to attend to a one step command. A 15-18 month child should be able to follow a 1-2 step direction and be able to point to body parts. Also teaches body part vocabulary: feet, hands, nose. Teaches motion vocabulary: clap, stomp, reach, turn around, touch, wave.
Everybody on Your Feet
Everybody on your feet
Now, Clap your hands, 1,2,3
Stomp your feet, hey that’s neat
Reach up high, touch the sky
Reach down low, touch your toes

Hands out straight, you’re doing great...


Games
1)This song is interactive and is a fun game to act out. You have a chance to listen to it slow twice and then in double time a third time. This song is nice for younger children and helping them follow directions and build comprehension.
2)Simon Says...to go along with the body part theme. Try changing it some to a "wacky" game. Add imaginary animal parts. Can you make an elephant's trunk? A giraffe's neck? Walk like a penguin?
3)Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Crafts
1)Have the kids draw a face, give them some fun instructions. Can you make purple eyes? A Blue nose? A yellow mouth?
2)Wrist, Fist, Waist.... These body parts seem to be mixed up at times. Have a picture of a body, have them draw a watch on the wrist, a circle around the hand/fist, put a belt on the waist.
3)Let the kids pick an animal with an unusual body part to draw. Let them talk about their pictures, show them to the class and say why they chose that animal (e.g. the giraffe b/c of it's long neck.)


Books to Read Along
1) Clap Hands, Helen Oxenbury, Little Simon
2) Clap Your Hands, Lorinda Bryan Cauley, Putnam Publishing Group
3) If You're Happy and You Know it Clap Your Hands, David Carter, Cartwheel Books
4) A Hose for a Nose, Ronne Randall, Silver Dolphin
5) Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Touch your Nose, Pinwheel Press

(18) Everybody Feels This Way

Children began to develop the ability to express their emotions between ages 4-5. This song provides vocabulary words for emotions: happy, glad, sad, mad, feel, excitement, delight, loneliness, surprise, upset, content, joy. Minimal pairs used: glad/sad, mad/bad, way/day.
Everybody Feels This Way

Some days I am happy and glad
Things go my way, so I’m not sad
But then there are days when nothing goes my way
and I can get real mad
Getting mad’s not always bad
I just talk it out with dad...



Games:
1) Make me laugh - Let one child stand in the middle, put on a sad or a mad face. Let the other children raise their hands and take turns doing something goofy to make the child in the middle laugh and wipe the sad/mad face away.
2) Have a joke-a-thon, let the children take turns standing up and telling a joke they know.
3) Guess how I feel - The teacher puts on a certain face (happy, sad, surprised, mad) and the children try to guess how she's feeling.
4) How would this make you feel? Happy or Sad?(use puppet below) Name events that would cause happiness or sadness. Let the children turn their puppets to show how they would feel.


Crafts:
1) I am happy when.... Let the children draw a picture of something that makes them happy.
2) Put a happy face on one side of a plate and a sad face on the other. Use it as a puppet for a game.
3) Use cornmeal or flour, let the children draw different faces with their fingers and talk about how the face might feel.


Books to Read Along:
1) When Sophie Gets Angry, Really Really Angry, Molly Garrett Bang, Scholastic Trade
2) Today I Feel Silly: and Other Moods that Make My Day, Jamie Lee Curtis, Harper Collins Juvenile Books
3) Guess How Much I Love You?, Sam McBratney, et. al., Candlewick Press
4) The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein, Harper Collins Juvenile Books
5) The Kissing Hand, Audrey Penn, Child Welfare League of America
6) Corduroy, Don Freeman, Viking Press

(19) Pets

Provides early sounds of “p” (pat, puppy, perk, happy), “b” (button), and “h” (happy). Provides body part vocabulary: eyes, nose, toes, head, ears, legs, tail. A good song for clapping to the beat.
Pets
When I pat my puppy
It makes him very happy
He wrinkles up his button nose
and then he licks my little toes
His eyes sparkle like the sand
When I pat him with my hand
He perks up his ears when I call him near

Chorus: Oh how happy is my day
When with animals I play
They need lots of love and care
Food and water and fresh air...




Games:
1)This song can be acted out, everyone can act like the animals or you can divide the children into two groups: puppies and bunnies.
2)Doggie, where's your bone? Hide milk bones in your room and let all of the puppies find the treats.
3)If you can find one, bring a leash that has an invisible dog or put a stuffed animal on the end of a leash. Let different groups take turns taking care of the puppy for the day.(giving bowls of food and water and walking)


Crafts:
1)Have the children draw pictures of their pets or animals in their neighborhood. They could tell the pet's name and what they like best about them. For younger kids, just one thing about their pet or animal they've seen.
2)Look for pictures in magazines of animals. Sort them into groups of animals that would make good pets, and animals that wouldn't.
3)Use various pieces of pasta to glue together to make pet shapes.


Books to Read Along:
1) I Took My Frog to the Library, Eric Kimmel, Puffin
2) The McDuff Stories, Rosemary Wells, Hyperion Press
3) Carl's Afternoon in the Park, Alexandra Day, Farrar Straus & Giroux
4) The Stray Dog, Marc Simont, Harper Collins Juvenile Books
5) When Your Pet Dies, Diane Pomerance, Polaire Publishing

(20)Things I Love

A relaxing silly song at the end of the day about the simple pleasures in life. Uses minimal pairs: hand/sand, nitty/gritty, feet/street, belly/jelly, head/bed, red/bed.
Things I Love

Oh I love to put my hand in the sand
Oh I love to put my hand in the sand
Oh I love to put my hand in the nitty, gritty sand
Oh I love to put my hand in the sand...


Click on the heart to download the visuals that go with this song. Games:
1)You could definitely go with a beach/vacation theme. If you have an area where you could bring some sand in, let the kids build sand castles, or hide treasures in the sand for them to hunt.
2)Some children have never been to the ocean. Play some sounds of the ocean and let them sit on a towel they bring from home. Let them pretend to surf or waterski. Talk about what you see at the beach.
3)Let the children tell bedtime stories to each other at naptime. Choose one to tell their favorite story to the rest of the group.


Crafts:
1)Let the children put colored sand in a jar to make different levels of color.
2)Make clay out of sand and let the children mold one of their favorite things/toys.
3)Use scraps of tissue paper, let the children glue them onto paper or fold the tissue to look like a favorite food they love to use to "fill their belly."

Books to Read Along:
1) Baby Loves, Michael Lawrence, Bt. Bound
2) My Favorite Things, Rodgers, Hammerstein, Harper Collins Juvenile Books
3) My Favorite Tree, Diane Iverson, Dawn Publishing
4) The Sun is My Favorite Star, Frank Asu, Gulliver Books
5) Bear Loves Water, Ellen Weiss, et.al., Simon Spotlight

If you are experiencing a lot of trouble downloading the ten free sets of visuals, let us know. We'd be happy to email them to you. If you need visuals for a song that we haven't placed on the web yet, please let us know! Thanks for your interest!