In January, it can be difficult to summon the spirit to sing. The holidays are over, the weather is dreary, and people might not be feeling 100%. To liven things up a bit, I've focused on singing about birds of all things. Birdwatching in winter is one of my favorite things to do, and children can easily take part- filling or even making bird feeders or houses. Birds like cardinals and blue jays are easy to spot, and it's exciting to see nature come alive when the birds accept the gifts of food and shelter that you offer them.
I use a song called "Little Bird." Watch it in full below. I discovered the way I do it is different (I learned it differently), than the traditional "Little Bird, Go Through My Window." I also pair this song with a singing game called "Go in and Out the Window." In it, children stand in a circle and hold hands, then lift their arms up to make an arch under which a child can weave in and out.
Whether you use the song as part of a winter music class, or for early language learning, try to pair it with some nature exploration as well. If you don't have the opportunity to make a bird house or feeder, and either bird watch or listen for bird songs, ask children to share their experience if they have done this before. If they haven't tried observing birds, perhaps you can spark an interest! Happy singing and bird watching!
This week I'm writing my blog about the work I am doing on my YouTube channel. Each week I have been releasing new learning videos. Didn't know about that? That's OK- now's your chance to go check it out, AND I'm going to tell you all about it- including what is special about this week's video. I'm putting out a few different kinds of early learning videos on my YouTube channel- sing and sign, early Spanish language learning through song, kid humor, and kid's music videos.
The sing and sign videos are the result of my work as a co-teacher for an American Sign Language class for preschool, kindergarten, and first and second grade students. My colleague taught me everything I know- she is a fluent speaker, and as a deaf person, she explained some of the subtleties of communicating through sign. Although I'm definitely still not an expert, we were able to combine our skills a bit to prepare sing and sign experiences for our students- we hope that you'll use them too!
The Spanish language learning songs are songs I learned over the years to combine language learning and music in my early childhood and elementary classes. I have worked as a music teacher in a Spanish language immersion program in a charter school, lived in places where Spanish was the predominant language spoken, and love performing the songs I'm sharing!
The kid humor videos started with my son's stuffed animals. I wrote a song about them, "Make-Believe Zoo." He helped me make a music video for that song, and performed some of the voices of the stuffed animals on the recording. As we were doing this, he started using his snake puppet to tell me jokes, and I thought they were so funny that I asked if we could record them- maybe brighten somebody else's day with a little laughter. He said yes!
The kid's music videos are of my original songs for children. I have two albums- "One and Two is Three," and "I am 4, 5, 6," which was released this year. The first album was the product of having written songs over the years for my students and my family, and the second one was an intensive project to write songs for young children about imagination, creative problem solving, and empathy.
This week I'm releasing the music video to "From There to Here." It's a song about using your imagination as a young child, how children might experience or think about things in ways that are a bit different than adults. The urge to question and learn about themselves and their surroundings is forefront in the song, as well as rhymes from familiar children's literature.
You can find "From There to Here," as well as several of my other children's songs on my YouTube Channel- my songs, in addition to the sing and sign, Spanish song and kid joke videos, are all a taste of what I do as an educator and performer. Please check them out and share them with some little ones you may know! Here's the link to my YouTube, and here is my new video!
