February is the month to celebrate love, friendship and kindness.  Teach young children through song how to be kind and to share using these lyrics to the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to the song “Please Be Kind”.   “Have children sit in a circle and pass a ball around as they sing this song and learn how to share with one another.  Draw the outline of a person on cardstock paper and have each child color and decorate them.  Cut out and tape a large popsicle stick to the back to create a stick puppet.  Then ask them which other person in the room this could be.  Go around the circle and have each child say something nice about the other child.  Have children march around the room with their stick puppets as they sing the song and put kindness on parade!  Have a wonderful February and remember to spread kindness everywhere.  Ms. Maureen

Strike up the homemade rhythm band and march to the beat as we celebrate the  2012 New Year.  Create a homemade band from those leftover jingle bells using a pipe cleaner to string them around a clothespin. Empty wrapping paper rolls can become rhythm sticks by tapping them together or a kazoo by using a small square of waxed paper and using a rubber band to attach it to the end of the tube. Empty gift boxes or cookie tins become a homemade drum.  Leftover paper plates can become a tamborine by using a hole punch to punch holes on the outside of the plate then run all that extra Christmas ribbon through the holes attaching jingle bells through the ribbon.  Once your band is ready put on some music and put your feet into the beat as you march and play.  Happy New Year to all and looking forward to providing you with lots more ideas in 2012.  Ms. Maureen

It’s that time of year to sing and ring in the holidays with all those wonderful Christmas songs.  Create a fun musical instrument by stringing jingle bells on a pipe cleaner then wrap them around a clothespin to create a jingle stick.  You can also create a jingle mitt by using two pieces of green felt cut into the shape of a large mitten.  Use red yarn to attach the two pieces of felt stringing jingle bells throughout the yarn.  Then shake along to Jingle Bells, Jingle Bell Rock or one of the tunes from my Christmas CD, Christmas Notes for Little Folks.  Songs are available through itunes or CD Baby.  Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.

November is here and it’s time to start the holiday festivities before the turkey runs away with this fun song.   “The Turkey Ran Away” sung to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell. Lyrics are “The turkey ran away before Thanksgiving day, said they’ll make a meal of me if I decide to stay!”  Continue the verses using The cranberry ran away before Thanksgiving day, said they’ll make a sauce of me if I decided to stay. The pickle ran away before Thanksgiving day, said they’ll make a relish of me if I decide to stay.  The apple ran away before Thanksgiving day, said they’ll make a pie of me if I decide to stay. Can you think of other fun verses to go along with this song?  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a great month of November.  We all have so much to be thankful for!  Ms. Maureen

This month’s column is dedicated to providing you with ideas and activities that will enhance your child’s exposure to music. I call it my “E” list.

Exposing your child to music and providing them with a music education provides numerous benefits including enhanced levels of memory and attention, improvement in math skills, developing creativity and boosting a child’s brain power.

Experience music with your child by singing songs when in the car together, during transition times or even when cleaning up their room. If there isn’t a song for the activity make one up and create your own melodies with your child.

Enhance your child’s brain function by using music to learn.

Encourage your child’s preschool or day care center to share music with the children. Provide your child’s teacher with a gift of music. There are numerous online resources available to both parents and educators that include songs, finger plays and activities covering any topic from alphabet, numbers, transportation, animals, etc. Just Google “Early Childhood Songs and Activities” for ideas.

Enroll your child in a music program such as Music Together®, Musicgarten®, kindermusik® or other privately owned early childhood programs.

Enthusiasm goes a long way with children. Be enthusiastic about sharing music with your child. Visit your local library to find music that you can use at home for activities such as dancing with scarves, parachute play to music using a blanket or create your own beanbags to toss and catch to the music. Use crepe paper streamers to move to the music at home with classical music.

Emulate the different musical instruments using your finger band. Share with your child pictures of different musical instruments. Enjoy a field trip to visit a local music store so your child can see what the instruments actually look like and how they might sound.

Enlist the help of friends and family who might already play a music instrument so that they can share their talents with your child.

Evolve with your child’s music education by providing your child with piano or violin lessons when they are ready to begin a more formal music education. Interview teachers to make sure their personalities fit with your child’s so that your child remains enthusiastic about practicing and learning how to play a music instrument.

Explore what your community offers for music events for your child. Often times the library or community center feature local children’s music artists, instrument petting zoos, puppet shows etc. that will expose children to music.

Execute the ideas so that your child can enjoy the many benefits of a music education and begin their musical journey. Enjoy! Ms. Maureen

September is here and it’s time to step into the beat of the new school year for 2011-2012 and make new friends. Children sit in a circle and pat their knees to a steady beat as they chant their names in a circle to this rhythmic chant. “Name, name, what’s your name? My name is Maureen, Maureen, my name is Maureen and I like music. “ Each child has a turn saying their name and something they like as the move around the circle following a steady beat and then tapping the rhythm of their own names and what they like. They can clap, tap, pat their cheeks or snap their fingers to the beat. Have fun and looking forward to a wonderful school year. Ms. Maureen

Create a fun and interactive activity by incorporating musical instruments into children’s storybooks. Encourage children to play along with rhythm instruments creating a chorus for the story.  Children become engaged in the story of The Little Old Lady Who Swallowed the Fly as they shake maracas and sing along to Shoo Fly Don’t Bother Me after each verse of “we all know why she swallowed the fly….. because she forgot to say “shoo fly don’t bother me”, shoo fly don’t bother me, shoo fly don’t bother me, I belong to somebody.”   Another story that provides children with the opportunity to become involved in the story is Fiddle-I-Fee.  Each child plays a different instrument that represents different animals.  When the cat in the story goes fiddle-I-fee, one child rings jingle bells, When the hen goes chipsy-chopsy in the story another child creates the sound with an egg shaker and when the duck goes quack, quack another child makes a sound using a wood block, etc.  There is also the story of No David where after each verse children sing “no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no David no, no” to the melody of Hey, Hey, Goodbye.  When reading stories to children look for verses that can be repeated throughout the story that can be sung and played along to creating your own melodies or having the children chant the verse.  They will enjoy an interactive, musical experience with children’s literature.  Enjoy and stay cool on those hot August nights. Ms. Maureen

During the month of July encourage children to explore other countries through the arts. Create the sounds of African drumming by having children make their own drums from recycled materials such as empty oatmeal containers, or cardboard shoeboxes, then use their drums to talk to one other by playing the echo drum game. One person taps a rhythm and the other children echo back the sound they just heard like the talking drums of Africa. Take a musical visit to Australia as children create their own didgeridoo’s from PVC pipe. Home improvement stores sell pre-cut PVC pipe in small sections that the children can decorate with paint or scissors. Children then create the sound of the didgeridoo by using buzz lips (as if they were playing the trumpet) in the top opening of the PVC pipe. Then go Waltzing with Matilda using a pair of rhythm sticks and tapping to a 1-2-3 beat. Counting in Spanish can be musical and fun as children create a maraca from an empty soda can filled with popcorn seeds. Be sure to seal the opening with duct tape then decorate the can using small strips of tissue paper and glue. Once it has dried children can sing-along to the song Uno-Dos-Tres on my Spanish Notes for Little Folks CD available online through itunes. Have a great July and a wonderful Summer. Ms. Maureen

During the month of June stay cool with music as children enjoy taking a trip down on the farm using wood blocks to create the sounds of galloping horses or scraping on the guiro to create the sound of frogs croaking or pigs oinking. Sing songs like Old MacDonald Had A Farm or Quakadoodle Moo and Feet Beat from my Nature’s Notes children’s CD available through Redleaf Press. Children can move like the animals to Limbo Rock as they imitate the movements of different animals as they crawl, slither, gallop or hop under the limbo stick(decorate a broom stick with crepe paper for the limbo stick). Tap on the drums to create the sounds of different animals moving as cows go clopping, horses gallop, frogs are jumping, turtles move slowly and rabbits move quickly and quietly.  Fill a basket or bag with different animal puppets as children sing the song “A Hunting We Will Go” using these lyrics “A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go, we’ll look in the bag and see what we have and then we all will know”. Sing a song for each of the different animals in the bag. An example of this is “A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go, we’ll catch a fox and put him in a box and then we’ll let him go. Continue trying to rhyme different animals in the basket…we’ll catch a pig and dance the jig, we’ll catch a fish and put him in a dish, we’ll catch a cow and watch him dance somehow etc. Have fun and sing, sing, sing through the summer! Ms. Maureen

May is a very merry month filled with reasons to celebrate. There’s Mother’s Day to celebrate all the mom’s out there and Cinco De Mayo to celebrate the 5th of May, Space Day on the 6th of May, National Train Day on the 14th of May and of course Memorial Day at the end of the month. National Children’s Book Week is also part of the month of May so be sure to stop by your local library and enjoy a story or two. With all these special occasions here are a few special songs to celebrate the occasion.

Celebrate Mother’s Day using the tune to Bingo and these lyrics: “I love mom and she loves me and “mommy” is her nameO. M-O-M-M-Y, M-0-M-M-Y, M-O-M-M-Y, and mommy is her nameO”. Shake your maracas to celebrate the 5th of May as you sing along to “Shake Your Sillies Out” with these lyrics, “Gonna shake, shake, shake away today, shake, shake, shake away today! Shake, shake, shake away today and celebrate the 5th of May”.

It’s up, up and away as we celebrate Space Day with this rhyme I’ve written for children to chant or create their own melody to “The Solar System”. “Round the moon and through the stars, past the milky way. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Venus, see them on display. Stars all glitter through the night, twinkling way up high, Mercury, Neptune, Uranus and Earth, in space above the sky”.

Then it’s all aboard to enjoy the rhythm of those train wheels as they clickity, clack along the tracks as children sing and move with their maracas to the beat of “The Train Song” sung to the tune of “London Bridges Falling Down” with these lyrics: “Train is coming down the track, down the track, down the track. Train is coming down the track. Click, click, clack! Click, click, clack! Conductor’s riding on the train, on the train, on the train. Conductor’s riding on the train, click, click, clack. All Aboard! Through the tunnel on the tracks, on the tracks, on the tracks, through the tunnel on the tracks, click, click, clack! By the station on the tracks, on the tracks, on the tracks, by the station on the tracks, here the whistle blow! Whoooo! Whooo!

Have a very merry month and enjoy all the celebrations and songs. Ms. Maureen