Let's pick up the toys, let's put them away, let's all work together, to pick up the toys. Let's all help pick up the toys, so we can go outside." or whatever comes next. Now it's time to pick up the toys, pick up the toys, pick up the toys, It can rhyme but I don't think it matters if it doesn't. I chose a well known tune and added my own words. Young people don't know good singing from bad, they just like novelty. “If You’re Wearing a Red Shirt” is a simple, repetitive song that directs children in a group to play their rhythm sticks only if they fit the description in that particular verse.I've had good luck with singing instructions/transitions. One thing I’ve noticed when I give a child a pair of rhythm sticks is that it’s extremely difficult for him or her not to make some kind of noise with them. When I sing this song with my students, I turn around so that our left and right are the same.ĭo you have any go-to songs or methods for teaching the concept of left and right? If You’re Wearing a Red Shirt… I debated including a picture-in-picture view of the actions as I sing them, but decided it would probably be confusing since my left is the opposite of your left. I like the melody, and I also like that it explains the concept in a relatively easy-to-understand manner. This song is an oldie, but honestly, it might be one of my favorite Listen & Learn originals. I wanted to keep writing additional verses for this song, but reminded myself that all of you wonderful music therapists, educators and parents will adapt the song for your kiddos as needed! I always consider my recording to be just a jumping off point. Oh, and the melody may have been a teensy bit inspired by the song I sang with my church choir over the weekend (I told you my brain was fried!). One such suggestion was a song about working together on different classroom tasks throughout the day, so I took that idea and ran with it. I called her up and asked her what kind of song she could use in her classroom right now, and she wasted no time sharing her suggestions. Since I’m in the middle of a huge project - I’ll share the details soon - my brain has been a little fried, so this was a week where I needed Libby’s help. She teaches in a special education classroom and incorporates music (mostly mine!) into as many lesson plans as possible. When I’m in need of new song topic ideas, my go-to person is my mother-in-law. Hope you can get some good use out of it, too. Much better than my 2009 version, if I do say so myself! Out of all the “bell” songs I’ve written, this one is probably my favorite…and I’m pretty sure my students feel the same way. I dug this song out of my archives for the latest session of Listen & Learn for Little Ones, my early childhood music class, which necessitated a new recording to include on the class CD.īells are for Shaking by Listen & Learn Music As far as they are concerned, they’re just playing bells and having fun (isn’t this the case so often in music therapy!?). When I sing this song with my kiddos, I’m working on following directions, motor skills, identification of left and right hands, and attention to task. Bells are for Shaking is definitely one of those songs, because it’s such an effective one for hitting so many different targeted objectives. Sometimes I come across a song I wrote YEARS ago that just needs a little facelift. It comes in especially handy when he plays with his kitchen, because there’s a verse all about cleaning up your dishes :) When I wrote this song 6 years ago, I had no idea that one day I would be putting it into practice with my own child. Success! Now he requests “Mama’s phone?” every time I ask him to clean up, meaning he wants me to play my song. He immediately was on board with it, and started cleaning up the mess at hand. I decided to change things up a bit a few weeks ago, and instead of singing the same old tune, I played my “clean up” song for Parker. I used this to my advantage at home every time I started singing the song, he would join in and start picking up whatever mess needed to be picked up. Lucky for me, Parker loved cleaning up - mostly because he loved the song so much. At the end of Funshop, the weekly mommy & me playgroup we attend, they play the classic “Clean Up” song (courtesy of Barney, the big purple dinosaur) and everyone tackles their assigned area. The concept of “cleaning up” was introduced to my son Parker when he was a little over a year old.
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