A new year and a brand new podcast called MITTENS.

The first podcast for January features a story about a little girl called Flora who needs new mittens. Her old mittens don’t fit any more, and Flora is very unhappy. We will meet Flora and her school friends in lots of stories.

Most podcasts begin with a “hello” song, and then have two other songs – one before and one after the story. This podcast has three songs! The first song is one I composed about mittens. Bethany sings about some of the many colors mittens can be. I wonder what color you would choose? The song after the story is a well-known counting song which has been adapted in many ways. Here we sing “One Little, Two Little, Three Little Fingers” to fit the theme for this podcast. My friend Linda helps with this song. You can point to each finger as we count up to ten and back down to one if you like.

This is an extra-long podcast because the story is quite long. So part way through the story we take a little action break to sing an extra song “Get Up and Get Moving!” with Teri.

This podcast is available to subscribers, who have access to four original podcasts every month, at the cost of only $35 for the whole year. That’s a total of 48 podcasts!!! If you are not a subscriber yet, you are welcome to listen to the sample podcast free of charge. This one is called RABBITS and can be found on the main page or by clicking on “samples” on the menu.

Have fun!

The last podcast for December is called MICE. Anneliese gets us started with a hello song called “Everybody Sing With Me.” Next is Jared singing an action song called “I Can Wiggle My Fingers,” which has lots of actions you can join in with, including falling down at the end of the song. Make sure you fall safely!

Most of the stories in the podcasts are ones I have written, and a few are well-known folk tales. But this podcast has two short stories, both about mice, and both are true. The events in the stories actually happened in my house and with my family. Just a warning – in one of the stories I mention that our cat, Tiger, had died, and that it made us sad. If you have pets, you know you will have to deal with a death at some point. Perhaps this story will prompt some discussion.

Anneliese sings the last song where you can pretend to be a mouse. First the mouse creeps through the house, then dances, crawls and even strides through the house – not our usual mouse-like movements, but fun to do in the song.

Enjoy!

Are you a subscriber to LISTEN TOGETHER PODCASTS? If so, you know you have access to four podcasts every month. Still thinking about it? Listen to a sample podcast called RABBITS. It’s an action-packed podcast with a sweet story and two rabbit songs where you can hop, hop, hop!

 

The third podcast for December is called FRIENDS. The story features a group of children who are at school together. I have written many stories which involve the children in their class, and several children “star” in their own stories. This story is about the imminent arrival of a new little girl who is coming all the way from France to join the class. How will they communicate when they speak English and she speaks French? Who is going to be her friend causes a little uproar.

One of our songs is the well-known “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,” where you are encouraged to sing along and do the actions; and the other song is one of my compositions called “Let’s Be Friends,” and has lots of actions that friends can do together.

Enjoy!

If you are not a Listen Together Podcast subscriber yet, you can find a podcast called RABBITS on the samples page and also on the home page of the Listen Together Podcast website. It is there for everyone to listen to. Perhaps it will persuade you to join our subscription holders who have access to four unique podcasts every month for a cost of only $35 for the whole year. If you go to the Crispy Crow page, every now and then you will find an activity for everyone to enjoy.

 

I had a lot of fun with this podcast. Several years ago, a young boy asked if I tell a story about unicorns. He was fascinated with them. I found I didn’t know very much about unicorns and so did some research. Much to my surprise I discovered that in some parts of the world, unicorns were thought to resemble rhinos! Nothing like our western idea of a unicorn being more or less like a horse with a horn!

My next round of research involved finding out about rhinos. I discovered they can run very fast over short distances and have a keen sense of smell. I used this information, plus other things I learned to create the song “Rhinoceros” that Teri sings, where the chorus is:

“A unicorn, a unicorn,

Inside I’m a fleet-footed unicorn.”

Another result of the research was the idea for a story of a rhino who thinks she is a unicorn. That’s how this story about Nellie came about.

The second song is called “Mud.” It is a slow song and I hope you can feel the idea of rolling and wallowing in mud. There are some very descriptive words about the mud – like oozy and goozy, mushy and gushy; plus the opportunity for you to add your own squishy, squashy muddy words. I hope you enjoy this podcast.

If you are not a subscriber yet, I hope you will listen to RABBITS. This podcast is available for everyone to listen to, and can be found on both the samples page and the home page of the web site, and of course there are a variety of activities on the Crispy Crow page as well.

Our story this week features James and his baby brother Jack in our first podcast for December called CLEAN UP. Jack’s favorite stuffed animal Mousie goes missing and causes problems for James. I sing the first song “Mouse, Mousie” and the words are very easy:

Mouse mousie in the housie

Hurry, hurry do,

Or the kitty in the housie

Will be chasing you.

I made up a couple more verses to this song where we have fishy in the ocean with a sharkey chasing; and a chick in the farmyard with a foxey chasing. You can see how easy it is to change the words and come up with ideas. All you need are two animals!

My friend Linda composed the second song “Clean Up” where you can sing along with Karon and Alex with the repeated chorus:

Clean up, clean up ‘til it’s done

Getting it out was much more fun.”

Sing along friends!

If you enjoy Listen Together Podcasts, please share the website with others who may be interested. Even if they don’t subscribe, the sample podcast is there for everyone to listen to, and of course there are a variety of activities on the Crispy Crow page as well.