CLIPBOARD WALK LISTENING ACTIVITY

I often suggest using a clipboard for various activities with young children. There is nothing like a clipboard to make a child feel important!! In our school we often gave little jobs to children where they could use a clipboard, such as finding out who wanted cream cheese on their crackers for snack, or doing a survey – who has a pet, who does not.

If you don’t have a clipboard, you can make one quite easily from a stiff piece of cardboard with a bulldog clip on the top. However, clipboards are often available at the dollar store, and so, of course, are very cheap.

So – a clipboard walk. Simply go on a walk and mark down on a clipboard when you hear whatever it is you have decided upon.

Suggestions:

• Cats
• Dogs
• Birds
• Cars

Of course you can adapt the clipboard walk to marking things you see.

Suggestions:

• Choose a color
• Things beginning with a letter
• Things that rhyme with —
• Cars
• Cats

We live in a colorful world and our podcast this time is called COLORS. After the action-packed “hello” song, Joshua sings about animals and their colors – but these colors are very unlikely. He sings about a red porcupine, a green chimpanzee and a blue kangaroo! The words for the song are taken from an old nursery rhyme I found, which is why the language is somewhat archaic. We don’t use the phrase “full well” in modern English, but it is something interesting to discuss. For each verse, all that needs to change is the animal and its color:

I’ve never seen a red porcupine,

I really don’t want to see one,

But this I know and know full well,

I’d rather see than be one.”

You can see how easy it is to make up your own verses.

The pink crayon in our story causes all kinds of problems for twins Tom and Zoe. They argue, and both end up doing something they know they shouldn’t – all because of a pink crayon. This story was inspired by a real situation when I ran my own school. One little boy would slip a pink crayon into his pocket and take it home. This went on every day for several days. For my story, I deliberately kept the crayon pink, to help children understand there are no boy colors or girl colors. This story is also a little unusual in that it doesn’t have a satisfactory ending. But it gives the listeners an opportunity to discuss what they would do in the same situation, and voice what they think about Zoe and Tom’s actions. Food for thought!!

Teri sings another song about colors – but this time colors we might be wearing:

I see somebody wearing green,

I see somebody wearing green,

Show me where you are wearing green.

Again you can see how easy it is to create new verses in the song. I sing this song frequently with young children and use it as an opportunity for them to show me with actions where they are wearing the color, rather than telling me with words. This is quite hard for young children at first, but they soon catch on. Children have to use self-control to refrain from blurting out their reaction.

Enjoy!

Listen to two notes, is the second one higher or lower than the first one? This is a simple game, but requires careful listening. Enjoy!

 

To help celebrate Earth Day, the podcast called Earth Day is available for everyone to listen to – but only today!

Click here:

 

We have a special Earth Day podcast. An Earth Day story is accompanied by two songs to go with this week’s theme,

Teri gets us started with “Can You Sing Hello with Me,” a song with lots of actions you can join in. Next Scott and Jared sing “Don’t be a Litter Lout” which is all about litter – trash – and picking it up. The words are very easy and YOU get a chance to put your own ideas in the song. What kind of trash do you see lying around? I give some ideas to sing about in the podcast if you need help.

We meet our group of school friends again in the story, along with their teachers Miss Hannah and Miss Emily. The class decides to do something for Earth Day and meet in the park to pick up trash. But poor Zoe has an accident.

Our last song is a very short one reminding us all to “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” Sing along with Teri friends! If you do something special for Earth Day, please tell me. I’d love to hear what you do.

Here’s a fun way for children to practice listening carefully while playing a fun game. Click here to play.

 

Earth Day is just around the corner and so we have a special Earth Day podcast. An Earth Day story is accompanied by two songs to go with this week’s theme,

Teri gets us started with “Can You Sing Hello with Me,” a song with lots of actions you can join in. Next Scott and Jared sing “Don’t be a Litter Lout” which is all about litter – trash – and picking it up. The words are very easy and YOU get a chance to put your own ideas in the song. What kind of trash do you see lying around? I give some ideas to sing about in the podcast if you need help.

We meet our group of school friends again in the story, along with their teachers Miss Hannah and Miss Emily. The class decides to do something for Earth Day and meet in the park to pick up trash. But poor Zoe has an accident.

Our last song is a very short one reminding us all to “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” Sing along with Teri friends! If you do something special for Earth Day, please tell me. I’d love to hear what you do.

As parents, we want to be seen by others as “good parents.”  We sometimes put on a good show. Have you found yourself saying to your child “be nice; share your toys.” However, sharing is not always appropriate. An example I would often give to parents is this.

Jack is sitting at the table working on a puzzle. It is quite a hard puzzle and he’s been working on it for quite a while. This particular puzzle has far more pieces in it than any he has finished before. Finally he is down to just three pieces left to fit in the puzzle, when along comes Sally saying “I want to help.” Sally picks up a puzzle piece and is about to insert it when Jack yells ‘No!” and grabs it back.

A parent or teacher seeing this might well say, “Jack, you have to share.” But this is not an appropriate sharing opportunity. Jack is on the brink of a major achievement and wants the completion of the puzzle to be his own work.

So what is the right adult reaction?  Gather facts. Let Jack explain. That’s all it takes for an adult to realize this is important to Jack. Explain the situation to Sally. Once the puzzle is done, Jack may well be ready to do it again with Sally’s help, or turn the puzzle over to Sally entirely.

In my preschool, rather than telling children they have to share, we would encourage Sally to ask if she can help, and respect Jack’s answer if he says no. If Sally really wants to work on the puzzle, then her next question should be, “can I do it when you’re finished?” And the problem is usually solved.

So often adults are ready to jump and fix things without giving young children an opportunity to work things out. But children need the tools first. They need to know it’s OK to say no. They need to practice using the right vocabulary to resolve the problem. Our job as parents and teachers is to help and guide children to become problem-solvers, and resist the temptation to do everything for them.

Come and play my game friends! Listen to me sing, then sing back.

 

This activity gives children an opportunity to listen carefully, and then replicate what they hear. With practice, children will get better and better at this activity and they match different tones with me. Participating in activities such as this, children will begin to sing in tune more easily and even get a little exposure to solfege.

Our Herdwick lamb friends join us again this week in a podcast called HERDWICK ADVENTURE. Scott gets us started with a hello song where you can join in with lots of actions. Anneliese then sings about lots of different animals you might see on a farm, and the sounds they make, –another chance to sing along. This is one of my favorite compositions and very popular in a group setting as children love to choose animals to put in the song. It is also very adaptable – instead of “I went to the farm” you could sing “I went to the zoo” or “I went to the ocean” and sing about appropriate animals.

I really enjoy writing stories about the Herdwick lambs, a little group of friends – Fenton, Ralph, Paisley and Madge –  who have several adventures in different podcasts. This story has Madge getting involved with paint. She gets quite messy!

Jared and Anneliese sing the last song together with Jared asking the question “What can I do with you?” and Anneliese answering, coming up with lots of ideas of things they can do together. You get to join in too, and you can make up your own answer to the question!

 

Listen, and join in, with this nursery rhymes called “Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly Away Home.” When you know the rhyme, you can add your own rhyming words – just like I did in this audio file.

Children enjoy coming up with rhyming words, even if they are not even real words. Have fun!