Magical Movement Company: Carolyn's blog: cultural studies

Musically Montessori: Let's All Sing the "Penguin, Penguin Song"

Carolyn 10:57 AM

IT MAY BE SUMMER, AND IT MAY BE HOT...BUT LITTLE CHILDREN LOVE TO "COOL DOWN" WITH PENGUIN SONGS AND THE STUDY OF ANTARCTICA!

During my many years in the Montessori classroom, I found that the Preschool children loved studying about the continent of Antarctica during the warmer days of summer because we could have fun outdoors with ice sculptures and penguins!

KEEPING COOL

What could be more fun than filling the water table with water, plastic models of penguins and lots of ice cubes?

Our Montessori Preschoolers had fun creating "icebergs" in the summertime water table for their exploration of penguins and the continent of Antarctica.

Ideas:

We added ice cubes and a bag of crushed ice to the water in the water table with lots of model penguins.
We also had fun with plastic penguins encased in ice cubes!

~You can use the small sized penguins that come in the Wild

Safari "Penguin Toob" and plastic containers filled with water

and placed in the freezer to create "penguins in an ice cube!"

We created beautiful "ice sculptures" with bags of large blocks of ice and rock salt.

~Set up an outdoor area where you can make a wet mess:

children build sculptures by placing ice blocks and then

sprinkling rock salt on the block.

~Next, add another block of ice and more rock salt. The rock

salt causes the ice blocks to stick together. Add plastic

penguins to go sliding down the ice!

KEEP SINGING

We sang a simple "sol-mi" song about Penguins. Here are the words to the song. Use the melody of "Rain, Rain Go Away!" Invite the children to do the actions in the song, too.

CREATE A FULL UNIT TO

ADD TO YOUR ANTARCTICA STUDIES

You can create a fun Unit of Activities to incorporate musical activities into your studies of the Continent of Antarctica.

I invite you to check out my TPT Activity unit HERE.

WHAT IS INSIDE the TpT PACKET:

~ A Montessori-style Write-up of Activities and how to present them to the children

~ Links to hear the song sung by me

~ Downloadable Printable Templates:

· Visuals of Penguins and Antarctica

· Action Command Cards to go along with this song

· Sequence Cards of the Life Cycle of the Penguin

· Make Your Own Stick Puppet

~ More Resources

"All About Penguins for Kids" Youtube video

"Penguin Ice Skating Activity" Youtube video

~ An Outline of ways this Activity benefits the child (a rationale)

You can learn more at my TpT Store.

Have fun and stay cool!

Have you joined my mailing list? I have lots of free resources at my Subscribers Freebie Collection that you can access, when you join thousands of educators all over the world who subscribe!

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

My first eBook is one of the free downloads for my subscribers!

I invite you to explore my suite of Musically Montessori eCourses

at Trillium Montessori Courses

"Creating an Art Curriculum for Young Children" eCourse

at Trillium Montessori Courses

Thank you for visiting my Blog today, and I hope you have found some fun ideas for your children.

Photos in this article are from Adobe Stock and Pixabay

Advertising Disclosure: Magical Movement Company may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. Thanks for your support!

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Musically Montessori "Nutcracker Ballet Suite for Kids" Vlog

Carolyn 3:32 PM

THE SEASON IS WITH US AGAIN FOR CELEBRATIONS AND MUSICAL EVENTS!

How about some fun activities for your group featuring Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Ballet Suite?

Here are some of my videos to give you a small idea of how much magic you can create with this wonderful music of the season. I invite you to check out my "Nutcracker Suite for Little Kids" eCourse and learn more.

Clara Throws Her Shoe to Scare the Mice

from Gobbling Up All The Goodies Under the Tree

"Carolyn's Nutcracker Suite Vlog 2022"

I INVITE YOU TO EXPLORE ALL MY eCOURSES

My Musically Montessori eCourses are now located at Trillium Montessori Courses.

And, my newest course, "Art Curriculum for Young Children" eCourse is also at Trillium!

My Blogs About Nutcracker Ballet Suite

More of my Blog Articles about The Nutcracker Ballet Suite and activities for children, including Montessori style Practical Life activities!

~ "If You Are Planning To Take Your Child to See The Nutcracker Ballet"

~ "Carolyn's Nutcracker Dancing Song Circle Game"

~ "The Fun of Castanets & Children Playing Along to The Chocolate Dance from the Nutcracker Ballet Suite"

~ Artfully Montessori: Practical Life Activities for Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite for Little Kids"

More Nutcracker Ballet Suite Resources

If you are on my email list, then you have access to my Subscribers Freebie Collection , and there are 2 lovely and free Nutcracker Activities just waiting for you to download and set up for your little ones.

There are also two Magical Movement Company Activity Packs featuring The Nutcracker Ballet Suite for children at my Teachers Pay Teachers Shop:

"Nutcracker Suite Rhythm Instruments Play-Along"

"Nutcracker Suite Music Games for Little Kids"

Thanks again for visiting my Blog today...It's a Vlog!

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Musically Montessori: "Head and Shoulders, Baby 1-2-3" Song with Fun Activities

Carolyn 3:08 AM

SOME OF THE FAVORITE PRESCHOOL MUSIC ACTIVITIES FROM THE "HEAD & SHOULDERS, BABY 1-2-3" SONG CAN FIT BEAUTIFULLY WITH YOUR MONTESSORI STUDIES OF THE HUMAN BODY.

If you aren't familiar with this old-fashioned song, which has been a traditional playground game from the musical history of "play party games," you'll surely fall in love with it! The first time I heard this one was during my Orff-Schulwerk children's music training decades ago, and I have enthusiastically offered it to my Preschool groups ever since. And, the children love it just as much as I do! I always introduce this fun song when we are learning about the parts of the human body. It is a delightful way to learn the vocabulary of the Parts of the Body.

THE SONG

You can listen to children singing the song in this Youtube video:

MOVEMENT

Whenever I begin a Music Circle Time with Preschoolers, I plan for a way to incorporate movement with the music. The "Head and Shoulders, Baby" song IS a movement song. That makes it quite engaging for the children. I have often used it for transitioning to another part of the day.

However, the best part of this song is its rich way of exploring the names of the parts of the human body. And, this is one of those songs that you can embellish as you like. You can sing not only about head and shoulders, but also about knees and ankles, elbows, cheeks, wrists, neck, forehead, and the list goes on! Lots of vocabulary development can happen with additional verses to this song.

BODY COORDINATION

As Montessori educators, we like to understand the rationale of all activities we offer to the children. With movement comes understanding and refinement of how to use the muscles in an intentional and organized manner.

"The observation of the way in which the children pass from the first disordered movements to those which are spontaneous and ordered...this is the book of the teacher: this is the book which must inspire her actions." The Montessori Method by Dr. Montessori (1912)

In addition, when you combine movement with music, you as the teacher, give children more avenues of learning. Combining music, singing, and moving around is engaging for just about every young child.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT and
CREATIVE THINKING

Now, as Montessorians, we also love to provide follow-up activities to reinforce learning.

With songs, I always like to create a "Song Card" with the words of the song written on it. Then, the children enjoy "reading" the words to the song during work time. Reading the words is easy for the children because they have learned the song through singing it!

With this fun song, you can connect the words to a set of Montessori 3-Part Cards featuring the parts of the human body. This classic Montessori Language activity can serve to bring the vocabulary development to the child that can reinforce the words of the song. It also gives children more new words (parts of the body) to include in spontaneous verses to add to the song.

Making a prop, such as a Moveable Stick Puppet, is not only a fun art project, but is also an involved process that enhances cognitive development. When following the step-by-step process of creating a puppet, the child refines important skills necessary in developing reading and math operations. Then, there is the small motor development when cutting out the shape of the puppet, coloring it in, and attaching it to the craft stick. These activities build the muscles of the fingers and hand that are important for writing.

Later, the children can move their puppet/props to go along with singing the song!

The activities I've presented in this blog article today are from one of my Musically Montessori eCourses.

MUSICALLY MONTESSORI ECOURSES

This song is featured in Lesson One of my Musically Montessori eCourse "Let's All Sing" 15-Days of Songs & Activities for your Montessori Preschool music curriculum.

You can get a full lesson plan with downloadable templates for creating:

"Head & Shoulders, Baby 1-2-3" song card
Song Picture Sequencing Cards
Montessori style 3-Part Cards ("Parts of the Human Body")
"Make your own Moveable Stick Puppet"
Links to resources

I even have a free "Let's All Sing" 5-Day Mini eCourse and most of my other eCourses have free sample lessons so that you can try them out at no cost!

CLICK HERE to learn more

I am happy to

Join my email list and you will be able to access my Subscribers Freebie Collection with 30+ Printables, Mp3 Music, and my eBook, "First Lessons."

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Photos in this blog are from Adobe Stock.

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Musically Montessori: Let's All Sing: "The Continents Song" with Ten Activities

Carolyn 5:26 PM

DO YOUR MONTESSORI CHILDREN LOVE SINGING "THE CONTINENTS SONG" AS MUCH AS MY GROUPS DO? Here are ten fun extensions for creating learning experiences through Music and The Arts.

PREPARE THE CHILDREN

Fortunately, there are lots of materials in the Montessori pedagogy that lay a foundation for learning about the continents of the world through hands-on experiences with Manipulatives.

There is the sandpaper land & water globe, the color-coded continent globe, and then the color-coded "Continents Map."

Even if you don't have access to all of the Montessori Cultural Studies Materials, you can still offer children a Globe and Visuals of a World Map.

REINFORCE THE NAMES OF THE CONTINENTS

WITH A SONG

After the children have had lots of hands-on experiences with globes and puzzle maps, you can teach them "The Continents Song," while you point to each continent when its name comes up in the song.

There are lots of versions of "The Continents Song" that you will hear in Montessori classrooms all over the world.

My groups have two favorites: one that is short and one that is long!

1. "The Continents Song"

SHORT VERSION

I always introduce the short version to the children first. You can listen to my short version of the song at my Youtube channel HERE.

Eventually, you can introduce the children to the longer version, which is more repetitive and very fun rhythmically!

2. "The Continents Song"

LONG VERSION

Here's the YouTube video I created for the longer version of "The Continents Song."

PROVIDE EXTENSIONS FOR GROUP AND

INDIVIDUALIZED ACTIVITIES

There are lots of fun musical extensions to reinforce the names of the continents of the world.

One activity is to clap the rhythm of each of the names of the continents.

In Lesson #11 of my Musically Montessori eCourse, "Let's All Sing: 15-Day Challenge," you will be able to download a set of rhythm notation and recitation cards for each of the Continents.

3. Clapping the Rhythm of the

Names of the Continents

In that Lesson #11 from my Let's All Sing eCourse, you'll find lots of ideas for extensions along with downloadable Printables to bring the Lesson to the children through many of the areas of the Preschool curriculum, including:

Visuals of the Continents Map and Musical Notation Cards
Rhythm Pattern Cards for Movement Activities
Rhythm "Body Percussion"/ Command Cards
"Make Your Own Musical Map" Individualized Shelf Work
Picture Cards of rhythm instruments for creating a classroom "Performance"

Click here to learn more about the eCourse: "Let's All Sing eCourses."

MORE WAYS TO REINFORCE LEARNING ABOUT THE CONTINENTS OF THE WORLD

4. Greet children in the Language of the

Featured Country of Each Continent

"Jambo"

Saying "Hello" in Swahili, one of the languages of Africa, during

our Cultural Studies of Africa

5. Provide Activities for Movement

on the Montessori Line

Give children baskets to carry, trays of tea cups, or flags for marching that reflect the lives of the people of your featured country or continent in your Cultural Studies Curriculum.

Here's one of my Blog Articles about this activity: "Musical Story for Preschoolers to Enjoy a Walk to the River."

6. Set up the Pattern on your Calendar Inserts

that are the Cut-outs of the 7 Continents

I traced each continent from the Montessori Continents Puzzle Map, on color-coded paper, and then made calendar inserts, enough to create the pattern for the days of the month in which I first introduced "The Continents Song." You can sing the Short Version of the Song each morning so that the children can predict what comes next in the pattern.

7. Teach the Children Traditional Dances

from the Country or Continent being Featured.

Providing long ribbons for children to dance the Chinese Ribbon Dance is a fun way to celebrate the continent of Asia. Put on some lively traditional music of China and invite the children to dance!

You can read about how I do this Activity with my groups HERE:

"Celebrating Chinese New Year with Ribbon Dancing for Little Children."

8. Create Stories for Dramatizing the Daily Activities of the People from the Country Being Featured

This is a picture of children walking on a balance beam in our Drama Play Story of the "Alligator in the River" during our Cultural Studies of Africa. You can create stories for children to dramatize with Movement Activities, props, child-made stick puppets, masks, or with rhythm instruments that feature the country of study.

You can see how I've created these stories for my groups in my Blog Articles:

~ "Little Children in the Rainforest"

~ "Africa-inspired Balance Beam Fun: Crossing the Bridge at Alligator Alley"

9. Create "Sandpaper Continents" for Each

of the Continents of the World

As you introduce each of the continents in more depth over the months, you can set up a fun station for creating "Sandpaper Continent" cards. My groups have always greatly enjoyed this activity!

Provide a tray with pieces of cardboard, a pencil, glue stick, and colored sand in a shaker bottle. The sand is color-coded for each continent.
The child chooses the continent to work with, then fetches that puzzle piece from the Montessori Continents Map.
Next, the child traces the shape of the continent on a piece of cardboard.
Then, s/he fills in the tracing with glue.
Now it is time to shake the sand onto the glue-filled shape.
After, the child has filled in the shape with the colored sand, then s/he can pour off the excess sand into a container to save for art projects.
Finally, the child (or teacher) can write the name of continent on the card.

10. Check Out My "Let's All Sing" eCourses

or my TpT Continents Song Activity Packet

CLICK HERE to learn more about my Musically Montessori "Let's All Sing" Free 5-Day Challenge and 15-Day Challenge

CLICK HERE to learn more about my TpT Activity Packet, Musically Montessori "Let's All Sing" The Continents Song

MORE RESOURCES

~ "Montessori-Inspired Continents Bundle" from Every Star Is Different

~ Trillium Printables Full Packet (includes Continent Bundle) from Trillium Montessori Shop

~ Have you joined my mailing list? My subscribers have access to my 30+ free resources, including my "Musically Montessori First Lessons eBook."

You can subscribe on the sidebar of this blog or scroll down if you are on a phone or tablet.

JOIN MY EMAIL LIST

I'm happy to see you here at my Blog today. I hope you have gotten some musical ideas for your children!

Photos in this Blog are from Adobe Stock, Depositphotos, and Magical Movement Company Archives.

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Musically Montessori Free Preschool Lesson VLOG: Let's All Sing "We're Going on a Lion Hunt"

Carolyn 5:33 PM

PRESCHOOLERS IN MY MONTESSORI GROUPS LOVE REPETITIVE SONGS THAT REQUIRE THEIR PARTICIPATION.
"We're Going On a Lion Hunt" has always been one of their favorites!
You can get this FULL lesson for free at my "Musically Montessori" eCourse site. (or purchase the Full Lesson at my TpT Store.)
You'll find THE LINKS at the END of this post.

LET'S GO ON A LION HUNT!

Recently, I spent just about the entire season of Autumn taking care of my little grandchild who turned three during those months.

Every night, at bedtime, he would ask me to tell him a story. Then, he would have to have a song...too. You probably know that little routine: Child thinks: " Let's stretch out this cuddly time before going to sleep! A book, a story, a drink of water, gotta go to potty, oh...and please sing me a song!"

Over the weeks, my grandchild became very particular about the story and the song. For his younger years he had always asked for stories about Minnie Mouse or a cute little bunny, etc. And, his song request was always "Old MacDonald".

However, during these recent months, he had moved into his "big boy" bed and he wanted stories about lions, dinosaurs, and then about super heroes. He also wanted our night-time song to go along with the subject of the story!

When he heard "We're Going on a Lion Hunt" after our "Lion Story" he proceeded to ask for that song (rhyme) every night! That's when I remembered how much my Montessori groups had loved that song when I was a teacher in the classroom.

After weeks of the Lion Hunt, I began to get requests for going on a T-Rex Hunt...then a Pteranodon Hunt, and then even a Spiderman Hunt!

I hadn't realized how versatile this little rhyme could be!

I've prepared one of my quirky videos so you can hear how my version of the rhyme goes:

Magical Movement Company's YouTube Video:"Going on a Lion Hunt" with Carolyn from Musically Montessori eCourses

"We're Going on a Lion Hunt"

This repetitive rhyme is fun for Preschoolers and doesn't require a perfectly tuned singing voice. It is actually spoken in a steady, rhythmical way. Great for "first days" and great for "warming up" the group. (or even transition times!)

THE WORDS

~1. "We're going on a lion hunt,"

~2. "We're going on a lion hunt, to see if we can find one"

~3. "Stop...Look...and Listen..."

~4. "Ribbit!" (this is where the teacher makes a sound that a familiar animal would make, ex: frog, or bird, or cow, etc.)

~5. Everyone says: "No, that's a frog!" (or a bird, cow, snake, dog, cat etc.)

~6. Return to line 1 etc. of the rhyme (see above)

~ Repeat:

~1. "We're going on a lion hunt," etc... (continue with lines ~2, ~3...)

~4. (teacher makes another animal sound, as above, ex: bird)

~5. Everyone says "No, that's a bird!"

~6. Return to line 1 and proceed as above with a different animal sound

Repeat ~1 through ~6 as long as children are engaged (I suggest 5 or 6 animal sounds)

Finally...it's time for the animal sound to be a lion's roar!

Now, the children tap their knees quickly as if running back home!

THE ACTIONS

(to go along with the lines of the rhyme above)

~1. Pat alternating knees as if "walking"

~2. Continue patting motions

~3. "Stop"= hold hand up like a stop sign "Look"= make "binoculars" with fingers "Listen"= cup hand up to ear

~4. Make the motions to go along with the sound of the animal the Teacher is making

EXTENSIONS

(PDF Downloadable Templates are available at the links below)

+ Change the animal you are hunting for... (ex: "Bear", "T-Rex", or even "Spiderman" (he makes s swishing "web-making" sound)

+ Make up a "Drama Game": Provide pictures of various animals that you will include in the rhyme, then invite one child at a time to come up and pick a picture and make the sound of the animal pictured.

+ Substitute rhythm instruments (ex: Rhythm Sticks, maracas, tambourine, drum etc) for the sounds that the animals actually make. Use the pictures of animals and then assign an instrument to each picture. Children respond according to each instrument you play. TIP: a drum makes a good "roar" for the lion!

+ Set up an individualized Shelf Work for free play or work time: Place a plastic model of a lion, child-sized binoculars and a small selection of plastic animal models in a basket. One child hides the animals, then the other child uses the binoculars to "hunt" for the lion. They can sing the rhyme while they play!

+ Create a “Rebus” Story with this rhyme using pictures for the key words

+ Make Stick Puppets for dramatizing the Rhyme. On card stock print pictures (or outlines) of animals. Cut them out. Attach to craft sticks.

+ Include this activity in your Cultural Studies Unit featuring African Animals

GET YOUR FREE RESOURCES!

CLICK THIS LINK to access this Full Preview Lesson for FREE

Musically Montessori eCourses:

"Let's All Sing" 15-Day Challenge
****Click the link "1 free lesson is available"****