I need some songs for kindy kids that I could buy on CD or download. I’m thinking of stuff which has some good tunes, easy vocabulary, but isn’t the usual ‘Wheels on the bus’ stuff that they already know. Anyhting good. Any good artists who do stuff for little 'uns?
Brian
Steve and Greg, Raffi, The Wiggles, Hap Palmer, Fred Penna, even Disney and Sesame Street…you could type these names into a certain P2P application and find a plethora of downloadable music. Tiny Tots (near Zhonghsiao Fuxing and Jian Guo Rd. intersection) has a case full of children’s music although it’s a little pricy.
Thanks Imani. That’s the sort of thing I was thinking of. Any of these you recommend?
Brian
They have lots of albums out. I think they have their own websites, though, where you could check out their discographies and decide which songs are more appropriate to your needs. I personally recommend The Wiggles’ Big Red Car, So Big by Hap Palmer (my 3-4 year-olds class loved the Five Little Monkeys song), and Greg and Steve’s We All Live Together (vol. 1-4). Volume 2 is what my own preschool teacher played on the record player and with my favorite songs which I still can sing (The Months of the Year song and The Muffin Man)… plus the wicked 70’s art on the covers. Sharon, Lois, and Bram do some really good kids’ music too. Greg and Steve do a lot with covering important concepts. Other language concepts can be found on the Schoolhouse Rocks! CD such as nouns, conjunctions, adverbs… There are other artists out there, many of these albums and artists can be found at TT.
I taught my kids “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath. For a kindy song to be succesful the melody should repeat, be of slow tempo, and fun to sing. Kinda funny when the kids are doing arts and crafts and singing “He was turned to steel, in the great magnetic field.” Have fun and be creative. I’ve taught everything from Kiss’ “Beth” to Black Sabbath. Just because it’s not a children’s song doesn’t mean you can’t teach it…
In no way do I advocate piracy, but, Kazaa has ample children’s music for the relatively low price of…free.
But one would have to know the keywords (like good artists) to search for, wouldn’t they. Hence my question. Thanks Imani. Anyone else? I want EASY stuff.
Brian
www.brianfunshine.com I haven’t listened to his CDs yet but we should try to support fellow Forumosans. He does Kindermusik at the Community Services Center too.
Just remembered this other site with cute kids’ music although some of it may not be very good if your students speak limited English: www.musicforaardvarks.com
Taxi, taxi, riding in the backseat
Roll the window up
Roll the window down
Put the money in the slot
See you later!
Thanks a lot!
Sure beats walkin’ 'cross town
My preschool summer camp class loved Octopus’ Garden by the Beatles when we did an Ocean Life theme.
The Wiggles, a few better ones include - toot toot chugga chugga big red car, henry’s underwater band, dance like henry, look both ways, DOROTHY the dinosaur, fruit salad, Yawn Yawn Yawn. Their best album imo is toot toot. Also check out Hooley Dooleys and High 5.
Amos,
If only your mates back in Oz could see you now!! What would they say??
Hijacking this topic… sorry.
My 3yo English-speaking daughter prefers Chinese Wiggles over Aussie–she doesn’t even speak Chinese! Anyone know where to find English lyrics for me?
Let’s see Brian, assuming you are new to file sharing programs such as Kazaa, try typing in children’s music, if that doesn’t help, then Raffi, Fred Penner, Sharon, Lois and Bram, ELT for Kids, if these don’t work try some song names, Never Smile at a Crocodile, Skidamarink, Bathtime, The Story of Blunder, The Cat Came Back, if you still have trouble ask one of your kids to help. When using a file sharing program several different titles and artists will appear. A good artist is one that you like and your children like. The beauty of file sharing programs is that you can download them all and delete the ones you don’t like.
[quote=“braxtonhicks”]Hijacking this topic… sorry.
My 3yo English-speaking daughter prefers Chinese Wiggles over Aussie–she doesn’t even speak Chinese! Anyone know where to find English lyrics for me?[/quote]
Do they have their lyrics in English? I thought they just translated the English lyrics into Chinese. I was not aware that they did their own songs.
My favorite Wiggles CD is Big Red Car. My favorite Hap Palmer is Big Fun. I suggest popping into tiny tots preschool and skimming their CD collection for names and titles. Their educational store is really nice for teachers (even if a little overpriced) with a huge selection of books, teaching materials, visuals, and learning games.
One word: Ramones.
Simple words, extremely catchy, and so uptempo you can’t help but dance and sing along. Most of their music sounds like it was made by children, anyway. I’ve taught kids both:
“Beat on the brat, beat on the brat, beat on the brat with a baseball bat!”
and
“Now I wanna sniff some glue
Now I wanna have something to do
All the kids wanna sniff some glue
All the kids want something to do”
Simple, but effective. Coincidentally, the school has had some problems with stolen office supplies ever since I taught them that last tune. They can’t seem to keep their Elmer’s and Carbona in stock. Also, some of the kids seem to come into class with this real glazed over sort of look, and I’ve noticed instead of improving their English, they seem to actually be getting dumber…like something killing their brain cells, or something. I’m not sure why.
I find that a lot of young people, teenagers and college students, are into hip hop. So when I teach those classes, I bring copies of lyrics by the likes of Eminem, the Geto Boyz, NWA, Snoop Doggy Dogg, the Wu Tang posse, stuff on that trip. It’s a real vocabulary expander, as you know a lot of these terms in the songs can’t be found in normal English textbooks. Also you can use it to teach such things about daily American life such as what area codes are, using a song like “I Got Ho’s in Different Area Codes.” My students are amazed that the English language is so rich in synonyms, with so many wonderfully varied terms for women’s reproductive anatomy. And how versatile this one four-letter word that starts with an F and ends with a K can be - you can use it as not only a verb, but also an adjective, noun, conjuction, preposition, exclamation, interrogative, and even an article to denote a pause. And it can denote a negative, positive, neutral, or simple be there to take up space in the rhythmic flow of the sentence.
mod lang, FYI I believe that RZA, Old Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Decks, The Ghost Face Killa, et al have formed into a CLAN, rather than a POSSE. I would so hate to see you dissed by a well informed student. Just watching your back homie. Peace out.
I have a hard time imagining a kindy class singing “beat on the brat with a baseball bat” for some reason.
I’m currently teaching one of my kindy classes “Country Roads” by John Denver, which they absolutely LOVE. They could sing it for hours on end.
I would think that that sort of folky type stuff would work well. John Denver, Cat Stevens, James Taylor etc.
Our kindergarteners have sung Cat Stevens songs for graduation in the past. I’ve never thought of using James Taylor, though. Food for thought…
I taught a song by Ween to some of my kindy kids. They loved the distorted goofy voices and playful instrumentals. I’d use plenty more Ween songs if not for the fact that 90% of their lyrics are disturbing as hell and not at all apropriate for kids.