show time
1) Learn to sing the song and make up some actions and a dance routine like a Broadway musical chorus line.
2) Make some costumes and use hats and canes.
3) Clap your hands and stomp your feet where the X’s are indicated in the lyrics or tap the beat with a tambourine
4) Share your early morning routine of how you get ready for school each day
child of the universe
[This song is a celebration of the beauty of the earth and its abundance and how we are all part of the cycle of life on this planet and the universe. It is about sharing the responsibility for providing our children with a better future and doing our part to leave a legacy of love and enlightenment.]
1) Discuss the global theme of the words. What do they mean to you?
2) Discuss the word ‘legacy’ and leaving something good behind for the next generation
3) List 10 things you can do to help take care of the world for the future
4) Paint a mural to show the beauty of the world. What in the world is beautiful to you?
5) Make your mural into a ‘global village’ showing what people are doing to help take care of the world
6) Write a story about your favourite scene in the world, like a sunset, mountain, ocean, etc…
chika chika - ‘catchy tune’
1) Sing along and do the actions for the chorus, or make up your own.
2) Discuss how music makes you feel. Can you list other ‘catchy tunes’ that
sometimes go around in your head?
3) Think of a song and hum it. What was the song?
Play a ‘guess that tune’ game.
a happy beat
1) Jump, slide & skip to the song
2) What other actions can you come up with?
3) Collect and share different songs with distinctive beats and rhythms. Can you move and dance to them? Describe the various ways that you move to the music. Explore contrasting beats and body actions like fast and slow, jagged and graceful, big and small.
4) Explore various types of dances from around the world on DVDs and web sites. Invite a folk dance instructor into your school
5) Learn ballroom dancing
web links:
buskers & clowns
1) Paint a mural of all different kinds of buskers & clowns.
2) Collect some stories and books about clowns and musicians.
3) What instruments to you hear in this song? Can you identify the tuba, or the accordion? Do you hear the drum?
4) Explore jugglers and the circus arts
5) Put on ‘busker fest’ in your school
web links:
cajun & zydeco
1) Learn the fox trot (version of the 2 step) and create a dance routine as you sing along to the song.
2) Create a study project on the Cajuns. Collect and share Cajun and zydeco music recordings.
3) Have a ‘Cajun – Zydeco’ dance party
crest of the wave
1) Learn to sing the song and create some visuals to display along with your performance ie. signs, pictures, slogans…etc
2) List all the ways you can think of to help make this world a better place
3) Create a weekly schedule and plan an action for each day that will have a positive impact on the environment
web links:
poetry
1) Write a poem and put it on display
2) Collect poems and word games and share them with the class
3) Who were some famous poets? Make a list.
4) Discuss the lyrics of this song and how you relate to some of the ideas
web links:
choo choo
1) Form a ‘human choo choo train’ and move around to the song.
2) Create train coach costumes out of cardboard boxes and paint them with your favourite colours
3) Collect pictures of different kinds of trains throughout history
4) Collect recordings of different train whistle sounds and compare them
web links:
gato negro
1) Make a cat costume and create a ‘cat act’ or ‘cat dance’.
2) Act out the words in the song as you sing it.
3) Collect all kinds of cat images and information to display in your gym and create a ‘cat mural’
web links:
sunrise in the jungle
1) Split the class into groups and have each groups learn to sing a verse
2) Paint a mural of a jungle and add all the animals you can think of.
3) Create a jungle in your classroom and decorate with paper maché leaves and birds, snakes, monkeys, etc….
web links:
bouncing ball
1) Paint a mural of many different kind of ‘ball’ games.
2) What is your favourite ball game?
3) Play a round of ‘catch’ to the song.
web links:
brazil
1) Find Brazil on a map of South America and learn about the country and people who live there.
2) Collect and share music from Brazil ie. ‘samba’, ‘bossa nova’, ‘forró’,
‘capoeira’, etc…
3) Discuss how music and songs can make you feel ie. ‘happy’, ‘sad’,
‘excited’, etc.…
web links:
wind in the rainforest
1) Paint a mural of a rainforest and include many different animals and birds
2) On a map of the world find all the countries where there are rainforests
3) Pretend that you are a bird and fly around to the music listening carefully to the fast and slow parts, or the loud and soft parts.
4) Some of the instruments you hear on this recording are the berimbau, the pan flutes, rain sticks, piano, female voices, and drums. Can you paint pictures of those instruments and singers? For the berimbau, check out the web link below
web links:
rub-a-dub
1) Perform swimming motions to go along with the chorus of the song
2) Make a ‘bath-time’ flow chart. Draw a picture of yourself in the middle and around you, add all the important things you need in the bathroom to wash and clean yourself with. – soap, tooth paste, washcloth, etc…
3) Learn about different ways people attend to their personal hygiene in other parts of the world and also throughout different times in history
4) Bring your favourite bath time toy to school for show and tell.
related reading: King Bidgood’s In The Bathtub - Audrey Wood
Waves In The Bathtub - Eugenie Fernandes
go well stay well
1) List different ‘farewells’ in other languages and on a map of the world, identify where they come from.
2) Create a ‘people paper chain’ with a different farewell on each link
3) Write a story about when you had to say good-bye to someone who you haven’t seen for a long time. How did it make you feel?
4) Discuss how time changes with new beginnings and endings. Create a time-line chart to illustrate major changes in your life. When was the first time you learned how to tie your shoe laces?… ride a bike?…learn to read?