Tuesday Book Club: A Loud Winters Nap - A perfect sound story book!

I am almost done with winter break and will be using two books the week I get back.

Rock What Ya Got for grades 2-4 (Check out my post on RWYG HERE) and A Loud Winter's Nap for K-1.

A Loud Winter's Nap by Katy Hudson is the PERFECT sound story book where students can play instruments right along with the book.  A Tortoise is searching for a place to nap for the winter, but keeps getting woken up by friends making loud noises! There are singing birds, sled-building beavers, and more. 

When I read this book- I will read it straight through once, then read it again pausing to do a movement routine to each animal. (This would be a great idea for a Winter Program for K-1!)

Singing Robin- Rockin' Robin Plate Routine.  I made up a fun routine using plates (two per kid) to follow the form of the song.  We clap, flap, and shake along with the song! 

Ice-Sculpting Rabbit- Bunny Hop.  This dance is the one I remember doing when I was young! We follow the movements from THIS PERFORMANCE.  They love it!

You an also "build Ice Sculptures" to Trepak from The Nutcracker. Pose like an ice sculpter/ sculpture on the accented beats and chisel away at the ice during the A section.  During the B section, I have students brush away excess snow from the sculpture and think about what else their sculpture needs. 

Squirrel snowball fight- Scarf Movement to Waltz of the Snowflakes from The Nutcracker. This is free movement. Students use scarves to act as snowflakes and they toss, arc, and glide around the room.

Sled Building Beaver- Beaver Counting Song- We sing THIS SONG with fun motions as shown in the video.  You could either be the leader OR just have students follow along with the video. Eventually, students can sing along to it all.

Sled-Riding Tortoise- Tortoise Ribbon Routine- I made up a ribbon/scarf routine to Tortoise from Carnival of the Animals following the form of the song. You can see it below.  I also sometimes play a line rider video for this part as well. My students especially love the "Dance of the Line Riders" video by Doodle Chaos with 3 sleds! 

Ice Skating with Friends- Snowflake (Paper Plate) Ice Skating to Winter's Waltz from the Frozen Soundtrack.  I use THIS SONG and give students 2 laminated snowflakes or two paper plates each.  They then "Skate" around the room using their snowflakes/ plates as ice-skates.  This is free movement, but we talk about how skaters are graceful, etc.

The next class, students will be very familiar with the story, so they will be able to easily pick an instrument to go with each loud animal.  Students will then get to play their instrument during the story when their animal is mentioned.

Example instrument: Wood Block/ Temple Blocks for the Ice Sculpting Rabbit.

Enjoy reading this book!

Tuesday Book Club: The Snowy Day- A program illustrating the book by Ezra Jack Keats

I LOVE December! I love teaching all things snow, nutcracker, and Holiday AND coming up with Winter Programs is so fun. 

This year, my 3rd and 4th grade choir students performed a program musically illustrating the book
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  This book illustrates all I love about winter so well. It was PERFECT for a program.

I had student narrators read the story and we inserted a fun song every few pages.

Songs we performed:
It's a Marshmallow World
Frosty Weather 
Snowpants from Music K8
Body Percussion to Trepak (Check out this twitter link for a video of the routine!)

Here is a fun Plate Routine I made up as well

Jingle Bell Dash by James Pierpont (I wouldn't use this one anymore, due to learning more about the history of Jingle Bells!) 
In Summer- From Frozen
Winter Walk from Music K8 - We had an awesome 3rd grader play Violin along with this song!

Students seemed to LOVE all of our songs and had so much fun at our show.  What did you do for your Winter Program this year?

Think Spring- Over in the Meadow Program

It may be December, but I am thinking Spring! I am so excited to be at a school that does Kinder programs and I am even more excited to have put together a program based on the song-tale Over in the Meadow. It is SO CUTE!

This is such an easy and fun program to put together because there are so many versions of the song out there.  I made sure that students were singing lots of animal songs throughout the year and then they got to vote on their favorites to piece the program together.  I had 3rd and 4th grade siblings singing the narration with the kinders chiming in each verse.

Songs we performed were:

Hello Song
Turtle- Tortoise from Carnival of the Animals- Scarf Routine
Fish- Aquarium from Carnival of the Animals- Finger Light Routine
Robin- Rockin' Robin - the original Bobby Day Recording- Plate Routine
Chipmunk- The Sycamore played by The Canadian Brass- Ribbon Routine
Bee- I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee
Beaver- The Beaver Song (I learned this one in Girl Scouts when I was little but there are many versions online!)
Frog- Frog in the Meadow and On a Log, Mr. Frog
Lizard- The Lizard Song - It can be found on Youtube HERE.  I emailed the composer and got permission to sing the song in our program- he said he never actually wrote it down though.
Duck- Alle Meine Entchen (All the Little Ducklings) - we sang in both English and German!
Rabbit- The Bunny Hop Dance!

We also learned other songs throughout the year that matched other animals commonly in the Over in the Meadow song.  We learned Spider Songs, an Owl Flashlight Routine, another Owl Song, Fox Songs, Bird Songs and more!

The stage was super easy to decorate. I made lots of paper flowers and hung them up- easy peasy. Costumes were also super simple, as kids just wore their spring best!

If you want the routines I used, program templates, packs to teach some of the songs, and more- check out the program on TPT.  Or feel free to just use the ideas mentioned and make up your own! 

Get the program starter pack HERE! There are 4 song packs, 4 routines, programs, and ideas for over 15 animals all included!