I love when I find books that sing. These are the books with the lyrics of the children’s favourite songs. It’s easy to find books that use the lyrics of nursery rhymes and other familiar children’s songs. It’s a day to celebrate when you find that one of your favourite children’s musical artists have produced book copies of their songs.
If you haven’t been using Laurie Berkner songs with the young people in your life, you will want to start. People magazine used the phrase “the queen of kids’ music” to describe her place in the musical world. According to Laurie, “When I’m writing a song, I’m thinking about whether the kids will like it and whether I’m going to connect to them through it. I’m also thinking about whether I want to sing it over and over again, so I guess that’s the part that connects with adults. ‘Old MacDonald Had a Farm’ is a great song for kids, but I couldn’t sing it 100 times!”
Three of our favourites are The Goldfish , The Cat Came Back and We are the Dinosaurs. I was excited when I saw that she had published children’s picture books for We are the Dinosaurs and Monster Boogie (sure to be a favourite as well).
Benefits to Using Songs
There are so many benefits to using songs with our early learners.
- Songs easily grab children’s attention and keeps them engaged and focused
- Songs are wonderful for transitioning from one activity to another
- Songs with movement are great for a quick energy release
- Songs may introduce new vocabulary
- Many songs rhyme, which help our children listen to the ending sounds of words
- Singing helps children hear smaller sounds in words
- Singing builds community and through repetition singing builds confidence, especially with my English Language Learners
- As a management tool, if I need to quickly grab the attention of students, I sing what I need to say. It’s amazing how quickly this change in my speech pattern causes the students to stop, look and listen.
Do you have favouite books that sing?
Happy Teaching,
Lynda
