CHILDREN'S LITERATURE - BOOKS TO SING

Hubble Bubble, Granny Trouble
Written by Tracey Corderoy
Illustrated by Joe Berger
ISBN-13: 978-0-857-63027-8

I just added this wonderful addition to my October collection of children's books.  The book begins with a little girl stating that her "grandmother is quite different."  Boy -- is she really.  She wears crazy clothes, her car can fly, she has odd pets, and she makes soup with slime and frog poop.  (Yes, I said the word "poop" under my breath and the kids just thought it was a RIOT!)

The book can be adapted to the folk melody of "Cindy" and after reading each of the 2 4-line stanza's, I added a simple echo pattern.    The kids just got so ticked with the language and have been asking all week if I'm going to do the "hubble bubble granny" again next week.

Activity 1:  RHYME / ECHO
Hubble bubble (echo: hubble bubble)
Hubble bubble (echo: hubble bubble)
Hubble bubble (echo: hubble bubble)
Granny trouble! (echo: Granny trouble!)

Activity 2:  RHYME
The second time we echo the simple rhyme, we say the last line ("Granny trouble!") together - no echo!
Hubble bubble (echo: hubble bubble)
Hubble bubble (echo: hubble bubble)

Hubble bubble (echo: hubble bubble)

Granny trouble! (everyone says this at the same time - NO echo)

Activity 3:  RHYME / SONG

The third time I read through the story, we added a sol-la-so-mi song with our words.  We ended our poem on do - as I am working with activities that PRACTICE the do concept.

   s      s     l      l       s     s     l      l       s     s      l     l

Hub-ble bub-ble, hub-ble bub-ble, hub-ble bub-ble
  s      s     d     d
Gran-ny trou-ble!


Enjoy and keep singing.  Click the link below to purchase this book.

Hubble Bubble, Granny Trouble

STEADY BEAT - ITSY BITSY SPIDER

The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.
Down came the rain and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun and dried up all the land
And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.

While my little ones have been enjoying the poems and rhymes of the season, my upper grades have been looking at the primary bulletin boards and reciting the poems as they enter and leave class.  So with an opportunity waiting to reinforce nursery rhyme and body percussion, I decided to use a body percussion activity to review and move to some of the basic rhythm patterns we have learned.

Here are a two things we have done with the poem:

ACTIVITY 1:
1.  After saying each line, add body percussion indicated.
The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.
Stomp 4 times.
Down came the rain and washed the spider out.
Pat 4 times.
Out came the sun and dried up all the land
Clap 4 times.
And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.
Snap 4 times.

2.  Repeat the poem, but only performing body percussion 2 times after each line.
Example:
The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.
Stomp 2 times.

3.  Repeat the poem, but only perform a single body percussion after each line.
Example:
The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.
Stomp 1 times.

Add this idea to create a CODA: Go up and back down the body percussion 1 time:
L Stomp, pat, clap, L snap, R snap, clap, pat, R stomp.


ACTIVITY 2:
1.  While saying each line, add body percussion indicated at the same time.
The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.
Stomp 4 times; Pat 4 times.
Down came the rain and washed the spider out.
Clap 4 times; Snap 4 times.
Out came the sun and dried up all the land
Stomp 2 times; Pat 2 times; Clap 2 times; Snap 2 times.
And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.

CODA: Go up and back down the body percussion 1 time:
Snap with both hands, clap, pat, stomp L, stomp R, pat, clap, snap both hands.


EXTENSION:
The kids changed the coda to have the last 2 snaps perform on the last beat of a 4-beat sixteenth of 7 and the 8.  Here's how they were counting it:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6  - 7 - a-8


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MELODY - LITTLE BAT

Little bat, little bat,
You are such an acrobat.
Flying low and flying high
in the dark October sky.
                    Original Poem by T Borden


My Grade 3 students are doing really well with singing and recognizing mi re do patterns.  With the past few weeks of success, I want to push their literacy to include reading, creating and improvising -  transferring to soprano recorder.

This week, I used Little Bat as my foundation to create simple B-A-G melody patterns for a B Section in our poem.  I found some wonderful unfinished wooden bats online and purchased and painted them black.  On each of the bats, I place glow-in-the-dark letters -- m, r, and d.

One of my October bulletin boards has a large tree on the left side of the board.  While the tree has many limbs, I purposely created two longer branches that comes out from the left side into the right side of the board.  This creates a B and G line -- the space between is our A space.  While we recited the poem, I placed 8 bat shapes on the 2 tree limbs and in the space between to create a class m-r-d melody.  We sang this after the poem, and then repeated the poem - creating an ABA form.  After completing this a few times, I invited a student to "create" his/her own "batty" melody as we recited the poem.  The only criteria I gave them was that the last bat MUST end on the bottom branch - so that our melody would end in do.

The second time we did this, I used a set of bats that did NOT have m, r, d letters on them.  I wanted them to begin reading the m-r-d patterns.  Then we repeated the activity as above - creating several ABA selections.

Then I decided that it would be fun to provide the children with an opportunity to create their own "batty" experiences.  To do this, I had the children trace each hand on black construction paper with a black crayon, pencil or marker.  Once they had traced each hand and cut them out carefully with safety scissors, they used glue sticks to glue the right thumb on top of the left thumb -- leaving the 4 fingers wiggling on each side.  The 2 thumbs (glued on top of one another) create the bat body.  Add white paper eyes (or wiggly eyes from the craft store) -- or just click on the link below to buy them.

As the children recite the poem, choose 7 children to place their bat on the bulletin board.  I used an owl with a quarter rest in his tummy for the last beat.  Remind them that bats do not like to be on top of one another -- thus, the bats can be "read" from left to right.

After reciting the poem, invite the children to sing to pattern on mi, re, do.  Repeat the poem and then invite them to play the new "bat" song.

Repeat the whole thing again to create a rondo pattern.

FORM:  A - Poem
              B - Sing "bat" melody
              A - Poem
              C - Play "bat" melody
              A - Poem

Extension:  Try playing these B-A-G melodies on soprano recorder.

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STEADY BEAT - LITTLE BAT

I am using this poem to reinforce steady beat with my primary class.  Since it has an autumn feel, but isn't a Halloween poem, all of my children can participate.

Little bat, little bat,
You are such an acrobat.
Flying low and flying high
in the dark October sky.
                    Original Poem by T Borden

Formation: Circle, Seated

Invite the children sitting in the circle say the poem.  Choose one child one child to take the bat puppet and walk around the outside of the circle gently tapping each classmate on both the left and right shoulder.  ( I found that by tapping both shoulders, it makes it much easier for children to move around the circle without having to run.)  At the end of the poem, the child with the puppet trades places with the last student he/she tapped and the poem begins again.

Click any title to purchase a children's literature selection:
Bat Jamboree - Written by Kathi Appelt
Bats - Written by Gail Gibbons
Bats at the Ballgame - Written by Brian Lies

Bats at the Beach - Written by Brian Lies

Bats at the Library - Brian Lies

Nightsong - Written by Ari Berk
Stellaluna - Janell Cannon
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat - Lucille Colandro

Zipping, Zapping, Zooming Bats - Ann Earle

FOR MORE INFO ON THESE TWO PUPPETS - CLICK THE PUPPET TAB ON THE HOME PAGE.

TO ORDER EITHER PUPPET -- EMAIL US AT creativemusicclassrooms@gmail.com.