Throw it out the Window

Well, life is starting to swing into gear around here with Christmas and New Year's behind us. Sometimes there is a little reluctance to get started (What?! No! Never!), and, as is the case in our house, laughter is usually the best medicine. Our #2 is especially grumpy lately, and nothing changes his mood like us getting him to start laughing.
One way to help cure some grumpies is.... Silly Songs!  And one of my favorites is "Throw it out the Window."

This song was first introduced to me by a dear friend (Hi, Cynthia!), who told me that her family used to sing this song on the road together as a family. I thought it was hilarious and immediately made her sing to me all the rhymes that went with it.

I'll have a recording of it a little later, but the words of the song could be any rhyme that you in your vocal ability can make fit into the time and pulse of the song.
Then, after about 2 lines of the song, you complete it with "she/he threw it out the window...."

Like so -

Let's take.... Jack and Jill.

Jack and Jill went up the hill
to fetch a pail of water,
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
Jill threw him out the window,
the window, the window,
she threw him out the window.
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
Jill threw him out the window.

Or, "Mary Had a Little Lamb"

Mary had a little lamb
whose fleece was white as snow,
and everywhere that Mary went,
she threw him out the window,
the window, the window,
she threw him out the window,
Everywhere that Mary went,
she threw him out the window.

Some of you are horrified right now (What? Throw him out the window? It sounds so violent!), but really, it's great fun. Try it!

This song can be done with oh-so-many Mother Goose rhymes that we know and love... Little Boy Blue, Little Miss Muffett, Cobbler, Cobbler, Mend My Shoe, Humpty Dumpty, Little Bo Peep, Old King Cole, Simple Simon Met A Pieman, etc....

It's a great (and silly) way to get some more rhymes in kids' heads, but what is educationally advantageous about it (yes, there has to be SOMETHING educational!), is the way it gets your brain to conform the words to the pattern of the song. Taking something long and drawn out, like "Little Miss Muffet" and speeding it up into a song is brilliant work for the brain's organizational music and rhyming abilities. My 5-year old can sort of keep up and my 3-year old listens and sings when he can. I think they'll be better at this as they get older, but it's been lots of fun already. :-)

This is great for car rides, transition times at school, singing while working/doing chores with your kids, while you get dinner ready and they are starving and hanging around your ankles.... Whenever!

So, without further ado, if you have not had the privilege of hearing this little tune already, here it is, being sung by a favorite crew of my husband's, "Trout Fishing In America"
Go Here!

Get some giggles and creativity going to start off the year! :-)


Did your family have a favorite song to sing in the car on long car rides?

Five Little Apples Chant and Finger-Play

Fall is *almost* here, so we're starting to get excited about all things apple (although most of the excitement is geared towards those things involving food).

This chant is about getting apples off a tree and involves a counting pattern from 5 down.

Why are chants or fingerplays worth my time, you may ask?

Well, my two top reasons are: they are rhythmic and rhyming, so they develop innate rhythm, which is uber important to instill at a young age since it is very hard to rectify a deficiency in natural rhythm as a child grows up.

Second, it strengthens their imagination and story-following ability. The rhyme and the actions help them to learn a story or routine; and they can mentally follow along with what's happening that much better.

So, this is one of my favorite chants/finger-plays, and it is easy-peasy to learn.


5 Little Apples - A Counting Chant

5 little apples in the apple tree,
The juiciest apples that you ever did see.
I shook that tree as hard as I could,
and down fell an apple and 'mmmm' was it good!

4 little apples in the apple tree....
3 little apples in the apple tree.....
etc...

The motions we used are as follows:

First, we had to make sure our hand had five fingers.

 Then we began the chant (by the time mommy started taking pics, little J was about done!)

"5 little apples...

...in the apple tree

 

the juiciest apples that you ever did...

 ...see!

 I shook that tree as hard as I could...  (this was the boys' favorite part... surprised?)

and down came the apple...

And mmmm, was it good!

 On the last apple that came down, we changed the words to "it was sooooooooooooooooooooo good!"- where they had to try and see who could hold "soooooo" for the longest. It was silly. :-)

Here's a quick video clip at the end of the fun, so it's not the best, but you get the idea!

Don't forget the Boynton (click:) Philadelphia Chickens CD Giveaway!

Practice Rhyming in Song

Remember Raffi? He's done more than just "Baby Beluga," my friends....
He did a fun rendition of "Down By the Bay" and it's been one of our favorite songs to sing around here because of its inherent silliness with the rhyming options (my boys' favorite characteristic) and its musicality (mommy's favorite characteristic).

Not familiar with this tune? Check it out Here.
Not the best video for its creative genius, but it'll teach you the song. :-)

This song allows your child to place rhyming words at the end that involve an animal doing something silly (like... "did you ever see some llamas eating their pajamas?").

So, gather kiddos and teach them the song. I actually find some of the best times to teach kids these songs is when we're not doing anything musical.... like getting ready for bed, driving in the car, getting dressed in the morning, cleaning up toys, etc...

It's a little tedious to have the kids hold the end of each phrase (down by the baaaaaaaay, where the watermelons grooooooooow....) without some cool guitar accompaniment, so I had the boys clap 4 times after each line.
Down by the bay (clap, clap, clap, clap)
Where the watermelons grow (clap, clap, clap, clap)...

I happened to find this great game at a consignment store:

From the above box, I selected combos of an animal and their rhyme that would work in the song (like... Did you ever see a fox hiding in a box?)
You don't need an official game though, you could simply print off pictures of rhyming words or look in your Memory Game box for some rhyming pics that would work... You don't need very many pairs - as many as you think your child will enjoy.

First, the boys had to match the rhyming pairs. Neither kiddo is reading yet, so mommy helped a lot; they did do good with hearing the matching sounds.

We chose three groups at a time to put with the song.
First we sang through the whole song for each pair.
Down by the bay (clap, clap, clap, clap)
etc.....

"...Did you ever see a snake using a rake, down by the bay?"

But, you could also just sing the song once then stick all the rhymes in sequence at the end (which is what we did after the first round because boys were getting a bit rowdy to get outside...)

Ex: "Did you ever see a snail, reading the mail? Did you ever see a goat riding in a boat? Did you ever see a dog playing with a frog, down by the bay?"

Have fun with rhyming and rhythm and singing all in one activity! Yippee!