Thursday, November 6, 2008

The Wacky Wednesday Song

The Wacky Wednesday Song
It's Wacky Wednesday Time,
And we sing songs that rhyme.
We roam from room to room,
We walk, and do not zoom.
We learn our A, B, C's,
And count each other's knees.
We make a friend or two,
Having fun at ______ _______ "zoo".(school)
We do not swing from trees,
Our teachers all, we please.
Now it's your turn to think,
And end this song with _________! (?)
(Take that last rhyming word and just repeat it over and over again to the melody you've been singing...just for the "sheer silliness" of it. The tune, by the way, is "It's Howdy Doodie Time"...if you can remember it from classic TV) i.e. sample, suggested words: "wink, or blink or pink or...stink" you could even use a nonsense word that rhymes with "think".
This is a song I came up with for the two Kindergartens where I "volunteer" weekly, on Wednesdays. Every month or so that the teacher have a "minimum day" on Wednesday. They decided to group the kids differently among the three or four rooms of "morning kindergarten". This was "cutting into" my "math game time" with my classes so...I decided to give them a "song" to "help"(?) them march from class to class.
It was also my objective to emphasize the necessity of "rhyming" for this age learner...pre-readers. They have got to "hear" rhymes and sounds and feel free to "play" with them. Creative verbal "babble" has to happen with all young learners and some don't even begin to do it until kindergarten or first. What I do see alot of is regimentation and strictness and no talking, especially in "lines" and walking from one place to another at school. Why not sing? and rhyme? I would've...and still do, I guess. Tunes and words are always going through my head...and I'll bet other kids, even grown up ones, have that same "malady".
Back in the early days of TV, one of my favorite shows was "Howdy Doodie Time". It was so silly and creative. It had puppets and "Clarabell the Clown". It had a "Peanut Gallery" and lots of songs were sung. We sang along and learned them all. There was my favorite puppet, "Princess Summerfallwinterspring". We learned alot and it was mostly through "silliness"...even though it was all in black and white. Yep, no color TV then. Color didn't come in until I started babysitting at our neighbor's house 'cause they had it. "Wonderful World of Disney" (in color) was on Sunday night and a great night for babysitting. Then we memorized songs like, "Davy Crockett". We also watched a serial called "The Last of the Mohicans". Ahh, those were the days! What do the kids do now? Don't even ask. It can't be as innocent or instructive. Que lastima!
I digress...Will the teachers involved with these kindergarten classes actually use this song or even teach it? Probably not. It was introduced just to get them to think about having some fun with their kids and help them be "creative" in their verbal play...through singing and wit. School should be fun, especially in Kindergarten, don't you think?...link?...clink?...zinc?...scrink? RRR

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

On Good Morning America last week they interviewed Paul Simon. He's getting up there. Diane asked him about his incredible ability to rhyme in the lyrics he's written over the years. When asked about the rhymes in "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" He confessed that he, at the time was teaching his 5 year old how to "rhyme"...so it was a "lesson"..."You just slip out the back Jack...Make alittle plan Stan...Don't need to be coy Roy...just get on the bus Gus...just turn in the key Lee etc." The subject matter is not to appropriate for a 5 year old, but that is the age where rhymes "stick". RRR