A Collection of Stories, Rhymes ,and Songs shared in The Songbird’s Classroom 2014-2015 SEPTEMBER CIRCLE TIME (Language, Music, and Movement Curriculum) Song: Build the house up, brick by brick, Build the house up, brick by brick, Brick by brick, brick by brick, Higher and higher, tighter and tighter, Higher and higher, tighter and tighter. Point the chimney to the sky. Here is the roof, here is the floor, Here is the pretty yellow door. (Here is where the mother bakes the bread) (Here is where the mother makes the porridge) Clapping Game: Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man! Bake me a cake as fast as you can: Pat it, and roll it, and mark it with a “B.” And put it in the oven for Baby and me. Clapping Game: Pease porridge cold, Pease porridge hot, Pease porridge in the pot nine days old, Some like it hot, some like it cold, Some like it in the pot nine days old. Verse: While mother bakes, the baby waits in her rocking bed, She rocks to the right, she rocks to the left, She rocks to the right, she rocks to the left. Now hush-a-bye and don’t you cry. Here comes a puppy with shining eye. 1 He runs and he rollicks and he wiggles his tail. He runs and he rollicks and he wiggles his tail. Oh what does he see? A mouse that creeps through the house… Verse: Five little mice on the pantry floor, Searching for breadcrumbs or something more; Five little mice on the shelf up high, Feasting so daintily on a pie – But the big round eyes of the wise old cat See what the five little mice are at. Quickly she jumps! – but the mice run away, And hide in their snug little holes all day. “Feasting in pantries may be very nice; But home is the best!” say the five little mice…. Game: (some children are cats, others are mice) Song: The old grey cats are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping. The old grey cats are sleeping, in the house. The little mice are creeping, creeping, creeping, The little mice are creeping in the house. The little mice are eating, eating, eating, The little mice are eating in the house. The old grey cats are waking, waking, waking, The old grey cats are waking in the house. The little mice are running, running, running, The little mice are running in the house. Spoken: In their holes the mice now rest, safe inside their little nests. TRANSITION SONGS/FINGERPLAYS Verse: 1,2,3,4,5 Catching fishes all alive, Verse: Little drops of water, 6,7,8,9,10 Little grains of sand, Then I let them go again. Make a mighty ocean, But why did you let them go? And a pleasant land. Because they bit my finger so! Which finger did they bite? Song: Yellow the bracken, The little one on the right. Golden the sheaves, 2 Rosy the apples, Clouds grey and white, Crimson the leaves. Autumn good morning, Mist on the hillside, Summer good night. SEPTEMBER STORIES & PUPPET SHOWS THE LITTLE RED HEN Anonymous (Sept. 8th-19th) A little red hen was looking for something to eat. She found some grains of wheat. She said, “Cluck, cluck! These seeds I’ll sow. The sun will shine The wind will blow; And many days Of sun and rain Will make each one A head of grain. “Who will help me sow the seeds?” asked Little Red Hen. “Quack, Quack, not I,” said the duck “Squeak, Squeak, not I,” said the mouse. And “Oink, oink, not I” said the pig. “Then I will sow it myself,” said the Little Red Hen. And she did. When the grain was ready to reap, Little Red Hen said, “Cluck, cluck! These seeds I’ll sow. The sun will shine The wind will blow; And many days Of sun and rain Will make each one A head of grain. “Who will help me reap the wheat?” asked Little Red Hen. “Quack, Quack, not I,” said the duck “Squeak, Squeak, not I,” said the mouse. And “Oink, oink, not I” said the pig. 3 “Then I will reap it myself,” said the Little Red Hen. And she did. When the wheat was reaped, Little Red Hen said, “The windmill’s arms Go round and round, And so the grain To flour is ground; Now I must take The wheat to the mill, Across the field And up the hill. “Who will help me take the grain to the mill?” asked Little Red Hen. “Quack, Quack, not I,” said the duck “Squeak, Squeak, not I,” said the mouse. And “Oink, oink, not I” said the pig, “uh, uh.” “Then I will take it to the mill myself,” said the Little Red Hen. And she did. When the wheat was ground, Little Red Hen said, “Now I’m ready The bread to bake, Then I’ll make A nice, big cake. I sowed, I reaped, I ground the wheat; Now I’ll have plenty of bread And cake to eat. “Who will help me eat the cake?” asked Little Red Hen. “Quack, quack, I will,” said the duck. “Squeak, squeak, I will,” said the mouse. And “Oink, oink, me too,” said the pig, “yummy!” “Well, I sowed the wheat, I reaped the wheat, and ground the wheat myself, and so I think I’ll eat the cake all by myself as well.” And that is just what she did. 4 “Snip Snap Snout this tale is told out” SWEET PORRIDGE German Folktale (Sept. 22-Oct. 3) There was once a good, but poor little girl who lived alone with her mother at the edge of a forest. One day they ran out of food to eat and so the child went into the forest to see what she might find. There she met an old woman, who, knowing how poor she was, gave her a little pot and told her what to do with it: “If you say, ‘Cook, little pot, cook’ it will make good, hot, sweet millet porridge, and if you say ‘stop, little pot, stop’ it will stop cooking.” The child brought the pot home to her mother, and after that they had no further need to worry about poverty and hunger, for they could eat sweet, hot, millet porridge as often as they liked. One day when the little girl was out, the mother said, “Cook, little pot, cook.” The pot cooked and she ate her fill, but when she wanted the pot to stop cooking, the porridge overflowed and still it went on cooking. Soon the kitchen and the whole house were full, and then the house next door and the whole street, and the pot went right on cooking as if it wanted to feed the whole world. The distress was great and no one knew what to do. Finally, when there was only a single house left without any porridge in it, the child came home and said: “Stop, little pot, stop.” It stopped cooking, but anyone who wanted to go back to town had to eat his way in with a spoon. The End OCTOBER CIRCLE TIME (Start with stretching game/yoga poses, children can share ideas: cobra, mountain, tree, bird, butterfly…) Clapping Game: Down, down, yellow and brown The leaves are falling all over the town. (3x) Song: Leaves are falling, Leaves are falling, One fell on my nose. Leaves are falling, Leaves are falling, One fell on my toes. 5 Leaves are falling, Leaves are falling, One fell on my head. Leaves are falling, Leaves are falling, Yellow, brown, and red Verse: The leaves are green, the apples red, They hang so high above our head. Leave them along until frosty weather, And they’ll all come down all together. Look at all the apples on the ground. Let’s pick them up they are so round! Song: A tisket, a tasket, apples in my basket (4x) Verse: Now let’s make an apple pie, get out your cutting boards and sharpen your knives. We chop, we chop , we chop the apples so: chopchop, chopchop, chopchop We roll, we roll, we roll the pastry so: rollroll, rollroll, rollroll We crimp, we crimp, we crimp the edges so: crimpcrimp, crimpcrimp, crimpcrimp, We bake, we bake, we bake the pie just so: bakebake, bakebake, bakebake, We eat, we eat, we eat the pie just so: yumyum, yumyum, yumyum That pie was scrumdiddlyumptious! 1st and 2nd week Halloween is coming, Game: (pass pumpkin around circle) Halloween is coming, Song: Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, To our town, to our town! (2x) Had a wife and couldn’t keep her, He put her in a pumpkin shell, And there he kept her very well. 2nd and 3rd week Song: (to the tune of Frere Jacques) Bats are sleeping, bats are sleeping, Upside down, upside down. When it is nighttime, when it is nighttime Then they fly around. (2x) Mr. Pumpkin, Mr. Pumpkin Eyes so round, eyes so round. TRANSITION SONGS/FINGERPLAYS 6 Song: Blow wind, blow Pick on apple from the apple tree. And go mill go! That the miller may grind the corn, On the farmer’s apple tree, That the baker may take it, No red apples I can see, And into bread bake it, None for you and none for me, And bring us a loaf in the morning, No more apples of the apple tree. And bring us a loaf in the morning Verse: Fishes in the water, Song: On the farmer’s apple tree, Birds in the air, (Three) red apples I can see, Rocks on the land, Some for you and some for me, I’m in good hands.