We love Moo-sic in our Room!

I use a TON of music in my first grade classroom, as anyone who passes by my door can attest to! I try to incorporate music that fits into the themes and concepts we're studying, and over the years I've compiled quite a collection. I am the only one in my school who has and uses an actual RECORD PLAYER! I've replaced some of my LPs with CDs, but many are no longer available. Someday I'll have them all transferred to CD, but I'm not ready for that expense yet. In addition to playing music, we do a lot of fingerplay-type songs, often to the tune of classics such as "Twinkle," "Clementine," "Happy Birthday" and "Frere Jacques." I have most (but not all) of the words of these songs/fingerplays on homemade posters that I then laminated. I take them out when teaching them to the students and then often again as we revist them.

I play music at many times during the day, but one of my favorite and most effective ways of using music is to play it during transitional times. For instance, I will put on a song as the students are cleaning up and say, "By the time this song is over, we should be all cleaned up and on the carpet." This way, the children are singing as they clean and the noise level isn't too bad!

I will attempt to list some of the CDs and songs I use during the school year - there are so many I'm not sure I'll cover them all, and I'm always finding new ones. Some years, as a Valentine's Day gift and then again as a year-end gift, I burn two CDs (volumes one and two) of some of the songs we sing in school. These are always a huge hit with both students and parents.

SEPTEMBER SONGS:
**"Johnny Appleseed" by Jonathan Sprout - More American Heroes CD
**"Doghouse Party" and "Clifford" from Clifford: A Really Big Musical Tribute (based on the PBS cartoon series)
**"Mammals" from Zoos CD by Twin Sisters
**"ABC Rock" from Greg and Steve's We All Live Together CD (although I still use the LP!)
**"How Much is that Doggy in the Window?" - I have an old version on a kiddie LP
**"Back to School Again" and "Ten Red Apples" from Scholastic Sing Along and Learn Around the Year CD
**"My Dog" by Claude Belanger (Rigby book and cassette series)

OCTOBER and NOVEMBER SONGS
**"Pumpkin Twist" and "The Ghosts are out Tonight" from It's Halloween by Victor Vampire and Friends
**"Trick or Treat" by Andrew Gold - Halloween Howls
**"Sacajewea" by Jonathan Sprout
**"This Land is Your Land" on a patriotic kiddie CD
**"Fall Fiesta" on Scholastic School CD
**"Gary the Ghost" Wright Group book and cassette series
**"Bbb Bats" Wright Group book and cassette series

DECEMBER and JANUARY SONGS
**"Martin" by Jonathan Sprout
**"Jingle Bells," "Rudolph", "Earth and Sky" by Broadway Kids Christmas CD
**Christmas Magic CD by Joanie Bartels
**"Candles, Candles", "My Dreidel" and "Hanukkah" from an OLD Hanukkah cassette tape. I've tried for YEARS to find one to replace this, but haven't had any luck.
**"It's the Holiday Time of Year" by Jack Hartmann
**"Spin, Dreidel, Spin" from Holiday Songs from Newbridge's Songs for Learning collection
**"First Month of the Year" by Jack Hartmann's Rhymes for Special Times
**"It's a Brand New Year" on Scholastic Sing Along CD

FEBRUARY and MARCH SONGS
**"Be My Valentine" from Scholastic Sing Along and Learn CD
**"Make Some Friends" on old Activity Songs LP
**"The 100th Day of School" from Scholastic Sing Along CD
**"Polliwogs" from Newbridge Animals CD
**"Washington's Hat" and "All Across the Land (Lincoln)" by Jonathan Sprout
**"Leprechaun Song" on Newbridge holiday CD
**"Lucky the Leprechaun" from Drew's St. Patrick Day Songs CD
**"Frog on a Log" Wright Group book and cassette series
**"100 Days of School Today" by Jack Hartmann
**"I Am a Pizza" by Charlotte Diamond on 10 Carrot Diamond CD

APRIL, MAY and JUNE SONGS
**"Peter Cottontail" on old Easter album (but available on other holiday CDs)
**"Rabbit Skip" from Newbridge collection's Animals CD
**"Zip a Dee Doo Dah" by Aly and AJ on Disneymania 2 CD
**"It's Time for Summer" on Scholastic Sing Along and Learn CD
**Various fairy tale songs from Junior Jukebox Fairytale CD from the dollar store!!
**"Every Day is Earth Day" from Scholastic school CD
**"Evergreen, Everblue" by Raffi
**"Spring is in the Air" on Scholastic Sing Along and Learn CD

Back Home Graphics by Graphic Garden

Here are the covers of some of the albums I use. Many can be found on Amazon.com. Others can be googled!
Some of the albums are out of print or unavailable and I wasn't able to locate a photo.

Still more music! I hope you enjoyed this portion of the website. Feel free to contact me with any questions.