Sounds of The Birds and The Bees!

THE MONTH OF MAY! WELCOME!!!

It's time to turn another page on your calendar. Debbie Clement of RainbowsWithinReach here. Queen of this collaborative effort. Happy monarch of sharing: rainbows, polka dots and learning new things. I'm so excited about today's article. It's FILLED with sights and sounds and inspiration and joy and color and ideas and giggles and fun and snippets and projects and music and enthusiasm and delight and art and spring! 

I've learned about SoundCloud in the last 24 hours. For the first time in my seventeen career as the 'music lady' and my nearly five years as a blogger, I can now share a little taste test of my ditties in a heartbeat. I have also learned how to link a photo to another article! This is a LOT for 24 hours! I'm learning! I'm growing! 
Oh happy spring-time!!!

This is the official beginning of the genuine, no-kidding race down the homestretch. The finish line is in sight for traditional classroom teachers. Have you begun your countdown? How many more Mondays do you have on your calendar? 

Let's get started with some of those May flowers that we've anticipated from all of the April showers! 

The clever spring bulletin board photos above are from Amber Osterman's "Kindergarten Rocks" hallway. I was able to make a serendipitous visit to her elementary in Osseo, WI on Monday. We met over the weekend at the 35th Annual ECE conference at UW-Stout. It was so much fun to surprise the teachers with my serendipitous visit. Yeah flexibility! The blooms below were created in their art room. 

Last week I was in Dixon, IL with our very own Carie Ramirez and photographed these next beauties! They are part of my Art History 101 article published over the weekend. The concentric circles are reminiscent of the work of Kandinsky. 

Now take a look at what their kindergartners created in response to the Picasso classic! 

{Click the edge of the photo of these perfect-for-Mother's Day bouquets and you'll get to the article on my blog, where you'll see Van Gogh, Mondrian and Johnson inspiration.}

BIRDIES. BABY BIRDIES. LITTLE BABY BIRDIES. 

Spring is the season of new life. What greater delight is there than watching a nest being built, eggs being laid, and baby birdies emerging. Look at this project. Primary colors! Media in three dimensions. Bingo! 

Now. Look what I have learned! 

Embed a sound-clip of my own "Little Birdie" sing-a-long.

Listen along to a snippet.

You'll hear just how simple it is. 

I use it with finger puppets. 

"Busy, Buzzy Bumblebees" 

YES! I also have a very simple little dittie all about bumblebees. It's called "Busy Bumblebee." You can take this one on a test drive, too. There are a total of four verses with a whole lot of alliteration! 

"LADYBUG, LADYBUG" 

Since the theme this month is 'Songs-of-Flight' take a look at all of these little red ladybug projects! Do you think that that ladybugs bring luck? They always make me smile. There are all sorts of possibilities when it comes to ladybugs! 

Preschool Ladybugs on the Bulletin Board for Spring

Now for the final snippet of the month, my "Ladybug" dittie. 

You'll notice the simplicity of my songs. 

These three all have predictability in the lyrics. 

Plenty of repetition. 

Oodles of rhyme.

Perfect for Prek+K! 

Click on this picture to go to the DIY tutorial for building a ladybug puppet

BIG NEWS!! All three of my little winged 'songs-in-flight' have now been converted into Mp3s and then placed into a happy bundle of togetherness and inserted into a zipped file. 

The zipped file has then been uploaded under our very own cyber shopping, umbrella-of-excellence, at the EARLY EDUCATION EMPORIUM. Look for this image for your purchase and instant download. There is a simple lyric sheet included. Whooohoooo! Progress!



***Now let me see how else I can be a resource for you during this merry month of May! This is the part of the article where I practice embedding a photograph that links directly to another article from 'my' blog. So if you see something that looks interesting, just click on the picture and enjoy! Amy Ahola taught me just yesterday!

-- Debbie -- 

I'm now at 119,542 followers!     

Click this link to go there directly! 

As 'queen' of "PreK+K Sharing" Debbie Clement writes the first article here every month. She writes from her perspective of inter- disciplinary interest: quilting together ALL of the arts of music, movement, story-telling and the visual Arts as well. 

Debbie has written and recorded over 100 original songs for children onto 6 CDs that she has under her RainbowsWithinReach banner. An additional 3 CDs have been designed for Zaner-Bloser and Redleaf Publishing. 

She travels the country sharing her original zest. The photo at left was taken a couple of weeks ago in Dixon, IL. The quilt was created under the direction of Carie-the-kindergarten teacher (who contributes articles here on the 17th of the month) in response to Debbie's first picture book "You're Wonderful." Click on the photo to see another 14 quilts created in her building!! 

Debbie's biggest professional excitement is that she is giving the OPENING KEYNOTE for "I Teach K" in VEGAS, baby -- in 75 days!!!