Ducks Like Rain - and I do, too!

A MacSoup Parent/Child class quacking it up!

What do you do when the weather’s wet and you can’t go out?

   “Miss Carole” Stephens  of Macaroni Soup Music here with a musical solution.

  

            BE DUCKS! 

    In “Ducks Like Rain” children pretend to be ducks that quack and waddle – and like the rainy weather – water runs off their feathers!

    I first heard this song on my daughter’s favorite cassette (yes – it’s that long ago!) by Raffi.  As I began my own recording career, I knew I’d want to sing that song with the current generation of children, some whose parents knew Raffi’s work from their childhood. Sadly, the kids I taught did not. 

Father/Son ducks!

   “Ducks Like Rain” was a perfect fit for my second cd – “H.U.M. – Highly Usable Music, All Year Long!”  What better choice for one of April’s songs?!? I scoured the internet to find out who wrote it – Raffi did not - and I found no credit on his recordings.  So, long story short – when I came up empty-handed, I went ahead and recorded it.   It's been a favorite with the under-6 set once again!

    Fast forward 7 years.  In 2010 I received an email from one Franciscus Henri of Australia, saying he was the author and I did not have the necessary paperwork filed (it’s called a mechanical license) to have recorded his song!  I quickly rectified the situation with payment and the required papers, and well, things are just ducky (sorry, had to do it!)  Franciscus is a well-known TV personality Down Under as “Mr. Whiskers!”

    So, let’s get you and your students quacking and waddling, too!  You can use my “H.U.M.” recording, or Raffi’s.  You can “super-size” this song easily by adding books, art projects and other rain songs (see below for ideas.)

First you might want to make Duck Sticks.  Yes, that’s a duck on a stick!  I use yellow poster board with the duck pattern here.  You can get 9 ducks out of one board!  The pattern is on my website’s Song of the Month page for April 2007.  I use packing tape to attach the duck to a 12” dowel.  

Got music?  Got duck sticks?  You’re ready to go!

Lyrics:
Ducks like rain! Ducks like rain!
Ducks like splishy splashing in the rain.
Ducks like rain! Ducks like rain!
Ducks llike the rainy weather
Water running off their feathers
Ducks like splishy splashing in the rain

Quack quack quack quack quack
Quack quack quack quack quack
Quack quack quack quack quack
Quack! Quack! Quack!

(repeat quack series, then do verse again.)

   

    I end with this spoken “DUCKIE COUNTDOWN”.  Stop waddling and face the middle of your circle.  We wave our sticks up and down on each “quack”.  

    As we say the final line, the children quack their way to me and lay their Duck Stick carefully on my hands.  I make eye contact and quack back “thank you!”

I quack "thank you" - they quack back!

One little duck says Quack! Quack! Quack!
Two little ducks say Quack! Quack! Quack!
THREE little ducks say Quack! Quack! Quack! 
And they Quack-Quack all the way home!

    Yes, I sometimes get whacked in the face with a duck - but it's worth it.  I get one-on-one time with each child as they bring in their duck!

    There you go!  If you’re in a drought, at least sing about rain!  If you’re being deluged (it’s been quite wet here in Chicago this Spring/early Summer), sing about rain!  It’s really a three-season subject where I live.

Some of the books I like to read before or after this song include:

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

Five Little Ducks (big book) by Penny Ives

The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack & Kurt Wiese

What’s Up, Duck? By Tad Hills

Another song about ducks:

“Little Duckie Duddle” on my “Tiny Tunes”cd – great song for motions!  MAY2008 Song of the Month on my website!

More songs about rain on my “Season Sings” cd:

“Rain, Rain Go Away” – great steady beat activity

“The Raindrops Are Falling” – fast, slow and intermediate rhythms

“Jump in the Puddles” – SOOO much fun!

“It Ain’t Gonna Rain No More!” – super-silly, gets everyone clapping!

Teachers can be ducks, too!

    

    There you go!  If you’re in a drought, at least sing about rain!  If you’re being deluged (it’s been quite wet here in Chicago this Spring/early Summer), sing about rain!  It’s really a year-round subject where I live.

Do you have suggestions for more rain songs or books?  SHARE!

Yours for a Quacky Song!

“Miss Carole” Stephens

Macaroni Soup! Active Music for Active Learners!

Rainsticks to Sing With!

A RAINY DAY WITH MISS CAROLE!

Rainsticks have become very popular as classroom instruments in the past 25 years.  You can find them at powwows, in music stores, in international craft stores and at educational conferences.  They are fun, really do sound like rain, and whatever their origin, they’re a delightful addition to world music.

Where do rainsticks come from?  The Aztecs?  Africa?  Ecuador?  No one is really sure.  My 4’6” rainstick is from Chile – signed and numbered – made by the Diaguita Indians and used to thank the gods for rain.   When turned, the pebbles inside cascade past thorns, making a tinkling sound.  My students smile, then giggle, then sit open-mouthed in wonder at the sound.  With such a large rainstick, it takes almost a minute for the last “drop” to fall!

What is a rainstick?  Authentic rainsticks are the dead stalks of a cactus with the thorns that once stuck outward hammered INWARD.  Filled with pebbles or seashells and sealed, it makes a magical sound very much like a rainstorm, starting softly, growing in volume and intensity, then tapering off to a pitter pat of the final rocks travelling from one end to the other.  The shorter the stick, the shorter the storm!

How can YOU make a rainstick?  There are MANY ways to make rainsticks – here’s my favorite.  Please let me know how YOU do it.  I’ve found this to produce a great musical sound, be sturdy, and my 4’s and 5’s really enjoy making them – and taking them home at the end of the year!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
24” mailing tubes with end covers

bandaids

1 ¾” roofing nails (about 50-60 per tube)

a hammer

white craft paper

hot glue

filling (I use rice, popcorn and assorted beans)

paint or markers

white glue

yarn for decoration

1. Pre-punch about 50-60 holes in each tube.  Yes, it’s time consuming, but worth it.  Watch a little Dancing With The Stars, and you’ll be done in no time!

2. Children put a bandaid on their thumb, pad of bandaid on pad of thumb.  Put out plates of nails, and have the children press a nail into each hole.  This usually takes about 20 minutes.

Be sure to take both ends off a tube and have the children look inside – it looks just like a cactus rainstick!

3.  Hot glue one end of tube shut.

4.  Children pour in about 1 ½ cups of filling.

5.  Hot glue the other end to seal.

6.  To make a Cover:  Cut craft paper into strips, 24 x 7”.  Children can decorate with paint or markers.  Dry.  With white glue, attach covers to rainstick – use enough glue so that it makes the nails inaccessible.

7.  Wind yarn around one end of tube, about 3” from the top for decoration.

Now you’re ready to do some “Singing in the Rain!”

      You can find this great action song on my “Dancing Feet!” cd.  If you know “Tootie Ta” – this is another take on an add-on song with silly, fun movements!  You may know the song, written by Freed and Brown in 1929!  It was a great movie, too!

Bottoms up!

CHORUS:

I’m singing in the rain

Just singing in the rain

What a glo-ri-ous feeling

I’m happy again!

   Teacher leads, children echo:

Thumbs up!    (echo)

Shoulders back!  (echo)

          Repeat chorus, adding one movement with each repetition:

Knees together!

Bottoms up!

Tongue out!

Eyes closed!

With RAINSTICKS:  We pick up our rainsticks, turning them over and over during the choruses, putting them down to do the motions.  It’s a great exercise in anticipating sequence and pattern.  Without Rainsticks, sway hands overhead during the chorus.

    

     I’ve heard from students that rainsticks made this way are still making music 10 years later!

If you have questions – and definitely if you have a different way to make a great rainstick – spill the beans!

Yours for a Pitter Patter!

Miss Carole

Macaroni Soup!  ActiveMusic for Kids!

Showers & Flowers = Beat & Melody

      Miss Carole here, of Macaroni Soup, and I’m LOVING the Spring weather we're having in Chicago!  How are things where YOU are?  It's a perfect time for singing and chanting to practice keeping a steady beat and matching pitch.  Mister Rogers wrote that children are born with rhythm and pitch.  Then how do we get 4 and 5 year olds who struggle to find and keep a beat or can’t carry a tune?

                                               LACK OF EXPOSURE!

     Sometimes it’s the simplest of activities that have the greatest impact on learning.  That doesn’t mean you have to have "musical talent."  My Mom, a preschool teacher for 35 years couldn’t “carry a tune in a paper bag” – that’s what she’d say – but it never stopped her from singing with her classes every day!  Off-key sometimes, yes, but no children were harmed in the process.  Quite the contrary!  The local Kindergarten teacher once told me that she could always tell which children came from my Mom’s school:  they were the best listeners, followed directions well, and were usually the first readers in her class.  So let’s get singing for Spring!

     Putting the beat into your body gets it into the brain, too!  Marching, stamping, clapping, jumping and tapping are great ways to keep the beat.  Here’s two of my favorite activites– and you probably already know the words and/or melody!

Chant:

Rain, rain, go a-way

Come a-gain a-nother day.

Little children want to play

Rain, rain, go a-way!

What to do:  Start out patting the rhythm on the floor with your hands.  Hit the floor on the underlined words, and you’ll have the beat.  Be sure to start out slowly – it’s not a race.  Children get their natural rhythm from Mom’s heartbeat!

     Change (without stopping the beat) to clapping your hands for the next repetition of the verse.  Then softly pat you shoulders.  And finally silently tap your head.  You may choose to “mouth” the words at first, but once the children have the beat and know the poem, just tap, audiating the melodic rhythm.  You should all end at the same time!

What are we doing:  we’re practicing finding and keeping the beat, we’re developing a group dynamic in working together, and we’re putting the beat in our body and brain.

A garden of children!

Try the next one with a flannelboard demonstration to get everyone onboard.  Don’t have a flannelboard?  Cover a 24 x 14” piece of foamcore board with blue or white flannel.  Use packing tape to secure it to the back (easy to tear off when the flannel needs washing).  Use my patterns below or make your own to create the felt pieces.  But sure to cut enough raindrops so that every child will have the opportunity to put something on the board. 

I’m A Little Seed  (hear it here)

      Tune:  “I’m a Little Teapot”

I’m a little seed in the dark, dark ground,

Out comes the sun,  yellow and round.

Down comes the cool rain, soft and slow.

Up the seed begins to grow!

What to do: 

Line 1: Curl up on the floor on your knees, tuck arms in 
Line 2: Sit up, put arms over head to make a "sun" 
Line 3: Wiggle fingers as hands move downward like the rain 
Line 4: Stretch up tall, or stand, hands reaching for the sky!

     Be sure to ask what color the little flowers are in your class!  Then get small again and repeat the song.  Children may tell you what kind of flower they are – I had a garden of roses the other day!  You’ve not only done music – you’ve included a science lesson on germination.    ...From my garden to yours!                                                                        

       Yours for a Song!
     Miss Carole

Macaroni Soup!  

Active Music for Kids!

April Showers Bring Mud

APRIL SHOWERS BRING MUD AND BLOOMING FLOWERS!

Celebrate children during this spring month by encouraging their exploration of mother nature. Plant a garden in your area and give the parents instructions about planting a small flower or vegetable garden at home so the children can examine, predict, and eat the vegetables during the summer.

CELEBRATE Earth Day and talk with the children about the environment they live in and explore ways to make our earth a better place to live.

Dig some mud, add water until soupy and invite the children to fingerpaing on shiny paper. It is a great experience especially for the children who have never put their hand in soil. Create a bulletin board to display the children's mud paintings.

APRIL SHOWERS MAKE MUD!

Invite the children to squat down on the floor and sing this little ditty as they spring up and down, batting their eyes on the CLUMP, CLUMP, CLUMP! This is some rhythmic fun that you cannot do just once.

GLUMP went the little green frog one day
GLUMP went the little green frog.

GLUMP went the little green frog one day
And his/her eyes went CLUMP, CLUMP, CLUMP!

CELEBRATE all month and concentrate on the connection to NAEYC and honor all CHILDREN!

Mary Jo Huff, Author, Storyteller, Song Writer, Puppeteer,www.storytellin.com
maryjo@storytellin.com

Child sized garden for digging, planting, predicting, observing and learning about Mother Nature.

APRIL is the month of the FROG and Fanny Frog from Frog Street is one of my favorite frogs. www.frogstreet.com is a great place to find froggie ideas for Pre-K, K & 1st. I will share information about Frog Street's SPLASH conference in May.