Clean Up Time

Clean Up Time

The concept of “cleaning up” was introduced to my son Parker when he was a little over a year old. At the end of Funshop, the weekly mommy & me playgroup we attend, they play the classic “Clean Up” song (courtesy of Barney, the big purple dinosaur) and everyone tackles their assigned area.

Lucky for me, Parker loved cleaning up — mostly because he loved the song so much. I used this to my advantage at home; every time I started singing the song, he would join in and start picking up whatever mess needed to be picked up.

I decided to change things up a bit a few weeks ago, and instead of singing the same old tune, I played my “clean up” song for Parker. He immediately was on board with it, and started cleaning up the mess at hand. Success! Now he requests “Mama’s phone?” every time I ask him to clean up, meaning he wants me to play my song.

It comes in especially handy when he plays with his kitchen, because there’s a verse all about cleaning up your dishes :) When I wrote this song 6 years ago, I had no idea that one day I would be putting it into practice with my own child.

Shake Those Bells!

Bells are for Shaking Album Cover

Sometimes I come across a song I wrote YEARS ago that just needs a little facelift. Bells are for Shaking is definitely one of those songs, because it’s such an effective one for hitting so many different targeted objectives.

When I sing this song with my kiddos, I’m working on following directions, motor skills, identification of left and right hands, and attention to task. As far as they are concerned, they’re just playing bells and having fun (isn’t this the case so often in music therapy!?).

I dug this song out of my archives for the latest session of Listen & Learn for Little Ones, my early childhood music class, which necessitated a new recording to include on the class CD.

Much better than my 2009 version, if I do say so myself! Out of all the “bell” songs I’ve written, this one is probably my favorite…and I’m pretty sure my students feel the same way. Hope you can get some good use out of it, too.

Working Together

Working Together

When I’m in need of new song topic ideas, my go-to person is my mother-in-law. She teaches in a special education classroom and incorporates music (mostly mine!) into as many lesson plans as possible.

Since I’m in the middle of a huge project — I’ll share the details soon — my brain has been a little fried, so this was a week where I needed Libby’s help. I called her up and asked her what kind of song she could use in her classroom right now, and she wasted no time sharing her suggestions.

One such suggestion was a song about working together on different classroom tasks throughout the day, so I took that idea and ran with it. Oh, and the melody may have been a teensy bit inspired by the song I sang with my church choir over the weekend (I told you my brain was fried!).


I wanted to keep writing additional verses for this song, but reminded myself that all of you wonderful music therapists, educators and parents will adapt the song for your kiddos as needed! I always consider my recording to be just a jumping off point.

Sunday Singalong: Left & Right

This song is an oldie, but honestly, it might be one of my favorite Listen & Learn originals. I like the melody, and I also like that it explains the concept in a relatively easy-to-understand manner.

I debated including a picture-in-picture view of the actions as I sing them, but decided it would probably be confusing since my left is the opposite of your left. When I sing this song with my students, I turn around so that our left and right are the same.

Do you have any go-to songs or methods for teaching the concept of left and right?

If You’re Wearing a Red Shirt…

If You're Wearing a Red Shirt

One thing I’ve noticed when I give a child a pair of rhythm sticks is that it’s extremely difficult for him or her not to make some kind of noise with them. So I made a game out of it.

“If You’re Wearing a Red Shirt” is a simple, repetitive song that directs children in a group to play their rhythm sticks only if they fit the description in that particular verse. It goes like this:

If you’re sitting down,
Tap your sticks just like this.
Tap-tap-tap-tap, tap-tap-tap,
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.

If you’re a girl,
Tap your sticks just like this.
Tap-tap-tap-tap, tap-tap-tap,
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.

If you’re a boy,
Tap your sticks just like this.
Tap-tap-tap-tap, tap-tap-tap,
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.

If you’re wearing a red shirt,
Tap your sticks just like this.
Tap-tap-tap-tap, tap-tap-tap,
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.

{Continue, using different descriptives}

The kids with whom I’ve used this activity get a kick out of the descriptions I choose for each verse — they are usually much more specific and creative than the very basic ones I included in the recording. Sometimes only one child will fit a description, and other times just for fun I’ll choose a description that nobody fits.

The best part is that everyone actually listens carefully and plays their rhythm sticks only when they should be playing. After all, that’s the goal!