There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

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I really enjoy blogging about the resources I use most often, especially books, and apparently, people enjoy reading about them! My two top posts in terms of hits (usually as a result of Google searches) are I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie and Is Your Mama a Llama?, which just happen to be two of my favorite books.

I have another book to add to the vault…one you’ve probably read or heard time and again. This particular version of There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly is colorfully illustrated by Pam Adams and is from the Books with Holes series, published by Child’s Play International. You can find a link to the book on Amazon here. I love that this book has thick (but not overly so) pages and is rather large – it gets the attention of my student and keeps it for the duration of the story.

Each phrase in the book ends with “perhaps she’ll die”. I don’t feel that this is appropriate for young children (though it is the traditional verse), so I always substitute “cry” for “die”.

This book is a wonderful tool for animal and color identification, memorization skills, attention to task, reading sight words, and more. It is effective because the illustrations are visually stimulating, and the story is just plain fun :)

Back to Work

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It’s been a great two weeks, but all good things must come to an end! Actually, I’m really REALLY excited for this week, as lessons and music therapy resume tomorrow. I have a full day ahead of me: Mondays are my longest, with 9 lessons, 2 individual MT sessions, and 1 group. Just thinking about it makes me exhausted, but happy :)

I thoroughly enjoyed my last day of vacation, which began at 5 am with the dog crying to be let out (the everyday norm). Luckily I got a couple more hours of sleep after that, and then Zach and I set out with Sadie the wonder pup for some playtime in the park.

Turns out Sadie is a fan of the guitar…she is my puppy, after all :) Sadie also displayed her fearlessness, playing with a couple of dogs who outweighed her by 200 pounds. I was more scared than she was! After a jaunt through the fountains, Sadie was exhausted and so were we. I came home to do a bit of recording before hitting my parents’ pool (my personal vacation spot). Follow that up with a delicious meal courtesy of mom, and my day was practically perfect!

I’ll be back tomorrow with a report on my music-filled Monday, which will begin with lots and lots of coffee. I think I’m going to need the extra caffeine…wish me luck!

The Shakin’ Song

by | Listen & Learn Music, Uncategorized

Yesterday as I was making plans for summer music therapy, I decided that I needed a new song to rock out to with shakers. Because you can never have enough of them, you know? I wanted something upbeat (obviously…we’re playing shakers here!) and fun; luckily this tune came pouring out.

Shakers are for shakin’,
Shakin’ right along,
This song is all about shakin’,
You might call it the shakin’ song.
Ba-doo-ba dop, dop, da dop dow,
Shake-a those shakers now!

We’re gonna shake shake shake
Like a puppy’s tail.
Side to side, it never fails
To shake the whole day through, ooh, ooh ohh!
Shakin’ like me and you.

CHORUS

We’re gonna shake shake shake
Like a scaredy-cat,
Who’s scared of this, and scared of that.
He shakes until he’s blue, ooh, ooh ohh!
Shakin’ like me and you.

CHORUS

We’re gonna shake shake shake
Like two hands that greet,
And say hello, it’s nice to meet,
‘Cause that’s the right thing to do, ooh, ooh ohh!
Shakin’ like me and you.

CHORUS

I had all kinds of ideas for how I was going to spend the weekend, but here it is, Saturday morning, and I’m right back in my office, blogging away. What can I say; I just can’t resist!

Friday Fave: Twitter

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It’s just about quitting time, but I wanted to get in one last post before I tear myself away from the computer for the weekend. I haven’t done a Friday Fave in a while, so I decided that today’s would be dedicated to a little website you may have heard of: Twitter. What’s not to love about a site that’s all about networking, staying up-to-date with friends, and talking about yourself, all in 140 characters or less?

You may have noticed the Twitter icon I’m sporting in my left sidebar. If you’re not following me already, you should be! I’m a little ashamed to say that “tweeting” has become one of my favorite online activities…time that could be better spent writing and recording new songs. I’m sure the novelty will wear off soon, but for now I’m enjoying making connections with other music therapists, educators, and parents all over the country.

So to sum up: find me on Twitter, introduce yourself, and we’ll share in the fun together :) Other than that, enjoy your weekend! New songs coming next week!!

America, the Beautiful

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I’m always looking towards the next major (or minor) holiday with anticipation, because holidays mean special songs to go with them. And everyone knows that one of the biggest days of summer is the Fourth of July. I love this particular holiday because there are so many great songs just waiting to be played and sung. Recently, Songs for Teaching asked me to record a few for their website, and I was more than happy to do so. Follow the links to listen to a sample of each:

America the Beautiful

The Star-Spangled Banner

When Johnny Comes Marching Home

The Battle Hymn of the Republic

I have strong memories that accompany many of the patriotic songs we all know and love, and I bet you do, too. A few include being the designated high note hitter whenever my high school choir performed the “Star-Spangled Banner” (though I doubt I could hit that note these days!), playing “Yankee Doodle” obsessively on the piano as a little girl, and middle school choreography to “You’re A Grand Old Flag”. Ahh, memories!

What are your favorite patriotic tunes?