The Green Grass Grew All Around

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Green Grass Grows All Around

Admittedly, I didn’t know this song when I first started my career as a music therapist.  I quickly learned it, though, after realizing that I might very well be the only person on earth (or at least at The Hope Institute) that didn’t.  Because my students requested it so often, I decided to turn a “fun” song into a “fun-ctional” one.

There are three general goal areas I can target this song.  They are 1) Color Identification; 2) Memory; and 3) Working as a Group (which falls under the umbrella of social skills).  I’ll explain how I address each goal below.

Phew! That is a LOT of words. I’m impressed that I can sing the entire thing from memory, let alone my students :) Here’s a way to make it a little easier while also targeting the goals that I listed above.

Take a piece of light blue posterboard or foamboard. Cover the width of the bottom 6 inches or so with green construction paper, and then you’ve got your grass on the ground and sky above. Color a hole in the middle of the grass section (I just use a brown marker for this). Then comes the fun part: create each item listed in the song — a tree, limb, branch, twig, nest, egg, and bird — using cardstock, markers, construction paper, and whatever else you want. In fact, this makes for a great art project for your students. You may want to laminate the items so that they hold up. Attach a small piece of velcro to the back of each, and the other side of velcro to the posterboard so that they can be easily attached to the correct spot.

Let each student take his or her turn placing an item on the posterboard and identifying the color of that item. With the visual aide, it’s much easier to remember what logically comes next in the song (for you and the students!). At the end of the song, your students have worked as a group to create an entire scene.

If I’m just singing this song for fun with a group and don’t have the resources for the full activity, I’ll pass out green egg shakers and ask the children to shake them only when the “green grass” is mentioned. Talk about impulse control!

Remix: Shaky Colorful Fruit

by | Listen & Learn Music, Uncategorized

Last fall I posted a song I wrote specifically for my set of Nino Fruit Shakers, which I titled “Shaky Fruit” (you can read the post and listen to the original song here).  Well my students who I see in private practice just can’t seem to get enough of that song, so I decided to bring it to The Hope Institute this month.  We are focusing on healthy foods, so it fit in perfectly with our theme.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the Nino Fruit Shakers here at school, but you know me and my habit of adapting songs to fit any situation. All I did was change up the lyrics to match the instruments we have on hand (the Basic Beat chiquitas pictured above).  I added an extra verse to accommodate all five colors, and this is how the song turned out:

Doot-doot-do-doot, shaky fruit,
Blueberry, grape, apple, pear, banana
Doot-doot-do-doot, shaky fruit,
From Mississippi to Indiana.

Shaky blueberry, shaky blueberry,
Blue and crunchy too.
Shaky blueberry, shaky blueberry,
Doot-doot-do-doot-doo.

Shaky grape, shaky grape,
Purple and juicy too.
Shaky grape, shaky grape,
Doot-doot-do-doot-doo.

Shaky apple, shaky apple,
Red and crunchy too.
Shaky apple, shaky apple,
Doot-doot-do-doot-doo.

Shaky pear, shaky pear,
Green and delicious too.
Shaky pear, shaky pear,
Doot-doot-do-doot-doo.

Shaky banana, shaky banana,
Yellow and tasty too.
Shaky banana, shaky banana,
Doot-doot-do-doot-doo.

“Shaky Colorful Fruit” debuted this morning, on this first Monday back after Spring Break.  I had to practice it a few times through first so that I could get the new lyrics down…so far, so good :)  My students are also shakin’ to the beat of “Eat Like a Rainbow” by Jay Mankita, along with a few other originals devoted to mealtime.   

Red, Yellow, and Green

by | Listen & Learn Music, Uncategorized


Teaching functional skills and real-world concepts are high on my list of priorities, since the ultimate goal for my students is independence. The Hope Institute uses a Skills Assessment to determine whether or not each student is reaching goals such as dressing, eating properly, interacting with peers appropriately, and so on. Included on this list is personal safety, which encompasses crossing the street, using the crosswalk, and identifying traffic signals.

That is the topic of today’s song: learning the meaning of red, yellow, and green as related to the traffic lights. Many teachers use this concept in their classroom or when traveling with students from one place to another, using colored signs to indicate whether students should stop, slow down, or go. Learning and practicing this in a protected environment is the first step in transferring such knowledge to a real-world situation.

Stop when the light is red.
Go when it’s green.
Slow down when the light turns yellow,
That’s the color in between.
The traffic lights are red, yellow and green.

Red, red, is at the top,
Of the traffic light.
If you stop when you see red,
Then you know you’re doing it right.

CHORUS

Yellow, yellow is in the middle,
Of the traffic light.
If you slow down when you see yellow,
Then you know you’re doing it right.

CHORUS

Green, green is at the bottom,
Of the traffic light.
If you go when you see green,
Then you know you’re doing it right.

CHORUS

Although the songs I’ve written cover many of the topics included on my school’s Skills Assessment, there are many more opportunities for new tunes to cover this exhaustive list. Of course, I’ll be posting them as I write them – an ongoing process that will take me well into the summer, I’m sure!

Shakers Up High!

by | Listen & Learn Music, Uncategorized

Two songs for shakers in a row? Yep! We do a lot of shaking at the Hope Institute and in the Music Therapy Connections studio, which accounts for the plethora of such tunes in my collection. For today’s song, I actually borrowed the melody I made up for “Flower, Stand Tall” since both focus on colors. It works perfectly, in my opinion, but you can decide for yourself:

Yellow, red, and green, and purple, and blue,
Shakers are so colorful and sound good, too.
There are many different ways to shake ‘em around.
Up above your head, or near the ground.

Yellow shaker, up high.
Yellow shaker, up high.
Make a great big sound up in the sky!

CHORUS

Red shaker, up high…
Green shaker, up high…
Purple shaker, up high…
Blue shaker up high…

CHORUS

I use Basic Beat egg shakers and chiquitas from West Music for this activity, though any colored shakers would do just fine. You can substitute colors in the song, too. In the Church Mice class I lead, we have always used plain black egg shakers, so I’m looking forward to changing things up with some rainbow-hued ones.

Well I need to get back to my CD burning…I’m making 500 to give away as souvenirs at Hope’s upcoming Celebrity Chef fundraiser. Happy Thursday!

Colors in the Morning

by | Listen & Learn Music, Uncategorized

Colors in the Morning Album Cover

It’s an absolutely beautiful Saturday morning; the sun is shining in the bright blue sky, which reminded me of a great song I’ve been waiting to post. A couple weeks ago, a reader named Jamie emailed me with a great idea for an activity he was planning for a group of kids (his own included). The song is based on Donovan’s “Colours”, whose lyrics he changed to focus on color identification.

Yellow is the color of the bright, bright sun,
In the morning, when I rise,
In the morning, when I rise,
That’s the time, that’s the time,
I love the best.

Blue is the color of the clear blue sky…
Green is the color of the dewy grass…
Purple is the color of the lilac bush…
Pink is the color of the flowers that bloom…
Red is the color of the cardinal bird…
Orange is the color of the butterfly…

He suggested the use of scarves for each color in the song, and then the thought occurred to me to make a poster with images for each item in the song, attachable with Velcro. Here is what I created:

I used half of a foamboard and covered it with colored construction paper. Then I attached Velcro (the prickly side) with a sticky back.

Here is the back of the images I made for each item in the song. I laminated each and attached Velcro (the fuzzy side) to the back.

The finished product. I added a verse about an ant (the color “black”) so that there would be enough colors for each child in my group.

Thanks, Jamie, for sharing this wonderful idea! I tried it with one of my groups at the Autism Program last week, and it went over really well. I can’t wait to do it again next week!