I’m pretty darn excited about this song. I mentioned last week that I get lots of my ideas from my mother-in-law, who is a special education teacher; well, the other person I can always count on for unique and creative song topics is Rene, who is an elementary teacher and frequent custom song customer.
Her latest commission might very well be my favorite so far. Rene’s classroom adopts a bat every year from Bat World Sanctuary in Mineral Wells, Texas. The bat they adopted this year, Mr. Kitty, has an interesting story — one that she thought would make for a great song.
Rene will also be using this song to work on other state educational standards such as listening and retelling, identifying problem/solution, characters, retelling a story in sequence, decoding words, word families, and short vowel sounds. She and I think alike in that way…we strive to get as much use out of a song as possible :)
There was one more request from Rene: that I use the melody from one of her favorite childhood songs, “Senor Don Gato”. I was unfamiliar with this tune, but quickly learned it and used it as a template for writing my lyrics. I haven’t been able to get the tune out of my head since recording my version, which you can hear below:
And this might be a stretch, but “The Ballad of Miss Kitty” is even a little Halloween-ish…right? After all, it’s about a cat and a bat. But if you like your Halloween songs a little more orange, spooky, and pumpkin-y, you can check out the rest of my collection here. Happy (haunted) listening!
I LOVE this song and can’t wait until next week when we use it in class. Rachel ALWAYS captures exactly what I envision when I come up with crazy ideas. Bat World is an amazing place and the story of how it came to be is just as fascinating. If you want great ideas for teaching lessons on bats, or echolocation, go to their website or Bat Conservation International. If you want great music…go to Rachel!
Oh my goodness this is so cute!
Thanks so much, Ashley!!
Thank you so much Rachel! Both Mr. and Miss Kitty are honored :)
Amanda Lollar
Founder/President
Bat World Sanctuary
You’re very welcome, Amanda! It was such a fun song to write! I’ll be sending you a hard copy on CD in the mail soon :)
Awesome song…