It’s no secret how much we love Barefoot Books! These musical storybooks are a favourite activity that closes nearly every music circle and community music class we do with children. While Barefoot Books is a publisher that encompasses many types of children’s books and resources, at Lotus we are particularly fond of their singalong collection. Each book in their singalong collection is paired with a song track, an instrumental backing track, a singalong YouTube video with pictures, and nearly all of them have a lead sheet at the back of the book so you can teach the refrain to your students.
While of course you can just sing them to your students at the end of the lesson or class, there are also creative ways to use them throughout your lesson plans.
I love teaching students simple choreographed movements to go along with the singalong book I plan to use at the end of a lesson. For example, when singing
Dinosaur Rap, I teach them to “shake a claw” and then “jump” and “clap” to join into the Dinosaur Rap. The verses have simple movements mimicking the movement of the dinosaur like stretch, twist, shake, and stomp that they can follow along with. For the Songbook
“Whole World” – I like singing this song using a
stretching band. I have the students sit in a circle and hold on to the band and pass it along in a circle during the “whole world” refrain to represent our rotating planet. Using the stretching band helps to work on their upper body motor skills and also provides additional sensory input for students.
Many Barefoot Books have counting skills built into the song lyrics. I will have students count along on their fingers as we sing. For example,
“Over in the Meadow,” introduces 10 different animals that live in the meadow. Students can count along on their fingers as each new animal is introduced. This activity can also work on numeric literacy by using number cards as you count the animals. The songbook
“Five Little Mermaids” works on counting backwards. I will have students hold up their 5 fingers, and we put one finger down as a mermaid swims away. This also works great with visuals such as pictures of mermaids or mermaid dolls. Start with 5 mermaids and have a student can take one away with each verse. This activity combines music and math in a fun way!
The singalong books lend themselves well to accompanying percussion instruments. Students can tap the beat of the music on rhythm sticks or shake egg shakers along with the music. One of our instructors sings the song book
“Up, Up, Up” and has the students shake a maraca or an egg shaker moving higher on each “up.” The songbook
“The Animal Boogie” also works well with shakers or maracas. Students can shake their instrument when they hear the refrain “shake, shake, boogie woogie oogie.”
These are of course only a few ways you can add new sensory experiences to the Barefoot Book singalong collection! We would love to hear how you use singalong books in your music teaching. We hope you enjoy using these creative song books with your students.
Happy Teaching!
