All things Spring

Happy Spring!

Last week was spring break for us and I enjoyed a break from the busy schedule of each weekday.  I was disappointed that I was sick most of last week and lost my voice (along with many other music therapy friends I correspond with), but I was so glad to not have to use up sick days at work as well.

So far, this week has been a week full of songs about spring!
I'm putting together a collection of songs I have written along with songs I'm working on currently for an album entitled "All things Spring".  My next few blog posts will feature songs from this collection.

Today I'm sharing one of my favorites.  It's a song about the parts of a plant:  the roots, stem, leaves and flower.  This song includes short explanations of the job of each part of the plant also.  




Lyrics:
Plants have four parts
Count them "1, 2, 3, 4"
The roots and the stem, the leaves and the flowers.

The roots absorb water and nutrients underground.  The roots help hold the plant in the ground.
The stem moves water to the rest of the plant.  The stem helps the plant to stand up above the ground.
The leaves make food for the plant.  The leaves need air, sunlight and nutrients too.
The flower is the pretty part of the plant that we can see.  The flower produces seeds that form new plants.

When I sing this song with students, I incorporate the counting aspect of the song to motivate the students to participate. With younger students, we use our fingers to count while we sing the song. With older students, we sing each number, and I pause after each number to highlight the counting. Using a pause in the music is a great idea if you want to assess and motivate a student participating in an academic skill such as counting, labeling, spelling,etc..

I highly recommend using a visual with this song.  The students learn so much when music and academic information is paired with a visual that they can see and touch.  If you don't want to use a real plant as an example, you can use an artificial plant or a picture of a real plant as well.