Music Time

Welcome Songs:

Hello, Hello
(please click here for a link to the tune of this song)

Hello, (kids echo) Hello.
Hello, (kids echo) Hello.
We welcome you today.

To share with us this preschool day,
And be our friends in a very special way.

Hello, (kids echo) Hello.
Hello, (kids echo) Hello.
We welcome you today.


Here We are Together
(Tune of "The More We Get Together")

Here we are together,
Together,
Together,
Oh, here we are together,
This bright sunny day.

There's Peter,
And Jackson,
And Benjamin,
And Rachel.

Oh, here we are together
This cold, rainy day.


Where is Thumbkin?

Where is Peter,
Where is Peter?
Please stand up,
Please stand up.

How are you today, sir?
Very well, I thank you.
Please sit down,
Please sit down.

Stand Up and Turn Around
(Tune of "Where is Thumbkin?")

(Childs Name) stand up; (Childs Name) stand up.
Turn around; touch the ground.
Reach up really high now; jump to touch the sky (wow)
Now sit down, now sit down.

Other activity songs/ finger plays:

I usually check out the website everythingpreschool.com and look under the theme I'm teaching, then click on songs. For example, the song above is one of about 20 songs under the "All About Me" theme from that website. Not all of them are worth using, but we sing this one often since it gets them up and moving and tests their listening skills. We usually end it with "everyone stand up, everyone stand up...":

Another great places to find activity songs or finger plays is
Index to Activity Verses and Songs with Actions in Primary 1 (from lds.org)

This one has lots of songs (especially about family, moral themes like honesty, and Christian themes) to choose from (It indexes the Primary 1 Manual also on the website and you have to go and find the song in the lesson).

These are my favorite learning songs to sing with the kids during circle time:

Days of the Week
(Adam’s Family Theme Music)

There’s Sunday and there’s Monday,
There’s Tuesday and there’s Wednesday,
There’s Thursday and there’s Friday,
And then there’s Saturday,
Day’s of the week (clap, clap)
Day’s of the week (clap, clap)
Day’s of the week, day’s of the week, day’s of the week (clap, clap)

There Are Seven Days of the Week
(Tuen of "Oh My Darlin’")

There are seven days,
There are seven days,
There are seven days,
Of the week

Sunday, Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday,
Saturday.

Sunday, Monday
(Tune of "Little Bunny Foo, Foo")

Sunday, Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, Saturday,
Then we start again.
(Sing again, as many times as you like)

Children's music that I have on my I-pod and use often (You should be able to look them up at I-tunes and buy any that you want. After compiling this list, I realized that I love the Music for Little People CD's!):

Action/activity songs:

The Wheels on the Bus, Music for Little People, 101 Toddler Favorites

Ring Around the Rosy, Music for Little People, 101 Toddler Favorites (Disc. 2)

Monkeys on the Bed, Music for Little People, 101 Toddler Favorites

The Freeze Dance, Music for Little People, Birthday Party Singalong

Head, Shoulders, Knees And Toes, Music for Little People, 101 Toddler Favorites (Disc 2)

If You’re Happy & You Know It, Music for Little People

Hokey Pokey, Music for Little People

Alphabet Songs:

A- You’re Adorable, John Lithgow, Singin’ in the Bathtub

Alphabet Song, Sound Stage Orchestra/Children’s Showcase Singers, One Hundred One Favorite Ch: Vol. 1 A-H

ABC’s, Music for Little People, 101 Toddler Favorites

Alphabet Song, Music for Little People, 101 Toddler Favorites

The ABC Song, Susan Salidor, Come & Make a Circle

Other Songs
(for dancing/movement with instruments):

The Month Song, Susan Salidor, Come and Make a Circle

Cleanup, Start Singing with Barney

Count the Animals, Kindergarten Sing & Learn

Singin’ in the Bathtub, John Lithgow, Singin’ in the Bathtub

It’s Hard to Be An Elephant, Jack Prelutsky, A Pizza the Size of the Sun

Jump Rope Medley, Music for Little People

It’s Raining, Music for Little People

Over the Deep Blue Sea, Susan Salidor, Come and Make a Circle

Boom, Boom, Music for Little People

Sh-Boom, The Chords, Cars

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Music for Little People

This is a photo of my box of instruments. You can make a lot of things yourself, or buy a set and add to it as I have here.

Anyone have any other great ideas about homemade instruments, cool music, songs, or CD's? Please share!

How WE started a home-based preschool co-op

What's a preschool co-op?: When I talk about a preschool co-op, I am generally speaking of a group of people (in my case parents) who take turns teaching preschool (in my case in our homes). We have a group of four SAHM's and a total of 4 boys (3-4 years old) in our preschool co-op. We take turns teaching the boys in our home twice a week (we do Tuesday and Wednesday) from 10-11:30am. We switch weekly, so each mom teaches twice one week and then doesn't teach again until 4 weeks later. It works pretty well for us and the boys enjoy the time together to learn and play.

1. Recruit: If you are thinking about starting a preschool co-op in your area, you first need to find other parents of children about the same age as your child, who are interested in joining. I would recommend between 3-5 kids per co-op and they really should be within about a year of each other in age.

2. Gather Ideas & Meet Together: Once you've found a group of parents who are willing to take turns teaching, you should meet together to discuss the logistics like days, times, how long you want each session to last, etc. as well as the curriculum that you are interested in. You should discuss your children's needs and how you plan to deal with disruptions. I also suggest that you come up with some kind of consistent daily routine that each parent can use to base their planning around. I will share my ideas for each of these things, but you should use the views and ideas of those in your co-op as your guide.

Days, times, & length of each session- Depending on the ages of the children in the co-op, you could do one day a week up to 3 or more if you are all willing. We do twice a week for our 3 and 4 year olds. We hold ours in the mornings, which seems to work best for most children, and we spend only 1 and a half hours for each session. I have heard of some who do even longer. It just depends on what you're doing and what those in your group prefer.

You should also be sure to plan a schedule for who will teach, when, and what their topic will be, as well as any breaks you will take for holidays. Here is a copy of the Fall schedule that I made for our group.

4. Curriculum- Learning should be based on play- the goal of a good preschool should be for the children to have fun and learn things while they're playing. Use songs, games, crafts, activities, or anything else that will be fun for the children when planning lessons.

As far as what topics to teach, I haven't used any formal curriculum, although there are great ones that you can purchase. I've heard good things about FunShine Express from my friend Kristen, although I admit I've never used it myself (If anyone has other suggestions, please let me know). Instead, I use the wealth of ideas that I find on the Internet for planning my lessons. I also use lots ideas of from my friend Becky. She is the one and only original co-op preschool SAHM! Most of the ideas that I will share on this website are based on her ideas. Anyway, here are some of the best websites that I use for getting ideas and then planning lessons:

preschool by stormie (Monthly Units, lots of great ideas, can also purchase resources)
everything preschool (Click the tab on the top left called "Our Themes" to search for tons of ideas by topic)
kidzone (lesson plans, printables, etc. Just start browsing)
DLTK Kids (Tons of printable pages, and links to lessons, another to spend time browsing)
The Friend (This is a gospel/values based magazine for young children put out by the LDS Church- It's a great resource for teaching topics like honesty, friendship, etc.- I usually click on the "search Friend" link on the left and then type in the topic keyword and browse the articles it brings up.)
gigglepotz- I just found this one and have barely browsed it, but it looks helpful!

5. Daily Routine: You'll want to decide what routines you want to do each session, like an opening, circle time, centers, etc. and how they will basically work. You can always change things later, but it's good to have a structure in place that you can plan from. Here's a link to the daily routine we use (of course, this is just an almost exact/ slightly tweaked version of the one Becky created).

6. Dealing with Disruptions & Classroom Management: The best management plan for a classroom is to plan fun, engaging lessons, and to involve the children as much as possible to avoid problems altogether! If you encounter problems, I suggest always being positive.