By Jessica Baron | Executive Director
Happy October, Music Friends!
As we approach the holiday that big kids love, we are mindful of the way our youngest students, ages 3 and 4, feel when they see scary monsters walking down the street or standing at their own front door. With a larger number than ever of preschool and transitional kindergarten teachers in our programs this fall, we decided to address this with a fun song that gives the singer some control over their fear of the boogie man, Frankenstein, witches and ghouls!
Studies show that when children can articulate their feelings with strong simple words like scary or scared, they can get a handle on them. They can share about them. So we worked with teachers in San Diego Unified last week to rewrite the old camp song, "The Ants Go Marching" into something little ones can sing- and add lyrics to- while getting ready for Halloween.
I recommend you sing it yourself right now, then add a monster or character of your own choosing in place of ours. Next, substitute a verb that describes the way that monster moves. Now you have the secret of "Substitution Songwriting." Word substitution is a skill that children are learning in the early grades to build word sense as pre-readers so this song does double duty for social emotional growth and literacy learning!
This week in GITC classrooms, children will have fun naming their fears and singing about how to make the monsters go away- with candy! Congrats to the creative teachers who have added more verses about witches, dragons, bad guys and so much more! And thank you so very much for your ongoing support of this project!
Wishing everyone a happy and funny halloween from all of us here at Guitars in the Classroom,
Jess
The Monsters Are Shuffling
© 2018 GITC Teachers at Hearst Elementary GITC
CHORUS:
The monsters are shuffling to the door,
Oh no! Oh no!
The monsters are shuffling to the door,
Oh no! Oh no!
The monsters are shuffling to the door
We don’t want to see them anymore
So we give them candy and tell them to go away! Yay!
1.
The zombies are dragging to the door, oh no! Oh no!
The zombies are dragging to the door, oh no! Oh no!
The zombies are dragging to the door
We don’t want to see them anymore
So we give them candy and tell them to go away! Yay!
2.
The ghosts are drifting to the door, oh no! Oh no!
The ghosts are drifting to the door, oh no! Oh no!
The ghosts are drifting to the door
We don’t want to see them anymore
So we give them candy and tell them to go away!
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By Jessica Baron | Executive Director
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