I love counting songs. (There are so many of them to love!) And they all seem to have something to do with animals. (I love songs about animals!). And they all seem to have rhyming words in them. (And I love songs with rhyming words, especially if there is opportunity to change the rhyming pairs. Never ending variation options gives you a song that it really fun to sing!)
“The Ants Go Marching” is a prime candidate for counting, rhyming and word switching. There is no rule that says the little one has to suck his thumb when the ants are marching one by one; he can eat a bun or lie in the sun, or hum a little hum.
And since Velcro shoes are all the rage these days for kids, the “little one” hardly ever ties his shoes any more. He is much more likely to shout out “Boo!”, or play a kazoo, or dance with Sue, or step in glue. The variations are endless, thus making the song new and interesting every time you sing it with your child.
In class recently we’ve been doing “Hickory Dickory Dock”. Although there is a sung version of this beloved nursery rhyme I’ve been focusing on the spoken word. (I have to make myself not sing everything in class… spoken word is just as valid as sung word , educationally speaking… but I do love to sing!) Traditionally there is only one verse to this rhyme-
Hickory Dickery Dock
The Mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one
Down did he run
Hickory dickory dock!
Yes, I know I changed it. It should rhyme. Mother Goose was just having a bad day when she wrote this one, or the translator was mad at Mother Goose , or the original printing had a mistake in it. But we all know this is the way it should be, so this is how I teach it in class.
We also know clocks strike more than just one time a day, so there’s no reason why you can’t add verses. Since this little ditty is always done as a single stanza, your child will more than likely not have any pre-conceived ideas of what should happen on two, three… all the way up to twelve. That’s another benefit of this poem; it goes to twelve, versus all the traditional chants that stop at 10.
Ten is the logical place to stop, because counting songs and poems and chants are designed to teach math, and understanding that math is all about sets of tens is the first step to understanding.
Interestingly enough, most songs and chants that count down start at five, which is one hand and half a set of ten, so they are also very useful for teaching mathematical thinking, and for visualizing subtraction.
To subtract, the pointer finger on the other hand counts down the fingers on the working hand on your way down to zero. My very favorite “work your way down to zero” finger plays are about monkeys. I really like songs about monkeys. They’re silly, and almost everything about monkeys in finger plays is funny.
As a matter of fact, I like counting songs and games about monkeys so much that our spring concert at the Symphony is entitled “Count Yourself Silly”. There will be monkeys; they will be jumping on the bed, teasing Mr. Crocodile, and irritating the Story Fairy. And since monkeys live in the jungle, that’s where we’re headed, on a boat full of bouncy pirates who like to count and rhyme.
We are focusing on pitched percussion and our arranger, Ian, is very excited. I lost track of the number of instruments he wanted. He finally said, “Most of these are small, I’m sure we can get them all on the stage”. I’ll let you all know if there will be room for us after I see his list.
And Miss Rachel, our very talented illustrator, is eagerly sketching out a new set of monkeys for the story. For those of you have been lucky enough to attend the “Put Your Left Paw In” summer camp you will be familiar with her first set of adorable monkeys from “Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree” . She is creating new, cute monkeys right now for our story. And cows… she is drawing lots and lots of cows.
“COWS….? Why cows?” You might ask….
You’ll have to buy a ticket or ten of them, please, and come see…. I’m not going to give away all the secrets!!
-posted by Miss Allison, who will tell you more about rhyming words and how important they are later. In the meantime, just keep counting and rhyming.
QUICK LINKS
