For preschoolers, “quality music experiences enhance listening; invite intuitive and steady beat responses; and aid learning of vocabulary, sound and pitch discrimination, emotional responses, creative responses, memory, and many hours of fun for our wee ones.” (Community Playthings)
We don’t need to be experts in music theory to know that young children tend to remember and enjoy catchy songs. More than likely, you still remember certain songs from your own childhood. “Ring Around the Rosie,” anyone? “Mary Had a Little Lamb”? And, when you tie songs to events happening around you, these songs can help children to make sense of and understand the world around them.
Thanks to the internet, it’s easy to find autumn-themed lyrics set to familiar tunes, such as “Autumn Leaves are Falling Down,” using the tune of “London Bridge.” This YouTube version allows you and your child to listen to the song while watching fall-related images in the background. The words are also included for children who can already read. This is an easy song to move to, whether by creating dance steps to perform together or spontaneously mimicking movements.
“How Many Leaves Do You See?” helps your young children learn how to count, identify colors and recognize what red, yellow and orange look like as words. Another possibility is “Scarecrow Song,” one sung to the tune of the ABC song. Words in this song help your preschooler to follow simple directions for body movements, such as turning around and then touching the ground—and also makes for fun exercise. As the song develops, the tempo increases so children are encouraged to move more quickly. In the background are leaves in brilliant fall colors.
There are numerous sites online that provide fall-themed lyrics to be sung to familiar tunes. You can find them at PreschoolEducation.com, PreschoolExpress.com and TeachingMama.org, among many others.
Taking Creativity to the Next Level
Your child may have even more fun with fall music when creating his or her own lyrics and singing them. If you make this fun, then your preschooler will likely play along—and he or she might surprise you with the results! MyKidsAdventures.com shares tips to guide this process.
Step one is to come up with a topic for the songs—such as fall leaves, pumpkins, your child’s new autumn jacket or whatever else strikes your (or your child’s) fancy. It can help to then think of rhyming words to use in simple phrases. The Poetry4Kids.com rhyming dictionary can be a big help here.
Here are just two examples of short rhyming sentences:
- a song that I wrote/is about my new autumn coat
- the pumpkin we found/is big, orange and round
Do your words seem to fit a familiar tune? If so, start singing them. If not, make up your own, even if you just sing them along a musical scale. There are no wrong answers, just an opportunity to have fun and be creative. When your child starts to sing the song, join in.
Looking for more ways to enrich your child’s learning and life? Horizon Education Center provides affordable quality care, including educational and enrichment opportunities for children in the following Northeast Ohio locations.
