Music in Nursery
by Kristen Hudson / ga03132007 
 

I did nursery singing time for years (sometimes with a nursery calling, and sometimes not). I loved this part of my time with the kids...I did BOTH primary songs, and regular play songs...it always helped me to mix them up.

Here are some of my most successful ones:

"Rain is Falling" (Children's Songbook) I always started with this one to get their attention... when you sing the rain part, go around the circle spraying water out of a spray bottle, and then do the actions at the end pointing out your nose, head, hands, and toes...I often slowed down for this part for them to follow me. I would also do the verse about wind...I would use a paper plate to "blow" wind at all the children, and then the same ending. They LOVED this.

"Follow the Prophet" - each week I would pull out a picture of Gordon B. Hinckley, and ask the children if they knew who it was. We would repeat his name several times...and I was just happy if they got anything close to Hinckley! ~smile~! I also would ask them what he says....BE GOOD. ('Gotta keep it simple.) Then we would clap our hands to the beat and sing the CHORUS ONLY of "Follow the Prophet." This also works well to have the children stand in a circle and walk around in the circle clapping hands and singing the chorus. This is a great one for them to learn, cause when they go to sunbeams, junior primary almost always sings this at some point and it is nice for them to be familiar with it.

"Itsy Bitsy Spider" - I made baby spiders out of pom-poms, wiggle eyes, and yarn. I also made a huge "mama" spider which was large pom-poms glued on a glove, and some wiggle eyes. We did itsy, bitsy spider with these (often new children would be a little unsure of the whole spider thing...we just let them watch until they would come up themselves to get a baby spider--they always did when they saw how fun it was. And we would give the spiders some exercise ... show them how to walk their spider, do jumps, web spinning practice (just swing the spider in a little circle), etc.

"Train Song" - you could use any train song you have...I would always blow a big train whistle (you can buy these at teacher stores, or I've even seen them at Toys R Us)...it ALWAYS got their attention when they got wiggly. Then they used shakers (M&M mini's canisters with rice, and glued lids) so catch the beat of the train... choo,choo,choo,choo... and we sang the song to the beat. Mine had a "stop, look, and listen" part--we did the actions to those. It was always great!!

"My Heavenly Father Loves Me" (Children's Songbook) - I just taught it line by line...just one new line or action each week. This song works beautifully with hand actions, and they loved making the bird with their hands...just making a beak with your fingers, and opening and closing like it is singing.

And of course, the basic "Five Little Monkeys" -- we would change with each monkey... loud, soft, fast, slow, etc. And "Three Little Monkeys Swinging in the Trees" -- the kids love to do the alligator part....SNAP!!

My big thing was definitely repetition... introducing new songs very slowly, and padded before and after with other songs they knew. So we did learn new songs, just not too many of them at one time. And always there were little stinkers who were going through separation and stubborn...I just let them be, and they eventually joined me on their own because it was so fun. I had one crier who cried the WHOLE TIME at nursery, and would only stop when I came in to do the music (she would forget how hard she was trying to be sad because she was so interested in the fun we were having)...and then she would start up during any pauses...stop again when I got the singing activity going, and then start up again after I left. She was such a learning experience!!