Music for Story Time!

I've got the music in me!!  Well actually.... I've got the music in my iPod!



For some time the moms in my programs have been asking me to post my story time music on the blog and finally - here I am.  It's Sunday evening and I was looking to update my Playlist when I discovered that somehow...my story time playlist is missing from my iPod...thank goodness that everything is backed up here on my computer.  YAY!  (and Amen!)

I am still relatively new to using an iPod and I absolutely adore it!  (even when I accidentally erase my playlist!)  It has changed my story times tremendously, making everything easier and smoother!  It is so much fun!  If I suddenly want to play Maroon 5's "Moves like Jagger" I have it on the iPod...or if the group is looking for Beethoven's Symphony #9 - well, I have the London Symphony on my iPod and classical music fills the room.  It is so cool!

I have had a wonderful and patient teacher in my colleague, Kari Ann.  She walked me thru setting up both the iTunes account and the iPod.  I think I am a younger librarian everyday with my fancy iPod.  Who knew?!

I am a fan of instrumental music when families come into the program room and my longtime favorite CD is Mary H Martin's Yoga For Kids: an introduction to Yoga.  The second half of the CD is all instrumental:
                   Come Saturday Morning
                   Blowin in the Wind
                   Early in the Morning
                   Love Song
                   Evergreen
                   Joshua
(Sadly, this CD is no longer available and I know that it is not on iTunes...if you are in CT, you may borrow it from the West Hartford Libraries!)

Although I must add that my new favorite music for getting settled in the story time room is
I'm Yours/Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Straight No Chaser from the album With a Twist




There are a number of songs we use to start story time...one of the most successful is ABC Rock with Greg and Steve on the album We all Live Together.  I pass out rattles to everyone, we all agree that they are microphones for this song.  I blast the music and we dance and rock-out to the ABC!



What a Miracle is another favorite - by Hap Palmer on the CD Peek a Boo and other Songs for Young Children.  This is absolutely beautiful in a very traditional folk song way.  It's a crowd pleaser!

There are a number of songs that we use in the middle of the program:
Put Your Finger On - by Parachute Express on the album Feel the Music
Shake my Sillies Out - by Raffi on More Singable Songs for the Very Young
This Little Light of Mine - by Raffi on the album Rise and Shine  We turn the lights off in the room and each child has a mini flashlight - it's great.
Put Your Little Foot - by Carole Peterson on Dancing Feet

Sometimes we will have another song or story/song before we're done:
There's a Spider on the Floor - Raffi  Singable Songs for the Very Young
or we will sit on laps and quietly sing together Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and  sometimes we will sing Shoo Fly using the ribbon streamers to shoo away the imagined flies!!


Ending songs, again so many - and again, we have an overwhelming favorite:
Drivin' In My Car - Ralph Covert on the album Ralph's World


Oh, who could resist conducting William Tell's Overture?  We pull out the chopsticks and suddenly everyone is a conductor of of the London Philharmonic!  William Tell Overture - by the London Philharmonic on the album Three Centuries of the Greatest Hits.




As I said, it is all just too cool!



Okay, Piper wants to be sure that you remember her song..."There was a girl who had a dog and PIPER is her name-oh...

But we already know that you'd never forget her song!