Songs & Chants
Young children love music and movement, and you can use it all day long and for many different purposes. Thankfully, children don’t care if you can carry a tune! Songs and Chants are a powerful way to teach strategic vocabulary with music and rhythm. As you design meaningful language opportunities through Anchor Texts and Experiences, incorporating key vocabulary in familiar songs and chants will expand ways for children to practice their new words.
POLL Strategy:Â Songs and Chants are designed with specific targeted vocabulary words in lyrics of familiar tunes which offers an opportunity for children to hear, say, and repeat the key vocabulary.
Use songs and chants to:
- Support children’s use of home language and English.
- Engage in group times and experiences that build a sense of identity, culture, and community.
- Expand content knowledge and learn new vocabulary in a playful, motivating, and fun way.
- Help children experience and express emotions and ideas and expand oral language skills.
Example: Using vocabulary from the Anchor Text, The Very Hungry Caterpillar (sing to the tune: The Farmer and the Dell)
An egg is on a leaf
An egg is on a leaf
Hi-ho, The derry-o
An egg is on a leaf
Example: Using vocabulary from an Anchor Experience with cooking, making hot chocolate.
Chant:
Bate, Bate Chocolate
Bate, bate, chocolate,
Tu nariz de cacahuate.
Uno, dos, tres, CHO! Uno, dos, tres, CO! Uno, dos, tres, LA! Uno, dos, tres, TE!
Bate, bate, chocolate!
Considerations as you plan Songs and Chants for your children:
- Create Songs and Chants using keywords that you have introduced. Use your key vocabulary selected from your Anchor Texts and Experiences.
- Post the Songs and Chants so caregivers and parents can use them in interactions with children, reinforcing vocabulary development.
Songs and Chants for Center-Based Child Care
Songs and Chants for Center-Based Child Care
Songs and Chants for Family Child Care (FCC)
Songs and Chants for Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) Child Care
Developmentally appropriate programs are caring communities. Engaging group times and experiences like songs and chants build a sense of community as well as teaching content and new vocabulary. New learning requires practice which is effortlessly built into enjoyable songs and chants. Music and movement is playful, motivating, and lots of fun.
Music and movement are areas where all children can be engaged without needing to rely on their English language skills. Every child can enjoy learning a song in their own or another language. When singing or chanting, there is a clearer distinction between each word than in speaking which supports phonological awareness, a necessary precursor to literacy.
Music and movement supports children’s identities, connects them to their cultural group and the larger society, helps them experience and express emotions and ideas, and supports their learning in multiple areas. Memory and sequencing are required to coordinate music and movement, and both require children to focus attention and follow directions — important executive function capacities.