Submitted by Connie Herbon, Iowa
Idea posted October 29, 2003
As I visited with our 1st grade teachers at the beginning of our year about class needs, they asked for reinforcement of the alphabet and colors. I had already written a song for last year's 1st graders relating to colors, but we usually don't do much at first with letters beyond the Music K-8 magazine recording of "Alphabet Song" (from Music K-8, Vol. 13, No. 1). So I went back and dug out a tune from several years ago that I never really finished working with. The tune is "Three Blind Mice":
ALPHABET ADVENTURE
"A"lligator and "A"pe and "E"lephant and "E"agle
Sat in an "I"gloo eating "I"ce cream.
The "O"ctopus came in his "O"veralls
And "O"ften was seen eating Cheeri"O"s
Beneath an "U"mbrella of red and green
Beside a "U"nicorn.
What I've added is a written lyric sheet for the students, with pictures to go with each short and long vowel. I'll make an overhead, but even 1st graders like to have that paper to take home, especially if it has pictures with the words. The bass xylophone part is a steady beat "C G (low) C" on the first three big beats and a C chord on Boomwhackers® on the fourth big beat. (Students say, "1, 2, 3, boom" for cue words.) To make it *much* simpler, a steady bordun (C + G) on bass xylophone or Boomwhackers® can be used as accompaniment.