Family Sing-a-long

Drop-in family sing-a-long at the library!

If you’re a children’s librarian, I am singing to the choir here, but there is lots of evidence that singing in a group is good for you. (For a nice summary, see this Telegraph Article) It’s also lots of fun. And if you think you’re not very good, there is no more forgiving co-singers than children. So it was with much excitement that I took over a family sing-a-long program this Wednesday at the library. The only trepidation that I had was my co-worker, who normally leads the group, is a regular Fred Penner, guitar and all. Thankfully he warned the group last week to expect a substitute so instead of the 70-80 people he normally gets, I only faced a group of 40 or so.

We had a great time. No one complained that I didn’t have a guitar, and only one small child asked where “Uncle Music” was.  They particularly enjoyed “I know an old lady who swallowed a fly” with puppets and I got a good laugh over “Old Macdonald” with glove puppets, the last one being something unexpected: a dinosaur! I also performed a rendition of “Singing in the rain” That I learned when I was in brownies. The kids thought I was strange, the parents had a great laugh and sung along.

The program is all songs, but planned with pacing like a storytime, variety between long and short, moving and restful, fast and slow, and known and new songs. A box of shakers is put in the middle and all are welcome to use them. I brought out a tambourine and a few large shakers, but barely used them myself. I made some changes to the plan on the fly, just based on group reactions and mood. The only change I would make in my plan for the future would be to include a better denouement. I needed a good cool down song before the goodbye song.

Here’s the plan:

• Hello song.
• I’m in the mood for singing
• I was going to kentucky
• You are my sunshine
• Twinkle Twinkle / ABC
• If you’re happy and you know it
• Wheels on the bus
• Happy Birthday
• I know an old lady who swallowed a fly
• I’m a little teapot
• Eency Weency Spider/ It’s raining, It’s pouring/ Rain is falling down
• BINGO
• Singing in the rain
• Old Macdonald
• Do you know the muffin man
• Zoom Zoom Zoom
• Goodbye Song