Friendship Songs

During February we celebrate the many friendships in our lives. These wonderful songs from The Learning Station are all about celebrating friendships including with animals. Your students will enjoy listening to them on Valentine's Day as well.


"Fill Your Bucket" is my all time favorite song from The Learning Station. It goes so great with the books "Have You Filled A Bucket Today", "How Full Is Your Bucket - For Kids", "Fill A Bucket: A Guide To Daily Happiness For Young Children", "Bucket Filling From A to Z: The Key To Being Happy".

Check out the links before for more friendship and Valentine's Day songs from The Learning Station.

An InLinkz Link-up

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Christmas and Holiday Songs

Many of you will be having your holiday parties soon before leaving on winter break! Your students will love these Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukah songs from The Learning Station. Many of the songs have fun movements that make a fun brain break after doing a lesson or for your party. Others are animation videos and fun classic songs that your children will be sure to enjoy.

Here you can watch a video with many of The Learning Station's Christmas songs as a collection, which would be perfect for indoor recess or your party. Below in my linky party you can check out their other current Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukah songs! They would love to hear in the comments, which one is your favorite?

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings! Keep on smiling!

Thanksgiving Learning Songs and Brain Breaks

Does your class love to sing? Songs can help children learn new information in a variety of subjects and can also provide a much needed brain break! My students always loved singing songs. These Thanksgiving songs by The Learning Station cover Math, Social Studies, and some are just plain fun that will allow them to get their wiggles out! They are perfect for leading up to Thanksgiving or for your party if you have one.

This first song, Turkey Dance incorporates fun movements and will have your students giggling as they get a good workout. They will love doing this brain break to help break up the day!



The second one is a collection of Thanksgiving songs from The Learning Station. It would be perfect to use for a classroom party as they are eating their food or for indoor recess.



Check out the linky party below where I have included the different Thanksgiving songs and some fall and autumn songs that The Learning Station has available.

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings! Keep on smiling!

Favorite Christmas Videos

Christmas or winter break will be here before you know it.  Children are getting anxious and need a brain break. I have shared all of these wonderful Christmas videos from The Learning Station on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, etc., but you may have missed them so I thought I would share several of my favorites!

Clip Art Credit: Whimsy Workshop Teaching

First up is my favorite song as a child called Up On The Housetop. The Learning Station actually has 3 different versions of the song. My favorite is the brain break version featuring Don and an adorable little one.


Another favorite of mine is 12 Days Of Christmas. The Learning Station has two versions of this classic an animation and a live version.  I actually performed this with Don on stage a couple of years ago, but I'm not in this video.


Me and Santa's Elves is a clever song with animation that your children or students will enjoy singing!



 Other favorites include:
"Dancing Around The Christmas Tree" is a wonderful brain break song.  It is beautifully animated.
"Has Anybody Seen Santa?" has lead vocals from The Learning Station's daughter Kali. This popular song is performed in many school assemblies.  The adorably animated song is loved by children and adults.
"Jingle Bells" a classic song that is a favorite among children and adults all over the world.  This one is an animated video.
They have so many other great Christmas songs.  You can check them all out individually on the playlist I created HERE or play all the videos in a row with an ad free version (other than right at the beginning) that would be perfect for your parties by clicking HERE.

Which of these Christmas songs is your favorite?  Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings.  Keep on smiling!

Favorite Thanksgiving Songs for Children

Goodbye October, Hello November!  I hope those who celebrate had a great Halloween.  I was ready to hand out candy and not a single child stopped by my house.  I usually only get one or two groups so it wasn't that big of a surprise.  I miss seeing them all dressed up though!

As a teacher, I have always noticed as holidays approach children get a bit restless.  I try my best to make learning fun to keep them engaged and one of the best ways to do so is through music!  Here are my favorite Thanksgiving songs from The Learning Station.

My favorite has to be the song "A Turkey Dance".  This fun song will have your children dancing and giggling!


"Albuquerque Turkey" is a fun song about a turkey that doesn't that doesn't want to be eaten on Thanksgiving dinner.  Listen to the song to hear what the family ate for Thanksgiving instead of turkey.  This song would also make for an excellent writing assignment where the children decide what they should eat for Thanksgiving dinner instead of turkey!



"Little Pilgrim" is the perfect song to tell the story of the first Thanksgiving Day.


Other favorites include:
 "5 Little Turkeys", which is a great counting song using ordinal numbers.
"10 Little Turkeys", which works on the skill of counting backwards from 10.
"Thanksgiving Feast" is a great song about all the yummy food we eat for Thanksgiving!

Thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings!  Keep on smiling!

20 Favorite Brain Break Songs

Brain Breaks are so important in the classroom!  Most adults don't like to sit for long periods of time so imagine how hard it is for children.  We need to get them up and moving as often as possible.  Playing music with movement is a perfect way to help children get their jiggles out and be focused to continue learning.

  Here are 20 of my favorite Brain Break songs that children of all ages are sure to love.  I have even heard of high school teachers playing some of these songs.

1) Jamaican Dance
2) Move and Freeze
3) Happy Dance
4) Chili Chili
5) A Turkey Dance
6) Penguin Song
7) Tony Chestnut
8) Icky Sticky Bubble Gum
9)Baby Shark
10)From Your Seat
11)Boom Chicka Boom
12)Get Funky
13)Boogaloo Song
14)Go Bananas
15)Swimming Song
16)Ants In Your Pants
17)Here We Go - Directions Song
18)Count to 100 Workout
19)Move To The Alphabet
20)Dancing 2's

What are some of your favorite brain break songs?  Share in the comments as I love finding new songs to share with children.

Thank you for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings.  Keep on smiling!

Unique English Game Ideas to Practice Verbs

Today, I am thrilled to share with you a guest blog post from Catherine Ross!  She is a firm believer in making learning fun just like me!  Thanks for being a guest blogger for me Catherine.

Unique English Game Ideas to Practice Verbs

What can be the best way to practice verb related exercises such as subject-verb agreement and irregular verbs with children, besides regular worksheets? While the online space is filled with a plethora of educational English games, there are a number of ideas in the offline space as well that teachers and homeschooling parents can explore in the classroom with their students! Here are a few offline English games that will help kids practice subject-verb agreement, language speaking skills, and irregular verbs in a fun way, in the classroom, with friends, at a party, or just about anywhere!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58827557@N06/12743417074

Sing Song

There are quite a few song lyrics websites that don’t require users to unnecessarily go through the hassle of a mandatory registration process to download lyrics. Look up such websites and download lyrics of a few children-friendly songs from their collection of millions for the kids. If you believe in preserving natural resources and avoiding unnecessary usage of paper, write down the lyrics of the songs. Choose a song that that has several instances of subject-verb disagreement and discuss them with your child. Find out possible reasons why the writer may have used improper grammar in the songs, fix the errors, read and reread to check if they still rhyme, and so on. This is a great subject-verb agreement game that the kids will enjoy!

Current Affairs

Make a great English game out of a general knowledge exercise. Choose a current event from a website or an e-paper and discuss it in the class. When you are sure the students understand the event and the circumstances leading to it, download another news article on the same event from a different website or e-paper and edit it to delete the verbs in each sentence. Not only will children be required to find suitable words to fill in the blanks, but will have to align them to the nouns as well, therefore making it a great classroom activity.

Storytelling

Oral storytelling is a great way to practice irregular verbs with children. Besides, speaking in front of one’s whole class is an excellent activity to boost children’s confidence and public speaking skills too. Topics pertaining to real life events, future plans, interesting festivals, and vacations can encourage great conversations among all age groups. And, impromptu speeches and lectures will inevitably have many instances of irregular verbs helping children to learn and practice them!

Once done with storytelling, you can choose to weave a chain-story in the class. Being the class teacher, you will have to initiate a conversation with any interesting line, such as “Suddenly, I heard a thud from my bedroom…” Students will have to continue the story by adding sentences that contain irregular verbs in past tense, such as “I ran to see what happened”, and carry the story forward. Continue till all the students have had a chance to say a line each.

Verb Bingo

Create a 5x5 grid on cardstock and fill up each box with an irregular verb. Make a grid for each student and distribute them. Coordinating with the words on the grids, create chits of the present tense verbs of all the verbs on the grids. You will call out the present tense of an irregular verb, and students will mark the past tense if they have it on their grid. The first student to get a ‘quick five (five in a row)’ or a full house wins the game.

I have used these English games in the classroom and they’ve proved to be a great success! Hope these English games help you as well!

Author Bio:

Catherine Ross is a full-time stay-at-home-mum who believes learning should be enjoyable for young minds. An erstwhile elementary school teacher, Catherine loves coming up with creative ways through which kids can grasp the seemingly difficult concepts of learning easily. She believes that a ‘fun factor’ can go a long way in enhancing kids’ understanding and blogs at http://kidslearninggames.weebly.com/

Thank you for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings.  Keep on smiling!

The Learning Station CD Review and Giveaway

While subbing I have had the chance to play lots of music especially in Kindergarten.  One of the teachers at one of my favorite schools told me about "The Learning Station" and left me a CD called "Here We Go Loopty Loo - And Songs To Make You Move."  I fell in love with this CD instantly and the children just had so much fun with it!  The Learning Station comprises of Don Monopoli, Laurie Monopoli and Jan Hrkach.

First check out my review of the CD and then come enter the contest.  I am also posting a picture of the CD, which you can click on if you would like to purchase a copy.  The review is completely my own opinion.

The title track "Here We Go Loopty Loo", I bet you have heard before and the kids have fun so much fun as they form a circle and put their right foot in and shake it or their left hand and so forth!
The next song is "Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," which we all probably know from childhood and is just so much fun.
The third song is called "Keep Moving" and has the children holding up different body parts: two hands, one thumb, one foot, etc.
Another one of my favorites on the CD and the one that really got me into The Learning Station is a song called Cock-A-Doodle Doo.  The children get to act out being a rooster.  The lyrics go like this "Put your hand on your hip (Cock-a-doodle doodle doo!).  Put the other on your head (Cock-a-doodle doodle doo!) Stick out your lips (Cock-a-doodle doodle doo!) And do like this (Cock-a-doodle doodle doo!)  (Strut!)  It is so much fun and the kids just get a kick out of it!

There's also the favorite that many of you know "Going on a Bear Hunt."  You can see YouTube video here:

I Know An Old Lady is fun to go with all the Old Lady books that are out there!  Another one that I just absolutely love is called Chuckle Bug.  It is a song to get the kids laughing and I am telling you they won't stop laughing so you'll have time this at the right time like maybe right before activity or time to go home!

Now for the contest, if you would like to be entered to win a copy of the CD "Here We Go Loopty Loo - And Songs To Make You Move" all you have to do is follow my blog.  If you share this contest on your blog, FB page, pinterest, or twitter you can get 2 more entries!  The contest will end on Sunday March 25th at midnight (which is technically Monday morning). Be sure to leave your e-mail address on the form or in the comments. After speaking with someone from the learning station it was brought to my attention that the giveaway is only good for people in the United States and Canada. Sorry to my international fans!  Thanks so much for hoppin' by!


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