Name of Activity:. Animal Music

Category:. Do you Hear What I Hear?

Props: : None

Your Role: Coach and model Ask your child to recall and sing a favorite children's song. Examples include "Twinkle Twinkle", or "Row, Row< Row Your Boat." Ask your child to make the sound of an animal. Examples for younger children include cow, dog, cat, or pig. Then ask your child to substitute the sound an animal makes for the words of the song. He or she is, in one sense, singing like that animals.

Directions: Ask your child to recall and sing a favorite children's song. Examples include "Twinkle Twinkle", or "Row, Row< Row Your Boat." Ask your child to make the sound of an animal. Examples for younger children include cow, dog, cat, or pig. Then ask your child to substitute the sound an animal makes for the words of the song. He or she is, in one sense, singing like that animals.

Goals for You: Your goal is to set up the activity and to help your child get into it--the two parts--making the animal sound itself and keeping to the one to one correspondence--are two very different sorts of "imagination" tasks. It's your job to keep up the dual focus.

Goals for Children: Your child can recall both the melody of a song and the sound various animals make. He or she can learn to overlay two different sorts of sounds in his or her mind's ear. He or she can also learn to break apart the music and lyric component of a song and substitute sound for lyrics. Also, your child can learn that sound substitutions can have humorous effects. Finally, your child can practice fluency: singing the song with as many different animals sound substitutions as possible

Here is an example of how it works:

Original Song: Twinkle twinkle little star

Possible Strategy:

What to say Let's think about the songs we like. Let's sing your favorite song. If you're having trouble, let me get you started. Good singing. Now try it loud and clear. Now tell me what sound a doggie makes. Good.

What to do Make sure that your child can recall both the sound the animal makes and the melody of the song.

Possible Shaping:

What to say "Let's try combining the song and the sound."

What to do: You may find that your child has some difficulty and will revert back to singing the original words of the song. Or, you may find that your child can make the animal sound but loses the melody. If either occurs, step into your modeling role and help your child get back on track. Remember, what you are doing is developing your child's auditory imagery storehouse. If listening, singing, and matching pitches are not natural strengths of your child, this exercise may help him or her develop these important skills.

Possible Ending:

What to say: "That was really good; let's try to think of some more songs and sounds for next time."

What to do: If your child accomplishes this activity easily, you may wish, next time, to introduce the notion of the character of an animal singing his song. For example, as the cow doing twinkle twinkle, the older child can get on all fours and wish his tail as he does moo moo to twinkle twinkle.

Material on this site created by Helane S. Rosenberg, Ph.D. and Yakov M. Epstein, Ph.D. in conjunction with their forthcoming book titled Play for Success. All material on this site is copyrighted and may not be reproduced or cited without written permission of Helane S. Rosenberg, Ph.D.. Dr. Rosenberg is Associate Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education of Rutgers-The State University, New Brunswick, NJ. Dr. Epstein is Professor of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts and Science of Rutgers-The State University, New Brunswick, NJ. He is also Director of the Center for Mathematics, Science, and Computer Education of Rutgers University.

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