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Here Come the Earth Kids
All Classes
Share the Music 98: Grade 6, page 423, CD 11:4
Performance Mix: CD 11:20
Staging Suggestions
A select group of students sings the verses of this song from the stage. Others enter singing the refrains as they move to their assigned spots. All remain standing and face the audience until signaled to sit. If you have several entrances, consider having different grades enter through different doors, all singing as they come in—an exciting effect for the opening of your program!
If you want students to have a uniform appearance, they may wear plain white (or another color) T-shirts and paper bands around their arms or sashes across their chests with "Earth Kids" written on them.
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Big, Beautiful Planet
Share the Music 2003: Grade K, page T296, CD 6:37
Share the Music 98: Grade K, page T256, CD 6:4
Signing Master K•2•9
Staging Suggestions
This is a nice song to use with various small solo groups (3–5 children) for each verse, with all children joining in on the refrains. Encourage an understanding of the same and different sections of the song through the staging.
Children may all sign the refrain or the entire song. See Signing Master K•2•9.
Cross-Curricular Suggestion: Science/Physical Education
Discuss characteristics of the sun, earth, and wind (how they look, how they move, their sizes, and so on). Ask children to think of ways to show these characteristics physically through gesture and whole body movement. Some children may move to represent the sun, earth, or wind when each is mentioned in the song. See Teacher's Edition for more information.
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Growing
Share the Music 2003: Grade 1, page 382, CD 9:34
Share the Music 98: Grade 1, page T312, CD 7:2
Staging Suggestions
Reinforce children's understanding of same and different sections as they learn and perform this song. Have small groups plan and do movement to show growth, as described in verses 1 and 2.
Have children hold up individual drawings of things as they are sung in the verses. (See the Art suggestion below.)
Some children may play D-E-F# on resonator bells when the pattern occurs in the song. In class, emphasize the upward movement of the pattern and the connection between this and the theme of growing.
Cross-Curricular Suggestion: Science
Have children plant seeds and observe and describe their growth during the year. Display the plants in the auditorium for the concert.
Cross-Curricular Suggestion: Language Arts
Invite children to create a picture map to help them learn the refrain. Children may choose one of the things mentioned, read to find out more about it, and write about what they learned.
Cross-Curricular Suggestion: Art
Have children create one picture for each thing mentioned in the verses. Be sure the pictures are large enough to be seen by the audience, but small enough for children to hold up when the pictured item is mentioned in the song.
Cross-Curricular Suggestion: Math
Measure children's heights several times thoughout the year. Have children create their own bar graph showing how they have grown during the year.
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What a Wonderful World
Share the Music 2003: Grade 2, page 341, CD 7:26
Share the Music 98: Grade 2, page 293, CD 6:13
Staging Suggestions
Play the Louis Armstrong recording for children. Use this recording or your own piano accompaniment for the performance. Have small groups move to illustrate a section of the song, and try to have the movement illustrate the aaba form of the song. Have all children move together on the coda.
Cross-Curricular Suggestion: Social Studies
Invite children to learn about the life of Louis Armstrong. See Teacher's Edition.
Cross-Curricular Suggestion: Language Arts
Have children write about one thing that is wonderful in their world.
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All Living Things
Share the Music 2003: Grade 3, page 348, CD 8:20
Share the Music 98: Grade 3, page 302, CD 7:30
Signing Master S•3•10
Staging Suggestions
Use rain forest sounds as an introduction. (See Science suggestion below.) Some students may play on the beat or after-beat with tambourines on this country-western-style song. Signing or original gestures may be added for all or part of the song.
Cross-Curricular Suggestion: Science
Have students learn about rain forests and the problems in preserving them. (See "Background" in the Teacher's Edition.) Brainstorm sounds that might be heard in a rain forest, and encourage students to work together to find acoustic or recorded ways to recreate these sounds.
Cross-Curricular Suggestion: Art
Have students make extra-large stick puppets of various living things, especially those mentioned in the song. Then, as the group sings, a few students can move the puppets back and forth behind the class. Held high, the puppets should be visible over the heads of the last row of singers.
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This Pretty Planet
Share the Music 2003: Grade 4, page 260,
Unison Version, CD 6:3
Canon Version, CD 6:6
Share the Music 98: Grade 4, page 223,
Unison Version, CD 6:5
Canon Version, CD 6:7
Staging Suggestions
Students may learn this song in unison and as a three-part canon. Invite students to create simple movements for each part of the song and then to combine them into a dance-movement sequence as they sing. When three groups move as the students sing in canon, the canon effect becomes visual as well as aural. For a nice finish, have the groups that finish first hold their final positions until all the groups have finished singing and moving. Hang a grid-globe (see Social Studies suggestion below) or make a larger globe for the program, using a large ball instead of a globe as the base.
Cross-Curricular Suggestion: Social Studies
Invite groups of students to create grid-globes. First, have students cut a strip of blue paper 1/2" wide and tape it around the equator of an existing globe. Then have them measure carefully and mark the strip where it should meet. Have students remove the strip and label it "Equator." Then have them repeat this procedure to create other strips representing longitude, labeling each with its degree measure and direction. There should be at least four of these strips, including the prime meridian and its corresponding 180-degree meridian. Have students fit the meridian circles together, secure them with tape, and place the equator around the outside.
Finally, students may tape string to the North Pole of their globe and hang it. Have students locate the latitude and longitude of their hometown on their grid-globes. Then have them follow the latitude and longitude lines on a globe, listing everything on the map that the lines cross. See the Teacher's Edition for more information.
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Earth Day Rap
Share the Music 2003: Grade 5, page 370, CD 8:16
Share the Music 98: Grade 5, Page 338, CD 8:16
Staging Suggestions
Some students may want to add instrument sounds, as suggested in the Teacher's Edition. Use the endangered species composition as an introduction. (See Science suggestion below.)
Arrange students into five groups to create their own movement for one four-measure (two-line) phrase. Combine the movements and have all the groups perform them as they say the rap.
Cross-Curricular Suggestion: Science
Invite students to create endangered species compositions. Have students research various endangered species and write brief explanations of why they are endangered. Select several sentences from students' explanations, arrange students into small groups, and assign one sentence to each group. Then have each group find ways to add sound effects or improvisations to its sentence to express and enhance its meaning. Encourage groups to perform their sentences with the sounds in sequence to create a composition.
Cross-Curricular Suggestion: Social Studies
Have students research both the African and African American origins of rap and share their findings with others in the class. (See "Background" in the Teacher's Edition.)
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Look Around
Share the Music 2003: Grade 6, page 218, CD 5:9
Share the Music 98: Grade 6, page 192, CD 4:33
Staging Suggestions
This song has an optional cambiata part for changing voices. Even if no boys' voices have changed when you begin teaching the song, let students hear the part frequently, since some voices may suddenly change shortly before the program. Students will be able to learn the part more quickly if they are familiar with it.
Have students create movement as suggested in the lesson. Invite them to create a movement motive for the words "look around" and then create additional movement for the rest of each phrase.
For an introduction, have representatives from each research group state their assigned problem. (See Science suggestion below.) At the end of the song, have a volunteer from each group read sentences describing actions they discovered would be necessary, including personal contributions they can make to solve the problem.
Cross-Curricular Suggestion: Science
Have students discuss and list reasons for problems mentioned in the song (air and water pollution, acid rain, deforestation, excessive building in natural habitats, and so on). Arrange students into small groups, and assign each group a problem to research. Ask students to find the causes of the problem and possible solutions that would keep each natural treasure from becoming, as the song states, "a memory." Have each group write a statement about how to solve the problem and about ways young people could help.
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Garden of the Earth
Finale: All Grades
Share the Music 2003: Grade 6, page 358-359, CD 9:3, CD 9:4
Share the Music 98: Grade 6, page 324 (listening version) and page 325 (song version), CD 8:20 (listening version); CD 8:21 (song version)
Signing Master 3•6•9
Staging Suggestions
Have the last class to perform remain on stage. Use either recording as an accompaniment. If you are using the listening version, you may want students to sit in silence during the Russian verses as the pictures described below (see Social Studies suggestion below) are seen. During the interlude before the English version, have all students stand and turn toward the audience. A small group may sign the first two English verses from the stage area. On verse 3 (the last English verse), all students may sign the words.
Cross-Curricular Suggestion: Social Studies
Have students collect color magazine pictures of people from various parts of the world. Create color transparencies of them on a copy machine and, during the performance, show them on an overhead projector with the house lights dimmed.
Cross-Curricular Suggestion: Science
Ask students to watch a sunrise and then discuss what they saw in class. Invite a small group of students to plan ways to slowly bring up the auditorium lights to suggest a sunrise. Then, for the program, simulate a sunrise on the last verse of the song.
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Earth Day Every Day (Celebrate...)
Exit: All Grades
Share the Music 2003: Grade 6, page 356, CD 9:2
Share the Music 98: Grade 6, page 322, CD 8:19
Staging Suggestions
Assign three students or groups of students to take turns singing each of the three phrases of the verse. Then have all students sing the refrain together. After applause and thanks, repeat this refrain several times, as participants leave the auditorium by the door from which they entered.
Cross-Curricular Suggestion: Science
Have volunteers create instruments from recycled trash items and play them on after-beats during the refrain. (See Share the Music 98: Grade 6, page 421, for more information.)
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