Welcome! you are at an historical moment, though it may not be one that shifts the course of our lives. The first bowl of ideas for Soupy Sounds. These are intended to be an accompanying help to those who have bought the Soupy Sounds CD. I hope to fill these emails with chunks of good ideas, some stories about the songs which make up the Soupy Sounds CD. If you are a school I would love it if you could pass this on to your kindergarten/year 1 teachers. Also feel free to email me back and let me know this is not useful for you- that is totally fine!
A story
Well seeing as this is Soupy bowl #01 I should tell you the story about how Soupy Sounds was born. This information is all found on my myspace music page, which has just had a revamp thanks to my friend Chris. But every parent loves telling the birthing story, and so here it is. I began my teaching career at Pymble Public School, in Sydney's northern suburbs. In my very first year, bright eyed as I was, the school was looking for a new phonics program. There was a well known one around which the school considered taking on. But after doing some training it was decided that the program was too epic, too costly and not a good fit for the school. I remember being a little disappointed because I loved how this program used songs to teach. In fact I still love teaching through song. My solution was to begin to create a bank of songs in my own class, so that we could learn through song.
I was teaching grade 1, and each day we were revising a lettter of the alphabet. So I would brainstorm ideas with the children, then ask them to write a "song" for that letter. They all handed in their sentences to me, and I would sit down with my guitar and wait until one of the songs started "singing " to me. I can't think of how else to say it- certain sentences would just become a song in my head as I read them. So each new day I would unveil to the class the new song they had created. It was a little like Classroom Idol. After a few recording process (Pp is one of those, and Ww, as I thought we needed more slow songs). But that is how the songs were created, and this is why I love them. They are written for kids, and they are written by kids. Some of the songs have child-like grammatical structures, or are just child-ish. I like to call them playground songs which have climbed into the window of the classroom.
A song
The very first song which was written in my grade 1 class was the Ss song. The lyrics were:
"The sun sets in the sky"
Only later did I add the sister song
"See it setting, see it sinking, all the colours of the rainbow"
It is so very simple. Phonemically (a word which I have always thought is teasing itself!) I am aware that the word "sky" does not start with "s" as it starts with the "sk" digraph. The other 5 initial occurances of "s" are the "s" phoneme though, and there are 2 instances of an "s" sound at the end of the word as well. This song ends up being quite hard to sing when you sing both parts together. Maybe in some classes you should just stick to one part all the time when you sing this one, especially when you are first singing it. A little note here: if you are a teacher using this song here is how I would introduce it
- brainstorm s words
- listen to the song, listening for s words
- listen a second time, adding any new words to your brainstorm
- sing it a few more times that day, and a few times later in the week. Repetition is so crucial to learning, and not nearly as boring when you sing. Add the actions after the first few times
Ideas for bringing the song to life
When actions were added to this song for me, it came to life. In most classes you will have a child (usually a girl, but not always) who cannot help but make up actions. Your child may even be this child. I usually let actions evolve through these kids. The Ss song action is one where you make the sunrise action: hands together like you are praying, straight up to full extension, then making a full circle as you sing. Another thing I have always done is say the sound "ssssssssssss" in between the singing parts of "the sun sets in the sky." It is great practice for that sound, which some children really need.
As well as doing the actions for the Ss song, here are some other ideas you could use in a kindergarten, preschool or home to help your child/children inreact with this sound.
- Clap out the sounds from an "s" word in the song. Not the letter names, by the way, but the sound they make. This I have found to be a really effective way to develop early spelling skills. So clap out "sun...s-u-n" , "sky... sk-y"
- Do a painting of a sunset
- Paint a rainbow. If you want to get really technical about your painting, use the actual colours of the rainbow here is a cute online page with them
So there is bowl #01 of Soupy Sounds news, I hope you're not too full. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or feedback.
If you haven't got a copy of the CD, and would like one, either email me or use the order form attached to this email. Each CD costs $25 (there are bulk discounts when you buy more than 10 CDs). I have been so encouraged with the feedback so far. So many children are enjoying the songs, from a 1 year old who won't let their mum take it off the radio to a classroom of year 5 students who were begging for the "Under the Bridge Game". Soupy Sounds is now being used in 8 schools, 2 preschools, 4 libraries and heaps of homes around NSW. I would love for it to keep getting out there, this is all a fun adventure which I hope keeps going on and on.
Lots of Soupy Sounds Love to you all
Ty Soupidis
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