Over the winter and spring I worked with my good friend Sarah Sprague to create a series of songs to support her new curriculum series. It’s an 8 level series for preschool and elementary with a strong focus on the importance of reflecting positive values and concepts and being reflective of Brazilian children. Over those months, I wrote about fifty songs, most of which had about eight words per song. Each song connected to the units and was intended to help kids internalize concepts, pronunciation, and vocabulary.
It was a huge project, especially because I also ended up recording all of the songs, along with help from several musician friends. I’ve used many of the songs recently in my own work with young children. Why should they be limited to kids in another country?
Sarah’s books are finally available. You can find them at the Macmillan Brazil site. The descriptions are in Portuguese, so I can’t read them either, but I have a pretty good idea of what they say. Congratulations to her on this truly monumental achievement.
This song is one of the first I wrote for the project. It’s called “I Can Jump.” It’s easy to learn, helps build self-control, and kids love it.