Club Member Spotlight: Cindy Petzoldt
Welcome to our new series: Singable Book Club Member Spotlight!
In this feature, Singable Book Club Member Cindy Petzoldt shares her favorite singable books, props, and ways to incorporate them into your sessions. Thanks, Cindy, for sharing your wisdom and ideas!
I’m a 70-year-old who plays piano and sings weekly with older adults who have memory issues. I’m also a Story Time leader in three preschool classrooms every week. I love to incorporate songs into Story Time. Why? Because when I add music, I see the sparks in the children’s eyes just like when I’m doing a Memory Care Singalong. Books come alive and are more memorable when you find or compose a short song that 4-year-olds will embrace. I’m so delighted to have found resources such as Singable Books to aid me in my search for the best song to accompany the best picture book for my PreK classrooms.
My favorite go-to singable book? “The Three Little Pigs” illustrated by Ed Bryan and published by Nosy Crow. I teach the children two songs, one by the wolf and the other by each pig. The songs are from “The 3 Piggy Opera” by Carol Kaplan-Lyss and Sandi Becker. After quickly learning the songs, the children marvel at the bright illustrations as I read and act out the story. The wolf sings “I want a big (clap) fat (clap) pig to eat (3x)….Yummy yummy yummy yummy um-um-um-ummmmm” as he approaches a house. After he knocks and asks to be let inside, the pig sings, “No way, no way, noooooo way, no way will I let you in (3x). Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin.” Lots of motions add to the fun. The combination of fantastic illustrations and the songs engages everyone in the classroom.
When I use props, it’s usually to help the children predict what’s coming next. Example: the book “Grandma’s Feather Bed” adapted from John Denver’s hit song and illustrated by Christopher Canyon. As I introduce and then we all repeat the refrain, I hold up large photos of “a downy chick,” a V-shaped formation of flying geese for “it was made from the feathers of forty-‘leven geese,” then a succession of photos showing 8 diverse kids, 4 hound dogs, and a pig. I don’t sing the book — I read it slowly, but emulate the rhythm and twang of John Denver’s song so the children start absorbing the rhythm as they’re taking in all the crazy illustrations. Then I ask the teacher to share a YouTube video of John Denver and Muppets singing the song, which causes laughter and excitement. Then we play it again (and again) as we sing along and dance. I saved this book for the week before Winter Break, when all the kids are antsy. It worked beautifully.
So how about the book “You’ve Got This” by Lindsay Bonilla, illustrated by Keisha Morris? That’s the book I chose for my selfie. It depicts a series of nerve-wracking situations for kids such as jumping off the diving board, riding a bike for the first time, getting a shot at the doctor’s office, taking your first plane ride, admitting you did something wrong, etc. I’m proud to say a song came to me on a walk. I was thinking about the book and how to present it, and I found myself marching. My lyrics, which we sing (to my own simple tune) as we march in place and clap along: “I did it (clap, clap, clap) and I feel good. I did it (clap, clap, clap) I always thought I could. I feel brave and I feel strong and (Clap-clap-clap-clap) I did it!”
