Getting Ready

In preparation for my first full year of teaching music to preschoolers I have been planning lessons and researching songs that tell stories as well have good rhythm and movement. I have been researching and planning a curriculum based on research that I have read that says music set to quality literature opens a whole new world in the preschoolers brain and leads to success in other arenas of cognitive and developmental growth. In other words, teaching music to preschoolers can be a stepping stone to helping math and reading skills later in the school-age years...Plus they like it and so do I.

All this to say, I am organizing the curriculum for the year. I looked up the music for some old folk songs, since there are so many of those that tell great stories. One that I looked up was Clementine.

Having only grown up singing the first and maybe second verse I didn't realize there was a whole story. It goes as follows: (my personal favorite verses are 6 and 10 )

In a cavern, in a canyon,Excavating for a mine,

Dwelt a miner, forty-niner,

And his daughter Clementine.

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Refrain:

Oh my darling, oh my darling,

Oh my darling Clementine

You are lost and gone forever,

Dreadful sorry, Clementine.

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2. Light she was, and like a fairy,

And her shoes were number nine,

Herring boxes without topses,

Sandals were for Clementine.

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3. Walking lightly as a fairy,

Though her shoes were number nine,

Sometimes tripping, lightly skipping,

Lovely girl, my Clementine.

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4. Drove she ducklings to the water

Ev'ry morning just at nine,

Hit her foot against a splinter,

Fell into the foaming brine.

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5. Ruby lips above the water,

Blowing bubbles soft and fine,

But alas, I was no swimmer,

Neither was my Clementine.

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6. In a churchyard near the canyon,

Where the myrtle doth entwine,

There grow rosies and some posies,

Fertilized by Clementine.

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7. Then, the miner, forty-niner,

Soon began to fret and pine,

Thought he oughter join his daughter,

So he's now with Clementine.

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8. I'm so lonely, lost without her,

Wish I'd had a fishing line,

Which I might have cast about her,

Might have saved my Clementine.

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9. In my dreams she still doth haunt me,

Robed in garments soaked with brine,

Then she rises from the waters,

And I kiss my Clementine.

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10. Listen fellers, heed the warning

Of this tragic tale of mine,

Artificial respiration

Could have saved my Clementine.

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11. How I missed her,

how I missed her,

How I missed my Clementine,

Til I kissed her little sister,

And forgot my Clementine.

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I think I will leave this one out of the curriculum this year. I thinking it might be too much story for 3 to 5 year olds! Although, the tune is catchy...How many of you had to sing it while you read?