Zebra And Giraffe Songs
Cris Luczak
We are going to be giraffe class in September and I have been searching for songs and rhymes about giraffes for the children to learn. Most I have found are very complicated and long, if anyone has any giraffe rhymes, or even zoo ones, it would be great if you could share.
Make a "face" with thumb and middle finger, holding the other three up as ears. Then hold your arm up and rub your other hand up and down your forearm to show the long neck. She loved it amd so did I!
In Rudyard Kipling's version, a gray, horsey-looking beast went into "a great forest 'sclusively full of trees and bushes and stripy, speckly, patchy-batchy shadows," stayed there awhile, and after a "long time"... got stripy.
Here's another notion, this one from Ricardo Solis, an artist working in Guadalajara, Mexico. He says a team of highly intelligent, "mini-me" creatures got itself a roll of black ribbon. Using giant scissors, the mini-me's cut themselves long slivers, which, dropped from a blimp, they pasted on a horse.
This is such a satisfying explanation. No waiting eons and eons. No random mutations. No molecular biology. Just a team of itty-bitty designers doing, well ... almost intelligent design. They're not precise. Life should be accidental, which is why it feels right that a flamingo gets its pink from teeny buckets of paint, randomly poured. And why the mini-me's down below have to protect themselves with small umbrellas.
Plus, creature-building should be hard work. In making a giraffe, a team of designers had to draw, manufacture and stock each golden-brown blotch, and ship them to the studio, where this monster-sized animal, tethered by a handful of mini-me's, is patiently waiting to be accessorized. It's a paint-by-numbers job, each blotch must be fitted to its pre-figured spot, and if they take too long and the giraffe gets restless? I'm not even going to think about that.
In the Bible, genesis happens super-fast, as befits an all-powerful being. Creation is a six-day effort, from "let there be light" all the way through zebra-striping, giraffe pigmentation and flamingo pinks. Then, on the seventh day, God rests. He gives Himself a single day off. One.
Puppets! The kids glued their foam pieces onto the bags. I got the kit from Oriental Trading, but the bag glue was kind of stinky. (I wound up having to re-glue some of the bags after the ripped at the seems.) They got to choose between zebra, lion, tiger, and giraffe.
It is surreal to see these amazing creatures roaming through the land. Towering over all of the other animals, and over many of the trees, the giraffes just gracefully walk across the plains, minding their own business while chomping on tree leaves (and the occasional fruits and grass).
When I think about giraffes, and elephants, and camels, and zebras, and so many other wild animals (including human beings), I simply cannot understand how someone honestly could conclude that all of these amazing creatures came from the same primordial soup.
The animal kingdom comes alive with the fascinating sounds of the zoo! This selection of 22 zoo animal songs is specially curated for preschoolers, offering an engaging and educational experience. These tunes are not only fun and lively, but also serve as a fantastic tool for teaching young children about various animals and their unique characteristics. With easy-to-remember lyrics and captivating melodies, these songs are ideal for group sing-alongs, classroom activities, or just for a joyful listening experience. They are a perfect blend of entertainment and learning, tailored to capture the imagination of preschoolers and introduce them to the diverse world of animals in an enjoyable way.
He has no fingers and has no toes, He has no fingers and has no toes. (Wiggle fingers; wiggle toes) He has no fingers and has no toes, But goodness, gracious, what a nose! (Pull hands out from face to suggest a long trunk.)
Take me out for some good fun,
Take me out to the zoo.
Let me visit the tall giraffe,
I want to hear the hyenas laugh.
Now I love to visit the zoo,
I could stay there all day,
And watch birds, seals, rhinos, and hippos
As they play.
Piano Safari has been a method on my radar since the first version of the books came out. I've known about it since (I'm guessing) 2008. Julie Knerr, one of the authors, went to grad school with a girl I did my undergrad studies with (they may have even been roommates-I can't remember for sure). My friend told me about the method, and I haven't looked back.
I was drawn to Piano Safari due to my disappointment with the technique books on the market. I hated them to be quite frank. I didn't feel they were effective and they were...well, what they were - exercises - and boring to boot. Even though most technique books do correlate with what the students are learning in the lesson book, I never felt the transfer of learning happened.
Building up my safari-themed animal collection was a bit of a chore! I remember asking the authors where they got theirs but mostly I was on my own finding them. Today, I hope to help YOUR search a little easier than mine.
(1) I didn't want to go out and spend $100 purchasing a bunch of animals. I did end up spending that or maybe a little more in the long run but it was over the course of the last 2-3 years.
(2) At first, I searched local stores and ended up with some larger stuffed animals. I found them too bulky to work with, though, so I went online to find smaller sizes. I should have done this upfront as randomly chasing down specific stuffed animals of specific sizes in stores was not fun!
(4) I wanted the animals to look as authentic as possible. Some of the stuffed animals out there look nothing like the actual animal. I didn't want a cutesy-looking animal. Let's keep it real. For example, I would have preferred a smaller giraffe, but most of the small giraffes out there had no neck, and since the point of the tall giraffe technique was to think of their long neck, I had to go with a 12" giraffe.
(5) My goal was to find an animal for each technique exercise in book 1. (Lion, Zebra, Giraffe, Tree Frog, Kangaroo, Bird, Monkey) However because the Charlie Chipmunk and Herbie Hippo rote pieces are so popular, the kids were always asking for Charlie and Herbie, so I decided to get them too.
If all else fails, let the student bring their own prop! In book 2 there's the Flamingo Dancers rote piece. While this isn't a technique exercise, the animal theme lends itself beautifully to a fun prop. This couldn't be displayed better than the day one of my sweet students walked into lessons with her flamingo headband. Too fun.
Great post! I have just started some students in PS. I am gradually purchasing some of the stuffed animals as well. I purchased some of the same ones that you showed in your post. ? I purchased the Chipmunk first. The kids just love playing for Charlie.
I held two camps last summer with piano safari materials and one of camps turned into a year-round group class. It is my favorite class to teach all week! I have a zebra but am looking forward to getting the rest of the animals too!
I have purchased some PS books and am reviewing the series. I recently visited the Ark Encounter in Kentucky and purchased several stuffed animals there. I loved that there animals were small and authentic looking. I still need a frog & bird. I will check out your links.
Hi Amy. Thank you so much for you post and the exciting info on how to purchase the stuffed animals. I am a piano teacher from Melbourne, Australia and have recently fallen for the Piano Safari series. I am finding that the students really do relate to the technique through the animals. All my new students will using it in 2017!!!! Leanne
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Dave Davies. In a world of global warming and habitat destruction, programs to protect wilderness and travel to visit remaining natural lands and species are appealing. But our guest, journalist Stephanie McCrummen, writes that in many parts of the world, Indigenous people are being evicted from their lands to make way for ecotourism, carbon offset schemes and other activities that fall under the banner of conservation. In a new article in The Atlantic, she focuses on the Maasai, pastoral tribespeople who for centuries have herded cattle and goats in northern Tanzania. She writes that the Maasai are increasingly being forced off traditional grazing lands to make way for foreign investors, including the royal family of Dubai, who wanted an exclusive game reserve for hunting expeditions. The Maasai's displacement, she writes, has been accomplished in part through harsh government measures, including arrests, confiscation of livestock and lethal violence.
Stephanie McCrummen is a staff writer at The Atlantic. She previously worked at The Washington Post, where she covered national politics and served as the paper's East Africa bureau chief. Among her journalistic honors are the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, for coverage of Roy Moore's 2017 Alabama Senate campaign, and two George Polk Awards. Her new article in The Atlantic is "'This Will Finish Us': How Gulf Princes, The Safari Industry And Conservation Groups Are Displacing The Maasai From The Last Of Their Serengeti Homeland." Well, Stephanie McCrummen, welcome to FRESH AIR.
MCCRUMMEN: Well, the Maasai are pastoralists. They are essentially cattle people. Their culture, their livelihood, their way of life really revolves around keeping cattle and by extension, tending to the landscape that supports cattle raising. They migrated from the lower Nile Valley through Kenya into northern Tanzania approximately 400 years ago, settling in this, you know, lush grasslands that they called Serenget. That's - in the Maa language, it means the place where the land runs on forever. Some of your listeners, if they've been lucky enough to go on a safari in Kenya or Tanzania, they would might recognize the Maasai as people who wear bright red, often plaid shawls, beautiful beads. They often serve as guides in safaris and, you know, have been very photographed and really romanticized in many ways over the years.
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