November

A family from our Mom's Day Out program moved to Ecuador in November, so we did lots of songs and games to celebrate Ecuador. We looked at a globe to find Ecuador and listened to music from this country. One song/game we played a lot this month was "El patio de mi casa" (107 on the Children's Song CD). As we sang this song, we held hands and walked in a circle. At each "agáchate", we crouch down. After the second one we stayed down and danced. This song is good because it teaches you how to say a few letters in Spanish (h, i, j, k, l, m, n, a). There are multiple versions of this song. This is a good one:



El patio de mi casa es particular
cuando llueve se moja como los demás
agáchate, y vuelve a agachar
que las agachaditas no saben bailar
h, i, j, k, l, m, n, a
que si tu no me quieres otra niña me querrá.

We also did a fun song called "El conejo saltarín." This is about a jumping rabbit. We do it often when the children get wiggly. It is an easy song to learn (although it is fast) and it includes words like las orejas (ears), la nariz (nose), la colita (tail), reír (to laugh). At the "brinca, brinca, conejo saltarín" part, we jump like rabbits. I have linked to the version we use, and you can hear the bulk of the song in the sample. Try playing it to see if your child makes rabbit ears at "orejas", points to his/her nose at "nariz", wiggles his/her tail at "colita" and jumps at "brinca".

Conejo saltarín

The Smithsonian Institute has archived lots of world music; the CD "Children's Songs from Ecuador, Mexico and Puerto Rico" includes traditional songs from various Latin American countries. Incidentally, this site is a great resource for lots of music genres.