Photo credit: Mark Bergin

Children’s musician Erin Lee Kelly bring us the next of her regular posts with thematic recommendations for kid-friendly music, plus activities to make the songs an interactive experience for the whole family.

I’ve created links to Amazon for the full albums (click the album name), plus links to Amazon MP3 downloads, when available, for those who want only the singles. (Click the song name.) I also have a widget after the jump that will let you preview most of the songs without leaving Mombian.

I first met Dana—and Mombian—on a summer cruise with R Family Vacations, the amazing vacation company for GLBT families (and friends and neighbors and cousins!) It was my third cruise with R Family, so by then I had figured out how to navigate the ship without getting lost, sunburned, seasick, or locked in the Deck 7 Bathroom.

Yes indeed, I got stuck in a stall en route to Alaska and remained there for the better part of an afternoon until I was rescued by four boy scouts. Now as boy scouts, these kids had been trained to “keep the victim (me) calm until help arrives.” So, while my rescue was underway, one of the boys said reassuringly “Don’t worry! When we get you out, this will make a terrific song!” Apparently I did not concur, as he calmly and in a very capable manner continued on: “If you’re too embarrassed to write about this, you can write about what happened to me. I was on a field trip and got locked in the bathroom and they got me out. Can you imagine? On a FIELD TRIP! And I’m just fine now. You’ll be fine, too.”

Well, they got me out and I have lived to tell the tale—and his tale too, of a field trip gone awry. You never know what may happen on a field trip, but beginning to end, they are always an adventure. Here are some of my favorite tunes about field trips.

“Field Trip” (Eight Feet, Imagination Movers)

I met the Imagination Movers on that same cruise to Alaska. I passed Smitty in the hallway and said “Aren’t you one of the Movers? I saw your show and loved it!” and he replied “Aren’t you the singer who got locked in the bathroom? I heard the story and loved it!” Sheesh.

Anyways, the Movers know that as far as trips go, half the fun is in getting there. They are excited to go to a new place, but just as excited to take what they hope is a super-long bus ride. They sit in the back as everyone knows “the bumps are bigger in the back of the bus”! Bump and bounce along to this terrific tune.

“Sack Lunch” (Field Trip, Recess Monkey)

While the Movers are bouncing in the back of the bus, think about all those poor little lunch sacks getting bounced on and squished and sometimes forgotten altogether in the excitement of a class trip. This catchy little tune is a first person narrative from the lunch sack’s point of view. Separated from his owner, stuck with all the other lunches, he wonders what is happening:

I’m kind of squished, is somebody leaking in here?
I hear the kids play I spy, they sing a song
They get truck drivers to honk along
Where are we going, does anyone have a clue??

I’m Stuck in a Bathroom Stall (Erin Lee and the Up Past Bedtime Band)

A field trip goes awry in this 1950’s style tune about a student who separates from her buddy and finds herself stuck—in the bathroom! Getting stuck gives the narrator ample time to reflect – could she have done anything differently? Could she have been nicer to the Field Trip Buddy that she was assigned? Will anyone even notice she’s gone?

Here’s an activity to get these tunes off the iPod and into daily life: Plan a field trip! It doesn’t have to be with your class—go with your family or your friends. Pack a sack lunch (don’t squish it), plan the route and the means of transportation, plan what you’ll do when you’re there—and remember to go the bathroom FIRST!

Photo credit: Mark Bergin

Children’s musician Erin Lee Kelly bring us the next of her regular posts with thematic recommendations for kid-friendly music, plus activities to make the songs an interactive experience for the whole family.

I’ve created links to Amazon for the full albums (click the album name), plus links to Amazon MP3 downloads, when available, for those who want only the singles. (Click the song name.) I also have a widget after the jump that will let you preview most of the songs without leaving Mombian.

Children are born dancers. They have natural rhythm and no qualms about expressing themselves kinesthetically to the best of their ability. My band sees it all the time at concerts—at a show in the park we’ll notice a preschooler eating his picnic in time to the beat. Even babies will be sucking on their pacifier in rhythm. Walking down the streets of NYC, I’ve watched kids dance to the beat of the pile driver at the construction site and bop to the blaring car alarm’s repetitive blasts. However, we grownups seem to need more encouragement! And in this month of excessive cakes, pies, and gingerbread, we need to dance more than ever. So here are some songs to get you and your family moving!

“Everyone Loves To Dance,” (Aaron Nigel Smith, featuring Ziggy Marley, Everyone Loves to Dance)

One of Aaron’s missions is to get kids moving, and this infectiously fun reggae track does the trick. It’s laid back, groovy, inclusive—yup, the title says it. It’s pretty much for everyone, regardless of their age, circumstances or possible physical limitations. Aaron’s music makes kids feel good about themselves, and after grooving along to this tune, grownups will feel pretty good too.

“Jump, Wiggle and Shake,” (The Fuzzy Lemons, To the Moon)

One day a five year old in my music class announced “I’m a GREAT dancer AND I have the Fuzzy Lemons CD. You should play that. I’ll dance.” I’ve learned to take all grand suggestions by five year olds very seriously, so the following week I duly brought my Fuzzy Lemons CD to class, put on “Jump, Wiggle and Shake” and watched as the five year old—plus his brother, his nanny, his neighbor and every other person in the room, both children and adults—got on their feet and showed off their moves. (And it’s only 1.33 minutes long, so if you’re feeling winded, don’t worry—you’ll still have enough steam to finish any fancy moves you’ve started!)

“Cooper” (Erin Lee and the Up Past Bedtime Band (Full album not yet available))

Our song celebrating dancing tells the story of a little boy who could make a dance to anything—anytime, anywhere. He inspires the less-outgoing narrator of the tune to stand on her head, pop like a spring, and spin in a circle until the world spins around. Much like the kids who can find a dance beat in a blaring car alarm, Cooper could find the music in the world around him and get everybody dancing to it.

And this month’s activity? You already know it—get up and get moving to the best of your ability! If you’re working off Thanksgiving dinner, try warming up to “Everyone Loves to Dance”, use “Jump, Wiggle and Shake” as pure aerobic activity, and then let “Cooper” inspire you to get really creative. Have fun!

I am a member of the Amazon Associates program, and get a small referral fee from all purchases made at Amazon.com via links on this site. You are under no obligation to purchase through them.

Photo credit: Mark Bergin

Children’s musicians Erin Lee Kelly and Marci Applebaum have been kind enough to do a monthly guest post about children’s music for a few years now. (It all started when I heard them perform their song “Fine By Me” on an R Family cruise: “My family doesn’t look like the families do in picture books/And that’s fine by me.”) The two are no longer recording together—but Erin Lee has a new band (soon to have a new album), and has offered to continue sharing fun songs by herself and others, along with ideas to make the songs an interactive experience for the whole family.

Look for more music suggestions from Erin Lee here on the first Monday of each month, or visit her homepage, www.erinleemusic.com.

I’ve created links to Amazon for the full albums (click the album name), plus links to Amazon MP3 downloads, when available, for those who want only the singles. (Click the song name.) I also have a widget after the jump that will let you preview most of the songs without leaving Mombian.

Sometimes when you’re having a hard day it’s easy to think that things are just terrible and they’ll never get better. So it’s wonderful when we get the chance to give a situation a second thought and change our outlook! Sometimes we change our minds when we learn more information about the problem. Sometimes we try something new and discover that things weren’t so bad the way they were. Sometimes we simply benefit from a blessing in disguise.

Here are three story songs where the narrator starts off believing one thing . . . but by the end of the tune has second thoughts and a brand new point of view.

“Don’t Wake Up the Baby” (Steve Blunt; Hang on Henry!)

The narrator of this story song has a brand new sister. All evidence seems to suggest that everybody loves her, and has forgotten about the big brother. Our narrator is constantly reprimanded “Don’t wake up the baby, no matter what you do!” It seems to him that the only thing that matters is whether or not his sister gets her precious sleep. His point of view changes when one night he hears his mama singing these beautiful words to his crying sister:

“Don’t wake up your brother, your brother needs his rest,
Don’t wake up your brother, you’re lucky—he’s the best.”

“Old Pajamas” (Justin Roberts, Great Big Sun)

The narrator of this piece is dealing with a very serious problem, much more serious than feelings of being ignored or overlooked. His pajamas are “just no good”! So he convinces his mama to get him new pajamas. And then . . . he realizes that they don’t have a pocket like his old pajamas. And they don’t have a super-cool hole in the seat like his old pajamas. He mulls the matter over and starts to miss them. He’s going to have to tell his mama that in fact he actually needs his old pajamas. Because, on second thought, they weren’t so bad after all…

And our song about second thoughts?

“Ticket to Anywhere” (Erin Lee and the Up Past Bedtime Band)

Have you ever tried to run away from home…but didn’t know how to cross the street? Our first single was inspired by our drummer’s memory of an attempt to run away thwarted by an inability to cross the street by himself. And he couldn’t ask for help because he wasn’t allowed to talk to strangers! Being stuck on the corner was a blessing in disguise—it gave him time to reflect that home is a pretty nice place to be after all.

Here’s an activity to help get this song off the iPod and into daily life

The narrator in “Ticket to Anywhere” gets out her crayons and stickers and makes a special ticket that’s “good for all the trains and buses”—it even conveniently features a coupon on the back for a sandwich. Get out your art supplies! Make a ticket that entitles the bearer to a free ride to Grandma’s. Or a scooter ride to the park. Or make a coupon that entitles the bearer to a fabulous homemade sandwich . . . or breakfast in bed . . . or help with the dishes!

Look for Erin Lee and Marci here on the first Monday of each month, or visit their homepage, www.gottaplay.org.

I’ve created links to Amazon for the full albums (click the album name), plus links to Amazon MP3 downloads, when available, for those who want only the singles. (Click the song name.) I also have a widget after the jump that will let you preview most of the songs without leaving Mombian.

We’re having a heat wave—at least we are here in New York City. Whenever August rolls around, so does the heat—and the best way to beat the heat is with water! Here are some of our favorite tunes that celebrate sprinklers, swimming, and all-around general splashing. Warning and heat advisory: these are all dance tunes—guaranteed to get you all ready for a run through the sprinkler or a dunk in the water!

“Ridin’ the Big Waves” (Charity and the JAM Band [Charity Kahn], Charity and the JAMband: Peanut Butter and JAM)
This infectiously danceable tune will have you up and surfing—even if you’re only in your living room. We’re doing all the moves and we’re not anywhere close to water! The verses are easy to learn and easy to sing, the guitar licks will have you playing face-melting rock guitar riffs on your air guitar, and we bet you’ll be pretending that you’re surfing with Charity just a few notes into this song.

“Waterslide” (Mr. Billy, H2o Go-Go)
When it comes to catchy tunes, Mr. Billy never lets us down. Our favorites generally sound reminiscent of the B-52′s, with off-beat vocals and danceable beats, and this certainly fits that description! This ode to waterslides could inspire a new dance craze – get on your feet, dance like crazy and pretend you’re sliding down!

“All Wet” (Erin Lee & Marci, Snowdance)
Whether you like rain, or baths, or swimming, or sailing, or fishing, “All Wet” is the water song for you. We love water so much that we chose this tune as our first music video—check it out online for free.

And here’s an activity to get this song off the iPod and into your life:

Do an art project! This song is a celebration of playing in the water-swimming pools, bathtubs, fishing, or just splashing around-the song’s narrator loves them all. Make a collage to match the lyrics of this song, then think about your favorite activities during the other three seasons and make a collage for each of them.

PS: Need more splashing? Tons of libraries have embraced splashing as their summer reading theme as kids “Make a Splash” and read! Lots of great kindie musicians are singing their own favorite water songs at libraries, so call your local branch and find out who is playing near you!

Look for Erin Lee and Marci here on the first Monday of each month, or visit their homepage, www.gottaplay.org.

I’ve created links to Amazon for the full albums (click the album name), plus links to Amazon MP3 downloads, when available, for those who want only the singles. (Click the song name.) I also have a widget after the jump that will let you preview most of the songs without leaving Mombian.

Have you ever done something that you wished you hadn’t done? Or has something ever happened to you that you wish never happened? There are some things that you just can’t make go away or pretend didn’t happen…but what you do NEXT can make all the difference between a terrible day and a happy ending.

The characters in these songs keep on going when things get tough, scary, or just plain embarrassing. They turn difficult situations into happy endings through bravery, perseverance, and sometimes just a good sense of humor.

“The Last Dragon” (Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, Easy)
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo makes positive hip hop for kids (and their grownups – we know some musicians who have purchased his CD and their “kids” are in college!) This rap tells the story of a young dragon that “did something he wished he never did” – he fell asleep in a cave without telling any other dragons where he was or what he was up to. He awoke to find that all the other dragons had migrated and he was in fact the “last dragon left on earth”. He has to learn to be brave, be bold and learn some new skills—like flying—in order to triumph in the end.

“Embarrassed” (The Okee Dokee Brothers, Kids with Beards)
The Okee Dokee Bros are having a horribly embarrassing day that just keeps on going and going. From gym class (where the unfortunate narrator misses the soccer ball and kicks the teacher) to school pictures (taken with both dirty clothes and a dirty nose), the humiliations just keep piling up! Luckily for the narrator, he is able to survive the day with his head held high, ultimately wondering why everyone else can’t be as funny as he is.

“Elm Avenue Waltz” (Erin Lee & Marci, Snowdance)
“Elm Avenue Waltz” was created when our friend Phil told us about a cranky neighbor that all the kids in his neighborhood used to whisper about. Once, a kid lost a football in her yard—and when he went to retrieve it, he found that she had sliced the ball open with a big kitchen knife! After that, everyone was afraid to go in her yard, and if someone accidentally threw a ball there, it was considered lost. Well, as soon as we heard his story we had to write a song. Our narrator hits a baseball into the infamously cranky neighbor’s yard, breaking her window and presenting a life lesson in responsibility.

Get this song off the iPod and into your life:

“Elm Avenue Waltz” isn’t really a song about ballgames, friends, or even cranky neighbors—it’s really about courage. So talk, or write, or draw a picture about something you’ve done that required courage!

Look for Erin Lee and Marci here on the first Monday of each month, or visit their homepage, www.gottaplay.org.

I’ve created links to Amazon for the full albums (click the album image or name), plus links to Amazon MP3 downloads, when available, for those who want only the singles. (Click the song name.) I also have a widget after the jump that will let you preview most of the songs without leaving Mombian.

Everyone needs his or her own special place – somewhere you can go to just spend time with yourself. You’re lucky if you’ve got your own special room to go to, or chair to sit in, or tree to hide in. Sometimes you have to be intrepid and make your own special place, like a fort. Here are some of our favorite songs, running the gamut from rambunctious to mellow, that explore special places.

“Fort” (Recess Monkey, Field Trip)

On “a rainy day in Seattle” Recess Monkey (with a little help from Sis) gleefully builds the fort to end all forts! This joyfully infectious song will have you pulling your couch apart to build your own fort or “castle or rocket”. And, as Recess Monkey points out, it also gives you a chance to find all sorts of things hidden in your sofa cushions, like lost toys or money. Put this tune on, grab a partner and get building!

“Getting In A Treetop” (Gustafer Yellowgold, Mellow Fever (DVD+CD))

This song is quite simply a celebration of trees and the unique perspective of life from up above. All alone up in a tree, the narrator (who happens to be a little, yellow, cone-headed creature from the sun) experiences a whole new way of looking at things:

Getting in a treetop high above the lawn
With nothing in the way
You can see happy
You can feel change

The sense of wonder and peace is something we can all share, regardless or whether or not we have a yellow cone-head. It’s been years since we’ve climbed a tree, but we think we’ll be climbing one soon. . . .

Our Song of the Month:
“My Treehouse” (Erin Lee & Marci, Snowdance)

You don’t need power tools to build all of the different houses in this tune. The “houses” in our song are built with imagination and inspiration – and the occasional hammer, couch cushion, and bed sheet. The narrators build tree houses, couch forts and bunk bed ships – their own private sanctuaries where they can “read or dream or play”, no matter what their “real” houses look like.

Get the song off the iPod and into life:

Do Something New: The narrators in this song use things that are in their homes and pretend that they are other things—like pretending a bunk bed is a pirate ship! Pick an object (a book, a ruler, a ball, etc.) and come up with something else that it could be used as (a book could be a hat, a stepladder or a seat cushion, etc.) Set a timer for two minutes and see how many things you can come up with before time runs out!

Do Something You Haven’t Done in YEARS: Make a fort!

I am a member of the Amazon Associates program, and get a small referral fee from all purchases made at Amazon.com via links on this site. You are under no obligation to purchase through them.

Look for Erin Lee and Marci here on the first Monday of each month, or visit their homepage, www.gottaplay.org.

I’ve created links to Amazon for the full albums (click the album image or name), plus links to Amazon MP3 downloads, when available, for those who want only the singles. (Click the song name.) I also have a widget after the jump that will let you preview most of the songs without leaving Mombian.

April Showers Bring May Flowers — right?

Well, we’ve had enough of the rain, but we love getting outside to see what’s blooming. Here are some of our favorite gardening tunes to get things growing!

“Seed in the Ground” (The Cat’s Pajamas, Goin’ Bananas)

If you got the sun and if you got the rain,
Plant a little seed in the old back lane.
You wish and you pray, you keep the weeds down.
You might find, oh, you might find, a root growing out from the seed in the ground.

Connie Kaldor’s lovely lesson about the parts of a plant gets a funky, groovy treatment from Philadelphia band The Cat’s Pajama’s. This super-cool percussive (and slightly hypnotic!) rendition will have you grabbing your bongos and drumming to your plants. Like a plant, each verse grows, adding vocal parts, jazzy harmonies and more lyrics til we’ve learned about the root, the stem, the shoot and the blossom. Go grab your bongos and play along!

“I Didn’t Know What I was Missing” (Alastair Moock and Maria Sangiolo) (Full album not yet released; free download of song here.)

Here’s something totally cool for you! Alastair Moock and Maria Sangiolo are growing … songs! Maria has a whole CD about gardening growing right now, and it’ll bloom sometime this summer. In the meantime, you can get a taste of what’s coming by listening to this bluesy ode to homegrown vegetables like tomatoes, green beans and carrots. Alastair and Maria make veggies sound so good, even the pickiest of eaters may be convinced to get gardening so they can try their own homegrown green beans! (And don’t forget to check back with Alastair and Maria later in the year when the CD is released!)

April Showers bring May …. skateboards?

“Waiting for It to Grow” (Erin Lee & Marci, Snowdance) is a song about some rather unusual gardening activity. The idea for this song was suggested to us by a young fan at a spring concert who had grown tired of songs about planting carrots and cabbages and wanted to plant a skateboard tree. Well, with an idea like that handed to us on a silver platter, how could we not write it? The names of the kids in the song are all names of children in the audience the day the song was created.

Get this song off the iPod and into your life: plant a seed, watch it grow, and sing this song to your plants!

Look for Erin Lee and Marci here on the first Monday of each month, or visit their homepage, www.gottaplay.org.

I’ve created links to Amazon for the full albums (click the album image or name), plus links to Amazon MP3 downloads, when available, for those who want only the singles. (Click the song name.) I also have a widget after the jump that will let you preview most of the songs without leaving Mombian.

Spring has sprung—at least, here in NYC it has. We’ve just set a new record for rainfall – and everyone knows that April Showers bring great mud puddles. Here are our favorite mud songs!

“If You’re Gonna Be a Grub” (Bill Harley, You’re in Trouble)

There are no judgments about “grubs” here – Bill Harley knows that “Kids and dirt just go together like shoes and socks and birds and feathers”. So he hands out some helpful advice regarding bathing, scrubbing and clean up. His protagonist, Little Sally, loves to play in the mud – but she finds that playing in the tub can be almost as fun. So, you can enjoy singing this song while getting dirty AND getting clean!

“Slimy Mud” (Pam & Greta’s Magical Musical Express, Music Is Magic)

Okay, who doesn’t love a song called “Slimy Mud’? This fun, catchy round is easy to learn and easy to sing. Even the youngest family members will be able to join in, and older siblings will sing along too because, quite simply, it’s oogey.

And our song for April?

“Mud Music” (Erin Lee & Marci, Snowdance)

Our narrator attempts to justify her extremely messy appearance after she arrives home covered in mud. It’s those darn singing mud puddles again! The siren song of the mud puddles has gotten her in trouble! If only her mom would understand that the puddles are actually singing to her, she’d realize that staying clean in the rainy season is sometimes a lost cause.

Here’s an activity to get this song off the iPod and into daily life:

Draw the puddles as people! What do they look like? What are they doing?

PS: If you’re looking for a good book, perhaps to read in the bath while you’re having a post-mud scrub, check out Mud Puddle (Classic Munsch) by Robert Munsch. This is one of those books you learn by heart. It’s about a Mom, a girl and a mud puddle gone wild. It truly demonstrates creative problem solving at its best. We have it memorized.

I am a member of the Amazon Associates program, and get a small referral fee from all purchases made at Amazon.com via links on this site. You are under no obligation to purchase through them.

Look for Erin Lee and Marci here on the first Monday of each month, or visit their homepage, www.gottaplay.org.

I’ve created links to Amazon for the full albums (click the album image or name), plus links to Amazon MP3 downloads, when available, for those who want only the singles. (Click the song name.) I also have a widget after the jump that will let you preview most of the songs without leaving Mombian.

It seems like March is always a month to travel. Some schools have a March Break and some families are just sick of winter and head South! So whether you are heading to a resort or your relatives, here are some great songs to sing en route.

“18 Wheels on a Big Rig” (Trout Fishing in America, Mine! and the live version Family Music Party)

This is our all-time favorite counting song. Seriously. Do you have an older child who thinks he’s “outgrown kiddie song” and has to pooh-pooh what the younger kids are listening to? Well, he will have met his match with this song! Get Smarty-pants to sing along, first counting by Roman numerals and then dividing the wheels of a big rig by pi.

“Get in the Car” (Miss Cathy, Mornings with Miss Cathy)

We first saw Miss Cathy sing this song two years ago at the Children’s Music Network National Conference – and it’s STILL stuck in our heads (in a good way)! So many songs about cars focus on all the fabulous places you can go – but let’s face it, usually we are in the car to run to the grocery store, and the dry cleaners…and we’re usually running late. This list song of all the places to go in the car can be easily adapted to fit all your errands, so sing it the next time that you are trying to hurry up and get those errands done!

“A View From the Backseat” (Erin Lee & Marci, Snowdance)

It’s hard when you are 9 going on 29 and your family insists on doing everything together – including the weekly car trip to an unnamed place (which remains unnamed at the behest of Erin Lee’s loved ones!) It’s even harder when you get stuck in traffic, which means you idle so long you run out of gas, which means you have to ride in a tow truck, which means… wait a minute… tow trucks are COOL!

Here’s an activity to get this song off the iPod and into daily life:

Plan a trip! It can be a trip to your best friend’s house, or a trip to Disneyland. Get out the maps (or go to Mapquest) and learn how to read one – not such a common skill these days now that we all have GPS! Plot out the route, and how it might be different if you traveled by train rather than a car…or a horse rather than a train…or….

Look for Erin Lee and Marci here on the first Monday of each month, or visit their homepage, www.gottaplay.org.

I’ve created links to Amazon for the full albums (click the album image or name), plus links to Amazon MP3 downloads, when available, for those who want only the singles. (Click the song name.) I also have a widget after the jump that will let you preview most of the songs without leaving Mombian.

This blog is being written from two completely different locals: Marci is in her hometown in sunny Florida and Erin Lee is in her hometown in Canada. Erin Lee’s been there six days…and it’s snowed for six days! So, of course, snow is going to highly influence this month’s column.

“Cool to Be Uncool” (The Jimmies, Make Your Own Someday)

“Put on our sweaters, put on our jackets
Our hats and mittens too
We’re headed out now, it’s really chilly
It’s cool to be uncool”

Every family seems to feature one member who never wants to get dressed for inclement weather. Erin Lee once insisted on wearing a bathing suit in November, and her mother insisted she pair it with a turtleneck sweater. But this infectiously boppy song from the Jimmies makes even bad weather fun. Sing it loud as you’re pulling on all those layers.

“Snow Shoe Shuffle” (Rebecca Frezza, Special Kind Of Day)

Rebecca Frezza is already dressed for the snow and is dancing around in snowshoes—she’s obviously much more coordinated than we are! However, you don’t have to actually be wearing snow shoes to soft shoe around and groove to this jazzy dance number.

“Flakes are fallin’
They’re piling up high
Mounds of white like marshmallows
Or coconut custard pie
Nowhere we can go, nothing we can do except strap on our old snow shoes”

And speaking of dancing, here’s our song for February:

“Snowdance” (Erin Lee & Marci, Snowdance)

Our narrator would defintely be hanging out with Rebecca doing the Snowshoe Shuffle, but unfortunately, there is a severe lack of snow on the ground. So our intrepid narrator takes a cue from the traditional Rainmaker figure and becomes a Snowmaker, doing a festive dance in order to make it snow one dismally green February. So, if there’s a sudden case of unexpected snow in Florida, you can probably assume that is was Marci behind it!

Get this song off the iPod and into your life. Here are some tried and true activities to accompany Snowdance.

Do Something New: Dance! How might a snowflake move? A snowman? An ice skater, hockey player, figure skater, speed skater? Help make it snow!

Talk About Something New: Research Rainmakers in various cultures. Why do cultures call on Rainmakers to bring rain and why might they need them?

What other variations on Rainmakers can you come up with?

I am a member of the Amazon Associates program, and get a small referral fee from all purchases made at Amazon.com via links on this site. You are under no obligation to purchase through them.