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Nadia L. Hohn

CARIBBEAN POEMS AND SONGS FOR KINDERGARTEN AND PRIMARY STUDENTS Workshop for Ontario Music Educators’ Association (OMEA) 2014

Nadia L. Hohn

Caribbean music and poetry primarily from African (e.g., syncopation, polyrhythms, musical instruments, songs) and European (melodies, rhymes, etc.) music influences the poems, songs, language, religion, and culture of the Caribbean. The following map shows the route of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, that operated from the 16th to early 19th centuries which was part of a larger system. Millions of Africans were brought by Europeans to the Caribbean to become slaves on plantations in such industries as sugar. How many Caribbean countries can you name?

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Many types of music originated in the Caribbean derived from African origins. How many genres of Caribbean music can you name?

OUTLINE OF CARIBBEAN SONGS AND POEMS FOR KINDERGARTEN AND PRIMARY STUDENTS
Title / Categorization / Source / Age-Appropriateness / Curriculum Links
1.  / Kye Kye Kule / Chant / Kwosi Dunyo, Ghanaian children’s show / Kindergarten / Beat/rhythm, Loud/soft
2.  / Kiswahili Counting Game / Finger game / Oral tradition / Kindergarten / Beat/rhythm,
3.  / Anansi Story / Folktale / My father, African-Jamaican oral tradition, retold and arranged by
Nadia L. Hohn, featured in Fall 2013 Orff Ostinato: National Journal of Carl Orff Canada- Music for Children / Kindergarten/
Primary / Movement, rhythms, literacy
4.  / Brown Girl in the Ring / Ring tunes / Brown Gal in Da Ring (arranged by Nadia Hohn) (attached below) / Kindergarten (or
Primary) / Movement, social emotional
5.  / Mosquito One / Finger game / Toronto Public Library Kidsspce / Kindergarten / Rhythm, beat, pitch
6.  / Manuel Road / Digging songs/Passing game / Mango Spice / Kindergarten/
Primary / Rhythm, beat, pitch
7.  / Doctah Bud / Digging songs/ Call and response / Folk Songs of Jamaica (orchestration by Nadia L. Hohn) / Primary / Bordun, rhythm

from Toronto Public Library Kidsspace Printables! Multicultural Rhymes website:

Mosquito One (version 2)

Mosquito one, Mosquito two,

Mosquito jump in the old man’s shoe;

De ole man cry, De ole man cry,

De ole man cry like a little chile

(Traditional Trinidadian)

Mosquito One (version 2)

Mosquito one, mosquito two, (Twirl index finger of right hand, then of left hand)

Mosquito jump in a hot callaloo. (One finger flies and tickles child’s belly)

Light the lamp, (Cover then uncover child’s eyes with your hands)

Mosquito come (Twirl index finger of right hand)

Pinch him bottom, (Gently pinch child’s bottom)

Out the lamp. (Cover eyes again)

From http://www.songsforteaching.com/folk/kyekyekule.htm

Kye Kye Kule

Leader: Kye Kye Kule (chay chay koo-lay) Chorus: Kye Kye Kule

Leader: Kye Kye Kofinsa (chay chay koh-feen sah) Chorus: Kye Kye Kofisa

Leader: Kofisa Langa (Koh-fee sah lahn-gah) Chorus: Kofisa Langa

Leader: Kaka Shilanga(Kah-kah shee lahn-gah) Chrous: Kaka Shilanga

Leader: Kum Aden Nde(koom ah-dehn day) Chorus: Kum Aden Nde

Leader: Kum Aden Nde(koom ah-dehn day) Chorus: Kum Aden Nde, HEY!

Kiswahili Counting Game

Moja Mbili Tatu

Nne Tano Sita

Saba Nane Tisa

Kumi Kumi Kumi

RESOURCE LIST:

Mango Spice by Yvonne Conolly (Editor), et al. A & C Black Publishers Ltd; 2Rev Ed edition (November 30, 2001)

Olive Lewin, Forty Folk Songs of Jamaica, General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, Washington, D. C., 1973.

Olive Lewin, Rock It Come Over: the Folk Music of Jamaica, University of the West Indies Press, Kingston, 2000.

Alle, alle, alle: 12 Jamaican folk-songs. Author, Olive Lewin. Compiled by, Olive Lewin. Publisher, Oxford University Press, 1977.

Brown gal in de ring: 12 Jamaican folk-songs. Author, Olive Lewin. Publisher, Oxford University Press, 1974.

Beeny bud: 12 Jamaican folk-songs for children. Author, Olive Lewin. Publisher, Oxford University Press, 1975.

Folk Songs of Jamaica, Edited by Tom Murray, Oxford University Press, 1951.

Orff Mosaic from Canada: A Collection of Music, Accompaniments, Poems, Dances, Essays and Teaching

Suggestions Contributed by Teachers from Across Canada, Lois Birkenshaw-Fleming, Schott, 1952

WEBSITES

Mento Music

http://www.mentomusic.com/links.htm

Multicultural Rhymes

http://kidsspace.torontopubliclibrary.ca/Offline%20Activities/documents/rhymes_multicultural.pdf

Coco Jams

http://www.cocojams.com/content/caribbean-folk-songs

Songs for Teaching

http://www.songsforteaching.com/folk/kyekyekule.htm