Media Review: Dr. Jean Sings Silly Songs

Book #55

Book Image:

Bibliographic Citation: 
Dr. Jean. (2007). Dr. Jean Sings Silly Songs. United States: Constructive Playthings.
 

Age Group:
Kindergarten to Gr1

Genre:
Music
 

Awards:
None listed.

Topics/Issues: 

ELS promoted: 
Phonological awareness, vocabulary, narrative skills
 

Format:
Music CD
 

Author/Illustrator sites:
http://drjean.org/

Categorization Tags:
 ZM FELD DJS P 00 

Annotation: 
This collection of silly songs will put a smile on your child's face. Songs include "Bubble Gum", "Katalina Matalina", and "Alligator Chant".
 

Reactions/Observations:

Dr. Jean is a story time staple. Her CD, Dr. Jean Sings silly songs, is a favorite with “Bubble Gum” and “Alligator Chant”. Most of the songs on this CD are sung to familiar tunes like “Shortnin’ Bread” or “Skip to My Lou” which allows parents and children alike to easily sing along. This collection of sings includes “Katalina Matalina”, “Baby Fish”, and a variety of other story time favorites.

Music helps with a variety of early literacy skills. Songs promote phonological awareness, vocabulary building and narrative skills. Letter knowledge, print awareness, and print motivation are not excluded in the musical arena, but their presence is not as abundant as the other skills mentioned. Dr. Jean Sings Silly Songs is not an exception. Her songs provide opportunity to further reinforce these early literacy skills. The songs involve large motions and unpredictable lyrics sung at varied tempos and volumes. The varied tempos allow for songs to be sung slightly slower enabling kids to sing and hear every sound. “Bubblegum” describes the properties of gum using hand motions and song. Any kind of naming or description promotes vocabulary building. Also, the verses in the songs promote narrative skills. As each verse is added the songs build much like a story builds with its beginning, middle, and end .

The songs are easy to sing along with your child. The actions are easily available via Dr. Jean’s YouTube channel and through the scripted actions in the lyric book, but one can easily create their own choreography to complement the music. These features allow for easy interaction between parent and child. I often use this CD in my story time. At first, I thought the songs would bore my audience. To my surprise, they love it and request it often! Children love the silliness that ensues in each song. They become so engaged that they have forgotten that they’re still learning a valuable literacy lesson. I highly recommend this music CD as an early learning resource. This music CD is ideal for a preschool audience.