Sesame Street Songbook
Songs by Jeff Moss and Joe Raposo
Illustrated by David Prebenna

I checked it out in the library and has a whopping 64 songs! It has all the songs that were performed on the T.V. show. The Introduction mentions the beginning of the program's first televised broadcast in 1969 mentions its late musical director Joe Raposo. It covers a lot of educational needs: Alphabets, color awareness, animals, science, food, culture awareness, mathematics, self-esteem, health and ecology. It has great classics like, the "Sesame Street theme, People in Your Neighborhood, On My Pond and Rubber Duckie". It is filled with humor, sadness, and game songs. Also, it is well illustrated with all the characters from Big Bird to the Cookie Monster. The songs are easy, full of lyrics and score.

The Cons of the book is that it is just what it is a songbook. Its full of scores so it is meant for the teacher, unless the grammar school child can perform it at exact pitch. The book is helpful to the child for its lyrical content.

Overall, I recommend this song book as a reference tool for a lesson plan that covers the topic of Sesame Street. And also for some personal nostalgia for those who grew up watching the syndicated show. It is currently out of print and the only way is to special order it through the Internet or your local bookstore.
By Gregory Andal

Los Lobos with Lalo Guerrero Papa's Dream
Music for Little People, P. O Box 1460, Redway California 95560-1460 USA-Distributed by Warner Bros., Records Inc.

This CD is narrated by Lalo Guerrero a well known political/humorist writer composer in the Mexican American Community. It is done in a festive musical story tale style with the history and memories of this Mexican artist who is making his way to old Mexico to visit his sister (Violette, Violet) for the celebration of his birthday.

The use of Los Lobos and Los Cenzontles (the Mockingbirds) a youth group from San Pablo, California is well integrated within the music of this CD. He refers to the members of Los Lobos as his children and the songs which they have written for him in a rock and roll style.

Along with the CD comes the CD cover which has the words to all the songs. Translations are included in this section of the CD.

It is helpful to have previous knowledge about the material being presented in the CD, but not necessary. There are enough English songs being presented such as El Pato or The Duck and Buzz, Buzz, Buzz which have high energy and could be used for a fun highly physical activity. These songs take the reviewer back to her childhood and help a person feel young and able to have a positive outlook.

Would I recommend this CD for use in the classroom the first day, no. I would use selections from this CD in upper and lower level classes with English and Bilingual students, (I speak fluent English and Spanish and grew up listening to both languages) but not on the first day. I have enjoyed listening to the CD while writing this report and I am sure that any lesson plan would benefit from selections on this CD. This CD has Mexican music from the state of Veracruz which has a Polka style to it, so the music style is familiar to the children. The Polka beat and tempo are heard through-out selections on this CD. This type of music is a familiar style in the elementary levels just with another language, which lends an international favor to music. This is cultural awareness in the classroom at work.
By Virginia R. Barajas

"The Mozart Effect" Music for Children
Compiled by Don Campbell.

This recording is a collection of Mozart's music specially selected to stimulate and inspire young minds. This cassette is volume 2 which is for ages 2 to adult for relaxing, day-
dreaming and drawing.

The recording is very relaxing and warm, which can give the mind creativity and imagination It can inspire right-brain, creative thinking, induce relaxation, improve concentration and memory, increase verbal, emotional and spatial intelligence.

The music on this recording has been carefully selected according to tempo, key signatures, color and texture in order to provide a rich listening and learning experience for children of all ages.

Also, it is available in Volume 1: Tune Up Your Mind ­ Specially selected to improve intelligence and increase I.Q., Volume 3: Mozart in Motion Explore ­ body movement, motion and motivation, and then there is Music For Babies ­ from playtime to sleepytime with the Music of Mozart.

By playing this recording in your class, whether it is used for arts and crafts or just for having the children rest their heads on their desksit can help them think clearer, relax them, improve their concentration, or even get their minds going for creativity. This is a wonderful and fun recording.
By Patt Cardiel

KIDiddles
http://www.kididdles.com

This web site has some of the best things for kids that like to learn. It first starts out with a musical library of songs. It states that it has over 2000 children's songs. They mainly just have lyrics and melodies, but it sometimes comes with audio files also. They also have an area of never-ending stories so kids can read them and make up their own
ending to it. Or kids can go to the game area of the site and play with puzzles and skill testing games. Another inventive area of the site is a place where kids can post their own stories, songs, jokes, or even pictures.

This site has surely caught my eye and it takes forever to go through everything, (which is fun for kids). This site allows kids to educate themselves and learn new things. The skill testing games and Brain Teasers are great for kids to use their mind and have fun doing it. And by kids being allowed to post their own writings up, it gives them a understanding at where they fit-in with everyone else. I believe that this site is great for any kid and also for many adults.
By Jon Dickson

Kid's Corner: Rainforest Action Network
http://ran.org/ran/kids_action/

This web site is really cool. I liked it because it gives not only students but also teachers information about the rainforest, important and interesting information which focuses all on the rainforest. There was nothing in this web site that I didn't like because there was so much interesting and fun information offered to anyone and everyone.

This web site offers kids many options to look at and get involved with. This part of the website is all for kids this is why it's called the Kids' Corner. Here kids can learn about the many wild and exotic animals that can be encountered when you enter the rainforest. Not only can kids learn about the many species of animals that live in the rainforest but they are also given the opportunity to see what these animals look like. Kids can also learn about the people that live in the rainforest that is the native indigenous people. They can learn all about these people, the foods they eat, education, different indigenous cultures, importance of land, and their tribal cultures. There are fact sheets that the web site also offers kids. Here kids can learn important facts about the rainforest. For example, the foods that come from the rainforest, seven things that you can do to save the rainforest, what a tropical rain forest is, and other important facts. Basically it offers kids plenty of information about the rainforest and how they can get involved in helping to preserve it. Besides offering kids helpful information, this web site also offers teachers helpful information. The second part of this web site is called Rainforests Forever. This part is all for teachers because it provides teachers with a curriculum supplement for grades 3-6. This part is really great since it not only offers teachers information about the rainforest but it also ties it into other subjects like math, geography and vocabulary words. Here the kids will not only be learning about important details from the rainforest but also learning the other necessary subjects.

I would recommend kids to give it a look. I would also recommend teachers to check it out because it offers them with very helpful information that they can use in the classrooms. I myself made a copy of all the pages that the website is made up of including the teachers curriculum which I must say is somewhat long but worth it.
By Alita Giselbach

BBC Education (Teletubbies Home Page)- http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/teletubbies/information/

I have often watched the "Teletubbies" program with my 2-_ year old daughter ever since she has taken an interest in them. In addition, it has had me wondering, why she is so fascinated by them.

After logging on to their website, I have actually found it to be 10 times more educational than the actual program. They don't usually emphasize on education, as most children's TV programs should. However, the "Teletubbies" website offers an array of educational links (i.e. Teletubby jigsaws, differentiating animal sounds, and counting rabbits from a book, read by "Laa Laa" Tubby (from real sound)).

They also have many fun activities for children, such as making a calendar (which I already have done) and making birthday cards/post cards for a friend. Finally, there is an Information feature for parents where you can go to, to get advice on the best ways to get your children to read early on. From this feature, parents (and children) can also ask the show's writers/producers questions about the show. Some of the questions already posted, like "Why do the Teletubbies say 'Eh-oh!' instead of Proper English-'Hello'?", and "What was the initial reaction from parents?" caught my attention.

I would definitely recommend this website to any child and, especially, parents to look at who are particularly concerned about what their children will learn. As a parent, you will be relieved. By allowing your children to explore this Teletubby website, they will have learned twice as much than by just watching the show. I have come to the realization that the program is geared toward babies/toddlers and the website is mainly for children (4 years old and up).
By Danielle Gomez

Baby's First Beethoven.
Produced by Music for the Developing Mind/ 2000
St. Clair Entertainment Group Inc, in St. Laurent,Quebec, Canada.

I like this CD because it can be used when teaching students about music and Minors/Majors, etc. Although it is titled Baby's First Beethoven, I found it useful for all ages through elementary school. This CD mainly involves the use of the piano and violin for most of its music pieces. I think this is great because you don't want to t too complicated with kids early on because you might loose them. Some of the songs like "Sonata for Piano No.8 In C op.13 "Pathetique", can also be used during a free activity time in the classroom as background music. This Music can enhance behavior and deductive skills besides enriching the mind.

I really didn't find anything negative about this CD. I would really recommend teachers to have something like this in their classrooms. It's something different from the usual music with words they usually play. It be nice if kids could be exposed to all the different types of music. They shouldn't grow up thinking that all music has to be sung to. For example , the music contained in this CD can be use to relax, to think, or just to enjoy.
By Vilma Gutierrez

Singing' Songs of Science
http://www.singinsongs.com/realaudio/ss2.ram
J.P. Taylor and the Academics
Copyright © 1998-2000 Singing' Songs Music. All rights reserved.
All lyrics by John Paul Taylor, Jr. All songs ©1998 John Paul Taylor, Jr. except "Matter Is Everywhere!" music used with the kind permission of Sloopy II Music and Morris Music, Inc.

This is a really cool cd. I found it on the internet and it deals with many subjects found in science. They are catchy tunes that help you learn while singing, a great way to teach kids, without them even really knowing that they are learning. There wasn't really anything that I disliked about this cd. I think that it is a great thing to think about adding to a classroom cd collection.

There are lots of different songs, for example, "You Can Tell It's A Cell", is a fun song about the basic parts of cells and their functions, and "Matter Is Everywhere!", is a really fun song about the nature of matter-- in addition to defining and describing matter, this song describes and gives examples of terms.

I definitely recommend this cd and even though I don't own it, I have saved the address and am definitely going to purchase it when I get a classroom of my own.
By Karleen Kler

Children's Services-Monroe County Public Library (Website for Kids)
http://www.monroe.lib.in.us/childrens/kidswebs.html

PRO: The positive things that this link had was the connection to other websites that dealt with children. There is even a link to a website that is assortment of coloring book. All of these websites are children friendly for both preschoolers and grade schoolers. In this website there is a critique of the different television and magazines focused for children. There are also games connected to this link.

CON: The main problem that I found dealing with this website is that the links change overtime so if they had not been bookmarked they children would not be able to find them and also some of the links refuse to work all the time.
By Theresa Elizabeth Murena

A to Z, The Animals & Me
Produced in 1994 by Kimbo Educational in Long Branch, New Jersey

I got this CD from the Covina Public Library call #1286. The songs were written and composed by Michael and Jill Gallina. They both have degrees in music and education. Jill taught elementary music. The song takes children on a fun and action-packed journey through the alphabet: a ballet bear, a flamenco fox, an itchy iguana, and a jittery jaguar. There's an animal for every letter, and each animal performs some activity which reinforces the letter and the sound. It contains rhyming verses-"I clasp my hands tight, now I look just right"-that encourage language skills. The "bunny hop" dance steps are used in "Rockin Rollin Rabbit" along with rhyming lyrics "tapping my feet, keeping the beat." With "Aerobic Armadillo," children "jog 2, 3, 4 right foot, left foot on the floor." In "Piggily, Wiggily, Pizza Pig" children use drama to "toss the dough in the air, and put on tomato sauce and spread it all around."

This is a really good CD, because it's music packed along with a variety of activities that young children enjoy, and they are learning the alphabet at the same time. On a scale of one to ten, I would give this a ten.

The only criticisms I have is that some songs include more complicated dance steps like flamenco and ballet. Despite this, it still gives children exposure to the terms and an idea of what these movements are. I would still highly recommend it to kindergarten and first grade teachers.
By Teresa Padilla

10 Carrot Diamond
Produced by Charlotte Diamond
Musical Producer is Paul Gitlitz
Copyrighted to Charlotte Diamond Music 1985
Distributed by Hug Bug Records

In looking at 10 Carrot Diamond there were several benefits to it. I found it to be a benefit that the compact disc included the lyrics to all of the songs. This was very useful. This had songs that were more for listening to and following along to learn the songs rather than to use as background music. Some of the songs have movements that go along with them that would be fun for children to learn. The inside of the disc cover it says that this should be used with children from infant to ten years old. However, after listening to the whole disc I think that it would be better for young children up to the age of possibly eight. There are eighteen songs on the disc and there are only about five of them that I was not to excited about. The rest of the songs were enjoyable to listen to and some seemed like they would be fun to teach your students.

Overall I would recommend this compact disc to anyone that has young children or have a lower grade classroom. However, this is not a disc for anyone over a third grade level. I recommend it to be for k-2nd grade.
By Shaylene Rameriz

Berit's Best Sites
http://www.beritsbest.com/

This site is very interesting. It starts out on the front page with something that is called Berit's Browse. This is a section of the page where it gives information on current topics such as Black History Month. It gives a little background of what Black History Month is and then gives a link to the rest of the article. There are also Explore topics, which are the best 1000 sites for kids. Some of these topics are, *Just for Fun (activities and craft sites), *Holiday and Seasons sites, *Creatures Great and Small (sites about animals), *Serious Stuff (sites on environment and health), *Kids on the Net (pen pals and chat), *Safe Surfing site which is a safe kids search engine.

I feel that this is an excellent site for kids and it has tons of information about crafts and educational tools for adults to use with children.
By Claudia Reis

Raffi: Singable Songs for the Very Young
Produced by Shoreline Records, a division of Troubadour Records Ltd.
Performer: Raffi
Copyright: 1976 by Troubadour Records Ltd.
Manufactured and distributed by Rounder Records, One Camp Street, Cambridge, MA 02140 USA

The reasons why I like Raffi: Singable Songs for the Very Young are because I feel that this recording is excellent for children and enjoyable to listen to even for adults. The songs are all sung by Raffi, who has a subtle voice and, in most songs, very few instruments that focus one's attention on the lyrics and singing. The songs are never brassy or annoying, as some children's music can be, yet they are sometimes silly and other times adorable. The songs are simple enough to teach easily to a young class. The songs are ones that children love with catchy lyrics and melodies. Raffi offers a fantastic collection of favorite songs, variations of favorite songs, and adorable original songs that invite one to sing along. I did not find one con with this recording.

Raffi has a variety of songs on his album, including multicultural songs. The song "Must be Santa" is a fun question and answer song that describes Santa Clause, where the song "My Dreydel" is a simple song about one tradition in the Jewish holiday. His songs also teach lessons. "The Sharing Song" is about the benefits children receive when they share their food and toys and the "I Wonder if I'm Growing" helps kids to understand that even though they cannot see it they are growing. An amusing song "Brush Your Teeth" is a great tool to coax children into brushing their teeth. There are also a lot of silly songs on the album that children are sure to love. A lot of them are ones that people will be familiar with, like "Down By the Bay" and "Willaoughby Wallaby Woo." "Aikendrum" is a funny song about the "man" on the moon and is sure to amuse children with his nose made of cheese and mouth made of pizza. Furthermore, a song on Raffi's album teaches instruments through the familiar song "Old MacDonald" (in this case he had a band) by stating which instruments MacDonald had in his band and then giving an example of what the instruments sound like. At the end all of the instruments play together. There are so many catchy simple songs on the recording, like "Mr. Sun" and "Baa Baa Black Sheep" that would be easy to teach to a young class and easy for children to perform them. Many of the songs are perfect to put movements to and would further enhance the fun children could have listening and singing to this recording.

My recommendation for this recording is that it be used in the lower grade classrooms. I feel that young children would truly enjoy this and have the most fun with it. I feel that there is not one con with this recording and that it would enhance any lower grade classroom or car ride.
By Wendy Roberts

Ask Eric
http://www.askERIC.org
Resource for: Lesson Plans

AskERIC.org is one of the first places I go to when I need to find a lesson plan. Most of the lesson plans are submitted by teachers from around the country who have created and tried them out in their own classrooms. I think it is a great source for teachers to exchange ideas. It boasts over 3000 resources on a variety of topics for all grades K-12. It allows for instant "clicking wherever you want to go, whether you want to search by subject or grade level. Some of the other categories are: counseling, educational management, educational technology, family life (home schooling), librarianship, and specific populations (such as disabilities or high-risk students).

Most of the lesson plans are decent and involve the students in hands-on learning, but if you are looking for a specific project, such as for Earth Day or another special day, sometimes they can be hard to find. The lesson plans are confined to certain subjects such as math, social studies, etc. This is mostly useful in helping a teacher decide what project to do when teaching a specific grade or subject and they don,t know where to start.

Another thing these lesson plans lack is using music to help teach the children. I couldn,t find one that had a song to help teach the students about what they were learning, but it did have a section on teaching music itself. It would just be more helpful to include in the lesson plans songs the students could learn that related to the project they were doing.

I think this is definitely a good place for teachers to start, but more research may be necessary to complement the lesson plan they acquired from this site. It is, however, very hard to find sheet music on the internet anyway, so the best thing to do is buy a book with sheet music in it that covers many topics, and find songs that may aid in the teaching of a particular lesson.
By Carla Stout

Walt Disney- La Vida Mickey
Produced by: Harlod Jr. Kleiner and Marco Marinangeli
Copyright 2000

The CD La Vida Mickey is a great CD, that I think children will love and enjoy listening to. It is a cool and hip CD that transforms recent hits to music that is clean (no cuss words) and fun. Mine and my nieces favorite is Disney Mambo #5, a remake of Lou Vega's Mambo #5. The music on this CD is modern and fun, instead of traditional children songs. The beat is fast and makes the music danceable. This may be a great CD to have children listen to while they have free time or while working on a fun project.

I highly recommend this CD to teachers and parents, it is something that your children can listen to without you having to sensor it. It is also very up beat and fun. I can even say that I as an adult enjoyed it very much and is played regularly in my home, especially when I am babysitting.
By Sandra Villegas