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