Inspiration can strike like a lightening bolt out of the blue. I was listening to vintage Sesame Street songs the other day, as you do, and as I was singing along to one of my favourites (Oscar Don’t Allow – check it out, it’s pretty awesome), I suddenly realized what an amazing story time song it would make, with only a few adjustments!
It’s been over a year since I did a library story time, and oh how I miss it! My story time programs are known for their energy – I’ve written about it before on the blog, but I am a firm believer that young children are not designed to sit still for too long – they are meant to move, move, move! I use a lot of action songs in my programs, and I’m always looking for new songs to incorporate into my story times. I love adapting songs and adding my own twist to them to keep my programs fresh and exciting. This is such a fantastic song with a great toe-tapping beat and plenty of repetition, and you can really add in any actions you like – kids love clapping and stomping and jumping around! The song is performed at quite a brisk pace in the original recording, but you could definitely slow the temp down and it would still be brilliant fun. I’ve finished my verses off with some sitting, so you can use it as a transition song to get kids back into their seats for a book or a felt story or another quiet activity, but of course you could use it however you like!
So, here’s my version of Oscar Don’t Allow – adapted for toddler or preschool story time! Obviously I don’t own the rights to this music, nor did I write the original song, all credit goes to Big Bird and Bert and Ernie and all the other brilliant minds at Sesame Street. Now, I’ve called my version Mama Don’t Allow, since I’m always happy to be a bad example and lead children down the path of disobedience, but you can change it to something else if you have caregivers who lack a sense of humour and are no fun to be around at all (and we’ve all had those caregivers in our programs).
Mama Don’t Allow
Mama don’t allow no clap, clap, clapping here,
Mama don’t allow no clap, clap, clapping here,
Now, we don’t care what mama don’t allow,
We’re gonna clap, clap anyhow,
Mama don’t allow no clap, clap, clapping here.
Mama don’t allow no stomp, stomp, stomping here,
Mama don’t allow no stomp, stomp, stomping here,
Now, we don’t care what mama don’t allow,
We’re gonna stomp, stomp anyhow,
Mama don’t allow no stomp, stomp, stomping here.
Verses: Jump, turn, shake, twist
Mama don’t allow no sit, sit, sitting here,
Mama don’t allow no sit, sit, sitting here,
Now, we don’t care what mama don’t allow,
We’re gonna sit, sit, anyhow,
Mama don’t allow no sit, sit, sitting here.
Oh, how I miss story times! You can be sure I’ll be adding this one to my programs once the world is righted again!