LYRIC WRITING:

Assist your child when creating a song using lyrics. Create a song together to strengthen concepts of rhyming and its relationship to sound and rhythmic patterns.

Materials:• Blank index cards• Pencil and crayons

Activity:Brainstorm with your child about possible themes, preferably those related to his daily activities at home, school or neighborhood. Identify key words that will define the song’s theme and write them individually on the cards. For example, if the song is about birds, select related words (e.g., fly, feathers, cage, wings, beak, etc.). Then, help your child determine which words can rhyme with the “key words” before moving on to creating the original lyrics.

Take it Further:• Help your child select a familiar children’s tune and redesign it by rewriting the lyrics. Sing the “new” song together, then ask which “version” is his favorite one.• Help your child identify a personal photograph or any other image that would motivate their writing a lyric for a song. Help define the role imagery can play in such a task by encouraging them to describe and share with you the image’s theme or story. Ask which are the main ele-ments of the image to be portrayed in the lyrics.

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