Computer Cat
Teacher's Resource

Sample Activites

Song: Computer Cat

Activity #3     (Language Arts, Fine Arts: Visual Art, Music, Drama, Dance)

Explore the arts

Write a story about how the cat might have eaten the computer mouse.
What could be worse than a cat eating the computer mouse?
Write a poem or story about it.
Make up a short play about the event.
Draw a picture to illustrate your story or poem.
Use your writing ideas to create a class picture storybook.
Share you book with another class.
Add your own verses to Computer Cat.
            What else could happen to the cat and the computer?
Write a song telling how the family fixed their computer cat.
Create a dance, using movement to mime the story you have created in your song.

Preparation / supplies:    Art supplies
                                              Writing supplies

Song: Penguin Parade

Activity #6        (Fine Arts: Music, Science, Language Arts)

Metronome music

Use a pendulum metronome.
Before you set it in motion, discuss which will be faster:
with the weight placed so the pendulum has a long swing?
with the weight placed so the pendulum has a shorter swing?
The shorter the swing, the faster the speed.
Start the metronome and sing a song, say a tongue twister or the alphabet, or something else that is familiar.
Start at a slow speed and then increase the speed a few notches at a time.
How fast can you go?
Sometimes it is harder to go slowly and stay at a steady speed than it is to go fast.
Write in your science log describing what you discovered about the metronome.

Preparation / supplies:    Pendulum metronome
                                     Familiar songs or tongue twisters

Song: Pondering Penguins

Activity #11      (Fine Arts: Drama, Language Arts, Technology)

Create a penguin rookery

Listen to all four penguin songs in the Computer Cat song collection.
Collect all the facts you can about penguins from the songs.
Use the library or Internet to collect more interesting penguin facts
Create a play or a skit about being a penguin living in a penguin rookery. (A rookery is a colony of penguins.)
Write a script for a narrator (or several narrators) to read as you present your play.
How will you waddle around with an egg on your feet?
What will you do with your egg if you want to go swimming?
What will the penguins do if a seal or other predator shows up when they are swimming?
Will you be able to stay warm by huddling together with your penguin friends?
Present your play or skit for another class in your school.

Preparation / supplies:   Penguin songs:
                                            Penguin Parade (CD performance track #2)
                                            Pondering Penguins (CD performance track                                                          #3)
                                            The Penguin Ball (CD performance track #4)
                                            I Wonder (CD performance track #5)
                                   Access to library or Internet




Song: I Wonder

Activity #8        (Language Arts, Fine Arts: Music)

Parts of speech

A) Use the lyrics sheet (or create a chart paper version) for I Wonder.
    Underline all the words that are nouns.
    Once all the nouns are underlined, listen to the CD performance track.
    Clap each time you hear one of the underlined words.
    Use classroom rhythm instruments and play each time you hear the underlined nouns.

    Repeat the same activity with verbs.

    Do the same activity with nouns and verbs together.
    Play one kind of instrument for nouns and a different kind of instrument for verbs as you sing the song.

B) Changing the original nouns and verbs will create a different version of the song.
    Use the activity sheet provided on page 67 to help you create new lyrics.
    Sing your new lyrics with the instrumental accompaniment track.
    Does the song sound very different?

Preparation / supplies:  Lyrics sheets or charted lyrics to identify nouns/verbs
                                           Classroom rhythm instruments
                                           CD performance track #5
                                           CD instrumental accompaniment track #17
                                           Activity sheet (p. 67)

Song: We are the Children of the World

Activity #6        (Social Studies, Language Arts)

Be a translator

Translate the phrase “we are the children of the world” into as many languages as possible.
Find out what languages are spoken by any relatives of the students in the class.
Have those students ask their relatives how to say “we are the children of the world” and write it down so it can be shared with the class.
In the chorus, sing the echo part, “we are the children of the world” in a language other than English.
Translate the chorus of the song into American sign language and sign the words of the chorus as you sing.

Preparation / supplies:    Access to library or Internet
                                     American sign language