The download for 4 Turkey Songs and Games includes the vocal scores and audio accompaniment tracks as well. However, I'm sorry you don't have any sample tracks to listen to here at this time.

4 Turkey Songs and Games

I didn’t compose these four turkey songs but as soon as I discovered them, they became favourite seasonal songs I enjoyed sharing with my students leading up to Thanksgiving. Although it is great to be a composer and write what I want to sing with my students, finding great songs written by someone else is also a great way to go. Each turkey song in my collection serves a different purpose in the music classroom: a sing-along song, a simple finger play, an action song, and a game that is always a great end-of-class activity.

I grew up on a family farm, but my farming background did not include any experience with turkeys. My visit to a local farm was very informative and the turkeys had a few tricks to play on me! I am glad my students are not inclined to wander off when I am explaining a game. I am also happy that my students are MUCH better at participating in the turkey songs that I use in my music classroom.

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Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for A Birdly Debate.

A Birdly Debate

Inspiration for a song can come in a variety of ways. This song was written because of another cuckoo song I saw in a book. The song included repeated cuckoo lyrics but they were hard to sing and the song didn’t really work for me. For some reason, that sparked the idea of two birds talking back and forth. What would they talk about? Would they argue about who was the superior bird? I jotted down ideas and knew it was going to work as a song when it made me laugh as I was writing.

The cat showed up, almost the same as it does in the song, skulking about the edges of my thought process and inserting itself into the story. I wrote two different endings for the song. I thought both had merit and I couldn’t decide which one to include. My kids used to read “choose your own ending” books. I decided to include both lyric options and leave it up to the singer to choose the ending. As much as it was really a copout on my part not to make the choice, I also think it is fun for the singer to have a bit of say in the matter. I have tried to sing this song with Andy dividing up the cuckoo and rat-a-tat tats back and forth and we usually end up laughing. When the Coldbrook & District School Grade 4-5 Choir (in Nova Scotia) premiered A Birdly Debate, they did a super job and gave this song a good start in the world! Congratulations to the singers and their teacher, Joanna MacPhee Simpson.

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Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for My Chihuahua.

There have been a variety of dogs in my life, mostly family pets I remember from when I was a young child. Dogs were useful on our family farm but we also regarded them as beloved family members. Most of our dogs were larger and family and friends also had large dogs such as German shepherds, Irish setters and Labrador retrievers, to name a few. The one exception was the small chihuahua owned by my aunt and uncle. “Cleo” was a short-haired little dog with protruding eyes and a jaunty little tail. I remember Cleo’s little toenails clicking on the floor when my uncle would get him to dance for us.  

As an adult, I also had the opportunity to meet Diago, a feisty chihuahua who truly lived up to his name. He had a sturdy, wide chest (for a chihuahua) and short stubby legs. His best trick was when his owners would say “Sing, Diago” and he would plant his feet, throw back his head and howl in a most impressive operatic style. He had a big voice for a little dog! I don’t think he understood that he was the smallest individual in the room, and if he did realize that, I am sure it didn’t matter to him at all. He was a fun chihuahua with lots of confidence!

It was good to be able to tap into all this dog experience when writing My Chihuahua, but one might wonder why I chose that topic at all. I had written about a pet hamster (Pickles) after a request from my friend, Nikki Loney at Full Voice Music. A voice teacher who had used Pickles with her students contacted Nikki asking if she might be able to have a chihuahua song written. In turn, Nikki contacted me just in case it might spark an idea for a song. I jotted down the idea in one of my song-idea notebooks and every now and then I would push around lyrics that I thought might work, but I didn’t ever really work on it seriously. I finally got around to writing the song two years later! My Chihuahua is a fun and spicy little song, and I think Diago would approve.

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Sing more dog songs written by Donna Rhodenizer

• It's Raining Cats and Dogs
• I Got a Sister (but I wanted a dog)
• Cyril, the Sausage Dog
• Cat and Dog Canons
• Dogs Hide Bones (singing game) (included in New Singing Games for Young Singers Vol. 1 & Vol. 2)

Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for A Robin's Tale.

I enjoy watching the birds in my backyard. A bird feeder of seeds encourages certain birds to make regular visits. Robins don’t frequent the feeder. They prefer worms and stay on the lawn to forage for their snacks. The robins hop from spot to spot. It is interesting to watch the tug-of-war that ensues when they locate a worm and try to pull it from its hiding spot. Because they eat worms and grubs, robins leave Canada to go to warmer climates for the winter. We know spring has arrived when they show up again. A Robin’s Tale was written as I watched this vignette playing out in the backyard. Andy and I worked on the words together and we ended up with this short song for young singers.

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Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for Computer Cat.

Stream or Purchase from many streaming sites including:

Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer.

The Computer Cat  CD (Donna & Andy performance and instrumental) tracks (24) are available for download or physical CD on this website.

10 Cross-curricular activities are provided in the PDF download extending the focus of this song to other subject areas including:

• Fine arts: music, visual art, drama, dance
• Language arts
• Math
• Technology

Computer Cat is one of my early songs. It was written in the mid 1990s as a result of a question posed by my six-year-old son, Daniel. He had seen me using the computer (or maybe he was using one himself at that point) and he said, “Mom, what would happen if the cat ate the mouse for the computer?” This was an interesting thought and evoked amusing images and it was a great foundation for a fun song. Cats are not known to be particularly cooperative at the best of times. I envisioned the necessity of chasing and catching the cat when it was time to do computer work and then the trouble of convincing it to agree to being pushed around on the desk. The issues of static electricity and being ticklish would certainly create some tension!

It is amazing to me that almost 30 years after writing this song, I can look back and see how much technology has changed since the song was originally written. Many of the computer innovations of the 1990s have been replaced and replaced again in the ensuing years. What we thought was leading-edge technology (which it was at the time) now looks very antiquated. Computer Cat still has appeal as a humorous song, although it may require a bit of historical context for young singers who wonder what a mouse and pad have to do with using a computer!

When you have enjoyed singing this song and doing the activities with your students - please drop by again and leave a Review on this page. Thanks!

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Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for these Four Penguin Songs

You can purchase each Penguin song separately.

• I Wonder
• Penguin Parade
• Pondering Penguins
• The Penguin Ball

Save 25% when you purchase all Four Penguin Songs together.

Stream or Purchase the Four Penguin Songs from many streaming sites including:

Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer.

The Computer Cat  CD (Donna & Andy performance and instrumental) tracks (24) is available for download or purchase physical CD on this website.

53 Cross-curricular activities are provided in the PDF download (divided over 4 penguin songs) extending the focus of these songs to other subject areas including:

• Fine arts: music, visual art, dance, drama,
• Language arts
• Math
• Social studies
• Science
• Technology

Four Penguin Songs

I wrote my collection of penguin songs as a result of a request made by a classroom teacher at my school. She was doing a penguin unit with her students and she asked me for a penguin song.  I didn’t know any, so I wrote my own! When her students came to my music class they told me lots of penguin facts to give me ideas for my songs. I discovered that penguins are amazing creatures. The conditions in which they live and the way they survive, live, and raise their babies are all fascinating. With all the facts I found out, I ended up writing four penguin songs.

Some of the songs rely on the facts that the students told me, but other songs in the set dive into the world of imagination with penguins checking their closets for clothing options, attending the ”penguin ball” for some romantic moonlit dancing on the beach, or having a parade in the snow. All in all, I had a grand time writing these four songs and the students enjoyed singing them. After almost three decades, I am happy to report my penguin songs are still being sung and enjoyed by young singers (and their audiences) around the world!

When you have enjoyed singing these Four Penguin Songs, and doing the activities with your students - please drop by again and leave a Review on this page. Thanks!

Please send us your performing videos - we might be able to post them on this page!