Today’s song card may or may not have been inspired by recent events in my personal life (yesterday was rough and a bit scary, but everyone is safe and everything worked out okay!) One way to process scary events is by singing about them. It’s so interesting to notice that a lot of themes in children’s folk songs deal with heavier topics or things they may experience. In singing/playing with heavier topics like death, loss, floods, fires, etc, they are able to prepare for, imagine possibilities, or process through those experiences. A lot of times the song dealing with the heavier topic may be upbeat, silly, or have a fun game that traditionally goes with it, which makes it less scary for the child.
The folk song I am sharing today is called “No Robbers!” And it is just fun-fun-fun all around. It was a permanent favorite of my students, and has a lot of elements to learn from as well. There’s the [m sl] tone set, which is wonderful for practicing sight reading and dictation in younger grades, there are the quarter note/eighth note rhythmic elements which are again great for dictation and rhythm reading practice. And there’s also the AAB form to discover and discuss. Lots to learn from such a seemingly simple song! One of my favorite quotes about folk songs talks about finding the complexity within the simplicity, and the sense within the nonsense.
The theme of cops/robbers is a childhood staple, and again it helps the child play through what may be a scary thing to think about, and the theme also serves the child’s strong sense of justice–life is very black and white to a child. At the same time, the young child’s imagination sense of self is coming online, causing a bit of sneakiness or mischeviousness. The strong sense of justice and the sneakiness/free will are pulling against each other internally inside these kids, and playing through this game is an exploration of that underlying internal drive. It’s just wonderful to see them explore those feelings. Also, I had students that were extremely good at being sneaky, and could make their way around the “neighborhood” without any problem at all. We’d all giggle in disbelief at how easily they could get around. So interesting and amazing to watch!
This song is also a good one to pull out on holidays, because the theme can be changed to suit the needs. My students actually came up with the other versions we’d play–sometimes it would be “No Monsters Out Today!” (Halloween), “No Children Awake Tonight” (Christmas–waiting when you’re excited can be hard!) or “No Cupids Out Today!” (Valentine’s Day). Explore changing up the theme with your students after you’ve mastered the base game.
I hope you enjoy this folk song! It’s such a fun one.
Click here to download the song card
Happy Singing!
-Lauren