NEA: Re-Name That Tune: A Vocabulary Activity

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Re-Name That Tune: A Vocabulary Activity

Teaching Theme of the Week

from Education World®

Build students' vocabulary skills with this "Re-Name That Tune" activity.

(Note: This activity uses Christmas song titles, but the activity easily can be adapted for use any time of year with the titles of other popular songs. A list of such song titles is included in the activity below.)

More Holiday Resources
Lesson plans, activity ideas, Web sites and more — all in recognition of December's many holidays.
Holiday Resources »

Subjects: Language Arts, Visual Arts, Educational Technology, Social Studies

Grade Levels: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Objectives
Students will:

build vocabulary skills by rewriting the names of some popular songs, and
create a fun bulletin board display.

Keywords
holiday, December, Christmas, music, songs, popular, culture, dictionary, thesaurus, vocabulary

Materials Needed

white drawing paper (8-1/2 inches x 11 inches)
art supplies (optional)
Internet access (optional)
dictionary and/or thesaurus

Procedure
Begin by introducing a handful of Christmas song titles in their reworded form. Write the following phrases on the chalkboard or on a chart:

Decorate the Entryways
The Red-Suited Man is Due in This Burg
Tranquility Upon the Terrestrial Sphere
288 Yuletide Hours
Far Back in a Hay Bin

Give students a moment to absorb the words; see if they can figure out what this activity is all about. It might become clear to some of them that these phrases are rewordings of some popular songs sung around holiday time. The phrases above are rewordings of the following songs, respectively:

Deck the Halls
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
Peace on Earth
The Twelve Days of Christmas
Away in a Manger

Have students brainstorm a list of additional holiday songs. Then have them choose any five songs to rewrite in the form demonstrated above.

You might introduce additional rewritten titles from the same source from which the above examples originated.

You also might instruct students about how they to use a dictionary or a thesaurus to complete this activity -- if that skill is age-appropriate and/or a part of your language arts/study skills curriculum.

Use the students' new song titles to create a "Name That (Holiday) Tune" bulletin board. First, have them create a "tent card" by folding in half a sheet of 8-1/2 x 11 inches drawing paper. (Or fold in half a large index card.) Arrange the cards on a bulletin board so the rewritten version of the song title appears on top; students lift the flap of the folded-over paper to reveal the actual song title.

Adapting the Activity for Younger Students
The same Web page that provides the resource for the above activity also offers a fun holiday-song-title activity for younger students. In that activity, students "read" picture images that provide clues to popular song titles. See the resource, Christmas Song Picture Game, on the SantaLady.com Web page. You might use a projector connected to a computer to display the page for students; or print the resource and copy it onto an overhead transparency, then share it by placing the transparency on an overhead projector. Invite students to guess the holiday song titles illustrated in several of the pictures. (Answers are revealed on the Answers to the Christmas Song Picture Quiz page.) Sharing just a few songs will give students the idea for this activity. Have students brainstorm holiday song titles. Then assign each student a song title to illustrate in a manner similar to the illustration on the Christmas Song Picture Game page. Have them create tent cards by folding 8-1/2 x 11-inch white drawing paper in half; illustrating the song title on the front and writing the title of the illustrated song inside. Display the cards on a "Name That Holiday Tune" bulletin board as in the above activity for older students.

More Popular Children's Song Titles
As noted, this activity can be used any time of year. Instead of rewriting or illustrating holiday song titles, students can illustrate some of the titles of popular songs. Some sample titles might include: A Hunting We Will Go; America the Beautiful; The Ants Go Marching; Baa, Baa, Black Sheep; The Bear Went Over the Mountain; A Bicycle Built For Two; Big Rock Candy Mountain; Bingo; Camptown Races; The Candy Man; Clementine; Doggie in the Window (How Much Is That)?; Down By the Riverside; East Side, West Side; Eensy Weensy Spider; The Farmer in the Dell; Father's Whiskers; Follow the Leader; Froggie Went A-Courtin'... An excellent source of additional song titles is KIDiddles: Mojo's Musical Mouseum.

Assessment
Assess students' ability to rewrite assigned song titles without reusing any of the words in the actual title. (For younger students: Assess students' ability to illustrate the assigned song titles.)