Winter Songs to Wear!
by Kathy Warnes
Here are some songs to sing and some facts about animal adaptation to winter to discuss during those bundling up to go out into winter weather sessions.
Even if you live in a place where winter doesn‟t completely take over for months, there are changes in temperature that will make you rummage in your closet for a snow mobile suit or fleece vest. If you do live in a place where winter visits for months every year, you need to think about coats, mitten, hats, and boots. Here are some songs to make the tedious job of getting children into winter gear a little less tedious!
It’s That Time of the Year!
(To the tune of Old MacDonald Had a Farm
Coats, mittens, hats, and boots are here
It‟s that time of the year,
You wear them here you wear them there,
Don‟t you dare leave your skin bare.
Your ears get cold, as cold as a toad,
Your nose freezes a sneeze,
Your face stings like bees,
The cold knocks your knees,
Coats, mittens, hats, and boots are here,
It‟s that time of the year!
Your nose freezes a sneeze,
Your face stings like bees,
The cold knocks your knees,
Coats, mittens, hats, and boots are here,
It‟s that time of the year!
Keeping Winter Warm with Coats
People and animals have different ways of keeping warm in the winter time. Some people wear coats that cover most of their bodies and others wear down filled vests all winter. When you go out to play in the snow you need to wear a warm coat, a winter hat and mittens, and boots. Different kinds of winter coats that people war include fur coats, pea coats, leather coats, ski jackets, or puffy coats.
A pea coat doesnt look like a pea. A pea coat has broad wings of cloth on either side of it, large wood or metal buttons and pockets that look like a straight line. It usually is a navy blue color. Sailors who served in navies from Europe about 150 years ago originally wore pea coats, but today everybody wears them.
Gloves and Mittens Keep Fingers from Freezing and Thumbs Toasty
It‟s important to wear gloves or mittens to keep your fingers winter warm. Gloves are usually soft as doves and are made of knit, wool, or fleeces. If you need to keep your fingers free, you can wear fingerless gloves. Gloves are made in the shape of your hand.
On the other hand, mittens are made to cover your whole hand with a separate cover for your thumb.
Hats Keep Body Heat From Escaping Through Your Head
There are many different hats that you can wear in winter for covering your ears, including a beanie. A beanie is a brimless hat that hugs your head and comes with or without a visor. Beanies are made by joining triangular sections of cloth seamed together around the sides and anchored by a button at the crown.
There are winter hats that look like a hunter‟s hat with flaps that cover both or your ears and there are simple knit hats with or without brims.
Boots Keep Your Feet Warm and Dry
People have worn boots for hundreds, even thousands of years. Native American people made deer skin boots for hunting in the snow. The warm, thick fur protected their feet from the snow and made it possible for them to travel with warm, dry feet.
Inuit tribes in the Arctic made mukluks out of reindeer or sealskin and lined them with furs. They are warm and quiet boots that helped hunters creep up on their prey. They help children sneak up on snow forts.
Let’s Play on a Winter Day
(To the tune of Ring Around the Rosie)
A winter coat's warm and cozy,
A winter coat's warm and cozy,
Sleeve one,
Sleeve two,
Zip it up and you are through!
A winter hat covers your ears,
A winter hat covers your ears,
Warms your head,
Warms your head.
Take it off when you go to bed!
Winter mittens warm your hands,
Winter mittens arm your hands,
Wouldn't it be neat?
Wouldn't it be neat?
To wear them on your feet!!
Winter boots keep your feet dry,
Winter boots keep your feet dry,
Do you have any plans?
Do you have any plans?
To wear them on your hands?
Animals Wear Coats, Hats, Mittens, and Boots Too!
Animal Coats
(To the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star)
Penguins wear permanent tuxedos,
Beetles have coats as hard as needles,
When I play outside I look and see,
Animals wear coats just like me!
Goats and Coats
Angora goats grow hair that people call mohair and people have been using mohair for hundreds of years. Mohair is one of the oldest materials used to make cloth. It is strong, shiny, warm, and waterproof and it is flame and crease resistant. It is usually more expensive than sheep‟s wool and considered to be a luxury fabric like silk. Fine mohair from young goats is used for clothing and the thicker hair from older goats is used for carpets and coats.
Bats and Hats
Bats are mammals and like all mammals they have fur covered bodies. Their skin is as soft as the skin on your eyelid. A bat‟s wings are made up of a double layer of kin stretched over its arms and long fingers. Bats wrap their wings around themselves to keep warm.
Mittens and Kittens
The Maine Coon cat has some of the most water resistant fur in the feline world. The fur on the Maine Coon is longer on its neck and stomach to protect it against the winter snow and it falls smoothly like a waterfall.
The Maine Coon has a long bushy tail that the cat wraps around itself when it curls up to sleep for protection from the cold winters. His or her ears are covered with heavy fur inside and on the tips for protection from the cold. The big, round, tufted feet of the Maine Coon act like “snow shoes”, helping it slide across the snow.
Boots and Newts
You can only find newts in North and South America and in the warmer climates of Northern Africa, Asia, and Europe. If you look under stones in streams and under logs and leaves in forests you can find newts. There are more newts in North America than on any other continent in the world.
Paddle-Tail newts and male Palmate newts have fully webbed feet with very short toes to help them climb on slippery surfaces. Newts don‟t have to wear boots to help them climb on slippery surfaces, but people do!
Getting Ready to Play With Winter
(To the tune of Here We Go „Round the Mulberry Bush)
This is the way we put on our coats,
Put on our coats, put on our coats,
This is the way we put on our coats,
Do you know where to find some goats?
This is the way we put on our hats,
Put on our hats, put on our hats,
This is the way we put on our hats,
Do you know where to find some bats?
This is the way we put on our mittens,
Put on our mittens, put on our mittens,
This is the way we put on our mittens,
Do you know where to find some kittens?
This is the way we put on our boots,
Put on our boots, put on our boots,
This is the way we put on our boots,
Do you know where to find some newts?
Winter Is Winter Is Fun
If you are dressed warm and cozy winter can be a fun and warm and cozy time of the year. Ice skating and sledding, snowboarding, cross country skiing, can turn your cheeks rosy and warm your body and soul with good exercise and a good time.
References
Bancroft, Henrietta and Van Gelder. Richard G. Animals in Winter. Collins Revised Edition, 1996.
Conrad Heather. Lights of Winter: Winter Celebrations around the World. Lightport Books, 2001.
Van Laan, Nancy. When Winter Comes. Atheneum, 2000.
Here are some songs to sing and some facts about animal adaptation to winter to discuss during those bundling up to go out into winter weather sessions.
Even if you live in a place where winter doesn‟t completely take over for months, there are changes in temperature that will make you rummage in your closet for a snow mobile suit or fleece vest. If you do live in a place where winter visits for months every year, you need to think about coats, mitten, hats, and boots. Here are some songs to make the tedious job of getting children into winter gear a little less tedious!
It’s That Time of the Year!
(To the tune of Old MacDonald Had a Farm
Coats, mittens, hats, and boots are here
It‟s that time of the year,
You wear them here you wear them there,
Don‟t you dare leave your skin bare.
Your ears get cold, as cold as a toad,
Your nose freezes a sneeze,
Your face stings like bees,
The cold knocks your knees,
Coats, mittens, hats, and boots are here,
It‟s that time of the year!
Your nose freezes a sneeze,
Your face stings like bees,
The cold knocks your knees,
Coats, mittens, hats, and boots are here,
It‟s that time of the year!
Keeping Winter Warm with Coats
People and animals have different ways of keeping warm in the winter time. Some people wear coats that cover most of their bodies and others wear down filled vests all winter. When you go out to play in the snow you need to wear a warm coat, a winter hat and mittens, and boots. Different kinds of winter coats that people war include fur coats, pea coats, leather coats, ski jackets, or puffy coats.
A pea coat doesnt look like a pea. A pea coat has broad wings of cloth on either side of it, large wood or metal buttons and pockets that look like a straight line. It usually is a navy blue color. Sailors who served in navies from Europe about 150 years ago originally wore pea coats, but today everybody wears them.
Gloves and Mittens Keep Fingers from Freezing and Thumbs Toasty
It‟s important to wear gloves or mittens to keep your fingers winter warm. Gloves are usually soft as doves and are made of knit, wool, or fleeces. If you need to keep your fingers free, you can wear fingerless gloves. Gloves are made in the shape of your hand.
On the other hand, mittens are made to cover your whole hand with a separate cover for your thumb.
Hats Keep Body Heat From Escaping Through Your Head
There are many different hats that you can wear in winter for covering your ears, including a beanie. A beanie is a brimless hat that hugs your head and comes with or without a visor. Beanies are made by joining triangular sections of cloth seamed together around the sides and anchored by a button at the crown.
There are winter hats that look like a hunter‟s hat with flaps that cover both or your ears and there are simple knit hats with or without brims.
Boots Keep Your Feet Warm and Dry
People have worn boots for hundreds, even thousands of years. Native American people made deer skin boots for hunting in the snow. The warm, thick fur protected their feet from the snow and made it possible for them to travel with warm, dry feet.
Inuit tribes in the Arctic made mukluks out of reindeer or sealskin and lined them with furs. They are warm and quiet boots that helped hunters creep up on their prey. They help children sneak up on snow forts.
Let’s Play on a Winter Day
(To the tune of Ring Around the Rosie)
A winter coat's warm and cozy,
A winter coat's warm and cozy,
Sleeve one,
Sleeve two,
Zip it up and you are through!
A winter hat covers your ears,
A winter hat covers your ears,
Warms your head,
Warms your head.
Take it off when you go to bed!
Winter mittens warm your hands,
Winter mittens arm your hands,
Wouldn't it be neat?
Wouldn't it be neat?
To wear them on your feet!!
Winter boots keep your feet dry,
Winter boots keep your feet dry,
Do you have any plans?
Do you have any plans?
To wear them on your hands?
Animals Wear Coats, Hats, Mittens, and Boots Too!
Animal Coats
(To the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star)
Penguins wear permanent tuxedos,
Beetles have coats as hard as needles,
When I play outside I look and see,
Animals wear coats just like me!
Goats and Coats
Angora goats grow hair that people call mohair and people have been using mohair for hundreds of years. Mohair is one of the oldest materials used to make cloth. It is strong, shiny, warm, and waterproof and it is flame and crease resistant. It is usually more expensive than sheep‟s wool and considered to be a luxury fabric like silk. Fine mohair from young goats is used for clothing and the thicker hair from older goats is used for carpets and coats.
Bats and Hats
Bats are mammals and like all mammals they have fur covered bodies. Their skin is as soft as the skin on your eyelid. A bat‟s wings are made up of a double layer of kin stretched over its arms and long fingers. Bats wrap their wings around themselves to keep warm.
Mittens and Kittens
The Maine Coon cat has some of the most water resistant fur in the feline world. The fur on the Maine Coon is longer on its neck and stomach to protect it against the winter snow and it falls smoothly like a waterfall.
The Maine Coon has a long bushy tail that the cat wraps around itself when it curls up to sleep for protection from the cold winters. His or her ears are covered with heavy fur inside and on the tips for protection from the cold. The big, round, tufted feet of the Maine Coon act like “snow shoes”, helping it slide across the snow.
Boots and Newts
You can only find newts in North and South America and in the warmer climates of Northern Africa, Asia, and Europe. If you look under stones in streams and under logs and leaves in forests you can find newts. There are more newts in North America than on any other continent in the world.
Paddle-Tail newts and male Palmate newts have fully webbed feet with very short toes to help them climb on slippery surfaces. Newts don‟t have to wear boots to help them climb on slippery surfaces, but people do!
Getting Ready to Play With Winter
(To the tune of Here We Go „Round the Mulberry Bush)
This is the way we put on our coats,
Put on our coats, put on our coats,
This is the way we put on our coats,
Do you know where to find some goats?
This is the way we put on our hats,
Put on our hats, put on our hats,
This is the way we put on our hats,
Do you know where to find some bats?
This is the way we put on our mittens,
Put on our mittens, put on our mittens,
This is the way we put on our mittens,
Do you know where to find some kittens?
This is the way we put on our boots,
Put on our boots, put on our boots,
This is the way we put on our boots,
Do you know where to find some newts?
Winter Is Winter Is Fun
If you are dressed warm and cozy winter can be a fun and warm and cozy time of the year. Ice skating and sledding, snowboarding, cross country skiing, can turn your cheeks rosy and warm your body and soul with good exercise and a good time.
References
Bancroft, Henrietta and Van Gelder. Richard G. Animals in Winter. Collins Revised Edition, 1996.
Conrad Heather. Lights of Winter: Winter Celebrations around the World. Lightport Books, 2001.
Van Laan, Nancy. When Winter Comes. Atheneum, 2000.