Sing Away the Snow with Spring Action Songs
By Kathy Warnes
Spring singers like robins, spring peepers, crickets, and winter weary children can sing these action songs to convince spring to come for a long visit.
Even though snow is still on the ground, spring songs and spring singers are ready to sing into spring and melt the snow. Robins, spring peepers, and crickets as well as a few mystery singers sing into spring every year. It’s time to listen for them and sing away the snow.
Robins Rock and Roll
Robins live all across the United States, Canada, and Europe. They fly South for the winter to Florida, central Mexico, and along the Pacific Coast. Robins are busy during the day and at night they gather in large flocks to sleep and eat. They eat beetle grubs, caterpillars, fruits and berries. In the spring, robins like to pull worms from the soft, moist earth for tasty snacks.
Robins build their nests out of long, coarse grass, twigs, paper, and feathers. They glue their nests together with mud and cushion the nest with grass.
Robins are some of the first birds to sing at dawn and their songs have several different parts that they sing over and over again.
Robin Read Breast One Through Five
(To the Tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
Robin red breast hopping on the grass/Pecking for snacks as bugs wiggle past/Robin red breast squiggles and squirms/Hunts in the grass and pulls out five worms.
Robin red breast sings a cheerful song, Chirp, chirp, tweet, tweet tweet all day long/ They sing one part of a chorus and then/ They sing verse One two, three, four, five once again.
Robin red breast builds a nest in a tree/Watches over blue eggs carefully/ Baby robins hatch and every day they grow/ one, two, three, four, five in a row!
Robin red breast teaches babies to fly/They soar up into the clear blue sky/ Land in dandelion fields yellow / One, two, three, four, five as soft as a pillow.
Spring Peepers Peep in Spring
The spring peeper got its name from the high pitched peeping sounds it makes. A spring peeper is a small tree frog that sings loudest just after the spring thaw. It has a voice sac under its chin and it fills the sack with air like a balloon and pushes the air out. The spring peeper makes two different peeping sounds- one when the air goes out of the sac and one when the air comes in.
Sometimes when a peeper sits in holes or cracks in the soil when it peeps, the hole acts like a microphone and the peeper’s noise is even louder.
Spring peepers live in ponds, marshes, swamps, ditches and wet forests in eastern North America from Ontario to New England to Texas. They are amphibians so they spent their lives near water because they have to lay their eggs in water. The eggs hatch into tadpoles, breathe with gills, and swim with their tail. Later they develop lungs to breath air.
Small insects, spiders, and worms make up the peeper’s diet. They catch their food with their long sticky tongues.
Jeepers, Creepers, Here Come the Spring Peepers
(To the tune of Row, Row, Row, Your Boat)
Jeepers, creepers, here come the spring peepers/ They are noisy little tree frogs/ Peep, peep, peep, peep, peep, peep, peep, peep/ They sit singing on their logs.
Jeepers, creepers, here come the spring peppers/ They are noisy little tree frogs/ Peep, peep, peep, peep, peep, peep, peep, peep/ They love to swim in bogs.
Jeepers, creepers, here come the spring peppers/ They are noisy little tree frogs/ Peep, peep, peep, peep, peep, peep, peep/peep/ They grow from pollywogs.
Jeepers, Creepers, here come the spring peepers/ Listen to them sing/ Peep, peep, peep, peep, peep, peep, peep, peep/ They are shouting welcome spring!
Cricket Carols
There are about 900 different kinds of crickets. They look like and are somewhat related to grasshoppers, with bodies that look alike and similar jumping hind legs.
Only male crickets chirp. They have a large vein running along the bottom of each wing that has “teeth” like a combo does. They make the chirping sound by running the top of one wing along the teeth at the bottom of the other wing. At the same time the cricket chirps, it also holds up its wings and opens them, so the wings act like sails.
How often crickets chirp depends on what kind of crickets they are and the temperature where they live. Crickets are cold blooded, which means they take on the temperature of their surroundings.
Crickets eat mealy worms, larvae, and slugs. When people feed them they like oatmeal, and dry dog food among other things.
Crickets Chirp(To the tune of Jingle Bells)
Crickets chirp, crickets chirp/When the sun goes down at night/Crickets hide in basement rooms/They sing until daylight/Crickets chirp, crickets chirp/In winter and in spring/I just want to know one thing/Do you know if crickets burp?
Crickets chirp/crickets chirp/Under rocks and under rugs/Crickets like to eat larvae and delicious slugs/ Crickets chirp, crickets chirp/eating dried dog food/ If they think that something's good/ do you think that cricket's slurp?
Crickets chirp/crickets chirp/I love their cheerful song/If I sneak one into my house/Will he stay for long?/Crickets chirp, crickets chirp, Weclome springtime with their song/If I keep feeding them will they stay for long./Do you know if crickets lurk?
Who Is Singing These Spring Songs?
Can you name who is singing these spring songs?
Bumble, bumble, rumble, rumble/ Not enough honey makes us grumble.
We like to dive deep in the water for a snack/ And greet you with a quack, quack, quack!
We’re swinging and sliding and running around/ And whirling and twirling on the merry-go-round.
Many creatures sing spring songs to welcome spring. Children sing spring songs to welcome spring and to coax her to stay for awhile. Spring hears children singing the songs at different times every year. Spring usually takes its time and sings back songs of her own, but finally spring comes and sits down and stays for awhile.
References
Coughlan, Cheryl. Crickets. Capstone Press, 2008.
Edmunds, Devin. Tree Frogs. TFH Publications, 2007
Posada, Mia. Robins: Songbooks of Spring. Carolrhoada Books, 2004