About This:
Here is a joyful collection of all time favorite activity songs for young children. In these unique renditions, Hap Palmer preserve's the charm and simplicity of traditional songs while adding new, original lyrics and melodies to extend and enrich the familiar classics.

The simplicity and repetition of these songs guarantee active participation by encouraging children to sing and move with the music. While having fun and participating actively, children develop motor and musical skills and learn about animals, counting, identification of body parts, and phonics. As children sing along, responding to the imagery and humor of the lyrics, reading readiness is also enhanced. Alliteration and rhyme develop a child's ear for the sounds of language - an important prereading skill.

These songs are developmentally appropriate for the very young child - infant to 5 years. However, the familiar melodies and contemporary arrangements also elicit surprisingly gusty participation from first and second grade students. A variety of musical styles adds new life to well known songs with swing, blue grass, country, classical, rock, pop, and blues arrangements.

Fifteen songs are presented with vocal interpretation. The sequence is then repeated instrumentally providing opportunities for singing along and creating new lyrics using children's ideas. The instrumental selections also familiarize children with the sounds of a variety of musical instruments including piano, bass, drums, guitar, violin, viola, cello, trumpet, trombone, tuba, French horn, saxophone, flute, English horn, accordion, and a variety of percussion instruments such as conga drums, bougaraboo drum, ouiro, shaker, wood block and tambourine.

The instrumental versions of each song can be used in the following ways:
1. After children have learned words with the vocal version, they can sing along hearing only the music.
2. Children can create their own lyrics and sing the song using their ideas.
3. The music can accompany sessions in movement exploration and creative movement.

1. Itsy Bitsy Spider
2. Pat-a-cake
3. I'm a Little Teapot
4. Old Mac Donald
5. Touch Your Toes to Your Nose
6. Circle Songs: the Mulberry Bush, Ring Around the Rosy, Hokey Pok
7. Open Shut Them
8. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
9. Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
10. Bingo
11. The Elephant
12. I'm Glad I'm Me
13. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
14. The Wheels On the Bus
15. Good-bye Song
16. Itsy Bitsy Spider -instrumental
17. Pat-a-cake -instrumental
18. I'm a Little Teapot -instrumental
19. Old Mac Donald -instrumental
20. Touch Your Toes to Your Nose -instrumental
21. Circle Songs -instrumental
22. Open Shut Them -instrumental
23. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe -instrumental
24. Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes -instrumental
25. Bingo -instrumental
26. The Elephant -instrumental
27. I'm Glad I'm Me -instrumental
28. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star -instrumental
29. The Wheels On the Bus -instrumental
30. Good-bye Song -instrumental

Reviews

Parent's Choice Gold Award
Parent’s Guide to Children’s Media Award
Early Childhood News Director’s Choice Award
Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award

Pedia Media
A preschool music primer for parents
by Fred Koch
One of the real pioneers in children's music is Hap Palmer. His latest, Early Childhood Classics (Hap-Pal Music, 2000) recently won a Parents' Choice Gold Award and is aptly subtitled "Old Favorites With A New Twist." This is an upbeat collection of some all-time favorite activity songs for young children, many updated with new, original lyrics and melodies.

Palmer knows 3-to 5-year olds well. (My son gave it a listen using my headphones and portable CD player and refused to give up the headphones until about the twelfth song.) Standouts include a neat "Circle Songs" medley as well as standards such as "Bingo," "The Wheels On The Bus" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes."

Another feature found often in "educational" recordings are instrumental tracks that allow children to sing along without the vocalist - a kind of preschool Karaoke experience. Teachers love this feature. Early Childhood Classics includes 15 songs; tracks 16-30 are repeats with the vocals mixed out. As a parent and educator, I also appreciated the guide which was included with the CD, featuring lyrics and recommended activities for each song.
CHICAGO PARENT July 2000

PARENT'S GUIDE Fall 2000, Volume 3, No.1
A Review of Children's Media
EARLY CHILDHOOD CLASSICS:
OLD FAVORITES WITH A NEW TWIST
Delightfully fresh renditions of well-known action songs ( Bingo, Old MacDonald, I'm a Little Teapot, etc.) with new verses and a variety of musical styles. Liner notes include lyrics and accompanying activities that help children improve motor skills and language development while having a rollicking good time.
2000 Awards Issue

MUSIC by Shannon Maughan
EARLY CHILDHOOD CLASSICS (Hap-Pal Music)
Hap Palmer is a master of using music and movement to help kids learn and have fun. His snappy renditions of classics like "I'm a Little Teapot" and "Pat-A-Cake" make great accompanying music to the record's suggested activities.
JUNE/JULY 2000 Dads Magazine

LA LIFE WEEKEND
Oldies but goodies with an updated twist
Hap Palmer has been entertaining and educating children with his music for more than 30 years. And he still loves it, as evidenced in his latest CD, "Early Childhood Classics: Old Favorites With a New Twist." Palmer has taken favorite songs such as "Old McDonald," "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Bingo" and refreshed them. "I take traditional songs, write new verses and update them," he says. And kids love them. However, Palmer wasn't always making music for kids. He started out as a special education teacher in Los Angeles, always looking for ways to hold his students’ attention in class. Often he would bring his guitar to accompany himself while singing folk songs. But the kids just couldn't sit still. "I was having difficulty keeping the kids in their seats," he recalls, "But I wanted to get the kids actively involved." Then he got an idea. Perhaps if he worked with the children’s natural desire to move, combined it with music and wrote lyrics that helped expand vocabulary and with recognition of numbers, letters and colors, they could learn as well as be entertained. A new career direction began. And now, more than three decades later, Palmer still enjoys getting kids actively involved with his music. "Children, especially young ones, learn best with music," he says. And they are great inspiration for songs, he adds. The father of four grown children, one stepchild and a 4 year old, Palmer's music is kept fresh because he is able to stay tuned in to what kids like. He says his ideas come from all over. "I get them from every imaginable place," he says with a grin. "From reading articles to talking to teachers. From parents to children." Palmer has a small demo studio at his Woodland Hills home. "Once I write a song," he explains, "I'll do a demo to get feedback." The feedback he speaks of usually comes from colleagues such as Amy Weintraub, one of the two Los Angeles mothers (the other is Brooke McEwen) who approached him about using some of his songs in a series of videos they were putting together called "Baby Songs." So far, they have released three videotapes: “Baby Songs,” "More Baby Songs" and "Baby Songs Goodnight."
DAILY NEWS February 18, 2000/ LA LIFE WEEKEND - page 42