It was interesting to see the 'Happy birthday to you...' song in the headlines - after 80 years of charging royalty fees it is now free to publish in the US. It could not be used in maths books before, so some years ago I made up a new birthday song that included adding one more.
In 1996 when writing the Longman Primary Maths scheme, we wanted to include a ‘Special Days’ section in the Reception teachers book, which obviously included birthdays.
The publishers didn’t want to include the ‘Happy birthday to you…’ song for copyright reasons, but I didn’t want to include it because I thought it was just a poor song for children’s birthdays.
So, with the help of my wife and 8-year old daughter, we came up with an alternative birthday song for the book. I wanted the age included, and the fact they were 1 year older so it reinforced the numbers. I trialled it at my school and they liked it so much they actually kept it as their birthday song in assemblies.
The publishers didn’t want to include the ‘Happy birthday to you…’ song for copyright reasons, but I didn’t want to include it because I thought it was just a poor song for children’s birthdays.
So, with the help of my wife and 8-year old daughter, we came up with an alternative birthday song for the book. I wanted the age included, and the fact they were 1 year older so it reinforced the numbers. I trialled it at my school and they liked it so much they actually kept it as their birthday song in assemblies.
The children held up one finger to show one year older, and five fingers (or however many) for the age. We got quite sophisticated as well, singing it in the round (always a good thing about ‘Frere-Jacques’).
You can also use a number fan instead of fingers, start with holding yesterday's age, then sing one year older and change it their new age to match the third line.
You can also use a number fan instead of fingers, start with holding yesterday's age, then sing one year older and change it their new age to match the third line.
