January 1st marks the beginning of the year. Each year one of the twelve animals in the Chinese Zodiac calendar is celebrated, and this year’s animal is the Dragon! We have a special place in our home where we display a small ornament for the new year. People celebrating the Lunar or Chinese New Year will welcome the new year of the Dragon on February 10th.
This is a simple song to celebrate the new year. It borrows two familiar melodies to create one new song. The Google slides for this song are here.
It’s the Year of the Dragon By Kathy Kampa
Part A: For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow
It’s the year of the Dragon!
It’s the year of the Dragon!
It’s the year of the Dragon,
It’s 2024. (twenty, twenty-four)
Part B: BINGO
I like to have students move with music whenever possible. What kind of movement can you do? Here are some suggestions.
In Part A, on the words “It’s the year” students can stand tall with their hands at their sides.
On the word “DRAGON,” make a dragon pose or movement. My students made a wavy movement with their arms.
For the year 2024 (twenty/ twenty-four), students can write the numbers in the air or hold up their fingers to show the numbers. We made the shapes two-zero-two-four.
In Part B, students can add body percussion sounds. What’s body percussion? Sounds students can make using body parts, such as clapping their hands, patting their legs, stamping their feet, or snapping their fingers. They can play the rhythm of the letters when spelling the word “dragon.” Practice spelling the word with many different sounds. Since this repeats three times, you can repeat it with a different body percussion sound each time. Some of my students even tried body spelling by making each of these letters with their fingers or whole body. Challenging!
If you have unpitched instruments, like rhythm sticks, drums, tambourines, or shakers, play the rhythm with the instruments. You might even add a big cymbal sound on the word, DRAGON.
Since this song comes around once every twelve years, it hasn’t been professionally recorded. Enjoy it with your students to celebrate the new year!
Here’s a video from my online class with my Japanese students. We tried to capture both my students’ movements and my movements.
It’s a cold winter day here! I made a video of the song from the front so that you can see the movements more easily.
Beautiful videos capture authentic dragon dances. Here’s one that you might share with your students.
Go to Kathy’s Spotify playlists to find more music for young learners.
If you’re looking for a craft project, check out this one which uses paper towel rolls. You can use construction paper in lieu of the pom poms.
Kathy currently teaches young learners in her hometown of St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA as well as classes online. She is passionate about creating memorable songs for children that build language as well as music and movement skills. Kathy creates songs that stick in children’s heads long after class. We hope that you enjoy her music, too.
Contact us at magictimekids@gmail.com if you’re looking for a song about a specific idea or topic. We’ll try to write one with that idea in mind.
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