Healthy Food

by David & Anne Ellsworth

Growing, thinking, and living are all made better when we eat healthy food! That's the lesson this happy song reinforces for your youngest musicians. Half notes and quarter notes make up the melody, keeping it simple for them to learn. During the chorus, optional soloists get to take turns naming healthy food choices. Don't like beets? Change it – or any of our items – to something healthy you do like. Consider asking your students for their suggestions. It could lead to a great lesson or discussion!

The recording for this piece is a lot of fun. Set to a world beat, it includes a variety of diverse percussion instruments like talking drum, djembe, shekere, congas, etc., playing along with a regular drum set. There are also a couple of background choirs – low and high – that add to the worldly feeling. We so enjoyed hearing them that we actually pulled out a mini mix of just the choirs with strings for listening. (Idea: Use this as a background for your students to write their own new piece over. The possibilities are only as limited as their imaginations!) In addition to our usual singers (the high voices), we'd like to thank our producers, engineers, and interns for singing the low parts. They were such good sports about it!

Text is taken from Music K-8 magazine.