I'm A Dinosaur

by Tom & Lynn Crowell

This delightfully silly song will excite your young kids and get them singing and moving. During the initial read through here at Plank Road Publishing, the adults were even hamming it up and having a grand ol' time! Encourage your students to really sound and act like loud dinosaurs with the "Rawrs!" and "Grrs!" They will likely lift their short little T-Rex arms up, make booming noises, and stomp around for added fun.

You'll notice on the full performance recording that the word "Meat!" has a comical windup on the "m." Similarly, they should sound extra silly when they say the word, "Salad!" That's the part of the song that will get some laughs. Have the kids enunciate well.

Be sure to give your students obvious cues for their singing entrances, as it may be a little tricky for them to hear/feel that. Feel free to be dramatic with your cues. The more you get into the music, the more your students will, too!

The lyrics are simply humorous, and not all accurate. There are more types of dinosaurs than what the song describes, so you can easily make that into a teaching moment. The baritone sax part isn't very normal for a bari sax (higher), which Lynn says she likes to think represents the dinosaurs that don't exactly fit in with the lyrics.

Text is taken from Music K-8 magazine.