Submitted by Connie Herbon, Iowa
Idea posted November 9, 2004
My kindergartners were learning about Smokey The Bear today in honor of Fire Prevention Week. I have a lovely Smokey Bear that used to speak a message which included the slogan, "Remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires!" His talk box died a couple years ago, so after I said the slogan today in a very low voice, I had the children say it with me in their low voices. Then, I pointed out how silly it would sound if Smokey said it in a very high cartoon-type voice, and we did it that way. It was fun for the students to go back and forth from low bear voice to high cartoon voice, and it provided easy vocal exploration. (I just checked the Smokey web site, and the slogan is now "Only you can prevent wildfires!" I guess this would work too!)
I think the owl character used by the U.S. Forest Service has the slogan, "Give a hoot! Don't pollute!" On another day, we'll do that in our high "owl voices," along with some other owl exploration stuff we always do in kindergarten.