The Beatles for Preschoolers

Our Beatle-rific hallway! (Figure 1)

• How it was inspired...
• Theory and Standards
• The Activities
• References and Resources

How it was inspired....
I went to Paul's concert at the United Center on 10 April 2002, and, naturally, a lot of that Macca magic was still in my system the next day when I went back to work (I'm a preschool teacher at a Chicago-area university daycare center). I brought my tour program with me to show my classroom assistant that morning, and I noticed that most of the students in my room were really interested at looking through the program as well.

During storytime, I flipped through the program with them, showing them the pictures and explaining in very basic terms who Paul is and a little bit about the Beatles. Again, their interest level was high...so my assistant and I started thinking, "Hey, why not do a unit on the Beatles?" I decided that our last topic of the school year would be the Fab Four, as a nice way to kick-start the more laid-back curriculum for the summer months.

The Beatles in collarless suits. (Figure 2)

Theory and Standards...all that *fun* teacher stuff...
Then came the rough part--justifying that the Beatles were a valid topic to study with three- and four-year-olds. When it came time to explain to the director what I would be doing, she was thrilled with the idea, mainly because the Beatles are, of course, a topic dear to my heart, and they're something that I have a very high interest level in. As various educational theorists would support, when the teacher shows enthusiasm and interest towards the subject being studied, the natural curiosity of the preschool students will be sparked, and they will be more inclined to join in the learning process. Likewise, the students had already exhibited interest in the topic--and, as we know from all those methods classes, the students' natural interest in a subject can often make or break the success of a particular unit.

We all live in a Yellow Submarine... (Figure 3)

The areas of the Illinois Early Chidhood Learning Standards that are covered in this unit include, but by no means limited to are:

--Language Arts

• 1.A.ECa Understand that pictures and symbols have meaning and that print carries a message
• 1.A.ECd Identify some letters, including some in own name
• 1.B.ECb Begin to develop phonological awareness by participating in rhyming activities
• 3.C.EC Use drawing and writing skills to convey meaning and information
• 4.A.EC Listen with understanding and respond to directions and conversations
• 5.B.EC Relate prior knowledge to new information

The Activities

I'll leave it up to your good imagination to create your own activities that will work in your own classroom. However, here's a list of some ideas that worked with my students:

• The easiest way to preschoolers' hearts is with food!! We made Beatle cupcakes on the last day. Fairly simple recipe--bake up 2 dozen yellow-cake cupcakes. Ice the top half of the circle with chocolate frosting, then use red decorating gel for the mouth and brown or blue for the eyes
• We did a lot of book-and-picture talk using Beatles photo books. Besides the Beatles, the kids enjoyed looking at pictures of the Beatles' wives and kids...kid-oriented memorabilia (Yellow Sub toys, etc.)...This particular group of students was obsessed with mustaches for whatever odd reason (they thought it was the funniest word in the world!) and cracked up when they saw the Beatles in the Sgt. Pepper outfits!
• Art Project #1: Beatles with Instruments (see Figure 2). This art project helps the students learn/reinforces shapes and colors. We cut out the pieces for the project in advance, and the kids glued them together, then drew a face with markers. Later on the kids colored and added xerox cutouts of the instruments that I drew for each Beatle. The most popular Beatle chosen was Ringo (honestly, I think the kids liked him the best because he has the most fun name to say--"Riiingoooo! Riiingoooo!")
• Art Project #2: Yellow Submarine (see Figure 3). My assistant made a large Yellow Submarine out of construction paper. I had each kid in the class draw a picture of themselves on a circle-shaped paper and then we added them to the submarine.
  Octopus' Garden (Figure 4)

• Art Project #3: Octopus' Garden (see Figure 4). We used paper plates, paint, and crepe paper streamers to make octopuses for our "garden." This was our transitional activity into the Under the Sea unit we did following the Beatles.
• Most of the Beatles' movies and documentaries out there are fine to watch with preschoolers. I brought in A Hard Day's Night--it kept their attention because there was music practically every 5 minutes. They loved the Can't Buy Me Love sequence! By the end of the movie, they wanted to get up and dance to all the music. I showed the kids segments of the First US Visit documentary, particularly the Ed Sullivan bits. Yellow Submarine was also popular viewing during the two-week unit. I also have a Ready Steady Go! video with a 20 minute Beatles performance that the students watched, as well as some of the Beatle Cartoons episodes. If you do show the kids any Beatle videos, make sure they're age-appropriate for them, as well as PC (some of those cartoons are dated, believe me) and nonviolent (I couldn't show them Help! because of all the knives, fighting, etc.)
  Beatles instruments for dramatic play. (Figure 5)

• For playtime, I made John, George, and Paul's guitars out of construction paper and laminated them (see Figure 5). I didn't get around to making Ringo's drums, but those can be easily done with coffee cans or oatmeal containers, as well as using paper plates for cymbals.
• When it came time to teach the kids "Yellow Submarine," I wrote out the lyrics on large chart paper, then drew pictures alongside the words so the kids could "read" along as we sang.
• The students really liked hearing music on the original Beatles LPs. I was fortunate enough to still have a working record player in my classroom, and I brought in an assortment of LPs to play during music time. Some of the kids had fun just watching the record spin around and around! Whenever I gave them a choice whether they wanted to listen to "Yellow Submarine" on a CD or a record, they always chose the record!
• We played a listening "game" where the students had to identify what instruments they heard on each of the Beatles' songs. They did REALLY well on this activity--I was quite surprised that they managed to pick out not only the obvious instruments (drums, guitars, etc) but also the bass, a shaker (maracas), piano, violin, rhythm sticks, bongos, etc.

  
  "Ringo playing the drums" (Figure 6)

• I always have the students make some sort of book in each unit we do. This time I had them simply draw a picture of the Beatles. Most of them remembered to draw 4 figures. Some of the more interesting elements of their drawings included: one girl drew the Beatles with colors matching the Sgt. Pepper uniforms; one of my very musical children drew himself and Ringo playing the drums (Figure 6); and another girl drew the Beatles holding umbrellas (a la the Beatles '65 album cover)(Figure 7).
• Some ideas that I just didn't get around to doing with the kids included: narrating a short story to me about "What would you do if you met the Beatles?" (future fan fiction writers in training!)...Writing and sending an actual letter to Paul and Ringo (I really wonder if we'd get a reply!)...

"The Beatles with umbrellas" (Figure 7)

References and Resources

Teacher Books:
Mardell, B. (1999). From basketball to the Beatles: In search of compelling early childhood curriculum. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
An *excellent* book for any early childhood educator. It provided most of the theoretical background to the unit, as well as discussed some possible problems that might arise regarding the topic.

CDs/Albums:
Just about anything by the Beatles is fine to play for preschoolers (a couple songs may be questionable, though). Some popular selections in my classroom were Beatles 1, A Hard Day's Night, and Revolver. If you have them, bring in the old LPs to show the kids--they get a big kick out of them. They also work well as a visual aid (nice and big compared to itty-bitty CD-size cover art).

Videos/DVDs:
Ready Steady Go!: The Beatles Live (1985)
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Yellow Submarine (1969)
The Beatles: First US Visit (1990)

General Books:
Lennon, J. In His Own Write (1964) and A Spaniard in the Works (1965).
A couple of John's poems are fun to read to the kids ("On Safairy with Whide Hunter," "I Sat Belonely," "The Fat Budgie")
Benson, H. (1998).The Beatles: Now and Then
Pictures of the Beatles goofing around on tour, Beatle families, etc.
Augsburger, J., et al. (1997). The Beatles Memorabilia Price Guide.
Pictures of fun Beatles stuff (puzzles, games, toys, etc.)

Our unofficial class mascot Paul. :)

I can't wait to do this unit again next year! If you have any other activity ideas for this unit, please email me and I'll post them here with credit to you, of course.

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