Keep Kids Active this Winter - Get Moving with Ella Jenkins (Review and Giveaway)

"Who fed the chickens... on this fine day?

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
Releases

Get Moving with Ella Jenkins

 

Available on January 29th

 

Listen here now

 

"Ella Jenkins is a pioneering music educator and children's performer who wears the title given to her by her many fans, "The First Lady of Children's Music." Now in her 9th decade, she is still going strong with her 33rd title from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.   Get Moving with Ella Jenkins is a collection of 15 recordings, including 3 previously unreleased on CD, featuring Ella's core principals: rhythmic movement, careful listening, singing and improvisation. She has been instrumental in integrating these developmentally important skills into early childhood education in her nearly 60  year career. For example, the activities featured in these songs help children reach the 60 minutes of play recommended by First Lady Michelle Obama as part of her "Let's Move" program to prevent childhood obesity. This week, the Chicago Metro Association for the Education of Young Children (Chicago Metro AEYC) will honor Ella Jenkins with a Lifetime Achievement Opening Minds Award for her contributions to and advocacy in music education for children.   Get Moving with Ella Jenkins features classics such as “London Bridge Is Falling Down” and “Who Fed the Chickens?” and counting games like “And One and Two” and “One Potato, Two Potato.”   The new CD ( $11.99 SRP) will be available in stores, digital music outlets and from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings on January 29th."

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My Thoughts:

Before our house got hit by the stomach bug, which lasted the past two weeks, my daughters, Savannah and Arabella, were enjoying moving and grooving to Ella Jenkins' upcoming CD release, Get Moving with Ella Jenkins, that I was recently sent to review.   Even though Ella Jenkins has been around for years, and was many many awards during her long career, this was the first time I had the pleasure of listening to her music.  Now, both my girls and I are hooked, and will definitely be purchasing and listening to some of her past CD releases, as well as keeping an eye out on future ones.  

This upcoming CD release is jam packed with 15 tracks that are bound to get your little ones (and yourself) up of the couch and dancing around the living room.  I was surprised to see a handful of familiar songs that I have been singing to the girls including Head and Shoulder, Follow the Leader, Teddy Bear, One Potato, Two Potato and London Bridge is Falling Down.  Ella Jenkins did a better job at singing these :-), as the girls were able to sing along to these familiar favorites.  Even the the CD has a running time of 46 minutes, we always found ourself hitting replay on a few of our favorite songs, and dancing in excess of an hour.  What a great way to introduce children to music and rhythm, as they get up on their feet and dance and move around.  This is definitely a CD worth checking out, and sharing with your little ones. I even lent it to a friend who used it during a recent snow day to get her children to shake and move, and not rely on the television for entertainment. She, too, loved all 15 tracks, and said her children asked for the same songs my did, to be replayed. With this CD releasing on Jan. 29th, make sure you pre-order a copy for your family today, so you all can Get Moving with Ella Jenkins.

 

---GIVEAWAY---

One lucky reader will win a copy of Ella Jenkins' new CD.  To enter, please complete the entries on the Rafflecopter form below.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

More About Ella Jenkins:

Chicago-based Ella Jenkins has received many awards over her long career, including a 2004 GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2005, ‘cELLAbration,’ an album of Ella’s songs performed by Sweet Honey In The Rock, Riders in the Sky, Tom Paxton, Cathy & Marcy, Pete Seeger, Tom Chapin and others, won the 2005 GRAMMY for best children’s album. She was the first woman and first children’s musician to receive the ASCAP Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999 and in 2009 earned a United States Artists award. She is believed to be one of the first African American women to have a TV show, when in the 1950s she hosted “The Totem Club,” a weekly children’s program broadcast in Chicago. Her “Me Too Series” films were featured numerous times on “Sesame Street,” and she has also appeared on “Barney and Friends” and “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Her 1966 album ‘You'll Sing a Song and I'll Sing a Song’ is the best-selling title in the history of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and is part of the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.

Parenting magazine has said that Jenkins’ “simple but irresistible songs, poems, and mini-language lessons... reflect the beauty of diverse cultures.” And Dan Zanes says, “Ella Jenkins is a constant source of inspiration and a bottomless well of songs, ideas, and spirit. She is by far the most worldly performer that children’s music has ever known.” 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this CD from the vendor in order to review and share my honest thoughts.  The views above are mine and mine above.