Song Parody

To kick off the poetry unit for the fifth and sixth graders, my students worked in groups to write song parodies.

I started off by singing some of the songs from Take Me Out of the Bathtub and its companion, I'm Still Here in This Bathtub, by Alan Katz. These silly dilly songs are great! (There is also a Christmas themed booked titled Where Did They Hide My Presents? Also, while looking for the covers to these books I have now discovered there is a school themed book of silly dilly songs and one of morning songs -- both of which I MUST now have.) My favorite songs are "I'm Filthy, I'm Dirty" to the tune of "It's Raining, It's Pouring" and "Stinky, Stinky Diaper Change" to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." I swear this man is a genius! But I digress...

I made my students hum the tune of the original songs while I sang the new lyrics. I'm a pretty comfortable singer in front of groups, so this was acceptable for me. In the past, I have used a document camera attached to my projector, but the words are still really small sometimes and difficult for some of the students to read. Regardless of how you share the songs, the students will love them as well as the wonderful illustrations by David Catrow.

The music teacher helped with this project as well by showing them a parody of  "Dynamite" using the words of Pope John Paul II on YouTube. I also showed them an example of a parody written by an actual student that was on YouTube - a parody of "Single Ladies" called "Scholar Ladies."

Next I split the students into groups to choose songs and write parodies. 

I am amazed by the wonderful parodies they came up with. They came up with some wonderful lyrics:

Two of my girls came up with a parody of "Stay" by Rhianna. It was about food... guess where these lyrics go:

food mmm ya food mmm ya food mmm ya food you know. 

It was hilarious to hear such funny lyrics in such a serious melody! 

A group of boys chose to parody "I'm Getting Nuttin' for Christmas." I had never heard this song before they chose it, but now I just can't get "I'm Getting Kicked Out of Walmart" out of my head! Read this stanza --

I  ate all the candy in the candy aisle,

Somebody told on me. 

I made a fort of all the toys, 

Somebody told on me. 

I rode all the bikes around the store, 

The tires don't have air no more, 

The cashier I hit is gonna be sore, 

Why'd she tell on me? 

Two more of my girls lamented about their pile of homework with a parody of "Call Me Maybe" called "I Hate Homework." 

I'm throwing tantrums.

Ripping up my papers. 

Mom is yelling at me: "Whatcha think you're doing honey?"

Hey!  This work is hard! 

Can anyone help me? 

I'm going crazy: 

I hate homework! 

A particularly outdoorsy group of boys took "Everybody Talks" and turned it into "Everybody Shoots"

It started with a grunt call

then that was when I shot it,

It made the deer run, 

I could hear the twigs crack, 

Take me to the deer shack, 

The deers always got a back trail, 

When everybody shoots deer. 

Hey deer, you could be on my plate

You could be my new protein meal,

and too much could make me too strong, 

all this food is making me stuffed. 

Oh my deer, 

everybody shoots, 

everybody shoots, 

everybody shoots deer.

I am absolutely tickled with their creativity.