Amok in Song Parodies

Merry Poetry Friday! One of my favorite poetry activities -- the one I do with my own kids -- is making up song parodies. It's silly fun, but spoofing familiar songs is a great (unappreciated!) way for children to work on word-rhythms and rhyme. NinjaGirl and I made up a parody this week called, "We Wish it Was a 'Winter Wonderland.'" In Baltimore it isn't snowing. It's so warm, the grass is growing. We sing a sad song to pass the day along. We wish it was a winter wonderland. In the morn, the roads were icy, so we drank cider, hot and spicy. But now skies are blue. Oh, what can we do? We wish it was a winter wonderland. There's no chance that we will build a snowman. We can't skate on an unfrozen lake. So we'll stay in and bake a lot of cookies and eat them all up over winter break. When Santa comes, we'll be dreaming of sugar plums that we'll be eating. The reindeer will fly through clear, starry skies. We don't need a winter wonderland. Other parodies famous to our household..."London Bridge is falling down on my foot. Ouch, that hurts. London Bridge is falling down. Someone help me." Also from DJRobMan's Suzuki lesson days, "Don't Tell Aunt Rhody" (trust me, our bad news & Aunt Rhody's temper = disaster). And one of NinjaGirl's piano tunes, "Down in the Valley," with new lyrics: Down in the valley, valley so low, I lost my sweetheart in the deep snow. His nose was frozen. His feet were numb. He had no jacket. Boy was he dumb. Happy holidays to all you song spoofers out there! I'm sure there's more traditional poetry at our Poetry Friday round-up, hosted today at The Miss Rumphius Effect.