April 22nd is Earth Day. One song I like to feature is “Evergreen Everblue” by Raffi. The album, released in the 90’s, is a a musical celebration of our Earth and a call for everyone to take care of it for generations to come. “Evergreen Everblue” has a more rock/pop feel, and I feel it transcends a specific age group. There are also singable sections with repeating phrases like:
Amazon is calling, help this planet earth
With voices from the jungle, help this planet earth
Hear the tree that’s falling, help this planet earth
Rain forests are crying, help this planet earth
To work on listening skills and the recall of words within lyrical phrases, I created a worksheet with certain words removed from the lyrics. A KEY is provided with all the missing words to assist with the student with vocabulary and spelling. I slip the worksheets into Clear Heavy-Duty Sheet Protectors that I purchased from Staples. This way students can use a dry-erase marker to fill-in the missing words without writing on the worksheet itself. I can then reuse the worksheet over and over again. Way to save our Earth! I think Raffi would be proud! You can either perform the song a few lines at a time, or play the video from YouTube or iTunes and pause the recording every few lines.
Free download: Evergreen Everblue
Wade is a board-certified music therapist and one of the directors at Spectrum Creative Arts. He completed additional training programs in Orff-Schulwerk, Neurologic Music Therapy, and Performance Wellness. As a songwriter and creative writer, Wade has authored several music resource books for music therapy and music education.