6-12 Assistants Certificate Course

Topic: Biology and Geography Songs

BIOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY SONGS

Trilobite Song
(Melody: Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho; Lyrics: Carla Foster)

It ain’t so easy being a Trilobite, Trilobite, Trilobite

It ain’t so easy being a Trilobite,
When the ice age comes around.

We scuttled around in the shallow seas, shallow seas, shallow seas

We scuttled around in the shallow seas,
500 million years ago.

We got jointed legs and big round eyes, big round eyes, like a dragon fly’s
We got jointed legs and big round eyes,
And a coat of armour too.

It ain’t so easy being a Trilobite, Trilobite, Trilobite

It ain’t so easy being a Trilobite,
When the ice age comes around.

Some of us grew to half a meter or more, some of us stayed small and poor
Some of us grew to half a meter or more,
We were the rulers of the seas.

But when the ice came in the sea dried up, sea dried up, sea dried up
When the ice came in the sea dried up,
Oh, where were we to go.

It ain’t so easy being a Trilobite, Trilobite, Trilobite

It ain’t so easy being a Trilobite,
When the ice age comes around.

We may be dead, but we’re not forgot, not forgot, not forgot.
We may be dead, but we’re not forgot
Just hold a fossil in your hand.

And if you ever eat crab or shrimp, crab or shrimp, crab or shrimp
Or if you’ve ever watched a spider spin
They’re our great great great great,

great great great great

arthropodic,
family.

© 2016 Maria Montessori Institute, London 1

The Crinoid Song
(Melody: Fainne Gael an Lae; Lyrics: Carla Foster)

In the shallow seas we wave at you

It’s the Ordovician age
In forests on the sea floor we
Are stars upon the stage
The starfish and the urchins wish
They had our feathered grace
We’re the crinoids and we wave to you
From the Ordovician age

Like underwater flowers we

Have roots and stalks that grow
But though we look like plants we’re
Actually animals you know
The plankton floats right by us
We have plenty of food to eat
We’re the crinoids and we wave to you
From the Ordovician seas

But glaciers came and the seas grew cold

Our days were numbered then
As lovely fossils you will find
Our exoskeletons
Oh Sea lillies, sea lillies, this is our refrain
From the Ordovician age til now, only few of us remain

© 2016 Maria Montessori Institute, London 2

The Reptile Song
(Melody: a variation on Three Little Fishies; Lyrics by Carla Foster)

Welcome to the age of the reptiles, it’s grand!

Never more bound to the water, man
We invented an egg with a leathery shell
So let’s climb out and lay them on land

Bob,bob, dædi, dædi bob bob tsui (3 times)

Let’s climb out and lay them on land

Our skin is thick and covered with scales

Never more bound to the water, man
Our feet point straight ahead and we can
Climb on out and conquer the land

Bob,bob, dædi, dædi bob bob tsui (3 times)

Climb on out and conquer the land

Our jaws are strong and our appetite vast

Never more bound to the water, man
Insects, amphibians, even some plants
Anything goes for a meal on land

Bob,bob, dædi, dædi bob bob tsui (3 times)

Anything goes for a meal on land

But we faced one problem that we hadn’t planned

When we left the water, man
Our cold, cold blood you must understand
Ain’t the perfect adaptation for a life on land

Bob,bob, dædi, dædi bob bob tsui (3 times)

Ain’t the perfect adaptation for a life on land

© 2016 Maria Montessori Institute, London 3

A Little Mammal Song
(Melody: Dyrene i Afrika- Norwegian children’s song; Lyrics: Carla Foster)

Here’s a little mammal song that we are going to sing for you
About our wondrous escapades and all we had to go through
O-ja, o-ja ha ha ha, o-ja, o-ja ha ha ha
About our wondrous escapades and all we had to go through

As animals with hair and fur and blood as warm as toast

We managed even when the dinosaurs gave up the ghost

Our young are born alive and mothers suckle them with care
And teach them how to live as others in the den or lair

The mammals that came first on Earth were very very small
And had to hide from dinosaurs who would have eaten them all

And when the dinosaurs were gone then we could come and play
Yes, we who once were nocturnal could now be seen at day

Some of us are predators with sharpened teeth and claws

And some of us have hooves and some of us have feet or paws

Carnivores and herbivores and omnivores are we

And in the Cenozoic, we grew large as we could be

And then the strangest mammal came, with hands and heart and mind
Who changed the face of Earth to suit the needs of humankind

© 2016 Maria Montessori Institute, London 4

Our Birds
(Melody: The Ash Grove-Traditional Welsh song; Lyrics by Carla Foster)

One beautiful morning, late in the Jurassic

You might meet the wondrous Archaeopteryx
More avian than saurian
But still quite reptilian
The feathers were novel in life’s bag of tricks

Though how the birds came to be

Is still a great mystery
The fossils aren’t telling their secret today
There were fierce feathered raptors
And small Compsognathus
The bipedal therapods went after their prey

Some birds remained flightless, like Gargantuavis

The thunderbirds, terrorbirds and demon duck of doom
While others took flight and soared into the night
For a new exploration and new kind of tune

But what made them think of, a nest in the trees above
And eggs with a shell that needs vigilant care
Their plumage delights us, their songs they intrigue us
We envy their effortless floating on air

© 2016 Maria Montessori Institute, London 5

Story of Human Beings
(Melody: I Got Shoes; Lyrics by Carla Foster

I got thumbs, you got thumbs---Oh

Flexible opposable thumbs
When I come to Earth I’m gonna use my thumbs
I got shelter, clothing to fashion
Fashion, Fashion
Gotta make a life for all the little children
Fashion, Fashion
Gonna use opposable thumbs

I got a mind, you got a mind—Oh

Truth seeking, story telling mind
When I come to Earth I’m gonna use my mind
I got food to find and problems
Problems, problems
Gotta make a life for all the little children
Problems, problems
Gonna use my truth-seeking mind

I got a heart, you got a heart—Oh

Love giving, far-reaching heart
When I come to Earth I’m gonna use my heart
I got ways to show compassion
Passion, compassion
Gotta make a life for all the little children
Passion, compassion
Gonna use my love-giving heart

I got a song, we got a song—Oh

All Earth’s people got a song
When we come to Earth we’re gonna use our song
We got to bring our souls together
Together, together
Gotta make a life for all the little children
Together, together
Gonna lift our voices in song

© 2016 Maria Montessori Institute, London 6

Leaf Song
(Melody: Yellow Submarine by the Beatles; Lyrics by Carla Foster)

We all live in a food factory, a food factory, a food factory

We all live in a food factory, a food factory, a food factory

When the plants came up on land

And our stems, helped us to stand
Welcome all euphyllophytes
Plants with true leaves, a wondrous sight

With the help of sunshine fair

Splitting molecules of water and air
Hydrogen and CO 2
And we’ll send the o--xygen to you

Giving Earth the colour green

Feeding roots and stems at night unseen
Waiting for the sun to rise
A new day to pho—tosynthesize

© 2016 Maria Montessori Institute, London 7

The Stem Song
(Melody: Carry on my wayward son by Kansas; Lyrics: Carla Foster)

Carry our leaves to the Sun

There’ll be food when you are done
With your help we’ll never grow
Near the ground no more!

Once I rose above the moss and the lichen

All I needed was some phloem and some xylem
I was soaring ever higher
Node by node to the sky

Plants with tubes they call the tracheophyta

One for food and one for precious water
Root to leaf I make a pathway
And I hear the Plantae say

Carry our leaves to the Sun

There’ll be food when you are done
With your help we’ll never grow
Near the ground no more!

Gingkos, cycads, conifers and ferns grew

In the Carboniferous this was all new
Gave our bodies to the Earth and
Made the beds of coal

Might be woody or I might be herbaceous

When I’m climbing I am very tenacious
I begin to spread my branches
And I hear the Plantae say

Carry our leaves to the Sun

There’ll be food when you are done
With your help we’ll never grow
Near the ground no more!

© 2016 Maria Montessori Institute, London 8

Ode to the Angiosperrms
(Melody: very loosely based on Sugar Magnolia by the Grateful Dead; Lyrics by Carla Foster)

Sugar magnolia, blossoms blooming, beetles flocking to the open fair

How did flowers get so clever, Big bloom changing the earth with flare

Conifers and cycads were ruling, gymnosperms with their naked seeds
But sometime in the mid cretaceous, seeds in a lunchbox came in to steal the scene

She’s got everything delightful, says the bee and the butterfly
Nectar sweet and fruit to eat, She’s an angiosperm, don’t pass her by

Flowers calling,
blooming in the green fields,
come and I will feed you
Take my pollen flying, drop it on a stigma,
Ooh, do your part for the Big Bloom

Small and simple, green in colour, petals, sepals all the same
Took some time to find the trump card, playing the pollination game

Perfume sweet and heady, luring with their beauty, Flaunting everything they had
They became the sweet addiction, the buzz was a-buzzing all up and down the land

She’s got everything delightful, says the bee and the butterfly
Nectar sweet and fruit to eat, She’s an angiosperm, don’t pass her by

Flowers calling,
blooming in the green fields,
come and I will feed you
Take my pollen flying, drop it on a stigma,
Ooh, do your part for the Big Bloom

© 2016 Maria Montessori Institute, London 9

Go Seed Child O’ Mine
(Melody: Sweet Child o’ mine by Guns ‘n Roses; Lyrics: Carla Foster)

You got a shape

That brings to me
A host of childhood memories
When I was a sapling
Fresh as the new green spring
You must not linger here I know
Nor spend your life with me, so go
Don’t lose your chance
To one day be a tree

Go, seed child o’ mine

Go, seed child o’ mine

I give you all that you could need

Just waiting for some rain
Plumule, radicle, testa too
Cotyledon lunch box made
I hope you’ll find
A safe warm place
To hide when chill sets in
Until that perfect moment when
The sprouting can begin

Go, seed child o’ mine

Go, seed child o’ mine

Go my child, you may travel far

But never forget your important part
An angiosperm you will ever and always be
Monocots and dicots too
We came to Earth with something new
And so my child
This task is yours to do

Go, seed child o’ mine

Go, seed child o’ mine

© 2016 Maria Montessori Institute, London 10

Song of the Sun
(Melody: Chariots of Fire; Lyrics: Carla Foster)

Oh Glorious Sun
Oh Radiant Sun
We thank you for shining
Such work you have done
We live in the grace of
Your bountiful light
We dance and rotate as
The day follows night
We herald your sure return
When winter is dark
We worship your gift of life
At spring equinox
Without you our world would cease
To be a home
But safe in our orbit we
Have no need to roam
Oh Glorious Sun
Oh Radiant Sun
We thank you for shining
Such work you have done
We live in the grace of
Your bountiful light
We dance and rotate as
The day follows night
And we have built temples to
Your glory and might
And we give you names and praise
In you we delight
We follow your faithful journey
Over the sky
We tell the tales of gods
In chariots of fire
Oh Glorious Sun
Oh Radiant Sun
We thank you for shining
Such work you have done
We live in the grace of
Your bountiful light
We dance and rotate as
The day follows night

© 2016 Maria Montessori Institute, London 11

Volcano Song
(Melody: What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor; Lyrics: Carla Foster)

Can you feel the magma rising

Under your feet the earth is trembling
God Vulkanus wakes, and it is
Early in the morning

Hey ho, up she rises

Hey ho, up she rises
Hey ho, up she rises
Early in the morning

Under the oceans sea floor spreading

Up on the land the mountains building
Lava flows and does our bidding
Early in the morning

Saved the Earth from snowball freezing

Helped to make the air you’re breathing
Sometimes dormant, sometimes seething
Early in the morning

Watch our craters boil and bubble

When the ash flies, there’ll be trouble
Flee your homes before they’re rubble
Early in the morning

Crust formation, life’s creation

Agent of both birth and destruction
Try to predict our next eruption!
Early in the morning

© 2016 Maria Montessori Institute, London 12