Melody Through The Wallpaper (A Children's Album)

(Suggested method of performance by an adult for a child: Read track poem first and explain some of the words and phrases where necessary, followed by the track music for that poem so they can hear the story through music.)

(Note: My idea was to do a variety of styles and instruments that might amuse or amaze children and that fit the poem for the track.)

And now it's time for some fun:

01    Melody Through The Wallpaper

    A little girl named 'Melody' is sitting alone in her room on her chair.

    Her mother had asked her to be quiet so she's quietly brushing her hair.

    Suddenly comes the sound of odd music but she's not the one playing

    a tune made up of all kinds of notes that sounded quite a bit like

    a chicken laying, a cow sashaying and an old dog baying.

    So Melody got up from her chair and moved closer to the door

    to see if the music was from there. Nope.

    And neither was it from the floor.

    Next she moved to the window, carefully, so she'd remain unseen,

    but try as she might, not a note was in sight,

    not a note through the glass could she glean.

    'It can only be coming from my wall,' she thought leaning in with both ears.

    And the sounds that she heard without uttering a word

    were dropping from her wallpaper like tears!

    She leaned closer so she could hear it all better

    but the wallpaper couldn't hold her weight

    for it was as thin as water vapour

    and so she fell head-over-heels straight

    into the strange Land of People-Like Paper.

(Ask them to raise their hand when they think she fell through the wallpaper.) (They're all correct because different parts of her fell through at different times!)

02    Flypaper

    First thing she heard was a buzz like a fly.

    Several sheets of paper were stuck to another.

    'Can you help us please,' they said in a high pitched chorus,

    'won't you please help us, for we can't help each other.'

(Ask "Have you ever seen flypaper?")

03    Kitchen Tap Dance

    'Stop a moment, deary,'  said the hippopapermus in the kitchen.

    So Melody stopped and looked in the window as the lady

    (who called herself 'Shady')

    swiftly turned around.

    She was wide on the front, narrow on the sides

    --and looked somewhat like everybody's downtown.

    'You're very light on your feet,' says Melody to the hippopapermus.

    'Thank you, child,' she said, 'it's a very big plus.'

    'And you're very thin when you turn sideways--paper-thin in fact.'

    'Thank you, child,' said the lady hippo practicing her act

    which consisted of leaping into the air and prancing.

    'You can be too thin, you know--you look almost dead.'

    Said the hippopapermus to Melody,

    'It's almost one o'clock in the afternoon

    Isn't it time you were in bed?'

    and continued her tap dancing.

(Tell the children to listen for the two large 'drips' that fall from the kitchen tap later in the piece--this is all a musical play on the word 'tap'.)

04    Paper Claps

    Down the middle of the road they came jaywalking

    all chain-linked tightly together.

    'Hello, little child,' they said, 'we're paper claps

    and we go out in all kinds of weather.'

    'You mean 'paper clips',' Melody corrected them,

    'but I don't see any ladies walking among you.'

    The reply was, 'That's because we're all chaps.'

    The leader paused for a moment, then said,

    'Ok, lads--I think it's time for us to stop talking.'

    And they very quickly shut up their flaps.

(For a fun thing to do try to get the children to clap along to the in-music claps--it's actually impossible, but should bring a giggle. You clap along, also, (teacher or parent) and when you find your tongue on the side of your mouth because it's so hard to do then laugh at yourself too.)

05    Walking Papers

    'What is that awful tapping,' Melody said

    as she looked all around on the ground.

    'We don't know,' replied the paperpeckers

    up in the trees, stopping their work,

    'it's not us making that sound.'

    Melody was getting so upset that she made a tiny little hop.

    Looking them squarely in their eyes she said,

     'I do wish you would all try and stop.'  

    'Are you getting a headache because of us?

    Then perhaps you should leave now if you're bothered by our capers.'

    So she left them on their own

    for she knew when she'd been given her walking papers.

("Did you hear the paperpeckers tapping?")

06    Paper Airplane

    Melody spied a brown paper lunch bag strolling her way.

    'I'm very hungry,' said Melody, her stomach growling,

    'Mr. Brown Paper Lunch Bag could you spare a pear without howling?'

    The big bag quickly unwrapped his top and let out a paper airplane

    he had forgotten all about. And as he watched it fly away

    he pointed at it and said, 'No. Oh my goodness not today.'

("How far do you think the paper airplane flew?")

07    Wax Paper Guitar

    'What are you doing?' Melody asked to a

    piece of wax paper with a lisp (watching it running back and forth.)

    'Waxthing the sthrings of my guitar,' he replied.

    'Is it a paper guitar?'

    'Well of coursthe,'

    he said with a cough.

    And that was the end of their conversation

    because just like milk he'd gone off!

("A paper guitar is just plain silly--but do you know what an air guitar is?") (That's even sillier.)

08    The Jelly Belly Dancer

    'Ah-choo!' sneezed Melody, 'I'm catching a cold.'

    She watched as the tissue paper danced in the wind.

    'You must have gotten your feet wet,

    you didn't wear your rubber boots,'

    said the tissue paper dancer although she hated to scold.

    Melody ignored that and replied, 'My nose is running may I blow it on you?'

    The paper dancer was taken aback even though she was a paper tissue.

    'If you must--you may blow your nose into my belly button as long as it isn't an issue.'

     Melody took a deep breath, covered her mouth

    and blew and blew and blew

    --and it sounded just like a cow or maybe a sow.

    It was so loud in the quiet of the day

    that all the tissue paper's neighbours hollered out 'Hey! Hey! Hey!'

    'There you are all better,' said the Jelly Belly Dancer,

    'now please go way way away.'

("Don't try this at home, kids.")

09    Time To Be Going

    Melody started hearing voices and thought it might be her mother

    One thing she knew, they sounded too grownup

    to ever be her small little brother.

    Melody looked all around her and saw that things had changed.

    The wind had grown stronger and the sun wasn't showing.

    She'd forgotten her watch so the time she wasn't knowing

    but one thing she knew: It was time to be going.

    And as fast as a penny could be spent

    --she got up and went!

("Was that happy music or scary music?"

10    Back Home

    Melody came back through the wallpaper and sat down in her chair,

    once again she started brushing her beautiful hair.

    Her mother walked into the room, 'Really, Melody, answer when I call

    I thought you weren't here--and you weren't in the hall.'

    Her mother looked at the wall,

    'What could have happened to the paper,' she said.

    Melody looked up,

    'I kind of bumped into it with my wee little head.'

    Her mother kept talking, 'I heard such a thump

    I thought you'd brought up a friend.'

    'No, Mommy--,' Melody smiled, 'no time to do that

    --'cause this is The End.'

("Was that scary music or happy music?")

All Poems Copyright ©  2011 GingerTom