Wintertime | Free Songs For Kids

Joanie Calem

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      Joanie wrote this song a few years after she moved back to the US from Israel. Her children had not seen snow in Israel, and were always enchanted (and are to this day) by the sight of snowflakes drifting slowly down.
      They often took family walks in the woods behind their house, looking for signs of wildlife, and (other than the bears) the song chronicles one day’s walk.
      When Joanie does this song with groups of children, she has them sleeping during the chorus, and then waking up and silently moving like the animals described in the song.
      Her son has since corrected her erroneous assumption that skunks are awake, and also explained that bears do not actually sleep for the entire winter…

Lyrics

Refrain
Wintertime is cold time, slow time, snow time,
Wintertime’s the soft time of the year.

1. Rabbits hop through the cold,
Digging up their summer gold.
Hop and jump all the day,
They aren’t bothered by the gray.
Cardinals chatter in the trees,
Finding winter’s nuts and seeds.
All their other bird friends
Flew down south ’til winter’s end.

2. Squirrels jump from branch to limb,
Climbing trees with shimmy shim.
Busy all year ’round,
Nice warm nests above the ground.
Possums, skunk and raccoon,
All are friends of winter’s moon.
Prowling ’round in mud and snow,
The cold just makes their thick coats grow.

Refrain

3. Now bears are a diff’rent story.
When they hear the North Wind’s song,
They climb into their caves,
Sleep away the winter long.

Refrain

Joanie Calem

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Joanie Calem

Joanie Calem